Congratulations to our 2003 Wildlife Conclave Team!

Humboldt State University President Rollin Richmond and the Department of Wildlife hosted a victory reception Friday, September 26, honoring HSU’s championship-winning team at the National Wildlife Society Championship Quiz Bowl.

The 19-member Wildlife Conclave Team, led by Coach David Kitchen who is a professor of wildlife management, was honored by the President and other top university officials at ceremonies held outside the front entrance of HSU’s Wildlife and Fisheries Building.

HSU Quiz Bowl competitors garnered an unprecedented third straight national championship with their latest triumph September 7 in Burlington, Vermont. The championship has only been held the past six years, and HSU did not compete in the first three. Consequently, the team boasts a perfect string of three victories in three attempts.

Most of the teams competing at the national level are larger universities, such as the University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin-Stephens Point, Purdue University, Virginia Tech and Colorado State University.

Humboldt State also entered five undergraduate paper or poster presentations, the largest number of any university competing at the National Meeting of the Wildlife Society.

The team’s 19 undergraduates, in alphabetical order, are Dominic Bachmann, Colin Brayton, Nora Camberos, Heleyna Cooney, Valerie Eurs, Ardiana Guzmann, Jennifer Harrington, Timothy Hermanson, Braden Hogan, Kelly Lesher, Katie Moriarity, Eric Nolte, Ashley Parsons, Melissa Odell, Janae Scruggs, Shannon Tarpenning, Amanda Wilhelm and Jared Wolfe.

The department is a component of the College of Natural Resources and Sciences, headed by Dean James Howard. Chairman George and Dean Howard attended the September 26 ceremonies, accompanied by the university’s second-in-command, Provost Rick Vrem.

In the past 45 years, HSU’s Wildlife Quiz Bowl Team has won 28 academic championships out of 36 times it has competed in the Western Students Wildlife Quiz Bowl, according to Dr. Kitchen. This record of sustained success is rooted in the educational resources available at the CNRS, which is home to the nation’s second largest collection of natural resource programs, forestry apart. The CNRS also has the nation’s fourth largest wildlife program, according to authoritative National Science Foundation data.

The CNRS is unique for its rare degree of classroom interaction, equally rare hands-on research, and its extraordinary natural setting, says Dean Howard.

Faculty agree. “The most important attribute of the CNRS Department of Wildlife is its hands-on focus,” asserts Dr. Kitchen. “Students at Humboldt do things in the classroom and in the field that students at other universities don’t even see until they are at the master’s, or even the doctoral, level in their education.

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