Media Releases

May 14, 2008

UOG Business Students Tie for First Place in Global Business Strategy Game

A team of UOG business students ranked at the top of the list in a four-way tie to win the 2008 Global Business Strategy Game against 1,157 teams from 83 colleges and universities worldwide.

“Jarela Ngiraked, Catherine Torres, Lanie Valencia, and Kenye Waguk are enrolled in our business management capstone course and participated in the Business Strategy Game,” said Dr. Annette Santos, assistant professor of management at in the School of Business and Public Administration at the University of Guam. “The results show UOG business students have the ability and knowledge to thrive in the global marketplace.”

“This reflects our strategic commitment towards developing business administration students’ global knowledge and practical application towards strategy development, decision-making, and other key management capabilities,” as part of our degree programs’ learning goals,” said Anita Borja Enriquez, executive director of UOG’s School of Business and Public Administration.

The Business Strategy Game is an online global simulation where teams of students are assigned the task of running an athletic footwear company in head-to-head competition against other student-run companies. Just as in the real-world, companies compete in a global market arena, selling branded and private-label athletic footwear in four geographic regions — Europe-Africa, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Company co-managers must make decisions relating to plant operations, distribution and warehouse operations, work force compensation, online sales at the company’s web site, sales and marketing, and finance. The challenge is to craft and execute a competitive strategy that results in a respected brand image, keeps your company in contention for global market leadership, and produces good financial performance as measured by earnings per share, return on investment, stock price appreciation, and credit rating. For more information on the Global Business Game visit: http://www.bsg-online.com/stats/top20.html?id=459

May 13, 2008

2007-2008 High School Seniors Competition
24 High School Graduates Receive Yamashita Educator Corps Scholarships

Twenty-four high school graduates will enter the University of Guam this fall to pursue degrees in education, thanks to full scholarships from the Yamashita Educator Corps. “This is the first time we have offered scholarships specifically designed for incoming freshmen,” said John Sanchez, School of Education professor and administrator of the YEC program housed at the University of Guam.

Fifty high school seniors applied for the scholarship, and 24 recipients were selected out of the applicant pool. Recipients have an average GPA of 3.18 and come from private and public high schools. Eight of the recipients are male and 16 are female. Six of the recipients plan to pursue elementary teaching degrees, while 15 want to become secondary teachers, and three want to pursue degrees in special education. “These scholarships are worth $40,000 over a four year period,” said Sanchez. “The YEC scholarship recipients will pay back in service and teach in the Guam Public School System one year for every year in which they receive a scholarship.”

The Yamashita Educator Corps High School Seniors Competition winners are:

Borja, Patrick – George Washington High School
Cherry, Carla – George Washington High School
Cruz, Ha'ani Rae – George Washington High School
Cruz, Georginia – George Washington High School
Posadas, Alyssa – George Washington High School
Singenes, Stephanie – George Washington High School
Wusstig, Mara – George Washington High School

Dela Cruz, Sheila – John F. Kennedy High School
Gomez, Christine – John F. Kennedy High School

Leon Guerrero, Amber – Southern High School

Galura, Hanna – Simon Sanchez High School
Monaghan, Maynard – Simon Sanchez High School
Quitugua, Matthew – Simon Sanchez High School
Sigrah, Donnaliza – Simon Sanchez High School
Stewart, Robert – Simon Sanchez High School

McJohn, Francis – Notre Dame High School
Pablo, Ysa – Notre Dame High School

Mercado, David – Father Duenas Memorial School
Salas, Joel – Father Duenas Memorial School

Miller, Brytney – Academy of Our Lady Guam

Sheaks, Christina – Guam High School
Concepcion, DeMarie – Guam High School
Guerrero II, Perry – Guam High School
Yurko, Jayleen – Guam High School

Certificates for recipients have been sent to their respective schools for distribution at graduation ceremonies. Winners will attend an information and congratulatory session on May 21 at 5pm in the multipurpose room of the Leon Guerrero School of Business and Public Administration Building.

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May 6, 2008

Listening to the Rhino Beetle

Dr. Richard Mankin, an entomologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Gainesville, Florida, is on Guam for two weeks to help with the coconut rhinoceros beetle eradication project, a cooperative project being run by the Guam Department of Agriculture, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the University of Guam. Mankin is recognized as a world class expert on acoustic detection of insect pests. He has developed hi-tech electronic equipment which can detect insects by the sounds they make. Mankin is working with UOG entomologist Dr. Aubrey Moore, under a grant funded by the USDA Western Integrated Pest management Center. They are evaluating acoustic detection technology to see if they can locate the hard to find rhino beetles so that they can be killed.

The objective of the eradication program is to kill all rhino beetles on island. The first rhino beetle was found on Guam in September 2007. These large scarab beetles kill palms when they bore onto the growing tip. Immature beetles, called grubs, feed in decaying coconut logs and stumps. The Guam coconut rhinoceros beetle project is trying to kill all rhino beetles on Guam before they can spread. Rhino beetles are currently found only along the west coast, from Agana in the south to Tanguisson in the north. “If we cannot eradicate this pest of palm trees, it is probable that half the coconut palms on Guam will be killed,” said Moore.

Mankin and Moore have spent a week in the field recording the sounds of grubs and adult beetles. They will be presenting a report on their research in a seminar on Friday, May 9, at 2:00 p.m. in room 104 in the Agriculture and Sciences Building at the University of Guam. This seminar is open to the public.

For further information please contact Dr. Aubrey Moore at 735-2086.

May 6

New Equipment at UOG Measures Toxic Substances

Dr. Reddy in his lab with the very specialized Gas Chromatography machine.

An $85,000 grant from USDA to the University of Guam has allowed Western Pacific Tropical Research Center (WPTRC) scientist Dr. G.V.P. Reddy to purchase highly specialized equipment for his laboratory. The new Gas Chromatography (GC) and GC-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) machines are capable of Electron Impact Ionization and Chemical Ionization.

These specialized pieces of equipment provide the means to identify and measure the content of a chemical product, including measuring toxic substances in plants, soil, air or water. Chemists and engineers using these machines can perform high quality trace sample analysis for the energy and environmental industries.

The main area of use for GC is in the separation and analysis of multi-component mixtures, which can be used in many fields of application. One such area is testing soil for potentially deadly bacteria such as Clostridium bacteria, which causes tetanus, a potentially fatal disease for humans. Another important application for GC-MS is in environmental studies where pollution from hydrocarbons and solvents may be suspected. Since aromatic hydrocarbons are considered highly toxic and carcinogenic, it is important to monitor water and soil for contamination to keep these substances out of the human food chain. Both pieces of equipment are very accurate and can measure picomoles of a substance in a 1 ml liquid sample or parts-per-billion concentrations in gaseous samples.

As a chemical ecologist and entomologist, Dr. Reddy has plans to use this equipment in his work on invasive species and pest control. His expertise is in analysis, isolation and identification of natural products from insects and plants and his research focuses on the identification of insect pheromones, understanding the behavior of invasive insect species and developing more environmentally friendly methods of insect pest control. “These machines can be used to identify semiochemicals such as pheromones, kairomones etc. in insects and plants and then these chemicals can be used in pest control programs,” states Dr. Reddy. He hopes that scientists and governmental agencies in the region will be interested in utilizing this newly acquired equipment, which is now available to researchers.

For more information regarding the new Gas Chromatography and GC-Mass Spectrometry machines contact Dr. G.V.P. Reddy at 735-2142 or via email at reddy@uguam.uog.edu. For information on the work of Western Pacific Tropical Research Center scientists log on tohttp://www.wptrc.org/. University of Guam researchers continue to make a difference for the island and the region through their work.