LAKELAND, Fla. (April 3, 2006) – Winning an unprecedented number of awards for a college or university, Florida Southern College students returned from the Tri-Beta Conference at the annual meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists, March 30-31 in Gatlinburg, Tenn., with four of the conference’s eight awards, including the top award.

Nineteen colleges and universities in the nation participated and 96 students made presentations for the meeting of Tri-Beta, a biological honor society for undergraduate biology students with a G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher in at least 12 hours of biology courses.

“This event is the equivalent of a Conference Sports Championship for biology students, and we were the underdogs, competing against the big guys,” said Haldeman. “Our students proved that students from a small college certainly can compete against students from major universities.”

The six competing students based their presentations on research they had conducted at the college’s Southern Landing on Lake Hollingsworth as part of biology professor John Haldeman’s “Field Methods in Biology” course. They also prepared their presentations as part of that semester-long course.

Damian Rumbough, a junior biology major from Lakeland, Fla. took top honors with the Johnson Award given for the best poster titled, “The Positive Effect of a Recently Created Wetlands on Species Diversity.”  Bethany Baker, a senior biology major from Lakeland, Fla. won second place for her paper presentation on “A Comparison of Benthic Macroinvertebrate Biodiversity Before and After an Alum
Treatment and Development of a Wetland Filtration System on a Cental Florida Cultural Eutrophic Lake.” Carla Schnitzlein, a senior biology major from Fall River, Mass., and Patricia Anderson, a senior biology major from Bunnell, Fla., won third place for a paper presentation on “An Artificial Wetland as a System for Filtering Fecal Coliform.” An Honorable Mention went to Patricia Anderson and Ashley Bowman, a senior biology major from Margate, Fla., for their poster “Avian Diversity in an Artificial Wetland in Comparison to Adjacent Lakeshore Habitat.” Two other students also presented their papers: Steven Manchester, a junior biology major from Miller Place, N.Y., on “Water Chemistry in an Artificial Wetland in Central Florida” and Angela Munoz, a junior biology major from Tampa, Fla., on “A Quantitative Study on the Distribution of the Channeled Apple Snail Pomacea canaliculata in a Central Florida Lake.”

“Many of the other students had done their research in year-long projects at universities including Harvard and John Hopkins, and when our students, who had prepared in one semester, first saw what the competition was, they felt they should just pack up and go home. Fortunately, they stayed and won big,” said Robert H. Baum, professor of biology.  

Thirteen FSC students attended the conference as members of the Tri-Beta society with Haldeman and biology professor Eric Kjellmark, FSC’s Tri Beta advisor. Some of the department’s best sophomore students were able to attend the conference and are now better prepared for their presentations as juniors.

“The credit for this exciting win goes to not only our talented students but their winning coach,” said Baum. “John Haldeman worked closely with these students to ensure they were well prepared.  He brings out the best in our students.”

About Florida Southern College
Founded in 1885, Florida Southern College is a private, comprehensive, United Methodist college with a liberal arts core. The college maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 38 undergraduate majors and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, and nursing. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student/faculty ratio, provides strong student/faculty mentorship programs, boasts 25 NCAA Division II national championships, and is ranked by U. S. News and World Report as one of the top ten Southern Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelors and by the Princeton Review as a “Best Southeastern College.” Located on scenic Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern is the home of the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.