Cal Poly’s student-built Rose Float, Jungle Jumpstart, has been named the Sweepstakes Award winner at the 137th Rose Parade – the parade’s highest honor, recognizing the most beautiful float overall.
This historic win marks the first time in nearly 80 years that Cal Poly has earned the Sweepstakes Award, an achievement typically dominated by large, commercially built floats and major organizations.
Designed, engineered, and built entirely by students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona, Jungle Jumpstart showcased a creative fusion of nature and technology. Students led every aspect of the project — from concept and mechanical design to floral decoration, logistics, and final assembly — collaborating across disciplines, campuses, and hundreds of miles.
California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross congratulates the teams on their achievement, “We are all incredibly proud of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona students for earning the Sweepstakes Award. Their creativity, dedication, and teamwork reflect the very best of California’s future innovators and leaders.”
Cal Poly universities’ “Jungle Jumpstart” rainforest float that showed how nature and technology work together to create a better world received the Sweepstakes Award at the 137th Rose Parade® held on a rainy New Year’s Day.
The prestigious honor — a first in the schools’ nearly eight decades in the parade — honors the most beautiful float overall and is typically won by larger, commercially-built floats or major organizations, not by self-built entries that include the California State University campuses.
Read more from the From the CalPoly Newsroom
