Last weekend, members of the ULM Honors Program travelled to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to attend the Louisiana Collegiate Honors Conference.
The conference was attended by students from ULM, ULL, Grambling State University, Nicholls State University, University of New Orleans, and Delgado Community College.
LCHC events included a banquet, several speakers, a talent show, a quiz bowl tournament and several research presentations.
Three ULM students presented research. Susan Egbert, president of the ULM Honors Program, presented “Lichen’s Secondary Metabolites as Breast Cancer Inhibitors.”
Egbert presented in the same panel as ULM peers Deepta Pokharel and Simi Ogundare, who presented “Light quality effect on the growth of Arabidopsis seedlings” and “Lichens as Bio-Indicators of Air Quality through Estimation of Free Radicals in Thalli,” respectively.
“Our entire panal was ULM students, so it was good to present with each other and have that support,” Egbert said.
Pokharel was greatful for the support of the ULM students that watched her presentation.
“It wasn’t bad to present because there were so many ULM Honors kids there supporting me,” Pokharel said.
Twenty-eight ULM students attended LCHC, making it the most represented school.
“It says something that we have the biggest group of students here, because we are on somebody else’s turf. And they have over 1,000 honors kids,” said Maroutcha Mouawad, treasurer of the Honors Program, on the fact that ULM was represented in greater numbers than the hosting school.
ULM competed in a quiz bowl tournament at the conference. The ULM team did not advance to the finals.
“It was a fun experience. I really enjoyed working with my peers to get to the position that we were. We didn’t make it into the finals, but we had a great time,” said Justin Bordelon, a ULM Quiz Bowl team member.
ULM honors students enjoyed the time they got to spend together at LCHC.
“ULM Honors Program is the best support system ever. We were there for each other for quiz bowl, presentations, games, to dance—everything,” said biology major Edidiong Udofia.
