Student Honored in National Competition for Essay on Highway Engineering
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 27, 2006
Joe Wills
530-898-4143
Student Honored in National Competition for Essay on Highway Engineering
A California State University, Chico civil engineering student has won $1,000 and been named a finalist in a national writing competition held by Chicago-based Quixote Corporation, a leading manufacturer of transportation safety products.
Shahna Thomas, who is from Paradise, wrote an essay on highway roundabouts last spring as part of an assignment in her transportation engineering class. The announcement that she was one of seven national finalists came this month.
Thomas graduated in May 2006 in civil engineering from CSU, Chico. She is currently working on a master's in civil engineering at CSU, Sacramento and is employed as a construction engineer on the Highway 70/149/99 project between Chico and Oroville in Butte County.
CSU, Chico civil engineering professor Tom Ferrara said the Philip E Rollhaus Jr. Essay Competition is very competitive. Because it is open to engineering undergraduate and graduate students, it is rare for an undergraduate like Thomas to be honored, he said.
Ferrara said the Quixote Corporation announced a record number of entries from around the world. Other universities with students receiving honors were Brigham Young, University of Cincinnati, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Penn State, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Quixote Corporation has manufacturing operations in Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Missouri and Santa Fe Springs, Calif., as well as an engineering and research center in Rocklin, Calif. The essay competition is named for Quixote's founder.
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