Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 5-10-16 Online Edition

FAMU
FAMU President Announces The Creation Of The FAMU Forward Think Tank
FAMU Quiz Bowl Team Wins Honda National Quiz Bowl Championship
The team from Florida A&M University celebrates their win of the 27th Honda Campus All-Star Challenge National Cham- pionship with their coach, Dr. Vivian Hobbs (left).
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Agricultural and Me- chanical University (FAMU) President Elmira Mangum, Ph.D., has announced the launch of the FAMU Forward Think Tank. The volunteer- based group is comprised of former, retired, and current faculty members and focuses on designing ways to further institutional excellence at FAMU and enhance outreach and engagement with stake- holder communities.
Commenting on the cre- ation of the organization, Dr. Mangum said, “During my tenure as president, I have discovered that there is an enormous reservoir of profes- sional expertise, institutional knowledge, and commitment to FAMU among retired and
current faculty members that my administration could draw from or tap into as valuable resources.”
Barbara K. Barnes, Ph.D., professor emerita, for- mer dean, and former interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at FAMU, will chair the group and called the opportunity exciting, chal- lenging, and rewarding.
The charter members of the group are Osiefield An- derson, Ph.D.; Malcolm Barnes; Vivian Hobbs, Ph.D.; David Jackson, Ph.D.; Col. (Ret.) Ronald Joe; Ray Mobley, Ph.D.; Joseph Roache; Vivian Royster, Ph.D.; and William Tucker, Ph.D.
According to Barnes, the think tank, which held its first
meeting in late April, will en- gage a broad spectrum of FAMU supporters including faculty and staff, retirees, alumni and various business and education thought lead- ers to help support the admin- istration’s efforts to move FAMU forward.
The group will offer brief- ings, workshops, colloquia, forums and conferences, as well as conduct action re- search and special studies, and occasionally produce publications of interest to the HBCU community and the higher education community in general.
For more information about the FAMU Forward Think Tank, contact Barbara Barnes, Ph.D., via email at barbara.barnes@famu.edu.
For the eighth time in school history, Florida A&M University’s quiz bowl team won the 27th Annual Honda National Quiz Bowl Champi- onship in Torrance, Calif.
The team received a $75,000 grant for the univer- sity for going a perfect 5-0 in the Louis Armstrong division of the competition.
“I am very proud of this team,” Coach Vivian Hobbs said. “This is the best team I’ve ever coached.”
Hobbs is a retired FAMU professor and former South- ern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges director.
Hobbs ensured the team was knowledgeable in every subject area ranging from hu- manities to pop culture, before entering the competition.
“We have to be prepared in all subject areas, because we do not know what they are going to ask us,” Hobbs said. “You have to know everything anditismyjobasthecoachto figure out a way for my team to know everything.”
A part of the elite eight HBCUs, FAMU competed against 48 Historically Black College and Universities.
The winning team in- cluded four players: team cap- tain and fourth-year history student from Gainesville, Kimberlyn Elliot; third- year engineering technology student from Miami, Travian Albert; physics student from Spartanburg, S. C., Do- minique Berry; and first- year health services management student from Birmingham, Ala., Imari Nalls.
The team spent four
months preparing. Elliot said as the team captain, she felt most of the load.
“I feel all of the pressure,” Elliot said. “As the captain, it is my responsibility to know everything that my teammates don’t know.”
Nalls added that she first felt nervous in the beginning of the competition.
“I was really nervous,” Nalls said. “In my first game, I was shaking really badly. Once I got into the feel of things, I calmed down. I had to let myself know that I can do this.”
Berry said that they did not rely on the Internet to pre- pare for the competition; in- stead they chose to read books.
“It is better to get your in- formation from a published book instead of online,” Berry said. “There are a hun- dred different sources on the Internet and you’ll never know which is right.”
Berry and Albert ad- dressed overcoming stereo- types as two African-American males in the field of higher learning.
“In the Black community, a lot of times athletics is what is highlighted,” Albert said. “I feel good being a part of an or- ganization promoting Black academic excellence, because that is what is really needed in the community.”
Berry added that it is good to show that African- Americans can prevail in other areas other than sports.
“I think it is important to be able to see that we’re capa- ble of more than just dominat- ing a physical environment,” he said.
Pictured from left to right: Vivian Hobbs, Ph.D.; Ray Mobley, Ph.D.; Osiefield Anderson, Ph.D.; Barbara Barnes, Ph.D.; Malcolm Barnes; Joseph Roache; Vivian Royster, Ph.D.; and William Tucker, Ph.D.
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