At the 2019 Pacific Southwest Area Meeting, Chapman took first place in a food science-based trivia competition: COLLEGE BOWL.

In partnership with the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association, a team of Chapman food science students joined forces to plan and implement the 2019 Pacific Southwest Area Meeting/College Bowl Competition. The team was comprised of executive members of the Chapman Food Science and Nutrition Student Association:

and was led by Maria Khalil, Co-Vice President. The planning team was supported by Robyne Kelly, Food Science Graduate Program Coordinator.

The two-day event took place on April 19th and 20th, 2019, during which Chapman welcomed six schools from all over California:

  • California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
  • California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo
  • California State University, Northridge
  • California State University, Long Beach
  • California State University, Fresno
  • California State University, Los Angeles

On the eve of the competition, respective Food Science clubs from each participating school took a tour of the brand-new Keck Center for Science and Engineering, which included the Food Processing Lab, as well as the Food Chemistry Research Lab. The students then settled at the infamous McCardle steps and each club showcased their events of the year.

On the day of, Arbonne International, the area meeting’s gold sponsor, was in attendance, as were representatives from Chipotle, Trader Joe’s, Cream’wich, King’s Hawaiian, Popchips, and several more sponsors. Dr. Anuradha Prakash, Program Director of the Food Science program at Chapman, addressed the crowd and welcomed them to the university. She applauded all teams participating and highlighted the importance of industry partnerships such as those Chapman has formed with the Institute of Food Technologists’ Southern California section, a major contributor to the success of the College Bowl event. She also highlighted the importance of creating and expanding on a professional network, and she thanked Chapman’s alumni for helping Chapman in making College Bowl a success.

The competition was moderated by Ms. Ellen Bradley, Principal Scientist at River City Food Group, and was judged by Doctor Kathleen Feicht, President of Asta Food Research, Ms. Erin Evers, Technical Sales Manager at SPI Group, as well as Ms. Pamela Vaillancourt, Director of Sales at JAIN Farm Fresh Foods.

At lunchtime, attendees huddled around Pete the Panther who made an appearance and gave away Cream’wich ice cream sandwiches! With over 80 attendees, the competition lasted around 6 hours, after which the College Bowl team led Chapman into an undefeated win, followed by California State Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo’s College Bowl team, who won second place. Chapman’s college bowl team is comprised of:

Chapman’s Food Science College Bowl team will be competing at Nationals, at the Institute of Food Technologists’ biggest event of the year: IFT19, in New Orleans.