Oscar Maldonado grew up watching and later working on the big rigs in his father’s trucking company in Clinton. His passion for trucks and cars grew — he’s the proud owner of a Dodge Charger — and he wants one day to own his own shop. To that end, he came to East Carolina University to study mechanical engineering — something that would not have been possible without the PIRATES engineering scholars program.

Scott Eagle’s “School of Flying Fish” mural has made the jump from Greenville all the way to Beijing in a showcase of American street art at the U.S. Embassy. Eagle, associate professor and area coordinator for the painting and drawing program in East Carolina University’s School of Art and Design, is one of 23 artists from across the United States whose work was selected for the embassy’s “Art for the People” outdoor exhibit.

East Carolina University students in the Department of Anthropology are back in the field this summer helping recover and catalog abandoned cemeteries across eastern North Carolina. Under the direction of Dr. Charles Ewen, professor and director of the Phelps Archaeology Lab, a crew of 16 undergraduates and two graduate students are traveling to various local cemeteries to help reclaim the history of these locations for the communities. The work is supported by the Colonial Dames of America, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation.