As smiles exploded on the Bomb Squad's faces, team member Gus Moran couldn't contain himself.
"Everything in my body dropped to the floor when I heard our name," the SFCC freshman said.
In the final moments, Moran's team beat the Intellects to win SFCC's "The Interns" competition.
The winners, who include Moran and his teammates Jen Silver, Chris Ellis and Naomi Prioleau, were announced at Wednesday night's closing ceremony.
"We were squeezing our hands, and Naomi almost ripped my hand off," Moran said.
Each member of the winning team will receive a 12-credit scholarship to SFCC and a spring internship with a local business partner.
The competition started last month with five teams of 20 SFCC students who were studying health, journalism, building construction and social science.
Each week, the teams completed a different task developed by one of four internship hosts in each of the fields.
At the end of each week, the local business in charge of the task eliminated one team.
The final task was to raise money for veterans' issues by running a refreshment stand at Sunday's Bikers on Parade event.
In addition to fundraising, the Intellects formed a business proposal for a thrift store benefiting veterans, and the Bomb Squad updated the VETSPACE Web site.
The office of state Sen. Steve Oelrich, a Republican whose district includes all of Alachua County, was in charge of the final task.
"You're light-years ahead of me when I was in community college … as far as involvement," Oelrich said to all the contestants.
Tonya Shays, Oelrich's legislative assistant, announced the winning team.
"To be honest, when it came to tasks, they were virtually dead even," Shays said after the announcement.
But there were a few errors in the Intellects' business plan, and the Bomb Squad raised more money, she added.
Twenty minutes after the winning team was announced, former contestants congratulated Bomb Squad members, who were still smiling.
Clutching his trophy, Moran said he knew they would win.
"That first week, we stayed out in the rain for 12 hours working on the task," he said.
