Representing LSU in a battle of the brains, 10 Honors College students attended the Louisiana Collegiate Honors Conference last weekend at the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s campus.
Honors college council members and students from LSU, ULM, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Nicholls State University and the University of New Orleans participated in quiz bowl tournaments, attended student presentations and elected new officers.
The LSU team drove to Monroe Saturday for the second day of the Conference and were surprised to find out that officials had signed the team up to participate in the quiz bowl competition.
“We weren’t prepared because we hadn’t planned to play, but we decided to give it our best shot,” Michael Tipton, a political science junior, said.
Although ULL ultimately won the tournament, the LSU team caught on to the fast-paced question and answer format and enjoyed the competition.
“I think the LSU council as a whole bonded over the experience by riding together and staying at the home of one of the council members,” Lea Witkowski, a mass communication sophomore said.
Tipton said that the LSU council grew closer through these group efforts but there should be more chances for the universities to meet and discuss the positive and negative attributes of the honors programs at each college.
“We have the best, most diverse group of people,” Tipton said.
Tipton said that Honors College students are involved in many different areas of LSU, and that “passion for the University” strengthens the HC reputation.
Of course there is room for improvement.
Tipton said the Honors College offers many classes that focus on the liberal arts but needs to expand the classes offered to attract more students. Tipton said students may assume that the Honors College is not beneficial to students of other majors because of the lack of diversity in the classes offered.
The Conference also held individual discussion groups where students presented research projects that they had done at their universities. Tipton and Arsham Sheybani, a biological sciences sophomore, presented two of the student presentations. Groups of students listened to their individual research and offered feedback about the presentations.
Tipton interviewed about 130 students from eleventh graders to Ph.D. candidates about their opinions on the subject of whether education has a liberalizing effect on voting for homosexual candidates resulted in no correlation between education and liberalness. Tipton presented his project for an honors political science seminar and decided to bring it to the LCHC for additional constructive criticism.
Tipton answered questions people in the discussion had about his presentation and said he benefited from their help because most people in college do not have money and resources to get important results and conduct a survey with many participants.
Sheybani also presented his project, which he derived from his research of the infection schistosomiasis, with the National Institutes of Health, which funds scientific studies at universities and research institutions across the Nation.
Schistosomiasis infects mostly people in third-world countries with contaminated water systems. Sheybani studied the effects of secretory leukocyte protease inhibitor (SLPI) that keeps the body from inflaming, which stops the body from digesting food.
Sheybani and other researchers tested the effects of SLPI on mice and concluded that the inhibitor resulted in less inflammation and a better chance of survival.
“The presentations gave students chances to practice presenting research in front of an audience of peers,” Tipton said.