Chris Richard

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a 2,000-acre campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September... 1906. It is a "Public Ivy" university—a category of the top public universities in the United States. The University of Florida is ranked nineteenth overall among all public national universities in the current 2012 U.S. News & World Report rankings and consistently ranks within the top 100 universities worldwide. The University of Florida is an elected member of the Association of American Universities , an organization composed of sixty-one American and Canadian research universities. It is one of three "research flagship universities" within the State University System of Florida, as designated by the Florida Legislature. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
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Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States, is located between Tampa and Orlando along Interstate 4. According to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city had a population of 94,406. Lakeland is a principal city of the Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical... Area, which had an estimated population of 584,383 in July, 2009 based on data from the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research. It is twinned with Richmond Hill, Ontario; Imabari, Japan; Balti, Moldova; Portmore, Jamaica; and Chongming County, Shanghai, China as part of the Sister Cities program. The first Paleo-indians reached the central Florida area near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south. As the ice melted and sea levels rose, these Native Americans ended up staying and thrived on the peninsula for thousands of years. By the time the first Spanish conquistadors arrived, there were over 250,000 Native Americans living on the peninsula. Some of these first early tribes were the Tocobago, Timucua, and the Calusa. In 1527, a Spanish map showed a settlement near the Rio de la Paz.
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