National Champs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2007
Dr. Richard Saporito
(417) 625-4423

JOPLIN, MO (SNS) - The Missouri Southern State University/Franklin Technology Center Respiratory Care Program students and faculty captured the National Champion title at the American Association for Respiratory Care International Congress in Orlando, Fla., Dec. 1-4.

During this conference, a National Academic “sputum bowl” Competition was held. Four students from MSSU/FTC earned a spot in this competition by winning at the state level in May during the conference held at Lake of the Ozarks, at Osage Beach.

The MSSU/Franklin Technology Center team was comprised of four students:  Dale Benfield from Joplin; Charity Ezell from Neosho; Sonny Glover from Carthage; and Sherry Whiteman from Neosho.

 

Faculty representatives attending were Glenda Pippin, MSSU Respiratory Care Coordinator, and Dr. Richard Saporito, Franklin Technology Center Director of Post-secondary Education.

The MSSU/FTC team was one of 30 teams from across the United States in the contest. The final four were AARC state society teams from Missouri, Louisiana, Colorado and Arizona. Team members compete by correctly answering questions related to Respiratory Care in the areas of  Anatomy and Physiology, Microbiology, Mechanical Ventilation and Chemistry. The team with the most correct answers after 15 minutes earns the win for that round and the competition winner is determined by number of rounds won.

 

After a loss in the preliminary round of competition, the MSSU/FTC students rallied to win all following rounds of competition to become National Champions in the Student Division.

“Congratulations to the participants on a well-deserved championship for Missouri Southern/Franklin Tech, the first for any Missouri school in 35 years of the national academic competition,” Dr. Saporito says.

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