Less than a year ago, Adrienne Core ('10) was student teaching, putting the final touches on an undergraduate degree in secondary math education. On Saturday, she took center stage at the internationally broadcast Miss America pageant, competing for more than $200,000 in scholarship money while helping to raise awareness for the V Foundation for Cancer Research.
Armed with big dreams for tiny, ladybug-inspired vehicles to those that recall the sleek lines of Japanese drift cars, middle- and high-school students from around the region raced their way through NC State's first Sustainable Transportation Education Program (STEP), held outside the McKimmon Center.
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.