Chapman Food Science Wins Regional Competition

Chapman University
food science students
competed in the
regional College Bowl
competition this past Saturday at Cal State LA,
and won
! The schools competing were Utah State, Brigham Young University, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Cal State LA, and Chapman University.

The Chapman team will now compete against 7 other regional winners from all over the country at the National Institute of Food Technologies (
IFT
) conference in New Orleans in June. The Chapman College Bowl Team includes Jessica Hallstrom (team captain), Erin Young, Tara Okuma, Jessica Sambuco, Brendan Wong, Crystal Lin.  Dr. Lilian Were is the team advisor.

“The students were fantastic as you can see from the scores, and the only round that was close was the 7th round,” commented Dr. Were.

Chapman food science students have represented our region six out of eight times at the national competition since 2007. The only 2 years we didn’t were 2012 and 2008 when BYU
represented our region
. Below is a table illustrating this history.

2014 Competition in New Orleans, LA: Chapman University will represent our region in the national competition this June in New Orleans, LA

2013 Competition in Chicago, IL: Chapman University was our region’s represenative and came in 3rd place behind Cornell University and UC-Davis

2012 Competition in Las Vegas, NV: Brigham Young University (BYU) was our region’s representative and winner of the national competition.

2011 Competition in New Orleans, LA: Chapman University represented our region and came in 2nd place in the national competition, after Ohio State University

2010 Competition in Chicago, IL: Chapman University represented our region in the national competition, but was beat out by University of Georgia.

2009 Competition in Anaheim, CA: Chapman University represented our region in the national compeition while North Carolina State University  took home first place.

2008 Competition in New Orleans, CA:  Brigham Young University (BYU) was our region’s representative, but the national competition was won by Ohio State University

2007 Competition in Chicago, IL: Chapman University represented our region in the national competition. University of Arkansas took home first place with Chapman designated as the runner-ups.

The competition is a jeopardy style food knowledge competition and brief description is “Since 1985, the IFT Student Association College Bowl Competition has tested the knowledge of student teams from across the United States in the areas of food science and technology, history of foods and food processing, food law, and general IFT/food-related trivia.”

The College Bowl is designed to facilitate interaction among students from different universities, stimulate the students’ desire to accumulate and retain knowledge, and provide a forum for students to engage in friendly competition. Teams for IFT Student Chapters in eight geographical areas of the Student Association compete in area competitions prior to the IFT Annual Meeting. The winning teams from the eight areas then compete in a final competition at the Annual Meeting.

All finalists receive a $1000 travel grant. The national champion earns a $1000 award, and the runner-up a $750 award. (
http://www.ift.org/community/students/competitions/college-bowl.aspx
)