Tallahassee Community College

Tallahassee Community College Model United Nations (TCC MUN) assembled on campus in socially distant fashion this past week for a virtual conference put on by the National Model United Nations. Eight TCC students virtually partnered with fourteen Valdosta State University (VSU) students to represent the United Kingdom in four days of committee sessions. The TCC/VSU students won an Honorable Delegation award for their work as a whole, two TCC/VSU partners were recognized as outstanding delegates in their respective committees, and one TCC/VSU partnership won an award for best position paper. In all, the TCC MUN team earned 10 awards over the course of this academic year. TCC MUN is led this year by two TCC students, President Jeanie Morrison, and Vice President Sean Rutten. They were joined at the conference by TCC students Camille Beauchamp, Joseph Davis, Alaina Eyler, Jamey Harvey, Brianie Sanchez, and Nima Torabi. While the pandemic may have limited TCC MUN to virtual events this year, these TCC students demonstrated that resilience and dedication makes for academic success worth honoring.

Tallahassee Community College recently held its 2021 Undergraduate Research Symposium. The event is a culmination of amazing collaborations and partnerships between students and faculty on research initiatives. Students participating in the undergraduate research had the opportunity to share and discuss their work in a variety of ways including oral presentations, poster sessions, visual arts and performance arts. "For the Virtual Symposium on Undergraduate Research, our TCC students really stepped up to the challenge," said Dr. Renee Gordon, STEM Program Director at the College. "They presented live on topics ranging from mental health during a pandemic, predictive algorithms, and environmental effects of smart vehicles. We are proud and look forward to their future research." The experience allowed students to build transferrable skills that help to build professional networks while contributing to knowledge that impacts our communities. Most importantly it was an opportunity to share research topics and hold discussions.

Tallahassee Community College (TCC) students attended the Dental Hygiene National Board Competition hosted by It's Hygienic at the State College of Florida. During this event, dental hygiene students in their last semester throughout the state participated in a multi-round competition consisting of 400 questions, ranging from anywhere to core sciences, dental hygiene process of care, to the ethics and research within the field. TCC's team, Buccal Up!, consisted of five second-year dental hygiene students: Imani Oteghile, Hannah Poston, Jennifer Hedrick, Lindsey Bassford and Christina Davidson. They were joined by fellow student Brenda Page and Dental Hygiene Program Advisor Debra Burtoft. Other TCC dental program students also attended, acting as audience members to benefit from the board review. "Our students represented TCC well," said Burtoft. "We placed in the final four and were able to participate in the final round. We ended up [in] fourth place out of nine teams who competed." Imani Oteghile was awarded a $400 scholarship as part of a short essay contest, and Jennifer Hedrick won a $299 National Boards Review Membership from Student RDH. To learn more about TCC's Dental Program, visit www.tcc.fl.edu/academics/programs/b317/.

The Tallahassee Community College Model United Nations team won six awards at the Florida Model United Nations conference in October. The conference took place in Gainesville, Florida, and hosted over 125 delegates from seven different Florida colleges and universities. TCC MUN is an internationally recognized academic team that participates in simulations of the United Nations. The team won three awards recognizing their performance in committees and three Position Paper Awards, which are written in preparation for the conference. The student team was led by their president, Brendan Leverenz, and vice president, Ramlah Mahboob. Team members include Elijah Acevedo, Samuel Moberley, Sidney Lyght, Samuel Goetz, Eduardo Acevedo, Max Culbreath, Dixie Johnston, Jeanie Morrison, Maria Mejias, Steven Vaughn Hennessey, Ariana Baltodano, Therese Gagliano, Barbara Alvarez-Murrah and Colleen Beichner. Faculty advisers are Tom Waller and Richard Murgo. For information, contact Tom Waller at (850) 201-8159 or wallert@tcc.fl.edu , or Richard Murgo at (850) 201-8145 or murgor@tcc.fl.edu .

The Tallahassee Community College forensics team capped off an outstanding competitive season by winning their 19th consecutive team sweepstakes award at the Phi Rho Pi national tournament for community and state colleges, held April 10-14 in Daytona Beach.

Tallahassee Community College Model United Nations program won five awards at the National Model United Nations, held in late March in New York City.

Tallahassee Community College Student Troy Presley is one of only three national winners of the Scott Wright Student Essay Contest. He and the faculty member he wrote about, Forster Agama, have both won a $1,000 prize from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development.

Tallahassee Community College Model United Nations braved both the cold and numerous working group sessions over Thanksgiving week to participate in a Model U.N. conference in Banff, Canada. The conference hosted more than 250 delegates from seven countries, including TCC's 14 students.

The Tallahassee Community College Brain Bowl team wrapped up a successful season with a winning match record and a 5th place finish at the FCSAA State Brain Bowl Tournament.

A team of six students secured Tallahassee Community College's sixth championship in seven years among community colleges at the most prestigious fall semester speech competition in the country, and placed eighth overall in the field of over 40 colleges and universities from around the country.