12/15/02

Six teams of students at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore have formed in a competition designed to encourage the development of new uses of soybeans.
A total of 23 students are joined into teams of two to five members in what is called the UMES Soybean Challenge. The three teams determined next spring to have the most viable products — either food or non-food — will share cash prizes totaling $8,400.
The project, in its first year at UMES, is sponsored by the Maryland Soybean Board. It is modeled after a program launched six years ago at Purdue University, under the sponsorship of the Indiana Soybean Board, and has since been offered at several other land grant universities in the nation.
From the Purdue program have come several commercially available products, including soy crayons and soy candles.
The student teams are:
Team 1 — Mike Kirtsos, a junior from Atlantic City, N.J. and Meghan Cathey, a junior from Gaithersburg, Md. Both are majoring in dietetics.
Team 2 — Robert Blevins, a junior from Stockton, Md., majoring in general agriculture, and Tristan Wilhelm, a sophomore from Centerville, Md., majoring in agribusiness.
Team 3 — Lockenvar Simpson from Brooklyn, N.Y., Regbe Issac of Sicklerville, N.J., and Alisha Minter of Silver Spring, Md. All three are senior business administration majors.
Team 4 — Dahlia Jackson of St. Catherine, Jamaica, a graduate student in food science; Patrice Jackson, also of St. Catherine, jamaica, a sophomore pre-vet student; Kenneth Karanja of Nakwa, Kenya, a graduate student in food science; and Christa Fletcher of Salisbury, Md., a graduate student in agricultural science.
Team 5 - Ryan Baldwin and Gregory Shields, both of Baltimore and both senior biology majors; Kira Castilon, a sophomore biology major; Bevlynn Joseph, a senior biology major; and Patrick Rodgers, who is a sophomore majoring in chemistry.
Team 6 - Taiese Bingham of Lynn, Mass., a sophomore majoring in biology; Kurtria Watson of Syracue, N.Y., a sophomore nutrition major; Tiffany Newman of Waldorf, Md., a sophomore majoring in biology; Andrea Whitney of Dover, Del., a sophomore dietetics major; and Patrick Enekwe of Woodlawn, Md., a sophomore majoring in environmental engineering.
The participating students will gather for their second progress report meeting on Feb. 4. Final projects are due for submission on April 30. An awards ceremony is slated for May 7.