Continuing a streak begun in 2016, our student-led solar vehicle team, Team Sunergy, earned another podium finish in the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. The team took second place in the multi-occupant vehicle category and also won the competition’s Teamwork Award. This photo was taken by App State alumna Kyla Willoughby, of University Communications, who was a member of Team Sunergy when she was a student, is Team Sunergy’s Media Advisor and traveled with the team this year to help chronicle their experience.
Message from Chancellor Heather Norris: July 18, 2025
With summer in full swing, we are also only a month away from the first day of fall semester classes. Summer orientations are ongoing, An Appalachian Summer is in its third week, construction and building maintenance projects are underway, summer camps are going strong and faculty and staff are preparing for students to arrive on the Boone and Hickory campuses in a few short weeks. The High Country is stunning this time of year, and we welcome visitors to join us!
For many students, educational experiences continue throughout the summer, and one exceptional example of this is the university’s solar vehicle team, Team Sunergy.
This student-led team, which has been designing and racing solar cars for more than a decade, earned another podium finish earlier this month at the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix in Bowling Green, Kentucky, continuing a streak they have held since 2016. Team Sunergy finished in second place after completing 715 miles over the multiday race and also earned the competition’s Teamwork Award for their collaborative spirit and work to help other teams succeed in the competition.
Team Sunergy has, since its beginning, been student-led and has exemplified Mountaineer grit, ingenuity and perseverance. Founded in 2013 and led by then-undergraduate student Dan Blakeley ’15 ’18, an Army veteran and two-time App State graduate, the team began by converting a gas-powered golf cart to electric power. The team has since built and raced two vehicles, including ROSE, the multi-occupant vehicle they have been racing since 2018.
This year’s race was the final run for ROSE, as the team has its third-generation solar vehicle well underway for next year’s competition season. For nine years, designing, building and continuing to engineer ROSE has been an interactive learning experience and a tremendous success for the team, with podium finishes at every competition in which it participated — including winning the 2021 American Solar Challenge, the national championship of solar vehicle racing for North America.
As Team Sunergy continues to build on a decade of success, App State and Catawba College have engaged in a partnership to both support and inspire the development of new collegiate solar vehicle teams in North Carolina. Read more about the team’s most recent success and their plans for the future.
Congratulations to Team Sunergy for your continued success, for your outstanding representation of Appalachian State University on the world stage and for serving as a shining example of ingenuity, innovation, collegiality and community!
Last week, I joined close to 200 art enthusiasts for our Sculpture Walk, part of the 39th Annual Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition. This annual tour — at which the competition winners are announced — has become a signature part of the summertime experience for many High Country residents and visitors, and holds an important place in the history of the university. Its significance as a cultural treasure goes beyond the borders of our Boone campus, increasing the profile of public art in the town of Boone, showcasing important artists, and serving as a point of pride for the High Country and our region.
This competition and exhibition were begun by Martin and Doris Rosen, two of the visionaries who also brought An Appalachian Summer to life. Today it continues with the support of their children — Debbie Davidson, Michelle and David Rosen, and Nancy and Chuck Rosenblatt — and we thank them for continuing the remarkable legacy of Martin and Doris.
This year’s juror is Joseph Bigley, a mixed-media sculptor and lecturer in studio art in App State’s Department of Art. Joseph, a 2004 alumnus and the founder and executive director of the Western North Carolina Sculpture Center and Park in Lenoir, led the popular sculpture tour and announced the competition winners. Unexpected Harmony (steel, maple branch) by Kyle Van Lusk, a professor of art at Brevard College, was named Best in Show. The piece, inspired by a maple tree branch that was struck by lightning outside the artist’s studio in 2023, holds additional significance in the months following Hurricane Helene.
The Sculpture Walk is available for self-led tours year-round, offering students, faculty, staff and visitors to our Boone campus an opportunity to engage with our beautiful surroundings through the perspectives of artists from across the nation. I hope you will have an opportunity to enjoy it soon!
As we prepare for the coming academic year, the chairs of our academic departments are fully engaged in their annual Summer Institute, a 10-day professional development and strategic planning event. During this comprehensive leadership experience, which is entering its sixth summer, department chairs learn from one another and their colleagues from across campus, engaging in topics such as student success, goal setting and building strong teams, as well as external factors that impact our industry and what these may mean for their work as they lead the students, faculty and staff in their departments.
Next week, I’ll spend time with them in this setting and will also bring members of my leadership team for a panel discussion and an opportunity for Q&A. I’ll also host a reception for them when the event concludes, and I look forward to hearing about their experiences and the ideas generated during this year’s session.
Chairing an academic department is considered one of the most challenging jobs in higher education, and I appreciate the work our chairs do every day as they endeavor to ensure the highest levels of success for the students, faculty and staff in their departments. Thank you to Jamie Parson, Acting Senior Vice Provost of Faculty Policies, Development and Training, for facilitating this professional development experience for these important university leaders.
I hope everyone can savor the final weeks of summer as we look forward to an exciting academic year ahead!
Heather Norris
Chancellor
From left to right: Nearly 200 patrons of the arts joined us for our Sculpture Walk, led by juror and App State faculty member Joseph Bigley, which is part of the 39th Annual Rosen Sculpture Competition and Exhibition. Shown at center, Joseph shares the history of the exhibition and competition and its founders, Martin and Doris Rosen. This year’s Best in Show is Unexpected Harmony, pictured at left — a sculpture composed of steel and maple by Kyle Van Lusk, a professor of art at Brevard College. When I visited the Team Sunergy garage prior to the team’s departure for the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, team members — who are designing and constructing the third-generation solar vehicle with a goal of racing it in 2026 — handed me body panels of ROSE and the vehicle under development. The panel from ROSE is very lightweight, and the comparable panel for the new vehicle weighs a fraction of that! Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation Christine Hendron, shown at left in the third photo, joined me to compare the pieces. Thank you to Troy Tuttle and Kyla Willoughby in University Communications for these photos.
