Three Eastern Kentucky University students earn national honors
Awards/honors
▪ Three Eastern Kentucky University students from the Department of Environmental Health Science have been recognized by the National Environmental Health Association. Only five students receive student research award honors at the national conference.
Amos Kosgey (master’s of public health student) and Ambrose Maritim (undergraduate), both of whom came from Kenya to participate on the EKU cross country team, were winners of the Seattle-based Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs Student Research Competition. Kosgey and Maritim each received a $1,000 prize and an all-expenses-paid trip to Grand Rapids, Mich., for the NEHA event.
In addition, Jacob McGee of Irvine, Ky., received NSF International’s only award, which included an all-expenses-paid trip and a $3,500 internship stipend for an NSF International-sponsored research project.
▪ Drama students from Tates Creek performing “Mary Stuart” took first place in the Central Region of the Kentucky Theatre Association’s High School Festival, held Oct. 28 at host Frederick Douglass High School. A SCAPA group from Lafayette was runner-up with “Alice in Wonderland,” and Paul Laurence Dunbar students finished third with “Aunt Leaf.” All three schools advance to the state competition Nov. 17-18 in Pikeville.
Other groups performing in the Central Region were Bryan Station (“Radium Girls”), Douglass (“Everything I Need to Know I Learned by being a Zombie”), and East Jessamine High School.
▪ A team from Locust Trace AgriScience Center took third place in the Kentucky FFA land-judging career development event Nov. 2 in Hardinsburg, with Audrey Francis recording the state’s highest individual score. The strong finish by Audrey, Jamie Howard, Jackson Davis and Seth Felts qualifies them for the national land- and range-judging contest next May in Oklahoma City.
In this FFA competition, students evaluate four plots of land and determine several factors such as slope, amount of erosion, and aeration and drainage. They then use that information to suggest conservation practices and land uses for each site. Judges score the students after comparing their reports to a soil scientist’s official recommendations for the Natural Resource Conservation Service, which is part of the USDA.
Earlier this fall, the Locust Trace team won the Bluegrass Region, paced by Jackson’s high score. Teacher Daniel Bustle coaches this group, with assistance from India Oestreicher.
▪ Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s LaVetta Reliford, program coordinator of the radiography program in the Allied Health and Natural Sciences department, has graduated from the Council on Postsecondary Education’s new leadership institute for underrepresented minority faculty.
Reliford is part of the inaugural cohort of the new leadership institute, which was created to develop more campus leaders among early career, underrepresented minority faculty who aspire to leadership positions.
This story was originally published November 14, 2017 at 6:36 AM with the headline "Three Eastern Kentucky University students earn national honors."