{"id":48831,"date":"2024-08-14T21:02:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-15T01:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=48831"},"modified":"2024-08-14T21:02:23","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T01:02:23","slug":"polk-state-grads-research-pinpoints-polk-as-an-ideal-location-for-the-next-buc-ees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/08\/14\/polk-state-grads-research-pinpoints-polk-as-an-ideal-location-for-the-next-buc-ees\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk State grad\u2019s research pinpoints Polk as an ideal location for the next Buc-ee\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For recent Polk State College graduate Jackson Lord and Mathematics Professor Mike Long, it was a love for Beaver Nuggets and pulled pork sandwiches that prompted a yearlong research project pinpointing the ideal location for the next Buc-ee\u2019s in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Lord began his research during the spring 2023 Semester, examining several factors, including traffic patterns, available land, and proximity to existing Buc-ee\u2019s locations. Lord presented his research to Polk State\u2019s Mathematics Department and discussed the project during a session on undergraduate research at Polk State\u2019s Professional Development Day in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really enjoyed the whole process,\u201d Lord said. \u201cFinding a way to rate the data to find a suitable location was very fun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord\u2019s research determined that Polk County would be the ideal location for the next Buc-ee\u2019s \u2013 off Interstate 4 exit 48 for Polk City and Lake Alfred. The northeast side of the ramp heading west on State Road 557, Lord determined, had the most available land for development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of available land,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has a lot of traffic from Tampa to Orlando and vice versa. The area is growing super-fast.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida currently has Buc-ee\u2019s locations in Daytona Beach and Saint Augustine, but plans are in the works for Ocala and Fort Pierce. Lord and Long\u2019s affinity for the company played a role in launching the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe talked about Buc-ee\u2019s a lot,\u201d Lord explained. \u201cI really like the whole atmosphere. I always get a pulled pork sandwich. They\u2019re a good, family-friendly company. There are not that many locations in Florida. It lightened the mood for this research project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their love for Buc-ee\u2019s was evident, but Long said that wasn\u2019t the only reason he chose Lord for the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe sat in the front row and was really engaged in class,\u201d the professor said. \u201cI could tell early on that Jackson had raw math talent waiting to be tapped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A May graduate, Lord is heading to Florida Gulf Coast University to major in civil engineering. When Lord, whose father owns a construction company, arrived at Polk State, he thought he wanted to major in construction management. Partially thanks to the research project, Lord came to the realization that a civil engineering major was more all-encompassing and expanded his possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Dr. Long approached me about the project, he thought I was capable and we just ran with it and started right away,\u201d Lord said. \u201cI realized I could be really involved with the planning process. I can use this in civil engineering or a contracting field. I\u2019d like to do more research projects at my next school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Entering his third academic year at Polk State, Long said seeing his students be able to apply some of the concepts they learn in class to the real world is among the most rewarding parts of his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt takes the education process to another level,\u201d Long said. \u201cResearch projects like this one are a challenge and to see people like Jackson meet that challenge and run with it takes my job to a new level. I love teaching, but this adds another dimension. It\u2019s awesome; I\u2019m really proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For recent Polk State College graduate Jackson Lord and Mathematics Professor Mike Long, it was a love for Beaver Nuggets and pulled pork sandwiches that prompted a yearlong research project… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"32","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":48832,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/bucees-02-800x450-1.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[32],"tags":[9438],"class_list":["post-48831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polk-state-college-news","tag-polk-state-grads-research-pinpoints-polk-as-an-ideal-location-for-the-next-buc-ees"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48833,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48831\/revisions\/48833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}