Spring 2023 Casabona Student Competition

Despite a smaller field of students, the level of competition was as high as ever at the Mario M. Casabona Future Scientists Awards Spring 2023 Competition. This semester had 5 competitors: Michael Camilo, Shane Finn, Bryanna Fleischman, Vanessa Glaser, and Karen Serrano. Starting off the competition, a poster session was held in the CELS Atrium to provide students time and space to display their work. The judges and guests had this opportunity to get familiarized with the topics before the presentations began. After the poster session, the event moved into CELS 120 where each participant had time to present their research to the crowd.

The students arrived prepared and well supported nearly filling the CELS 120 lecture hall with fellow students, mentors, faculty, friends and family. Topics were intriguing across the board, and combining that with the students’ strong presentation, the judges were kept engaged engaged and attentive throughout the event. This showed clearly from their compliments and questions for each student.

All of the participants did an amazing job! They were well prepared and confident with their research, their findings and the value of what they had discovered. The judges had a difficult time picking just one winner for first place, which led to our first judged tie! The winners of first place were Chemistry major Shane Finn, mentored by Dr. Jinshan Gao, and Biology major Bryanna Flesichman, mentored by Dr. Jennifer Krumins. Second place was earned by Earth and Environmental Science major Vanessa Glaser mentored by Dr. Matthew Gorring, Dr. Greg Pope, and Dr. Peter Siegel. Michael Camilo captivated the audience and judges, winning the Audience Favorite award!

A huge thank you to the mentors and professors that helped our students and guided them along the way. Also, thank you to our judges, Mr. Mario M, Casabona, Dr. Susan A. Cole, Mr. Jonathan Hakakian, Dr. Wren Lester, and Mr. Michael Wiley. We appreciate everyone who came to support our students!

Event Photos