Best of Florida Schools 2005
General Categories—Page 6

Best Game Show
“What is Beacon College?”
When a professor says the word “quiz,” students feel their hearts beat faster and their brow drip with sweat—except for students at Beacon College. There, the word “quiz” probably brings to mind the words “game,” “bright lights,” and “cash prize.”

Beacon’s Student Services Office and Student Government Association teamed up and organized the quiz game Thinkfast as a way to entice students to stay on campus for the weekend. On Sept. 12, just after a lunch cookout, the game got underway in the student center. “A little bit of a light show goes along with the game, and it had a little bit of a glitzy stage appearance,” says Bob Bridgeman, vice president of student services and operations. The game had a Jeopardy! feel with three podiums and a video-screen backdrop where questions were displayed.

Forty students answered questions anonymously until the speed round, when the top three players went up to the podiums. They tackled questions on everything from pop culture and alcohol to drug awareness and music. “It’s a little bit of current events and a little dabbling of an education component as well,” Bridgeman says. “I requested that they put in some alcohol and drug awareness questions just to incorporate an educational element into the game.”

Senior Brent Cooper won the game and the $200 cash prize, which he planned to spend on CDs. “They might throw out a T-shirt or a couple of other little trinkets to the crowd, but there wasn’t any real prize other than the first prize,” Bridgeman says. “It’s kind of a winner-takes-all mentality.”

The students enjoyed the anonymity of the game until the speed round, and the cash prize gave them an incentive to get up to the podium, Bridgeman says.

“It’s just a lot of fun. Everyone gets to goof off, and the students get to be center stage for a little bit,” he says. “We plan to do this again next year.” —JLT

Contact Bridgeman at bbridgeman@beaconcollege.edu.

Best Earth Day
BCC Gets Down to Earth
When students think of Earth Day, most don’t envision exciting celebrations—many remember boring speeches or forced recycling. But, at Broward Community College, students are actively working to erase memories like these by organizing an interactive Earth Day celebration every year.

Faculty advisor Peggy Green, Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, the Science Club, and the Student Life Center organize most of the event, but individual classes help out as well. Last year’s celebration included an estimated 250 people. “We try to do the Earth Day celebration holistically,” Green says. “What you eat is important, the decisions that you make about your interaction with wildlife are important, and just knowing things that you can do to make the Earth a better place is important.”

BCC students work on projects all year to display on Earth Day. The projects are mainly to educate others about different aspects of the Earth. One group researched the loss of wild birds and created a booth explaining the damaging effects of cutting down trees. Then, the students provided an answer to the problem—humans need to build birdhouses so the wild birds can have shelter. The students even built three birdhouses as examples and provided instructions on how to construct them for specific birds. “Earth Day is a great opportunity to reach beyond just the classroom setting to the whole campus and to the community and really try to relate some of the information that they need to know,” Green says. “So I see it as a good education opportunity, and it’s especially great because the students can do the educating.”

Students set up two hybrid cars at the event so people could find out more about the benefits they provide. There was also information available about how to make a backyard into a butterfly garden. The science department even sponsored a native-plant sale, offering all the necessary plants to make a butterfly garden. All the proceeds from selling native plants and Earth Day T-shirts went toward BCC’s native landscaping project, which replaces exotic plants on campus with native ones.

The celebration included food from the Whole Foods Market, which is completely organic and vegetarian. Healthy dishes like vegetable lasagna and organic apple juice were on the menu. Publix also donated a few fresh fruit and vegetable trays. “We’ve basically kept the same menu for many years because they just eat it until there’s nothing left,” Green says. “Some of the stuff at Whole Foods you acquire a taste for—maybe you don’t like tofu or something. But the vegetable lasagna is just so delicious that it has wide appeal.”

BCC students tried to incorporate all age groups in the day’s festivities by inviting the child-care center on campus to select a class to join the celebration. The children from the class came dressed up and sang songs to the participants. They also watched the animals from the wildlife care center, enjoyed the food, and looked at the displays. “It’s really cute, and the students like having the kids there too,” Green says. “They’re our future, so we want them to learn young.” —JLT

Contact Green at pgreen@broward.edu.

Best Way of Saying Thanks
Saluting Servicemen
For many college students, Veteran’s Day just means another day off from classes. Hoards of students head to the beaches while others decide to prowl the malls. But that wasn’t the case with students in the Freedom Union club at Florida Atlantic University—Jupiter. They recruited a team to say thanks to forgotten soldiers at the West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center’s long-term care facility.

“When I was thinking up events the group could stage, it occurred to me that you couldn’t have freedom without veterans and their sacrifices. I presented the idea to the group, and everyone thought it was great,” says Henry Townsend, Freedom Union president. “I wanted to tell the veterans that their sacrifices haven’t been forgotten.”

The students gave veterans 200 cards that had American flags and yellow ribbons on the front and said, “Thank you for our freedom.” The club sent only the four executive board members to the hospital because they weren’t sure how the servicemen would react to the cards. The group plans to send more members in the future because of the hugely positive response from the veterans.

“On a few occasions we were met with misty eyes and I was moved to tears,” Townsend says. “It’s quite memorable coming face to face with someone who has fought to defend you, though he’s never met you. It was a fulfilling experience, one that I personally plan on engaging in next year.” —JLT

Contact Assistant Director of Student Life Seth Fishman at fishman@fau.edu.

Best Book Drive
TCC Raids for Reading
Tallahassee Community College is taking the proverbial college panty raid to a more sophisticated level. Instead of diving into their underwear drawers, faculty and staff at this college raided their closets, shelves, and desks for as many books as they could gather.

As part of a book drive for nearby Rickards High School, TCC collected more than 1,150 books. Appropriately, TCC named their drive, “Raid Your Bookshelves to Help the Reading Raiders,” after the school’s mascot.

“We collected poetry, short stories, biographies, mysteries, historical novels, science fiction, literary classics, and nonfiction,” says Bertha Murray, assistant vice president for academic affairs and an integral leader in the book drive.

The drive began when Dr. Pink Hightower, principal of Rickards, called on the help of TCC President Dr. Bill Law to support the school’s program, “Just Read, Rickards!” The program aims to promote school-wide reading. “Of course, we were pleased to oblige,” Murray says. “TCC’s employees were excited to take on this community-service project.”

Murray and her committee put up colorful flyers requesting donations and placed decorated drop-off boxes throughout the college. “The project was exciting,” Murray says. “We had a great time.”

The 1,150 books are now scattered throughout Rickards and are used as part of the school’s entire reading project. “I would hope that when the students think about the source of the books, they will develop a warm fuzzy feeling about TCC,” Murray says.  —JW

Contact Murray at murrayb@tcc.fl.edu.

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