A Report from the Annual Florida Collegiate Honors Council Conference

-Submitted by Bobby Hom This past weekend, the Honors Program at SF College participated in the Annual FCHC Conference, hosted by Palm Beach State College.  Students from 21 schools presented research in all academic disciplines, from art to zoology.  Erica Laboissoniere presented a research poster, “Evaluating Three Different Forms of Sustainable and Renewable Energy: Woody Biomass, Non-Cellulosic Ethanol, and Cellulosic Algae.”  Her poster was developed from a paper written for Prof. Brendan Pieter’s Honors ENC2210 Technical Communications class.  Special praise goes to Tess Suhre-Korn for winning 2nd place (and a $150 check) in the FCHC writing competition’s Freshman / Sophomore Documented Research or Critical Thinking category.  Her paper, “Creating Controversy: How Our View of Education Has Failed to Evolve,” examines both sides in the evolution vs. creationism  debate and discusses how misunderstanding, ignorance and current politics have prevented schools from debating ideas and issues on their own merits.  The paper was written initially for Prof. Steve Robitaille’s ENC2301 Advanced Composition class. Also, Ashleigh Bennett was awarded the Florida Collegiate Honors Council’s Mary Jo Henderson Scholarship.  The $1,000 scholarship is presented annually to one outstanding state/community college Honors student who plans to transfer to an FCHC member institution. Ashleigh is the first SF winner of this award.  She was also named to the PTK All-Florida Academic First Team, an honor bestowed to only 30 students statewide and which qualifies her for scholarships at four-year state institutions. Ashleigh was accepted to UF.