Annual Reports

 

ACS - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Committee (ACS528)

2006 Annual Report

The Minority Student Poster Contest and Reception (Special session Z04) at the 2006 Annual Meetings in Indianapolis, IN, was funded at $2,000. The poster contest was originally planned to consist of two categories; one for undergraduate and one for graduate students. However, announcement of the contest was not publicized in CSA News but only in NewsFlash emails that many members had not paid much attention. As a result, only 9 graduate students submitted abstracts to the contest. Eventually, only 6 of 8 contestants submitted posters in an electronic file for being ranked by committee members. At the end, committee members decided that all 6 contestants would be awarded with a cash prize and a certificate of accomplishment. The winners are Solomon Haile of UF/ IFAS, Gainesville, FL. (first-place, $400), Rowena Valencia-Gica of University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii (second-place, $300), Bo Zhang of University of Arkansas (third-place, $200), Manohardeep Josan of University of Florida, Shardendu K. Singh of Mississippi State University and Aaron T. Jeffries of Iowa State University (all Honorable Mentions, $100 each).
The Z04 session was held on Monday November 13, starting at 5:30 and ended at 8:30 PM. About 75 conference attendees came to the session to partake the food/drink, to view the posters, to discuss with contestants, and to witness the award presentation. Tri-Societies presidents Henry Shands, Rattan Lal, Jerry Hatfield, and David Sleper, as well as Executive Vice-Presidents Ellen Bergfeld, were there to show their support of this activity. Presidents Hatfield and Sleper also presented the awards to the six winners of the poster contest.
Committee members (Essah, Wei, Yan, Wang and Thro) were present at the special session, and all except Thro were able to stay from 7:30 to 8:30 PM to discuss items related to next year’s meeting in New Orleans.

Items Requiring Board Attention:

Members of the Committee:

Richard Wang (Chair)
Humphrey Esechie (Member)
Samuel Essah (Member)
Michael Fidanza (Member)
Bao-Luo Ma (Member)
Stephen Prior (Member)
Ann Marie Thro (Member)
Jun Wei (Member)
Wengui Yan (Member)

Prepared By:

Richard Wang