Metropolitan Jacksonville is northeast Florida’s financial, commercial,
industrial, and transportation center, as well as home to more than one million
people. It was also home to the NFL’s 2005 Super Bowl. In addition to a moderate
winter and summer climate, Jacksonville offers many advantages to JU students.
As a result of its dominant business orientation, Jacksonville offers a
multitude of internship and work opportunities. JU is fortunate to have
internship arrangements with many of the city’s leading business and industrial
organizations. In terms of cultural, entertainment, and recreational offerings,
the city has a permanent symphony orchestra, the Florida Times-Union Center for
the Performing Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA), the
Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, the Museum of Science and History and the
Jacksonville Zoological Garden. Jacksonville is home for the NFL’s Jacksonville
Jaguars, and the Jacksonville Suns minor league baseball team. Beautiful and
sunny Atlantic Ocean beaches are just minutes from the JU campus. The city also
offers a myriad of golf courses and tennis facilities, as well as major PGA and
ATP tournaments. Fishing, both fresh and saltwater, and water sport
opportunities abound. The Jacksonville Landing is a festive riverfront
marketplace and dining spot. Restored Union Terminal, the Prime Osborn, serves
as a major convention center. Popular river walks on the south and north banks
of the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville attract residents and visitors
alike.
Historical sites within an hour’s drive of the JU campus mirror Florida’s
colonial heritage. The nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine, is 40 miles south,
and its imposing Castillo de San Marcos is a reminder of Florida’s history under
Spanish rule. Fort Clinch, near Fernandina Beach, is a Civil War-era military
fortress built to defend the seaward approach to Cumberland Sound. Fort Caroline
Memorial, only moments north of the campus, is the remnant of an ill-fated
French Huguenot settlement.