Arianna-LascheExhibitor, $5,000, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Mechanical Engineering

Arianna Lasche has been cooking up exhibitor awards at the Fair in everything from radishes as a Kids Best preschooler to low-calorie fudge as an adolescent. Soon she’ll be tackling a menu of challenging honors courses at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on her way to attaining a degree in mechanical engineering. While earning a 4.23 GPA at Carlsbad High School, Arianna helped her school’s competitive dance team excel. “Leadership to me means taking the initiative to take action,” says this energetic scholar. She reveals that her ultimate goal is “to work for NASA and study the possibilities of future life on Mars and of protecting the Earth’s environment.”