Although the Braden family loved Tallahassee and their association with Florida State University, their goal was to return to Tampa where both Karen and Sandra were living at the time. In 1992 when they had moved from the home in Valrico to go to Fort Eustis, they rented out their Brianholly Drive house and over the years had varying degrees of success with renters. So with his degree nearly complete Jay began job hunting with the goal of finding something in Tampa. What he found was not something in Tampa, but in the (Disney) town of Celebration, just outside of Kissimmee. He had again used the strategy of submitting a large application package with various cetificates, military awards, etc. included. That got him a telephone interview with the Director of the Stetson Center, Ron Clifton, who was seeking a Deputy Director. The interview was good, but Jay did not get the job. Instead, he was called back and offered the job as the Center's Director of Technology Programs, a job similar to what he had at Florida State University. So Jay was hired without even visiting the place where he would work for the next 12 years.

It turned out that the Stetson University Board of Directors had wrestled with whether or not to open a one-building campus in the Town of Celebration. They intended to conduct graduate programs in business, education, and counseling, and evidently wanted how to draw a number of students who were employees of Disney and therefore reimbursed for their education. This turned out to be a good plan that worked and was very profitable. There was also some interest in conducting continuing education programs that were in the realm of non-credit courses that would be taken to earn recognized industry certificates or for the professional education of individuals and businesses. This is what Jay was hired to do. Of course, the establishment of continuing education courses is much more complicated than establishing graduate courses. Graduate courses have an approved curriculum and faculty members from the main campus in Deland who can be recruited to drive to the Celebration Campus one or two nights a week to teach and to earn additional money. But for continuing education, markets have to be found, advertising plans have to be established, courses have be written, textbooks and other materials have to be provided, and persons to teach the programs have to be identified and hired. And building course from zero is a time consuming job. But somehow Jay happened to get linked up with a Brit who was already conducting Microsoft courses but really needed to do so under the credibility of an organization like Stetson. All of a sudden the problem was solved with a profit sharing arrangement that made money from the very start and ran well for years.

Since their home in Valrico did not have renters at that time, Bonnie and Jay elected to move back into that home and have Jay commute for a while until they were ready for a relocation to the Orlando area. That commute to and from Stetson University lasted 11 years. Each way was a 59-mile drive and took one hour 15 minutes to drive. During those 11 years, Jay was able to work from home for a portion of that time and only needed to drive in three days a week, but during those 11 years Jay estimated that he put well over 300,000 miles on a couple of cars. But the workday at Stetson did not begin until 9 AM and was over between 4:30 and 5 PM so the total number of hours that he was away from home was actually less than the hours he put in during most of his Army duty assignments.

Jay had two Administrative Assistants during his time with Stetson.

• The first was Jackie McPhillips. Jackie was young and inexperienced with university continuing education programs but she had great raport with the staff at the DeLand, Campus, she was a hard worker, and she had a great business sense. She was instrumental in getting the initial programs off and running well. Jackie departed Stetson after about three years to be a full-time Mom.
• Rosemary Cangelosi was Jay's second assistant, but they were actually a team. Rose had an amazing work ethic and she helped pull together the Stetson University Virtual School, our Accredited Legal Secretary certification, and the English Language Studies program that we hosted. Good memories.