CSC students win Range Cup
A team of four CSC students won the national Society for Range Management (SRM) Range Cup with their project “Urban Expansion and the Erasure of the Western Lifestyle”.
The team consisting of Emma Pendleton, sophomore of McCook, Brolin Morgan, junior of Hemmingford, Sage McGinnis, sophomore of Buena Vista, Colorado and Hayden McGinnis, senior of Buena Vista, Colorado, presented their project at the international SRM meeting in Albuquerque, Feb 6-10.
Their project was based on a ranch, McMurry Land and Livestock, and people moving into the area and how it effects the ranch itself.
“Our major focus was the erasure of the western lifestyle as a result of the large influx of people moving into Colorado,” Morgan said.
The group presented their project last semester and since then put in over 40 hours of work into the project, according to Sage.
The team had to take their research paper and turn it into a presentation.
“The hardest part had to be turning a complex topic into a small, summarized poster that accurately represented the topic given to us and the topic that we chose for the poster,” Brolin said.
The team was competing against other rangeland students across the country, with varying topics and projects.
“The hardest part for me was the day or two leading up to our presentation,” Pendleton said. “We had the chance to see some of the projects that the other schools had put together and it was intimidating! There were some great competitors there who had also come up with amazing research and creative answers to the Rangeland Cup Prompt.”
The prize for winning the Range Cup is a traveling trophy that is housed at the winning school until the next years competition.
“This award is extremely meaningful,” Sage said. “The group invested many long hours into creating a presentation we are proud of. The other universities in the competition have excellent rangeland management programs, and outperforming them is a big deal for us as their projects were all very well done. Winning the award with Brolin, Hayden and Emma made it even more special as we all worked so hard throughout the process and sharing that experience with them is something I will never forget.”
“Winning this award was a big deal,” Hayden said. “CSC historically has done well in this competition, so it is really cool to restore that legacy and bring the cup back to Chadron. This was a total group effort, and every group member did their part exceptionally, so to be awarded for those efforts was special.”
The team hopes that those who choose to compete in the Range Cup in the future will pick a topic they enjoy and not put off working on the presentation.
“My main piece of advice would be to begin working on the project immediately when the prompt comes out,” Hayden said. “Find an issue that is important to you, as that both helps with your interest level and with the actual presentation. Finally, when presenting, be humble and personable, as it is an excellent opportunity to showcase your knowledge of the subject, but also to learn from those who have deeper knowledge and experience in this field.”