Days before their float makes its way to Pasadena, students from Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are showing off their teamwork skills at the Rose Float Lab in Pomona.
Students have been working on a 23-foot-high float float dubbed “Jungle Jumpstart,” for the 2026 Rose Parade.
Cal Poly Pomona students Paige Pawley, top, and Tyler Jackson, bottom, paint butterflies Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, for the 23-foot-high Rose Parade float called “Jungle Jumpstart” at the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Cal Poly Pomona student Paige Pawley paints a monarch butterfly Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, for the Rose Parade float called “Jungle Jumpstart.” (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
A student welds metal Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 on the Cal Poly universities’ 2026 Rose Parade float at Cal Poly Pomona. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Cal Poly Pomona student Daniel Barr carves into styrofoam Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, as he works on the 2026 Rose Parade float entry, “Jungle Jumpstart.” (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Plaques from past Cal Poly universities’ Rose Parade float entries are seen Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
A marker board shows what’s left to complete Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, on the Cal Poly universities’ 2026 Rose Parade float inside the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Cal Poly Pomona student Nichole Arancibia-Furtado paints a lemur Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, as she works on the 2026 Rose Parade float inside the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Cal Poly Pomona student Bryan Ramillano welds metal Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, on the 2026 Rose Parade float entry, “Jungle Jumpstart,” inside the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Cal Poly Pomona students Paige Pawley, front, and Tyler Jackson, rear, paint butterflies for the Rose Parade float called “Jungle Jumpstart” at the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. About 50 students from Cal Poly Pomona and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo are creating the entry. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University student Mia Brown goes through a stack of concept boards for the Cal Poly universities’ 2026 Rose Parade float in the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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Cal Poly Pomona students Paige Pawley, top, and Tyler Jackson, bottom, paint butterflies Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, for the 23-foot-high Rose Parade float called “Jungle Jumpstart” at the Cal Poly Pomona Rose Float Lab. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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Fitting in with the parade theme, “The Magic in Teamwork,” the float depicts rainforest animals working together to restore their 40-foot robot friend using jungle materials.
In the days leading to the float’s departure from Cal Poly Pomona on Friday, Dec. 19, 120 students are welding, sheeting, gluing, refining mechanical and animation mechanisms and programming the digital sound system.
The students have won 63 awards, including the Leishman Public Spirit Award at the 2025 Rose Parade for their “Nessie’s Lakeside Laughs” float that showed Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, playing with friends.
