The City of Raleigh Environmental Awards recognized the contributions of two NC State Campus As A Classroom student interns along with NC State Make-A-Thon for advancement of sustainability.
Karthik Kunnumpurath Jayakumar, an electrical and computer engineering graduate student, won the first Community Action award for his use of data and programming to promote more local food purchasing on campus.
Karthik has been working for NC State Dining as a Campus As A Classroom student intern for the 2023-2024 academic year. His work includes analyzing Dining’s purchasing and creating an interactive dashboard that incorporates vendor products for campus chefs to develop new recipes and menus featuring local foods.
Kate Macleod, a College of Natural Resources and Poole College of Management senior, was honored as part of Toward Zero Waste. This community non-profit organization won the Climate Action Award for Waste Reduction for increasing compost accessibility for Raleigh residents.
Kate was a Campus As A Classroom student intern for Waste Reduction and Recycling this past academic year and also supported the Zero Waste Wolfpack and Zero Waste Wolves. Macleod is also a recipient of the 2024 Sustainability Award in the student category.
NC State Make-A-Thon was honored with the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders Award which recognizes the actions taken by Raleigh’s youth for conservation, climate protection and community-resilience building. Make-A-Thon is NC State’s annual sustainability innovation competition where students ideate, prototype and pitch a sustainability solution to a local or global challenge.
Accepting on behalf of NC State Make-A-Thon is Carla Davis, left, and Lani St. Hill, right, of the University Sustainability Office. Additional members of the NC State Make-A-Thon planning committee include Chester Miller (University Housing), Meghan Teten (University Honors Program), Justin Haynes and Colin Nickels (University Libraries), Meredith Spence Beaulieu (Global One Health Academy), Katie Barnhill (Genetic Engineering and Society Center), Andrea Monteza Arauz (Office of Research and Innovation), Eren Hebert (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and Stacy Supak (Center for Geospatial Analytics).