FOUR NOCC SENIORS ACE ENGINEERING/MANUFACTURING TRAINING AND HEAD TO LSU
ACE Mentors Program trainees Giancarlo Casalegno, Clarence Cotton III, Rashad Thornton and Kameryn Washington all start LSU in the fall with scholarships resulting from their ACE Mentors participation and individual achievements.
NEW ORLEANS, La.– Giancarlo Casalegno, Clarence Cotton III, Rashad Thornton, and Kameryn Washington spent their senior year at New Orleans Career Center designing a sustainable electric go-kart track for New Orleans youth under guidance of their ACE Mentors and NOCC instructors. The collaboration and the work have paid off. All four will head to LSU in the fall to study engineering and architecture. Collectively, they’ve earned more than $20,000 in merit scholarships to help pave the way.
Cotton, Thornton and Washington received scholarships from the Palmisano Foundation, the charitable arm of WJ Palmisano, which aids students interested in the architecture, engineering and construction professions.
Cotton and Washington also received scholarships from the ACE Mentors Program, which pairs working professionals in architecture, construction and engineering with high school students to inspire and engage them to pursue careers in those fields.
Thornton plans to pursue a degree in civil engineering, Cotton has declared a mechanical engineering major, and Washington hopes to enter the architecture program.
Casalegno, who will graduate from New Orleans Maritime & Military Academy (NOMMA), has received Flagship Scholars award, Innovation Scholarship and Academic Excellence Scholarship from LSU where he plans to pursue a degree in computer science.
“One of the biggest things I’ve gained at NOCC is confidence,” Cotton said. “Confidence that I can solve problems, that I can make it through LSU and get my degree, that I can be an engineer like I want to be and have that career.”
While at NOCC, all four ACE Mentors participants earned Autodesk® Inventor certifications and completed introductory engineering courses through UNO’s College of Engineering.
New Orleans Career Center trainees choose career prep and technical education from among engineering/manufacturing, healthcare, culinary arts/hospitality management, building trades, and digital/IT pathways. They attend NOCC half-day, every day, for the entire school year, for one to three years.
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