FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Several horticulture students from the U of A's Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences won awards in competition at the recent Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Sciences meeting in Mobile, Alabama.

Melinda Yin, Kenneth Buck, Rhiannon De La Rosa, Claire Krofft, Mallory Martin and Perla Rocha combined for one first and two second-place awards.

Yin, a horticulture master's degree student, topped 16 other presenters to claim first place in the Norman Childers M.S. Graduate Student Paper Contest. Advised by Distinguished Professor John Clark, her oral presentation was on "Development of a Standardized Phenotyping Protocol for Blackberry and Evaluation of its Effectiveness in Characterizing Seedling Populations."

Rocha placed second in the J. Benton Storey Horticulture Judging Contest in the Individual Judging Fruit and Nut Crops category.

The U of A Horticulture Club, made up of Buck, De La Rosa, Krofft and Martin, placed second in the Horticulture Judging Contest in the Club Judging Fruit and Nut Crops category. The Horticulture Club is advised by clinical assistant professor Garry McDonald and instructor Shannon Mason.

In addition to the awards, freshman Kelsey Brazelton was named president-elect for the ASHS Association of Collegiate Branches. Preston Smith, a Bumpers College junior horticulture major, is ACB president for 2017.

About the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences: Bumpers College provides life-changing opportunities to position and prepare graduates who will be leaders in the businesses associated with foods, family, the environment, agriculture, sustainability and human quality of life; and who will be first-choice candidates of employers looking for leaders, innovators, policy makers and entrepreneurs. The college is named for Dale Bumpers, former Arkansas governor and longtime U.S. senator who made the state prominent in national and international agriculture.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.