US (AR): Horticulture students win 12 awards at regional meet
Waltram Ravelombola, a doctoral student in horticulture, was the big winner, receiving the Norman F. Childers Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
In addition, Arkansas' horticulture team won the overall Outstanding Club Share Award. Club members include Kelsey Brazelton, Kenneth Buck, Will Delacey, Rhiannon De La Rosa, LeRoi Emerson, Rebekah Fritschie, Morgan Gramlich, Claire Krofft, Malory Martin, David Su, Hilary Viguet and Brandon Wodka.
The students participated in the Association of Collegiate Branch activities, which is made up of students from universities in the Southern Region, including many other Southeastern Conference members.
Members of U of A's Horticulture Club, with department head Wayne Mackay (back, fourth from right) show off awards they won at the Southern Region of the American Society for Horticultural Sciences meeting in Jacksonville, Florida.
In the J. Benton Storey Horticulture Judging Competition, the club also won first place in two of the three categories, the Fruit and Nut, and Vegetable sections.
"The purpose of ACB is to represent our Department of Horticulture, promote interaction and fellowship between students at different universities, and serve as a training ground for future leaders in horticulture," said clinical assistant professor Garry McDonald, who coaches the team in competitions. "This year our students excelled in the competition, pretty much sweeping the vegetable, and fruit and nut competition, and we are well represented as ACB officers. Our department is very proud of all of them."
Individually, Wodka was the top scorer in vegetable judging and tied for third in fruit and nut judging.
Buck and Gramlich each tied for second in fruit and nut judging, and tied for third in vegetable judging. Delacey tied for third in fruit and nut, and vegetable judging, and De La Rosa tied for third in fruit and nut judging.
Brazelton was elected president-elect for the ASHS Association of Collegiate Branches and will preside over the 2019 ACB meeting. De La Rosa was elected ACB vice president-elect.
McDonald, and instructor, recruiter and special projects coordinator Shannon Mason are co-advisors of the Horticulture Club.
Along with the horticulture students, Aubry Dunteman, a food science major in Bumpers College, placed second in the research paper competition at the Southern ASHS meeting. Working on her honors project with food science research scientist Renee Threlfall, her presentation was "Impression of Consumer Sensory and Composition Attributes of Fresh-Market Blackberries."
Source: University of Arkansas