When Shelley Smith graduates in May, she'll leave NC State with more than a degree. The Caldwell Fellow has gained valuable (and challenging) experience building an art program for at-risk youth during her time on campus.
After traveling more than 5,000 miles across 10 Latin American countries over the summer, Saul Flores is more than prepared for a few side trips around the Triangle as he shares his experiences in hopes of bringing a measure of compassion and understanding to the ongoing national debate about immigration.
Who better to design a learning space than students? That was the thinking of Underwriters Laboratories executives, who worked with a quartet of NC State design students to imagine the interiors of the company's new education and training facility in Research Triangle Park.
Wedged into a series of small rooms on the third floor of Witherspoon Student Center, the entirely student-run WKNC 88.1 FM serves up an around-the-clock, steady mix of music - everything from punk and metal to rap and a cappella. It's a seriously successful formula that has earned 88.1 FM bragging rights as the Triangle's top station of its kind.
Although no university had ever won the Urban Land Institute's national design competition on its first attempt, a team of grad students fielded by NC State had ideas of doing just that. And when the dust settled, the quintet's family-centered plan earned top honors, rising above 116 entries - including those from Ivy-League heavyweights Penn and Harvard.
This summer, NC State junior and Caldwell Fellow Saul Flores will walk and hitchhike from Ecuador to his home in Charlotte, N.C. - an 11-country, 4,558-mile journey on which he hopes to raise money for an impoverished school in Mexico while increasing the overall awareness of the struggles of people in the region.
Political science major Ericka Aiken will graduate with no debt, armed with a slew of offers from some of the nation's top law schools. She, along with 84 of her fellow graduates, is part of the inaugural class of NC State's Pack Promise program, which guarantees qualifying students 100 percent of financial aid requirements.
When industrial design graduate student Kathryn Asad won first place in a student traffic safety contest at the New York International Auto Show, judges asked her not to mention the name of her school. It turns out they were embarrassed that students from one university - NC State - swept nearly every award in the competition.
When NC State grad student Sean Coleman designed a concept car for a class project, little did he know his computer-generated sketches would roll off the screen and onto the track. The industrial design student's eco-friendly car will be built from the ground up and displayed trackside at the 2010 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas (SEMA) event in Houston in March.
An alum is leading the effort to restore NC State's legendary Color Wall, a symphony of light that once dazzled Hillsborough Street. Beginning March 7, a group of paintings by creator (and former NC State design professor) Joe Cox will be available for purchase as part of an effort to raise money to bring the Wall back to its vibrant, color-changing glory.