Three years after tragedy, Our Three Winners legacy lives on

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PAGE 3 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

Three years after tragedy, Our Three Winners legacy lives on

Mary Dare Martin

News Editor

Marking the deaths of three Muslim students killed in February 2015, communities, organizations and students joined together on Saturday to remember their lives and continue to build their legacies three years later.

“Our Three Winners” — Deah Barakat, 23, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21, and Razan Abu-Salha, 19 — were shot executionstyle in Deah and Yusor’s home located in a Chapel Hill apartment complex by Craig Hicks, 46. Hicks was the upstairs neighbor of Deah and Yusor, who were recently married in December 2014; Razan, the younger sister of Yusor and a student in NC State’s College of Design at the time, had been visiting.

Deah and Yusor were graduates of NC State in the Poole College of Management and the College of Sciences, respectively. Deah was a second-year student at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry where Yusor planned to attend in fall 2015. They both dedicated their lives to service through NC State’s Muslim Student Association, the Islamic Association of Raleigh and their community.

“It’s very hard to describe because you don’t get people like that very often,” said Fiaz Fareed, the director of outreach at the Islamic Association of Raleigh. “Because they were the cream of the crop, as they say.”

On the Thursday following the deaths of Deah, Yusor and Razan, NC State came together with the Islamic Association of Raleigh to hold the funeral on Method Fields.

“There was no parking all the way to Hillsborough,” Fareed said. “It was an amazing sight. There were about close to 6,000 that we counted, and then we gave up because we could just not continue. There were easily, I think, more than 50 percent were nonMuslims because they were so affected; they were so very wellknown.”

Chancellor Randy Woodson said that NC State was there to help not only the mosque, but also the family, hold a funeral service for Deah, Yusor and Razan.

“On the day of the event, I went to the mosque and met with the family,” Woodson said. “We reached out to the family to see how we could help. The original service commemorating their lives was held on our campus at the soccer fields near Method Road across the street from the mosque, so that was big. We held vigils on both campuses.”

In response to the death of his brother, Farris Barakat, the executive director of The Light House Project, left his planned career path and devoted himself to renovating the 105-year-old house his brother had owned east of downtown Raleigh.

“When my brother was murdered, the idea was, this house had to be inherited by someone and he didn’t have kids, so I guess it went back to the parents,” Barakat said. “They decided that they wanted to do something with the house to kind of further his legacy.”

The house, which officially opened February 2017, was named after Deah, whose name means ‘light.’ Over the past year, it has served as a community center for local youth and support system for startup nonprofit programs, all while educating people on what it truly means to be a Muslim American.

“To figure out how to best accomplish that goal we came up with a model of fiscal sponsorship,” Barakat said. “Essentially like an incubator for nonprofit programs … kind of [create] a second environment for companies to come get guidance, and it’s a good environment for them to learn and support their need.”

Along with the legacy it continues to hold for Our Three Winners throughout the year, The Light House Project has celebrated the lives of Deah, Yusor and Razan throughout the month with a spoken word performance, an award honoring those who have served their community and a canned food drive that goes until Feb. 24.

“The fact that people continue to do things in their honor, I think speaks so much about who they were and also good intentions,” Barakat said. “We can all get involved in something … they were doing good enough work that everyone else felt like they wanted to step up and take on something.”

The canned food drive connects The Light House Project, the Islamic Association, NC State and other organizations to help Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. NC State also created a scholarship fund to honor Deah, Yusor and Razan in each of their fields of study. “We worked with each of the colleges to say ‘How can we honor each of their individual legacies in your college but their collected legacy as three winners?’” Woodson said. “Our goal was to create endowments in each of the three colleges that would fund a minimum of two scholarships and we’re well past that now. We’re funding at least two scholarships in each college.” The NC State Muslim Student Association (MSA) will be collecting cans and nonperishable foods at one of their prayer spaces in D.H. Hill throughout the month for the food drive, but also did its part to remember the legacy of Deah, Yusor and Razan through a basketball tournament dedicated to Deah this past Saturday. “We’re also doing the ‘Dunking for Deah’ basketball tournament,” said Moneeb Sayed, a fourth-year studying science, technology and society and the president of MSA. “We’re going to be donating a portion of the proceeds to the Our Three Winners Foundation … when we’re doing events, we want to remind the community about the lives that they lived and the good that they’d done.” Sayed was also a student at the university when Deah, Yusor and Razan were killed. NC State held a vigil in the Brickyard the Thursday after the shooting occurred on Feb. 10. With more students who were present during the time of the Our Three Winners tragedy graduating, Sayed said that it’s become more important to remember their legacy. “They were college students just like us,” Sayed said. “It could have been any one of us. That’s imporCAIDE WOOTEN/TECHNICIAN tant to learn from what happened, Surrounded by the family members of slain students Deah Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan to learn from the past and really Mohammad Abu-Salha, Chancellor Randy Woodson announces the University’s establishment of the “Our Three Winners” scholarship endowment fund on Feb. 20, 2015 at the Roy H. Park Alumni Center . The endowment will provide annual financial support to NC State students studying in the Poole College of Management, be more vocal about what we’re doing, who we are, because really College of Sciences and College of Design. we’re all in the world together.”

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Trinity Road tunnel looks to make pedestrian crossing safer

ROHAN PRABHU/TECHNICIAN A 25-foot-wide pedestrian tunnel is in the works to be built this year under Trinity Road. The tunnel will provide easy access from parking lots to Carter-Finley Stadium and the NC State Fairgrounds and should be completed by September of this year .

Marco Valencia

Correspondent

Trinity Road will be undergoing construction after the North Carolina Department of Transportation granted a contract to build a new pedestrian tunnel under the road. The 25-foot-wide tunnel will connect the parking lots of Carter-Finley Stadium and the NC State Fairgrounds.

Steve Abbott, assistant director of communications for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, weighed in on the impact of the tunnel not just on NC State students, but on the local and campus police officers as well.

“[The tunnel] will provide a safe way for students who park and tailgate on the fairgrounds side of Trinity road, to cross over to the stadium,” Abbott said. “The students will not have to wait until allowed to cross by a state trooper handling traffic control.”

The $4.3 million project was awarded to the Crowder Construction Company of Charlotte, which can begin on March 1 and has a completion deadline of Sept. 15.

The contract also outlines a financial incentive for the contractor if it is ready before the first home football game, which is scheduled for Sept. 1.

Currently, the Raleigh Police Department and State Highway Patrol troopers regulate traffic control at crosswalks to ensure safe pedestrian crossings.

“It will greatly increase safety for the students, and improve traffic flow on Trinity Road,” the NC State University Police Department said.

The new tunnel is also expected to ease traffic during big events, especially during football, basketball and hockey games hosted at PNC Arena.

Ashley Andreasen, a first-year majoring in exploratory studies, tailgates on the fairground and frequently crosses Trinity Road to Carter-Finley Stadium when venturing to the football games.

“I go to every home game and have to cross [Trinity Road] to get to the football stadium,” Andreasen said. “The tunnel will make it less dangerous, less of a hassle and faster to get to the game for me and everyone else who has to cross. Cars will also not have to wait for us, making traffic less congested.”

Nathan Chen, a first-year studying mechanical engineering, gave some input on what he thinks the tunnel should look like.

“I think the tunnel is a great addition, but I hope the NCDOT themes it in a way that ties in NC State and the community,” Chen said. “I want the tunnel to be more than just a concrete slab.”

According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s news release, the pedestrian tunnel was one of 16 contracts awarded by the department, which had a total estimated cost of $138.6 million. The department first began the project’s feasibility study back in 2012.

Trinity Road will be closed between March 1 and Aug. 1 while the tunnel is being constructed. A detour route will be provided through Edwards Mill Road, Wade Avenue and Blue Ridge Road for vehicles to avoid construction and delay. Additionally, alternative entrances will be available for access to the stadium and fairgrounds.

Technician reached out to Crowder Construction Company of Charlotte, the company in charge of the construction, but it was not available for comment by publishing time.

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PAGE 4 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

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PAGE 5 • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2018

NC State graduate student makes Forbes’ 30 Under 30

Q&A with Tyler Allen

Georgia Burgess

Correspondent

Tyler Allen, a graduate student studying comparative biomedical sciences, has landed a spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Science list for his research in cancer and tumor cells. Allen studied molecular/cellular biology and plant biology during his undergraduate years at NC State. Technician sat down with Allen to learn more about his work and what it means to him to be recognized by the business magazine.

Recently you have been named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for your research. Could you tell us a little bit about the research that you’re working on?

My most current research, which is what I was highlighted in Forbes for, was research that I do looking at cancer and tumor cells in the body. When a person gets cancer, they have a tumor forming in their body, and when this disease becomes very dangerous or deadly is when that tumor spreads to different parts of the body. With cancer, this occurs through a process known as metastasis, which is when the tumor or cells from the cancer travel from one part of the body through the bloodstream and then exit and grow and form more tumors. I study specifically the process of how the tumor or the cancer cells, when they’re in the circulation, how they travel through and how they exit the blood vessels and then form these new tumors which are called secondary tumors.

What specifically got you interested in cancer research, especially considering your background in biology and plant biology?

I don’t have a specific anecdotal story where someone in my family had cancer. It was for me, growing up, I saw cancer as this big entity because so many people have cancer and there are so many people who are affected by cancer. It is still such a problem or issue, even with all of the advances and information that we have in biomedicine and biology. There is still a prevalence with it being one of the leading causes of death worldwide. I got interested in the biology behind cancer, and that way, I learned about it more. Then after I sought out research labs that were doing work with cancer as an undergrad, and that’s when I started working with Johnathan Horowitz, who is a professor here in cancer biology. I started doing research with him, and then after that it was kind of just I found it interesting to learn more about the process, and it kind of stuck with me, so that’s what I’m doing now and what I am really interested in.

JESSICA HERNANDEZ/TECHNICIAN Tyler Allen, a Ph.D. student studying comparative biomedical sciences, gives his three-minute thesis in Hunt Library on Oct. 31. Allen came in second place and won $750.

What does it mean to you to be recognized by Forbes, and what do you think you will get out of it on both personal and academic levels?

This is something I have been working really hard towards. This is research that I have been working on for the past few years actually, so this is a large portion of my dissertation research is this discovery that was being recognized. It is always nice being recognized for your work, especially when you’re so passionate about it and spend so much time working on it. However, for the latter part of the question, you get recognition through their magazine by being on the list, but you don’t get anything. They just put you on the list. But, I mean, it is a great way for recognition, getting more people knowing about what you’re doing and gaining more interest in the work that you’re doing which is definitely good because, since I have been named on the list, I have had multiple opportunities where I have been either invited to talk more about my research or people have contacted me about potentially working with me on my projects or in the future. I think that’s a good benefit of this recognition, and hopefully I can utilize this momentum to further the research along and find more discoveries out to treat and prevent cancer.

Where do you see yourself going with this research? What are you hoping to do in the future with everything you are working on?

I hope to at least continue looking at the process that I am currently looking at and the discovery that was made, and hopefully, expounding upon this research for increased knowledge of what is happening when cancer spreads with the long-term hope of finding a way to prevent or mitigate cancer spread or metastasis.

Any additional thoughts on the research or the recognition for your future plans that you want to share?

I definitely owe a lot of my success to the university and how much it supports its students. As I mentioned before, I have been at State since undergrad so this is my eighth year at the university, so I have been here my entire adult life. I think it speaks a testament to the amount of resources and growth that NC State gives its students and allows them the ability to grow. The support team that I have had here in terms of professors, faculty, staff and even students has been amazing.