NC State College of Humanities and Social Sciences

CHASS 🤝 Carolina Hurricanes 🏆

The Carolina Hurricanes are bringing the Stanley Cup back to Raleigh and CHASS alumna Natalie Gore helped to fuel the excitement surrounding the team’s historic championship. 🏆 👏

As a senior marketing coordinator for the Hurricanes, she works behind the scenes to engage the team’s passionate fan base, elevate the organization’s brand and create memorable experiences during one of the most anticipated moments of the season. 🏒

Whether promoting game-day experiences, supporting fan engagement initiatives or helping execute marketing campaigns, the 2024 communication graduate plays a role in connecting thousands of Hurricanes fans to the team they love.

While at NC State, Natalie interned in public relations for the team during the 2022–23 season, became lead intern the next season and secured a full-time digital marketing coordinator role before graduating. She was promoted to her current role in November 2025.

Her role reflects how a CHASS education can translate into a career in professional sports marketing. The communications skills, audience awareness and storytelling foundation she developed at NC State University continue to shape her work in a fast-paced environment where connecting with people is central to everything she does. 🤳 🐺

CHASS 🤝 Carolina Hurricanes

As the Carolina Hurricanes compete for a chance to bring the Stanley Cup to Raleigh, communication alumna Natalie Gore is helping to fuel the excitement surrounding the team’s playoff run.

🏒 http://ncst.at/lX0r50Z9XZ3

Leah Harrell's journey to NC State was driven by a passion for bioarchaeology and a desire to bridge archaeology and biological anthropology.

While completing a master's degree in anthropology, Leah's research focused on understanding the lived histories of people in the past, specifically through dental morphology.

As she prepares to begin her Ph.D. at The Ohio State University, she encourages her fellow students to resist the “deadline-to-deadline” mindset and maintain a fulfilling life outside of academia:

Q&A: http://ncst.at/mnWR50Z8gRQ

How does crowd sound affect the Stanley Cup Finals?

Yingchen He, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology’s Human Factors and Applied Cognition Program, lent her expertise to discuss whether crowd noise at the Hurricanes’ home arena might give them an edge in the ongoing Stanley Cup Finals series against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. 🏒



📣 http://ncst.at/vocH50Z7HQb

After 34 years of elevating the voices of North Carolina, linguistics professor Walt Wolfram is retiring. 🫶

While at NC State University, he helped shape the university’s identity as a place where scholars study the world and engage with it, bringing research into communities and elevating people’s voices.

His mission has always been the same: to help people hear the value in the ways they speak and to take pride in who they are. “In a sense, language is what really makes us human”, Walt said.

If the university were to mark his career with a plaque, Walt knows exactly what it should say: “Thank you for the opportunity to do what I love.”

Thank YOU, Walt! 🐺 ❤️

Full story: http://ncst.at/CLxi50Z1PpX

The fifth and final episode of the Talking Black in America series, produced by the Language and Life Project at NC State, was nominated for an Emmy in the historical documentary category at the Southeast Regional Emmy Awards this past weekend. This marks the series’ fourth nomination, following one previous win. 👏

Talking Black in America – Social Justice, the series’ concluding installment, highlights the core themes and concerns that have shaped the project from its inception. It explores linguistic discrimination and its lifelong effects on Black language speakers — in education, employment, housing, healthcare, the legal system and more. The episode also honors Black language as a source of strength, solidarity and a significant influence on American and global cultures.

Last week, three CHASS students received the 2026 Mathews Medal, honoring graduating seniors who have demonstrated student leadership and made significant contributions to the advancement of the university.

NC State University presented the highest non-academic distinction awarded to students to Isaac Carreno, political science and social work ’26; Abby Mulry, international studies ’26; and Molly Sue Smith, social work ’26.

What is...CHASS? 😎