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Best Mojo Mission
     Yeeeeeah, baby!! Preparing for the take-off of fall semester last fall, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s SGA sponsored a "Jam Slam Student Shag Fest" during orientation. The event drew in a record 98 percent of ERAU’s 1,300 new students to enjoy free food, two live bands, and info about SGA membership and Safe Ride cards. To keep ERAU swingers safe, SGA handed out party favor Shag Bags to eager Eagles with safe sex pamphlets and complimentary condoms donated by Trojan. "We wanted to reach students on a more peer level, because we honestly felt that traditional approaches have become cliche and non-effective," says Sherry Ortiz, SGA president. "Students seemed much more at ease when presented with safe-sex information, because we increased their comfort levels with a positive and fun environment."

Fastest Processors
     Is that your final answer? Lynn University students didn’t have to know all the answers, they just had to come up with them quickly during the game-show style event "Think Fast." Nearly 70 students turned out to vie for a $200 cash prize by finishing a phrase or answering trivia questions in categories ranging from biology to music. "Everyone who comes gets to play," says Kathleen Shehan, student activities coordinator. "That’s what's so great about it." Students keyed in answers on remote controls to try to survive four rounds of competition, which got fierce in the finals— audience members replaced contestants who answered any question incorrectly.

Best Exam Week Hot Spot
     When it takes a prayer to ace a mid-term, Manatee Community College students have got an advantage. They just head on over to the on-campus chapel. For almost 30 years, MCC has been the only community college in the state with an on-campus chapel and full-time chaplain. Although the chaplain’s salary is paid by local Episcopal churches, the chapel, which is located in the center of the campus, was built with donations that crossed denominational lines. Today, more than 100 students and MCC staff use the services of the chaplaincy each day for bible study, communion, student-group meetings, or personal reflection. Others simply pull up a director’s chair alongside Reverend Dr. Andrew Parker Allis, who dresses in a clerical collar and shorts and often is seen chatting with students on the front steps, distributing grapefruit, or dispensing lemonade. "He’s very available, and he’s just a real favorite among students," says Carolyn Fiasco, counselor.

Best Epicurean Education
     Bethune-Cookman College students have great taste, especially those enrolled in hospitality management. Since the program’s inception in 1986, most of the students’ hands-on learning came from working in Daytona-area hotels and restaurant kitchens. But now future chefs and hoteliers can apply what they know in the new Holmes Business Building. Hotel and culinary wings take up the 15,000 square-foot first floor, which includes offices, guestrooms, cold storage, lockers, a dish room, and an ironing room. Many of the quarters have corporate sponsors, such as Aramark, which furnished a dining area, and others including Marriott, Adam’s Mark, and Motel Six. Students training to become certified culinarians can practice preparing delectable dishes in the new Red Lobster Culinary Lab. Six mini-commercial workstations accommodate three students each and come equipped with TV monitors for students to watch and listen to Instructor G. Michael Harris as they follow along. All students complete required internships and take core classes in tourism, nutrition, and culinary arts, and a new food and beverage concentration has been created. Starting salaries for grads range from $28,000 to $36,000. More than 100 students are enrolled, but Director Ernest P. Boger expects that number to double within a few years.

Best New Campus
     Last September, the first student entered the new South Lake Campus of Lake-Sumter Community College. With the completion of the phase one 25,000-square-foot building, the center in Clermont now offers a third educational venue for 300 Lake and Sumter County residents. The two-story facility includes classrooms, labs, a library, offices, a community room, and an observation deck. Phase two additions include a 60,000 square-foot joint project between LSCC and the University of Central Florida to offer four-year degrees starting in spring 2002. "We look forward to yet adding another venue to better serve the Lake and Sumter communities with the opening of our third campus," says Pat Landsman, college relations coordinator.

Best Publicity Stunt
     To spread the word to student leaders about how to spread the word more effectively, the University of Miami’s Student Government, Public Relations Student Society of America chapter, and The Miami Hurricane newspaper teamed up to sponsor "PR 101: A Campus Publicity Workshop." Designed to give student-group officers and election candidates alternatives to boring flyers, the event showed students how easy it can be to advertise using the UM’s student newspaper and radio and TV stations. The program also included a session on how to create attention-grabbing posters presented by a communications professor who had won a Pulitzer Prize for design. School of Communications Senator Chris Sobel originated the idea along with UM’s PRSSA advisor during a study-abroad trip in international PR in Spain. "A crash course in public relations and media relations is basically what we did," says Sobel, who also serves as the Hurricane news editor. More than 60 students turned out for the event, which makes one wonder, "How’d they hear about it?"

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