Southern Miss Team Captures 2012 Scholars Bowl, Golden Eagle Trophy
Fri, 03/02/2012 - 01:58pm | By: Charmaine Williams Schmermund
With four teams from The University of Southern Mississippi and four teams from local community colleges, the competition in this year's annual Scholars Bowl at Southern Miss Gulf Coast was especially tough.
Yet the Southern Miss group managed to retain the 2012 Golden Eagle Trophy as members of the team, Library Rules, were named the champions.
The winning team, led by Jorge Brown of Pass Christian, access services librarian at the Gulf Coast Library, included John Evans of Picayune, senior majoring in accounting, Jessica McClammy of Mobile, Ala., junior majoring in business, and Berenice Nunez of the Dominican Republic, junior majoring in film. McClammy and Nunez are part-time staff in the Gulf Coast Library and Evans is a work-study student for the library.
"This was my first year as faculty advisor for the team and I could not be happier about our win,” said Brown. “This was a great group of students to work with and it was definitely a team win. I was impressed by the caliber of all the teams in the competition and I look forward to next year's Scholars Bowl.”
In the final round of the competition, two Southern Miss Gulf Coast teams competed for the trophy and Kaplan Test Prep course, valued at $899. Although the Sigma Tau Delta Turtles had the leading score before the final round, team Library Rules answered the final round question correctly and were declared the winners by Scholars Bowl emcee Jeff Lawson, news anchor for WLOX.
The Scholars Bowl featured a total of eight teams competing for the coveted Golden Eagle trophy. Of the teams competing, three were from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, one from Pearl River Community College and the remaining teams were comprised of Southern Miss Gulf Coast students and faculty. As teams went head-to-head throughout the day in 30-minute trivia matches, winning teams advanced to the next round until the final two teams were left to compete.
“The third annual Scholars Bowl was a great event which allowed students and faculty to display their academic prowess and have some fun,” said Southern Miss Gulf Coast Academic Dean Tom Lansford, whose office sponsors the annual competition. “We had substantial participation from Mississippi's community college teams who competed well with the teams from Southern Miss.”
The 2012 Scholars Bowl Committee members were co-chairs Linda Jordan and Christy Elias, Michelle Fleming, Ashley Halferty, Robin Johnson, Heather LeBlanc and Patsy Thomas.
For more information about Southern Miss Gulf Coast, visit www.usm.edu/gulfcoast.