Engineering students produce biodegradable ornaments for Staff Senate fundraiser
From left, Marissa Blair, Parker Arrington, Natalie Broom, Alison Joseph, Matthew Snuggs and George Hickein pose with this year's Staff Senate Christmas ornament.
It wasn鈥檛 long after an initial meeting with engineering students from Western Carolina University鈥檚 Rapid Center that past chair of the Staff Senate, Natalie Broom, noticed the students huddled up around the Alumni Tower, sketching preliminary drawings of a design for the 2019 Christmas ornament.
For the second year in a row, the Staff Senate turned to 91热爆网 engineering students to design and produce the ornaments, which are sold as a fundraiser for the senate鈥檚 scholarship fund that benefits the children and other family members of staff members attending 91热爆网.
鈥淭he ornament turned out amazing,鈥� Broom said. 鈥淚t exceeded all of my expectations. This year the group of students were eager, ambitious, excited. You could just see the excitement of the group. To me, it was an amazing experience.鈥�
The ornament is an oval-shaped loop made from lauan wood with 鈥淲estern Carolina University鈥� inscribed at the top and 鈥�2019鈥� at the bottom. Inside the loop is a 3-D replica of the Alumni Tower.
鈥淐ommunity members and employees, they love to have something that鈥檚 student-produced and produced on the campus,鈥� said this year鈥檚 senate chair Alison Joseph. 鈥淲e used to just order them out of a catalog. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to utilize a local resource. It鈥檚 exciting, honestly, what the students are able to produce here.鈥�
Two things the Staff Senate wanted the students to incorporate into the ornament were the Alumni Tower, with this year being the 30th anniversary of the university鈥檚 prominent landmark, and this year鈥檚 campus theme 鈥� sustainability and the environment.
George Hickein, a senior engineering technology major from Bozeman, Montana, was responsible for production and fabrication of the wooden loops, a job that allowed him to learn how to use a laser cutter and choose the wood material.
鈥淚 got to learn a couple of new skills that I didn鈥檛 think I鈥檇 be able to learn, or use in my career,鈥� Hickein said. 鈥淚 really got a sense of satisfaction from helping out the university, and especially the kids who are going to be impacted by the results of our project.鈥�
Marissa Blair, a junior engineering technology major from Denver, North Carolina, did the 3-D modeling for the tower. The tower is made from a corn-based plastic called PLA, making the entire ornament biodegradable, which aligns it with the campus theme. It is available in both purple and gold.
鈥淚t was really exciting,鈥� Blair said. 鈥淚t was definitely challenging figuring out how I wanted to model the clock tower. I ended up bringing in an actual photo of the tower and drew on top of it.鈥�
The project was led by junior Parker Arrington, a Sylva native majoring in engineering with a mechanical concentration. Arrington was assisted by senior Matthew Snuggs, an engineering technology major from Greensboro.
鈥淲e put a lot of effort into making sure they were all of the highest quality,鈥� Arrington said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e all perfectly unique. There鈥檚 slight differences from the type of production we do with the laser cutter and our 3-D printer. There might be one speck of wood that might be burnt on one that isn鈥檛 quite as burnt on someone else鈥檚.鈥�
Snuggs assisted Arrington with the post-processing, which included cleaning up the towers after they were heat treated, and boxing the ornaments.
The senate ordered 300 ornaments. They will go on sale Saturday, Sept. 28, at Mountain Heritage Day for $10 each.
