EXCELLENCE
Oct. 27, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
ASU’s Barrett plans a school within a school
Years before he arrived at ASU, Mark Jacobs had a vision for what the Barrett Honors College could be.
Jacobs headed the biology department at Swarthmore College, a tiny elite liberal arts school near Philadelphia. As he left the campus one Friday evening, he noticed how sedate it was. There was no loud music, no drunken students cackling.
The library, however, bustled with students.
“And I thought to myself, 'What these kids need is Penn State (University) right outside the gate,’ ” said Jacobs, who became dean of Arizona State University’s honors college in 2003.
Next month, ASU begins construction of an eight-acre campus within the main university in Tempe to house 1,700 honors students. The college will sit at the gates of a major university with a party reputation.
“For me, that’s a wonderful combination for bright kids,” Jacobs said. Students should be able to choose between a party and their schoolbooks.
For Megan Tollefson, a senior in the honors college, there was never a question where she would attend college. “My whole family’s gone to ASU,” said Tollefson, who graduated from Mountain View High School in Mesa.
But Tollefson is the first in her family to enroll in the honors college, which offers a more rigorous liberal arts education than the rest of ASU.
Most of Barrett’s students come from Arizona. But Jacobs recruits students nationwide, from Portland, Ore., to Washington D.C., and sometimes finds ASU a tough sell.
“I have to convince them that we’re good enough for them, not the other way around,” he said.
Jessica Peet chose Barrett over staying close to home at Penn State. “ASU’s a huge school, it’s easy to get lost in,” said Peet, an honors junior majoring in business. “But Barrett has a more personal experience.”
Honors students have the same majors as other Arizona State students, but take additional classes that are restricted to those in Barrett. Those classes include Perspectives in Nanotechnology and Latin American Intellectual History.
Tollefson is majoring in art and marketing and takes many of the same classes as regular ASU students.
But her honors classes are far smaller than what most other students experience. Honors classes are limited to 20 students per section.
“We get much more one-on-one interaction with the faculty,” Tollefson said.
The college’s professors also run class differently.
“It’s more challenging and you don’t get stuck doing busy work,” Peet said. “They know that you know it and trust that you’re going to do the work it takes to get the understanding you need.”
When finished in 2009, Barrett’s campus will include seven buildings, including a dorm, faculty offices, a dining hall and computer lab set aside for honors students.
The campus will be near the northwest corner of Rural Road and Apache Boulevard.
Sixty-five of the nation’s public universities have honors colleges. ASU is the only one that will have built a college campus within the university, Jacob said. “They all would like this,” he said. “But this campus is costing $120 million and I don’t think most places either could do that or have any plans to do that.”
American Campus Communities, a private developer that specializes in college dorms, is paying the cost of the campus’ construction and will manage student residences.
Return to Excellence
Oct. 15, 2007 - Cronkite News Service
UA, ASU dedicate medical research center
Calling it a historic collaboration, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University dedicated a $30 million research center Monday at the downtown biomedical campus.
The Arizona Biomedical Collaborative building 1 includes two floors of high-tech classrooms and labs for each university.
"The people working in this building are dedicated to improve our health and health care," said Robert Shelton, president of UA. "It will be a model of the future."
ASU President Michael Crow said the building will be the epicenter of medical and scientific endeavors in Arizona.
"We're able to come together and look forward," Crow said. "It's a different kind of medical school."
The schools' collaboration already includes the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University, also located at the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. The medical school welcomed its first class of students this semester.
The biomedical campus also houses the Translational Genomics Research Institute and eventually will be home to expansions of the UA College of Pharmacy and Northern Arizona University's Allied Health programs. Officials hope to attract other centers for biomedical research to the 15-acre site.
Two of the new building's floors house the UA medical school's research labs, and the other two house ASU's Department of Biomedical Informatics.
"This building represents a biomedical bonanza, with development in the latest technology for doctors and developing drugs for patients," said Mark Haussler, regents professor and head of the basic medical science department at the medical school.
UA is already using the 86,000-square-foot facility for research on melanoma and cardiovascular disease, Haussler said.
An alliance doesn't always sit well with some students and alumni because of the schools' long-standing competition, but "we couldn't have done this alone," he said.
"It's been a great marriage, totally seamless," Haussler said.
Researchers working in the new center are trying to help the community by putting on public forums and lectures about topics such as diabetes and breast cancer, Haussler said.
ASU's Department of Biomedical Informatics is using the space to teach graduate students how to apply information technology, mathematics, problem-solving, policies and other techniques to improve health care.
"I can't think of a better environment. There are common areas where the students mingle and the scientists mingle," said Vimla Patel, the vice-chair of the department, part of the School of Computing and Informatics within ASU's Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.
The spirit of collaboration extends beyond UA and ASU sharing a building, Patel said. The facility offers a place where people from hospitals, the medical industry and academia can discuss solutions to medical issues, she said.
Return to Excellence
Sept. 22, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
ASU track team honored in D.C.
The Arizona State University women's track and field team celebrated its 2007 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Championships at the White House on Friday afternoon, meeting President Bush at a ceremony honoring several national championship teams in Washington.
President Bush greeted the team in the State Dining Room, where he accepted a Kachina doll and a black ASU track and field shirt. He posed for pictures while sharing laughs with the team and learning to make the pitchfork signal with his fingers.
The Sun Devils were escorted to the South Lawn and introduced to the guests in attendance while a military band played the ASU fight song. After the ceremony, they enjoyed some sightseeing in the nation's capital.
Return to Excellence
Sept. 19, 2007 - ASU Insight
ASU research grows to more than $218 million
ASU’s research expenditures grew to $218.5 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30. This represents a growth of $15 million or 7.4 percent over last year’s total of $203.5 million.
“We experienced decent growth in our research expenditures this year, considering that there was a change in leadership in Congress that resulted in some delays in finalizing the Federal budget,” says R.F. “Rick” Shangraw, ASU’s vice president for research and economic affairs. “Right now, our proposal activity is up so I am optimistic about continued growth in our research portfolio.”
Shangraw says that at these levels of research expenditures, ASU ranks in the top tier of universities without a medical school and without an agricultural school.
The $218.5 million total research dollars for FY07 comes from a variety of sources. ASU spent $173.3 million in funds received from the federal government and industry, $39.1 million in state funds (including Technology & Research Initiative Funds from state sales tax revenue), $4.3 million in funds received by the ASU Foundation specifically for research projects and $1.8 million from local governments.
There was a wide variety of projects that brought in major funds in FY07, said Stephen Goodnick, ASU associate vice president for research. Those projects included the Flexible Display Initiative Center, which was funded at more than $9 million by the U.S. Army; the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera project got $3.85 million from NASA; a Department of Education grant of $2.35 million went to a program at ASU’s Speech and Hearing Science Department to maximize learning opportunities for young children with disabilities, and $2.35 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was provided to the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology for a project on “opening routes to math and science success for all students.”
The National Institutes of Health awarded $1.44 million for a project to explore plant-made microbiocides and mucosal vaccines; ASU’s Decision Center for a Desert City received $1.4 million from the NSF; and ASU’s Nanotechnology in Society Center received $1.4 million from NSF.
Fiscal year 2006 was the first time research expenditures at ASU topped the $200 million level, and it marked a doubling of research expenditures in a period of six years. This is a remarkable growth rate for a relatively young major research university, Shangraw said.
He adds that ASU is poised to earn more in research as it continues to bring on line new world class research facilities and ramps up its science expertise. Shangraw sees a maturing of ASU research efforts, which should result in securing larger grants for the university in the future.
“We have reached a point where a number of investigators are interested in and able to compete for much larger research projects,” he says. “Our ability to match up against the more mature and better funded research institutions is a sign that we are moving into an elite tier of U.S. research universities. This is an exciting time for ASU research.”
Return to Excellence
Aug. 24, 2007 - The Business Journal
ASU contest sparks entrepreneurial ventures from organic fast food to green taxis
Fifteen Arizona State University student-led ventures are launching as part of the third annual Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative with ideas from biodegradable straws to a sustainable taxi business.
Seventy-eight student teams cutting across ASU campuses and disciplines competed for award money to explore ideas for business products and services or social good. Teams started organizing after attending an Edson Initiative training session, and then had to submit a brief proposal describing their business concept, marketing strategy and venture budget. Select ventures were presented to a panel of judges. The 15 Edson venture awardees for 2007 are:
Arizona Community Loans -- Leverages community partnerships to provide the under-banked with short-term loans and the techniques for debt management and asset building.
Community SNAP of AZ -- Dedicated to ending pet overpopulation by providing economically under-represented communities with access to low or no-cost spay and neuter services via a mobile surgical animal hospital, with the goal of ending euthanasia as a method of population control.
Emusic instruction -- Delivers live, interactive music instruction for students of all skill-levels via consumer webcam technology.
Protector Personal Money Managers -- Provides personal bookkeeping and bill payment services for senior citizens.
Genie Accounting Suite -- Online business and workflow management system that allows companies to manage and automate essential business processes, as well as access data from any wireless device.
Green Dream -- Develops a variety of sustainable products to help reduce solid waste pollution, starting with a biodegradable, compostable drinking straw.
Green Cab Co. -- A sustainable taxicab company, operating a fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Invivoproteins -- Develops novel human proteins for medicinal use.
PURE -- A natural, organic fast-food eatery based on a sustainable model, serving healthy. PURE also aims to deepen the local economy by supporting local farmers.
Sideline Star -- Connecting the cheerleading and dance industry's participants and vendors through an online social network, offering free memberships and paid subscription access to premium features.
Sol Cover -- Is patenting a pool cover to increase the temperature of pool water and extend the swimming season.
Interactive Language Learning -- Provides global solutions to foreign language learners by using web-based teaching tools.
Thermcool Adsorption Systems -- Developing a solar-powered, small-scale air-conditioning system that will provide cooling for off-grid communities, mobile offices, single-family residences and military users.
TUPO International -- A nonprofit organization that uses untapped resources in the form of student and community volunteers to provide health care services for resource-limited communities, improving community health and economy and developing leaders in public health.
Watel Solutions Corp. -- Is commercializing an atmospheric water generator, a machine that extracts humidity out of the air to create clean, drinkable water.
The program was made possible by a $5.4 million donation in October 2004 from Orin Edson. A total of $200,000 is awarded annually with awards including up to $20,000 in seed funding, office space at the initiative's facility located at the Brickyard in downtown Tempe, and training and networking opportunities with ASU faculty and researchers and entrepreneurs.
In addition to the 15 newly awarded ventures, four teams from the 2006 Edson portfolio were granted second-year funds and space in the Edson facility.
Return to Excellence
Aug. 5, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Research to get boost from new building at ASU
Arizona State University is gearing up to build another large science building on the Tempe campus.
The $140 million structure will house the relatively new School of Earth and Space Exploration and is another example of how ASU is bulking up its research facilities in Tempe.
"This is the reinvestment of research money back into research," said Richard Stanley, senior vice president and university planner. "It's a continuation of our investment in research at ASU."
The building will be the fourth new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology building installed in the past three years.
It's intended to go on the campus interior, near the intersection of McAllister Avenue and Terrace Road. The site is now a parking lot.
ASU is in the process of working with architects. Ground could be broken as early as a year from now.
The building is expected to open in early 2010.
Return to Excellence
ACCESS
Oct. 21, 2007 - The East Valley Tribune
ASU to launch air-traffic program
Arizona State University Polytechnic's new bachelor's degree program that will help replace many of the 10,000 air-traffic controllers moving into retirement over the next 10 years has received the Federal Aviation Administration's seal of approval.
The innovative curriculum, part of the FAA's College Training Initiative, is expected to receive national attention as it prepares graduates to move more quickly into air-traffic management jobs.
The program was sanctioned last week by the federal agency, which oversees the safety of civil aviation, university officials said. "We want to be the premier program in the country," said Richard Charles, professor and chairman of the university's Aeronautical Management Technology Department. "We want to turn it into a research-based, scholarly enterprise for the development of professionals to satisfy future needs of the air-traffic controller industry."
The university, he said, is one of 23 schools in the nation offering the CTI program, but the ASU Polytechnic curriculum is unique and regarded as the most advanced in the country.
"We can cut by almost half the time it takes to get controllers ready, and that can have a tremendous impact on the national shortage," Charles said.
The program's faculty and staff, he said, also are examining the prospects of expanding the program to train students for air-traffic management jobs abroad, particularly in developing countries where the demand for controllers is greater than it is in America.
Mike Pearson, professor of aviation law and an air-traffic controller at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, said the four-year curriculum is academically rich and combined with an applied approach to learning the professional and increasingly sophisticated technical skills required in air-traffic management.
The FAA is facing mass retirements from a workforce hired collectively after then-President Reagan in 1981 fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order to return to work. Unless they have special exemption, controllers are required to retire at age 56.
The FAA expects to lose up to 70 percent of its current controller workforce to retirement during the next decade, Ian Gregor, communications manager for the agency's Western Pacific region, said Tuesday.
"We're planning to hire and train more than 15,000 new controllers during that time," he said.
"We hired about 1,700 controllers in fiscal year 2007 (which ended on Sept. 30) and now have about 14,800 controllers on board nationwide."
Graduates of the program have to complete a 12-week course at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City before qualifying for a controller position. But that course may be shortened, Charles said.
Return to Access
Oct. 19, 2007 - The East Valley Tribune
First ASU-run public school opens in fall 2008
The first of four public schools being launched by Arizona State University is scheduled to open in Mesa in fall 2008.
ASU’s University Public Schools Initiative plans to eventually open prekindergarten through 12th-grade schools on or near each of the university’s four Valley area campuses in Tempe, Mesa, the West Valley and downtown Phoenix.
The first school, which will be at ASU Polytechnic in Mesa, will open with grades prekindergarten through sixth grade, adding seventh and eighth grade the following year, eventually serving students through grade 12.
Larry Pieratt, executive director of the University Public Schools for ASU, said they’ve applied for a state charter and hope to be approved by January.
They chose the charter school model to give the school autonomy, Pieratt said, not answering to a board or superintendent.
However, ASU is exploring partnerships with the Higley Unified School District for opportunities for collaboration at ASU Polytechnic and with the Tempe and Phoenix elementary school districts for other schools.
“University Public Schools (will) provide centers of education and innovation in which we can bring new innovations, existing best practices and reforms,” Pieratt said.
Once those practices are implemented and research proves them effective, he said, practices will be shared with interested schools.
Pieratt said the focus is on improving classroom learning.
“Once those are proven, (we’ll) share those with the world,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll find improvement in student learning.”
There are other universities associated with prekindergarten through 12th-grade schools, Pieratt said, but he doesn’t know of any others doing it for the same reason as ASU — to engage with and solve problems in the community.
Pieratt encourages interested parents to attend community forums in November and December. Orientation meetings will be in January and February.
Students will be admitted on a first-come, first-serve basis until there are more interested students than space, in which case a lottery will be used.
Return to Access
Sept. 16, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Scholarship now aiding 7th group
A seventh group of college students stepped onto Arizona State University and Maricopa Community Colleges campuses this fall with support from the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
The trust is supporting 23 non-traditional college students, called Nina Scholars, that mainstream scholarship programs often overlook.
To qualify, the scholars must be one of the following:
- Age 25 or older with dependents living in their household.
- College-age students and adults with physical disabilities.
- College-age youth who were raised in the child-welfare system and are self-supporting.
"Nina Mason Pulliam was an advocate for education her entire life," said trustee Carol Peden Schilling, Pulliam's niece, in a written statement. "She funded scholarships for employees' children and for children whom she learned were in need of assistance. . . . Nina had empathy for individuals who were dealt challenges in life."
Nina Pulliam was an executive with Central Newspapers Inc. and married company founder Eugene C. Pulliam. The company owned and operated The Arizona Republic, of which Nina Pulliam eventually served as publisher. The trust began after Pulliam's death in 1997 and seeks to honor her interests and values.
The scholars receive full tuition, books and a $2,750 stipend. They also get the services of a coordinator at each school who provides counseling and assistance to the students.
"Nina Scholars is a program that is there to help," said Nichole Townsend, a Nina Scholar who graduated from ASU in 2006, in a written statement.
"It is not a program that wants to cut students who are having a difficult time, but will find resources and be supportive when times are tough. Our Nina Scholars coordinator was like having a social worker to help us navigate our way.
"It made a true difference."
Return to Access
Sept. 14, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Grants fuel student startup companies
A handful of hopeful students are gearing up to get their businesses off the ground as part of the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative at Arizona State University.
The student-led startups are moving into incubator space at The Orchid House off Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe as part of the initiative, which supplies seed money and work space to promising student business leaders and their ideas.
ASU College of Design senior Alexandra Maw is excited about the $6,000 grant she received to grow her concept for an organic fast-food restaurant called Pure. Pure was one of 15 fledgling businesses to receive grants to help students make a go of their ideas.
"The monetary award is great, but it's so much more than that," she said. "It's things like sourcing from natural farmers. We want to change the paradigm of fast food."
Maw is working on the project with her mother, Andrea, while she juggles a full course load in preparation for a May 2008 graduation.
Begun in 2004 with a $5.4 million donation by Orin Edson to the ASU Foundation, the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative identifies promising student-led business ventures and supplies them with support to get their projects rolling.
It's an opportunity for students to cultivate their ideas in an incubator setting before bringing them to market.
"This is real world. This is not a textbook. This is a chance to try to make their vision happen," said John Snodgrass, assistant director of entrepreneurial services at ASU.
The annual grants are available to any student within the ASU system, regardless of campus or academic discipline. Competition for the program is tough, with a detailed business plan required as part of the application process.
Those selected receive money, office space, a private phone line, computer and copier systems, meeting space and a staffed reception area to further their businesses.
The program stresses accountability and requires attendance at two business seminars a month, as well as documentation such as quarterly progress reports.
The initiative is not a class, and students receive no course credit for their work.
The process does, however, allow entrepreneurs to retain ownership of their businesses, said Karen Leland, communications director in ASU's Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Affairs.
Todd Huffman is a 27-year-old graduate student in molecular biology whose company, Onto IP, just received an Edson grant for the second year in a row.
Huffman is partnering with two friends to develop the company: Patrick Kelly, a 2007 ASU computer science graduate; and Rion Snow, a Stanford University graduate student studying artificial intelligence.
The trio is writing and developing algorithms for a Web-based search engine that identifies and matches lawyers to potential clients according to expertise and specific need.
The men speak daily and have spent the past year developing the product as they learned about business plans, business models, market conditions and consumer demand.
Last year's $2,500 grant was used to develop those plans, while this year's $10,000 grant will go to finishing the project's technical aspects.
"On the business end, I want to get our product fully developed and launch a public beta," Huffman said. "After the launch, we will be getting some feedback and then try to find a buyer."
Meanwhile, Maw said she hopes the program will help her have Pure up and running before she graduates. She knows, however, there is much work to be done.
Since the program began, one grant recipient -- a nonprofit organization called Youth Re:Action Corps -- has established itself as a viable, stand-alone entity, Snodgrass said.
Even if their businesses don't make it, Snodgrass said the participating students get the benefit of lessons learned that can be applied to future ventures.
The program, he said, injects realism into the business development process while encouraging student entrepreneurs to strive toward their dreams.
"It's just so energizing to watch the creativity that happens," he said. "But this is the small-business world -- it's high risk, and they are not all going to succeed."
In addition to the 15 ventures for the current academic year, four teams from the 2006 Edson portfolio were given renewed financial support and space in the Orchid House.
Return to Access
Aug. 23, 2007 - ASU Insight
Medical college students begin classes
A historic collaboration came to fruition this month as the first class of students at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix in partnership with Arizona State University began classes in downtown Phoenix.
The event was celebrated with a luncheon Aug. 3, where ASU President Michael Crow welcomed the trailblazing class that will help shape the school’s curriculum and establish traditions to serve generations to come.
“You are in a design-build operation,” Crow says. “All 24 of you are entering into an absolutely unique learning environment.”
The medical-education curriculum at the college features an interactive teaching approach and an emphasis on biomedical informatics - computer technology skills that support information gathering, diagnosis and the creation of tailored medical treatments or personalized medicine. Mentored scholarly research projects that each student undertakes on an individual basis will form the core of a shared, broad-based learning experience (learning community) over four years. Classes also focus on the integration of clinical and basic-science training.
“You’re going to be a different kind of doctor,” Crow says.
Dean Edward H. Shortliffe cited the fact that the ultimate beneficiaries of the innovative work accomplished at the college will be patients. Shortliffe is a nationally-renowned clinician, educator and expert in biomedical informatics who was recruited from Columbia University to serve as dean of the Phoenix program.
“It’s truly historic,” Shortliffe says. “This is a tremendous opportunity and not one that’s equaled in many places.”
UA President Robert Shelton addressed the crowd through a videotaped message. “We are so pleased to be expanding this exceptional college to the capital city in partnership with ASU,” Shelton says.
Building a school in just three years from its inception was only possible because of the incredible effort put forth by ASU and UA with the support of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Phoenix City Council members, the Arizona Legislature and the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), Shortliffe adds.
ABOR member Robert Bulla cited the importance of the historic partnership between the two schools, which was basically an idea whose genesis was planted on a fishing trip. “This effort could not have been accomplished without the commitment and dedication of so many people,” Bulla says.
Students will attend classes in the historic Phoenix Union High School, at the corner of Seventh and Van Buren streets on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. The building underwent nearly two years of renovation to provide state-of the art educational facilities that seamlessly meld the old and new with a variety of innovative technologies to enhance instruction.
Among the 24 future doctors in the inaugural class is Sarah Whitley, who received a full, four-year scholarship to the college from Apogee Physicians. She is following in the footsteps of her grandfather who took classes in the same Phoenix Union High School buildings more than 70 years ago.
Twenty-four faculty members from ASU and UA will instruct the Class of 2011. David A. Young, Kathleen S. Matt and Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan represented ASU on an academic task force charged with designing the curriculum for the Phoenix program.
“The medical arena is evolving and physicians increasingly need to be versed in areas such as biomedical informatics. Changing the way we teach and train medical students now will help ensure their success in the future,” Young says.
Among many advantages and partnership opportunities that the medical college will enjoy as part of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus is the opening of the Arizona Biomedical Collaborative building 1 that houses the downtown Phoenix headquarters of the ASU Department of Biomedical Informatics, in collaboration with UA and the Department of Basic Medical Sciences of the Phoenix program. The building will serve ASU students and researchers in the biomedical arena, as well as students attending the medical college. Classes in the biomedical informatics program downtown begin Aug. 20.
The future also holds promise for students attending classes on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus where the Translational Genomics Institute (TGEN) is already housed. The UA College of Pharmacy will occupy space in TGEN in the future and Northern Arizona University will expand its Allied Health programs to the campus.
Return to Access
Aug. 12, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
ASU drive boosts minority enrollment
At Westwood High School, a handful of advisers spends long hours struggling to link their 2,300 students with colleges across the country. The campus is nestled within a neighborhood of aging houses and unadorned apartments in northwest Mesa.
A majority of those enrolled are minorities from poor families who give little thought to higher education, even when academically gifted, said Debbi Dutra, Westwood’s career center specialist.
College recruiters typically show up once or twice a year to give 30-minute presentations.
Then there is Matt Griswold, a recruiter from Arizona State University. He is at Westwood every week. He has an office on campus. School counselors can call his personal cell number.
Griswold is one of a different breed of recruiter that ASU has created to aggressively court students who must first be convinced to submit an application.
For the past two years, Arizona State has worked to build a pipeline between the university and 19 high schools in some of the Valley’s poorest areas. Seven of the targeted high schools are in the East Valley.
“Our goal is to change the culture of going to college,” said Mistalene Calleroz, assistant director of student initiatives at ASU. “And you begin by talking to teachers. The next part is parents; you can’t do it without the parents.”
Arizona’s Hispanic population is expanding far faster than any other group, said Kent Ennis, an economist for the state Department of Commerce.
Data collected for the U.S. Census Bureau show Hispanics account for more than half of the state’s growth during the first five years of this decade.
Many graduate from high school with good enough grades to get into ASU, but don’t even try to enroll at a four-year school.
Students who enroll at a university directly are more likely to complete their bachelor’s degrees than those who begin at a community college and transfer, numerous studies have found.
But for the students sought by Access ASU — a community outreach program — a university remains a foreign, unknown place.
“It’s not part of their family culture. It’s not a part of their community culture to attend a university,” Griswold said. None of their relatives went to a university; none of their friends plans to.
A large share of the state’s new residents fall into low-income categories.
That adds financial concerns to the cultural barriers and myths that scare away minorities from higher education.
“Regardless of their bravado, (every) student is nervous about going to a university,” Calleroz said. “When you’ve had friends and family members who have gone, they can reassure you.”
Looking at local high school graduation and college enrollment rates a few years ago, university officials found they were failing to serve thousands of the Valley’s minority students, said Jim Rund, an Arizona State vice president.
When the university launched the recruitment program, officials chose not to focus their sales pitches just on potential students, but also on their parents, teachers and principals.
Recruiters even help teachers write information about various professions and related ASU degree programs in the curriculum, Calleroz said.
Chell Roberts, director of the engineering program at ASU Polytechnic, has given tours to students from the targeted high schools. He demonstrates how varied a college education can be by shooting paper rockets over a campus construction site, using a contraption he had engineering students build.
Roberts also admits about 20 high school students into a freshman engineering class if they commit to Arizona State.
One recruiter is assigned to work at Phoenix elementary schools to get fifth-grade students thinking about college. “These students are hearing ASU a lot,” said Antonia Franco, the program’s director.
Though still in its infancy, the effort has already shifted demographics of the university’s freshmen class.
The number of minorities attending ASU from the targeted high schools has rocketed 48 percent since 2004. Minorities are on pace to make up half of all students that enroll from the Mesa, Tempe, Phoenix Union, Glendale and Tolleson districts in two years.
The number of minority students is slowly inching higher across the entire university. ASU enrollment data show minorities are 25 percent of the student body — up 5 percentage points from 10 years ago.
At Westwood, Mesa and Skyline high schools, Griswold is responsible for continuing to improve those numbers.
Griswold is one of two Access ASU coordinators who work only from the high schools from which they recruit.
Dutra, the Westwood counselor, said Griswold’s constant presence helped students get quick answers about what Arizona State requires of applicants.
“He would nail down the kids that had problems or that needed a little extra help, that might have been on the cusp of getting scholarships,” she said.
In one case last year, Dutra said a minority student with an A average made plans to attend Mesa Community College. The student wasn’t aware he qualified for a full state scholarship to ASU until the university scrambled to notify him.
“You’d be surprised how many kids don’t know,” she said.
Though pleased with the progress so far, Calleroz said the real test comes in two years. At that time the students that ASU first worked with as high school freshmen will have graduated and decided whether to attend a university.
No matter how successful, the program will never be able to declare its job complete.
“Our goal isn’t just to help the 12 kids in this school and the 10 over here and the 32 over here,” Calleroz said. “There are hundreds of kids, thousands of kids in the pipeline.”
Return to Access
IMPACT
Oct. 28, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Valley researchers in pursuit of cancer vaccine
Inside Building B of the Biodesign Institute in Tempe, broad interior windows line each of the bioscience laboratories, and passers-by can ogle science, live and up close.
At the institute's Center for Innovations in Medicine at Arizona State University, Ph.D.s in lab coats and jazzy-colored latex gloves work along rows and rows of 20-foot benches.
At one bench, Ho Joon Lee is sequencing the DNA that encodes mutated peptides, minute proteins produced in tumors. Lee is seeking the gene that gave rise to the mutations, or "bad" proteins. These genetic mistakes may soon help secure Arizona's place in medical history.
The mutations are the raw material for a biomedical quest: the creation of the first-ever vaccine to prevent new cases of cancer.
The outcome could be as lofty an achievement as Dr. Jonas Salk's vaccine against polio in 1952.
Envisioned by a small team of scientists at ASU and Mayo Clinic in Arizona, the vaccine would protect virtually everyone from the four deadliest common cancers: lung, colon, breast and prostate.
Experimental cancer vaccines have been created before to treat existing tumors. Because they failed to shrink tumors, enthusiasm for cancer vaccines in general has diminished.
But the Arizona project takes a novel approach developed by ASU biochemist Stephen Johnston, who recently won a federal grant to pursue it.
The Arizona scientist's simple premise, borne out by data in mouse models, is that a vaccine created from bad proteins can prevent cancer.
The lonely search
The prevention project seems a legitimate direction for U.S. cancer research, with 1.5 million new cancer cases and 560,000 deaths a year, a mortality rate second only to heart disease's.
But the number of U.S. researchers working on a vaccine to prevent cancer wouldn't fill a bus. And nearly all the passengers on it would be those working on the Arizona project.
Several scientists around the country approached for this article expressed skepticism, if they'd even heard of the project.
They warned such a vaccine may be too risky for healthy people and that using it in the broad population would amount to overkill, given the number of people who don't get cancer.
Even the vaccine's architect, Johnston, who directs the Biodesign Institute's Center for Innovations in Medicine, is uncertain it will work, but finds that reason enough to go forward.
"We get smirks in the scientific community. To me that's a sign it's worth doing," said Johnston. "If we knew the answer, why would we do the research?"
How it would work
The idea mimics other vaccines, with key differences.
Infectious disease vaccines use a virus or bacteria to spur an immune response in the bloodstream, teaching the body how to fight the intruder.
It doesn't work that neatly for cancer.
Germs, or antigens, in an infectious disease are generic for that disease, no matter the patient.
Cancer cells, however, are unique to the tumor that produces them. Creating an immune response against a single tumor type wouldn't defend against the millions of other unique configurations cancer cells can take.
Instead, Arizona researchers are trying to identify mutated proteins that tumors typically produce. The scientists theorize many tumor types may produce common bad proteins, and their use in a vaccine may stimulate a universal immune response.
Introducing bits of various bad proteins via an injection, theoretically, could pre-arm the body to keep tumor cells from replicating when they try to grow.
All it will take are thousands of tumor tissue samples and finding enough common mutations among them.
So bench researcher Lee is essentially working at the heart of it all. By sequencing genes, he and his colleagues can build a database for the mass spectrometer, a machine whose mission is to analyze the mutated proteins and look for matches. Bad proteins that occur in different tumors will be candidates for inclusion in the vaccine, which is likely to contain multiple mutations from different tumors.
Other challenges lie ahead, including identifying which proteins spur an adequate immune response. In general, tumors thrive because they are not alien to the body and don't stimulate natural defenses, but the body tends to resist proteins.
Dr. Laurence Miller, the head of research at Mayo Clinic in Arizona who is leading Mayo's part of the study, points to a new wrinkle. Recent scientific evidence suggests tumor cells are "dirtier" than previously thought, meaning more protein mutations crop up in cancer cells than the team, or anyone else, originally imagined.
That means Lee and the other bench scientists will have a lot more work to do.
Help from the military
In July, significant nods for the vaccine project were expressed in dollars.
Johnston received a five-year, $7.5 million Innovator Award from the Department of Defense's Breast Cancer Research Program.
The grant covers pre-clinical research related to breast cancer up to the point of human trials.
ASU tumor immunologist Douglas Lake received $1.5 million from the Keck Foundation of Los Angeles to broaden the breast cancer findings to other types of tumors.
An ultimate breakthrough will take many more millions of dollars, but Johnston says he's gratified by the recognition of the theory as much as the grants.
He expects to proceed to human testing in three years, two years before the grant period ends. Early human testing will target safety and will involve people who already have cancer.
"Doug and Larry (Miller, of Mayo) and I have spent a lot of time walking through the logic of this argument," Johnston said. By now, each can imagine what would constitute success.
"Even if we succeed in stopping 5 percent of cases of cancer, it's a big decrease," Lake said.
Miller would be happy to stop a single cancer.
"If we can prevent the suffering that goes with any one of the major cancers, I'll think we've had a wild success," Miller said.
Johnston can even accept failure.
"It could fall on its face. The main objective could be dead in the water. But it still would be worth doing," he said, citing advances in diagnostics and new therapies that the work is likely to produce.
"When I've laid out the logic, I've never seen anyone tell me why it shouldn't be pursued.
Return to Impact
Oct. 16, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Students' chairs respond to domestic-violence crisis
To learn how to make their chairs, the interior design students talked to welders, woodworkers and graphic artists. To learn how their chairs could make a statement about domestic violence, they talked to counselors and victims.
"I did not know it was that bad," said Han Lee, one of the senior Arizona State University design students who took part in CHAIRity 2007, designed to raise money for and awareness of survivors of domestic violence.
Lee, the group's only male student, said he cried when a survivor told her story to the students.
"I learned a lot. Not only about how to make the chair, but about domestic violence," he said.
The hope is that the eight chairs teach a message to those who view them. They are on display through Nov. 1 at the Architectural Gallery on ASU's Tempe campus. The chairs will be auctioned during a dinner Nov. 15 that raises money for Phoenix's Family Advocacy Center.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, but the issue sometimes suffers from too much exposure, said Jo Ann Del-Colly, director of the center.
"There's something called sympathy fatigue," she said. "When it comes to something like domestic violence, you have to find a lot of different avenues to wake people up."
Chairs doubling as artwork have provided a different avenue for the past five years. Students are given five weeks to design and construct their chairs, using only $100 of their own money for materials, said Marci Lange, a faculty associate who works at the design firm FM Solutions. The students pick an artist from which to draw inspiration, and the results are as varied as the selections.
Lee's chair, designed and built with student Shelby Bogaard, was inspired by painter Pablo Picasso. The seat, made of light-colored wood, cradles like a hand and is surrounded by darker wood carved in violent designs, like a hammock hanging in a spooky forest.
Chair 33 was inspired by artist Andy Warhol. Its base is a hollow rectangular box decorated with repetitive images of domestic-violence victims, literally glossed over.
"I feel that's what happens with this issue," said Haley Johnson, one of the chair's designers. "People don't know how big a deal it is."
Another chair has pieces of a fallen tree suspended between bits of steel welded at odd angles.
"It looks very fragile. It looks destroyed, but it is very strong," said Stacy Smith, who designed the chair with Rachel Dankert. The designers wanted people to hesitate before sitting down, wondering if the chair would hold them. They hoped to draw a parallel with domestic-violence victims looking to leave a relationship who must rely on an unsure support system.
But not all the chairs were bleak.
A three-person couch called Revolution, inspired by singer and songwriter John Lennon, has wild primary-color designs over a white backdrop. Its middle seat makes a mechanical revolution, flipping back for a table, or a third seat, facing away from the rest of the couch. But in that configuration, a person would need at least one other person to sit with them, or else he or she would tip over.
"The person can't sit alone," said Cindy Louis, one of the designers. "They need to get out of that situation."
Louis said she purposely didn't want to make a bleak chair. It was a reaction to hearing the sad story of the victim, she said: "We heard the survivor say she forgot to be happy or how to smile.
"How can you forget to be happy?" she said, beaming while standing next to her colorful chair. "It's something to let you remember how to smile."
Return to Impact
Sept. 7, 2007 - The Business Journal
ASU expands global alliances to boost image
Arizona State University has forged a partnership with a Canadian university in an effort to establish a stronger global footprint.
This follows on the heels of a deal with a university in Mexico that allows ASU students and faculty to interact with their international counterparts.
Gary Waissi, dean of ASU's School of Global Management and Leadership, said this is only the beginning.
"We are looking at several European schools, one in Brazil, a university in China -- this is going to be a global effort," he said.
Susan Shultz, chairwoman of the Phoenix Committee on Foreign Relations, said global initiatives are critical to Arizona's future.
"We're at a really key juncture in Arizona in terms of our position in the global market," she said. "Anything that we can do to increase our connection, our visibility and our influence internationally is really vital at this time."
Shultz, who is organizing an international "state of the state" event Sept. 25 in Phoenix, said it's important that the public sector and the education sector recognize and embrace international efforts.
"The initiatives that Michael Crow and ASU are making are absolutely essential for our future success as a business community," she said.
ASU's new agreement with Canada's Wilfrid Laurier University of Business and Economics is designed to encourage contact and cooperation among faculty members, departments, and other affiliated institutes and programs. It is similar to the earlier ASU agreement with Tecnologico de Monterrey, a university in Mexico's third-largest city.
Waissi said such partnerships are part of ASU's mission to increase its global presence.
"This is about work force development for Arizona, because when students graduate and come back, they are more competitive to work with any company from anywhere in the world," he said.
The 43 students in ASU's global management program spend a semester at a partner school, obtaining a global experience. Included in the agreement is the promise of cooperative arrangements in research and teaching, as well as the exchange of faculty members and graduate and undergraduate students for research and study.
Adding more partner schools gives students more choices.
Glenn Williamson, chief executive of the Canada Arizona Business Council, said he joined the ASU dean's advisory board because of the school's global expansion.
"This is the stuff that we have been missing," Williamson said. He attributes the lack of a significant global presence to the fact Arizona is a young state, much like a teenager whose world opens up when he gets a car.
"Now you're getting global thinkers coming into Arizona," Williamson said.
Language in the Canadian agreement will lead to development of professional and continuing education courses and programs to benefit students and faculty in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
Return to Impact
Sept. 6, 2007 - ASU Insight
Grad student takes education message global
Michael Semeja, an ASU graduate student and Army sergeant, is doing his part to spread the messge of education around the globe.
Semeja, who before being called to service in Khost, Afghanistan, was a U.S. history teacher at Challenger Middle School in Chandler, Ariz., has taken the message of ASU’s “New American University” 7,852 miles away. As time permits, he’s making a difference in the lives of students at Nader Shakot Girls School in the mountainous capital city of the Khost province bordering Pakistan.
Stationed at the forward armament and refueling position on a forward operating base, Semeja supports pilots flying missions over Afghanistan. But he also finds himself slipping into “civilian mode” whenever possible, working with students whose lives are in danger of Taliban retribution every time they attend class. He has done so through impromptu lessons taught in a local marketplace, and through the donation of literally tons of school supplies – everything from pens and pencils to paper, textbooks and backpacks, shoes and other items of clothing, in addition to hygiene products.
“I am honored that my team and I are able to assist in some small way,” says Semeja, who received his bachelor’s degree in education from St. Cloud State University in Minneapolis and is just two courses shy of receiving of his master’s in elementary education from the College of Teacher Education and Leadership at ASU. “As a professional educator in my civilian life, I cannot help but try to help these kids in any way that I can. I’m not a civil affairs or public relations guy. I’m just a soldier who is trying to make a difference – and get back home to Arizona safe and sound.”
Semeja was assisted in his donation effort by students and faculty at four Valley high schools – Scottsdale Desert Mountain, Fountain Hills, Higley and Queen Creek – who raised the funds necessary to buy the much-needed supplies. The donation was motored into town in a 5-ton military vehicle. The school serves first- through sixth-graders, more than 70 percent of them girls.
“There were educators and students at the high schools who were patriotic and altruistic, and they are all heroes in my book,” says Semeja, who came to Arizona five years ago to teach social studies and expects to return to the States next summer to complete work on his graduate degree and resume teaching. “Without their help, the donation would not have been possible.
“The kids here are very similar to American students, in that they love to learn and play. But there are some differences in that this area has historically been a crossroad for merchants from all over, such as China, Persia and Old Russia. So some of these kids will learn how to be businessmen and relate to many different kinds of people.
“The female population is not historically Islamic, but the Islamic culture is definitely present, and this is still a very patriarchal society.”
While the donated supplies will help the local students in their classroom activities, Semeja also has taken his passion for education outside the school and into the marketplace in this city of 300,000 – and in outlying regions, too.
“I found a young man reading a history book at the local bazaar in Ghanzi (about 200 miles west of Khost),” Semeja says. “He asked me what some of the words were in his book and what they meant. I told him I was a history teacher back home, and he proceeded to ask me about the history of his country. We had a pretty good conversation, or ‘lesson.’ I enjoyed it, and so did he and his buddies. Some of the kids here are not formally educated in a school, so they have to do what they can, when they can.”
Sometimes, the opportunity to learn involves risks. Those risks are what Semeja and company hope to overcome by reaching out to the locals.
“The word ‘girls’ in the school name means they teach girls at Nader Shakot,” says Semeja, who built a home in Johnson Ranch near Queen Creek before shipping out. “The Taliban do not like the idea of schooling females. Students and teachers are in danger because of this, and this is exactly why schools like this are so important to the students and teachers – and it’s why it’s important we help them.
“The teachers are doing more than I am for these children. They are the ones in danger, because they are educating the children. I just hope that when these students grow up and they have to make a decision whether to join a group like the Taliban or some anti-American group, they remember the day the Americans came to their school and donated some much-needed supplies so they could learn, and that the Americans are not evil. And maybe they will try to further their education instead of joining one of these groups.
“I just happen to think that the children here in Afghanistan are the key to their nation’s future, and I am pretty sure if we do not help to educate them, the Taliban will.”
The sergeant’s efforts come as no surprise to Dianna Bonney, who taught his bilingual language education (BLE) class – a requirement for those like Semeja who are specializing their master’s degree in English as a second language (ESL) and bilingual education. The specialization is designed to help practicing teachers acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to provide up-to-date materials and lessons to their ESL and BLE students.
“Michael was very concerned about being able to finish the course requirements before being shipped to Afghanistan,” Bonney says. “It doesn’t surprise me that he is working with students in Afghanistan. He expressed such a strong desire to return to teaching after he finished his tour of duty. He shared with me numerous stories regarding his experiences working with middle school students (in Chandler) struggling to learn English, and he has great respect for the students and the courage they display in the face of considerable challenges.
“It sounds like his experiences in Afghanistan have paralleled those here in Arizona. Language should never be a barrier, and students sense that he genuinely cares.”
Semeja sums up his efforts and the experience in the framework of reaching out to those less fortunate.
“I believe these goodwill efforts will help these students remember us as good people who were here to help them,” he says. “I would like to think that my children’s generation will be friends with the people of this region. It is humbling to know that our efforts are leading the way here to open the doors for other units to create their own school supply drives for these kids. It is at times like these when I am truly proud to be an American.
“A part of me really wants to come back over here and teach these students as a professional educator, but then I realize that our students need all the help they can get – and that I should probably do my best to help future Americans.”
Editor’s note: In being interviewed for this story, Sgt. Michael Semeja said: “I am not a spokesman for the Army or the (National) Guard, and my opinions are in no way a reflection of the Army or the soldiers as a whole. We are all working as a team over here, and I am a part of the 1/285 Attack Recon Battalion, and my brothers and sisters in arms of the 1/285th ARB are my team."
Return to Impact
Aug. 12, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Choosing a future for Arizona
Twelve years into one of the worst droughts on record, life remains pretty good in our little central Arizona oasis. No one has forced us to give up anything so far, not grass, not swimming pools, not the fake lakes that shimmer with real water.
We even managed to steal the "fastest growing" title from Nevada in the middle of this dry streak.
But what if we had to do it again? What if the same drought strikes Phoenix 15 years from now? Same dry years, same emptying reservoirs, plus 3 million more thirsty people and the runoff-sapping effects of climate change.
Could we still survive?
Arizona State University researchers asked that question, among scores of others like it, and built a sophisticated computer program called WaterSim to search for answers. The program uses existing models and data to produce water-use scenarios for urban Maricopa County.
The designers acknowledge that they're not trying to predict the future. Instead, they hope the program will stimulate discussion about water-resource management and help end what they describe as paralysis in the debate over emerging issues such as climate change and sustainability.
In our parched scenario, the answer is yes, we can survive - if by "survive" we mean keep the faucets flowing at all costs. We won't run out of water. Not 15 years from now, not even 25 years from now.
We will pay a price.
The reservoirs on the Colorado, Salt and Verde rivers, which together supply more than two-thirds of the Valley's water, will sit nearly empty. Farmers, who now cope with water shortages that have stretched over a decade, will suffer more. Cities left with less water from the reservoirs will pump more than 8 trillion gallons of groundwater without the ability to replace it, robbing aquifers of future reserves and leaving wide patches of land vulnerable to subsidence.
WaterSim, which is now available online to the public, wasn't intended to scare people with doomsday prophecies. A few mouse clicks could drench our scenario with above-normal rainfall or render climate change harmless. The point of the program, ASU researchers say, is to unlock enough information to include everyone in the decisions about water resources.
"It's about climate change. It's about growth . . . Does anyone really believe we're going to have 8 million people here without some sort of change?" said Patricia Gober, one of WaterSim's architects and co-director of ASU's Decision Center for a Desert City, which studies growth and water issues. "Let's make decisions now. What can we do to make us more resilient? We think it's important that this Valley takes responsibility for its future."
Return to Impact
Aug. 11, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Jets could be fueled by algae
A team of researchers at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa is involved in a project to turn oil produced from algae into military-jet fuel.
Qiang Hu and Milton Sommerfeld, directors of the school's Laboratory for Algae Research and Biotechnology, will search for oil-rich strains of algae, evaluate their potential as oil producers and develop a production system that will yield competitively priced oil. UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, is leading the project, which the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is backing with a $6.7 million grant.
"We believe, at a minimum, that 100 barrels of oil per year per acre of algae is achievable," Sommerfeld said.
Hu said he hopes the technology could be commercialized in three to five years. Funding for algae research has been limited, and state and federal support is needed for the technology to be developed quickly, he said. The project is expected to be finished by the end of 2008.
As they age, algae cells expand and store more fat, from which oil can be extracted, Sommerfeld said.
Fuel produced through the new process will have to meet military specifications and is expected to achieve 90 percent energy efficiency for maximum conversion of feed to fuel, to reduce waste and production costs, according to the school.
The jet-fuel project is just one of several the lab is involved in. Others include using algae to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants and nitrogen and phosphorus from contaminated ground water. That's possible because algae consume those waste nutrients and convert them into renewable biomass for various applications, Hu said.
The laboratory is also using algae as a cell-factory to produce high-value pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products, Hu said.
Antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids are examples of nutraceutical products.
Algae are primitive aquatic plants that require mostly simple-mineral nutrients for photosynthesis, growth and reproduction. They represent the most promising renewable source for biodiesel production, according to a lab presentation. Many species of algae produce large amounts of oils and fats that can be extracted and converted into biofuels, like biodiesel.
The lab says Arizona is well-suited for algae biodiesel technology development because of its climate, large quantity of saline groundwater that is unsuitable for crop irrigation, and vast land areas with minimal competition for conventional agriculture.
A Gilbert-based alternative energy firm, Diversified Energy Corp., is involved in a separate project that can convert oil from algae into jet fuel. Diversified has agreed on a license with North Carolina State University, for a biofuels- processing technology called Centia. The process can turn any lipid-based oil, such as canola oil, soybean oil, algae oil or animal-fat oil, into fuel, including into fuel for aircraft. The process is not based on one renewable oil so adjustments can be made to use a different one depending on pricing or availability.
Diversified is working to secure funding so it can do engineering work related to the Centia technology in Gilbert, said Jeff Hassannia, the company's vice president of business development.
The company had planned do that testing earlier this year in Gilbert but decided it made more sense to build the first demonstration plant and do the first tests in North Carolina, where the hardware for the project is, Hassannia said.
Algae could be an effective biofuel source, said Philip Brown, Diversified's president and chief executive officer.
"Your yield of oil per acre is significantly higher than that of vegetable oils," he said. "The No. 1 one issue the algae community has to address is capital cost per acre."
Return to Impact
FOUNDATION NEWS
Oct. 29, 2007 - ASU Foundation
Lodestar’s gift to ASU center benefits Arizona’s nonprofit organizations
A $5 million gift to Arizona State University’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the Lodestar Foundation will benefit Arizona’s 20,000 nonprofit organizations, said Robert F. Ashcraft, the center’s founder and director and an associate professor in the School of Community Resources and Development.
The gift is the largest single contribution ever received by the ASU College of Public Programs, and it will result in a new name for the center.
“In 2008, the center will officially be renamed the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation,” Ashcraft said. “The Lodestar name is a mantle that we will wear proudly in honor of our shared values and longstanding relationship with the Lodestar Foundation,”
Located at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus, the center provides leadership education, research and technical assistance to nonprofit organizations. It is also funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and federal, foundation and corporate sources including a tri-university alliance for nonprofit capacity-building,
Aided by the Lodestar gift and four new ASU faculty positions, the Lodestar Center is now planning new initiatives to address some of the nonprofit sector’s top priorities, including programs to increase overall civic engagement, promote interagency collaboration and improve the understanding of philanthropy’s role in society.
“The Lodestar Foundation’s mission and ASU’s nonprofit expertise are aligned for the public good,” said Lois Savage, president of Lodestar Foundation. “We’re dedicated to the growth of philanthropy, and this pioneering contribution is a gauge of the exponential results we anticipate from this partnership.”
Created in 1999 by Jerry Hirsch, the Lodestar Foundation takes a relatively novel approach to philanthropy by leveraging resources for maximum impact instead of focusing on a particular societal need or area. Hirsch brought the Social Venture Partners philanthropic giving circle model to Phoenix in 1999, and his foundation has since worked to encourage philanthropy, public service and volunteerism, nonprofit collaboration and efficient business practices in Phoenix and around the world. Locally, the foundation invests in the Lodestar Day Resource Center in Phoenix, a national model for serving the homeless.
Ashcraft, too, is a visionary in the field. He embraced nonprofit studies as an academic discipline in the 1980s, long before it was widely accepted. Under his leadership, ASU’s program has evolved to include the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in nonprofit leadership and management, a master’s degree in nonprofit studies, the Nonprofit Management Institute for professional development, an international research agenda, and two major regional conferences a year.
Return to Foundation News
Oct. 29, 2007 - ASU Foundation
Local foundation and corporate grants provide basis for $1 million national gift
In an unprecedented matching proposal, Director of Development Laurel Van Dromme secured $2 million for the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation’s geriatric nursing program. The largest gift, a $1 million, five-year grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation of New York, will establish the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence and help support the Southwest Consortium for Geriatric Nursing Education.
The grant was made possible with support from local institutions. An initial five-year grant of $400,000 pledged by Sun Health Boswell Memorial Hospital for two new graduate fellowships in geriatric nursing was used as evidence of support for the program at ASU. Additional grants from the Arizona Health Care Association and Evercare were also included in the Hartford grant proposal, which required a $500,000 matching component.
“We often see matching requirements in grant applications,” said Van Dromme. “Foundations feel their resources will have greater impact and sustainability if they know they are not the only organization giving to the program.”
Additionally, Van Dromme and the Foundation’s Office of Foundation Relations were able to include in the Hartford proposal an invitation to apply for support from The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust contingent on the approval of the Hartford grant. The Piper Trust subsequently pledged $500,000 to the college. These funds will help to support two new faculty positions in geriatric nursing.
“Many universities typically just provide ‘in-kind matching funds’ in a grant proposal of this kind,” said Jackie Ferguson, vice president of foundation relations“ However, Laurel and her team leveraged the potential Hartford Foundation grant with local foundations and corporations to raise an additional nearly $1 million in cash.”
Van Dromme’s ability to utilize the power of gift matching is an example not just for development personnel at the university. “This sort of partnership is exactly what we hoped to inspire with our match requirement in the proposal,” said Rachael Watman of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “I plan to showcase this specific partnership as an exemplar when presented to our trustees.”
Return to Foundation News
Oct. 24, 2007 - The Arizona Republic
Journalism school gets grant
Students at 10 Arizona high schools will soon have access to journalism programs thanks to a $510,000 Stardust Foundation grant to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
The Cronkite school will use the money to create the Stardust High School Journalism Program in underdeveloped communities to spark student interest in journalism, said Kristin Gilger, assistant dean of the school.
"As high schools have struggled with resources and struggled with competing priorities, (journalism programs) are going by the wayside," Gilger said. "There is a clear need to really try to help high schools that serve underserved populations."
Multimedia newsrooms will be instituted in the high schools through the program, she said.
The high schools to receive the grants have not yet been chosen, but the director of the program will be hired in January, according to the Stardust Foundation.
Five high schools will begin the journalism program for the 2008-09 school year, and five will begin the year after, according to the foundation.
Schools have yet to be selected. The Cronkite school will screen potential candidates to make a final selection based on level of interest shown, Gilger said.
"We'll give (the schools) training and mentoring, and help (them) to get (their) newspapers off the ground," Gilger said. The newsrooms will also be provided with laptops and software, she said.
Schools in Arizona have a lot to deal with on a daily basis, and journalism tends to be expendable, she said.
"While there are no hard numbers, it's clear to us that nationally there are fewer high-school journalism programs than there used to be," Gilger said.
A goal is to increase diversity in newsrooms through journalism programs. Also, students who take journalism in high school tend to do better academically in high school and college because of advanced writing and analytic skills, Gilger said.
The programs can help to identify and attract talented students who want to pursue careers in journalism, she said.
Return to Foundation News
Oct. 10, 2007 - ASU Foundation
Arizona Community Foundation gives $225,000 to ASU
The ASU Foundation recently received a $225,000 grant from the Arizona Community Foundation to fund a three-year research collaboration between Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.
The project, called the Teacher Preparation and Retention Data Collaboration, is aimed at developing a model for the three universities to assess teacher-preparation programs and ensure that all three universities are producing effective teachers. ASU is taking the lead in this statewide effort, which is a priority of ASU President Michael M. Crow.
“This project is important not only to Arizona’s three public state universities, but to the state as a whole,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow. “With the involvement and support of the Arizona Community Foundation, we have an important opportunity to strengthen our state’s teacher education and development programs, which will significantly impact how we prepare teachers and ensure the future academic success of their students.”
Through the Teacher Preparation and Retention Data Collaboration, the three universities are hoping to pilot a meaningful assessment model that will enable university education programs to monitor, assess and support students not only as they progress through their teacher-preparation programs but into their teaching careers.
“We anticipate this project will improve the education of teachers and the education of students, as well,” said Mari Koerner, dean of the College of Teacher Education and Leadership at ASU. “As we advance this project, it’s important to the universities that we work with the larger education community — alumni, teachers, school administrators, the Arizona Department of Education. All will be consulted and included.”
The assessment model will also provide feedback at opportune moments in preservice teachers’ training and subsequent professional positions to ensure continuous improvement of programs and practices at all three universities.
“As institutions of higher education that prepare teachers, we recognize that meeting the demands of the teaching field and impacting the academic success of Arizona’s children requires the universities to not only produce a high number of teachers, but also to ensure that those teachers are effective once they leave the university and enter the classroom,” said Amanda Burke, associate director of university initiatives at ASU.
The three-year grant from the Arizona Community Foundation will be instrumental in helping ASU lead the effort to produce highly effective teachers in the state of Arizona.
“The Arizona Community Foundation is committed to supporting systemic improvements to education in Arizona,” said Robert L. King, president and chief executive officer of the 29-year-old charity. “The vast majority of data on the quality of a child’s educational experience demonstrates that much rests upon the quality of our teachers. Following college graduates who become teachers into their classrooms and assessing how their students learn will help to enhance and improve the teacher-preparation curriculum at the college level. This is an important step toward producing a quality teaching corps for Arizona’s classrooms.”
The Arizona Community Foundation (ACF) is a statewide nonprofit organization with five regional offices serving 13 affiliate community foundations. Established in 1978, ACF is among the top 30 community foundations in the nation with 885 component funds and more than $565 million in endowment and trust assets. In 2006, ACF awarded $30.6 million in grants and scholarships to nonprofit organizations, schools and government agencies. More information is available at www.azfoundation.org.
Return to Foundation News
Sept. 22, 2007 - ASU Foundation
Kitchell pledges $500,000 to ASU construction school
Kitchell, a national construction-industry corporation headquartered in Phoenix, recently pledged $500,000 to help build a new facility for the Del E. Webb School of Construction (DEWSC) at Arizona State University. The gift will name the new facility’s computer and teaching lab as well as a break room.
A ceremony to officially announce the gift was held on Sept. 21 at the Urban Systems Engineering Building on the ASU Tempe campus during an annual DEWSC event to welcome students back to school.
Kitchell’s gift is part of a $6 million fund-raising effort led by the Arizona Builders’ Alliance (ABA), of which Kitchell is a member. The ABA is hoping to raise $3 million for the new DEWSC facility and $3 million for an endowed lecturer position within the school.
“As one of the oldest construction companies founded in Arizona, Kitchell is proud to support the Del E. Webb School of Construction’s building campaign,” said Steve Pisarcik, senior vice president of Kitchell Contractors and a 1976 DEWSC graduate. “We were there at the beginning when the program was created at ASU, and we co-founded the school’s outreach organization, Alliance for Construction Excellence (ACE), in the early 1980s.”
Since 2000, the DEWSC has trained more than 7,500 construction professionals through ACE. “Kitchell has been instrumental in helping the school to establish educational opportunities for industry professionals through ACE, as well as support undergraduate education through scholarship philanthropy,” said Jim Ernzen, director of the Del E. Webb School of Construction. “We are grateful for their continued support including this latest gift to help build our new facility.”
Construction and real estate are the fourth-largest industries in Arizona, employing 240,000 workers and representing one in 11 jobs in the state. The significance of their impact on Arizona’s economy amplifies the need to produce more college-educated industry leaders locally.
“As a major employer in the Valley, Kitchell has hired many DEWSC graduates over the past five decades in positions that range from project engineers to officers of the company,” said Pisarcik. “What better way to help ensure an educated work force than with support for new facilities in which to provide that education.”
The new DEWSC facility, slated for completion in 2010, will include more than 180,000 square feet of space to primarily house the DEWSC’s academic and research programs, as well as other engineering programs that are complementary to the construction program curriculum. The school is seeking a total of $10 million in private funding and $20 million in public funding from the state to help finance the project.
Kitchell is a diversified corporation offering a wide variety of construction-related services, including program and construction management, general contracting and real-estate development. Kitchell also owns American Refrigeration Supplies, an air conditioning/refrigeration equipment wholesaling company based in Phoenix. The firm has offices in Phoenix, Ariz.; Sacramento, San Jose, Fresno, Carlsbad and Ontario, Calif.; and Las Vegas, Nev.
The Del E. Webb School of Construction (DEWSC) is a construction-management program that was established in 1957 at Arizona State University. The DEWSC is considered one of the top construction-management programs in the nation with undergraduate and graduate degrees. Research areas include housing, civil infrastructure, ultra-pure facilities, productivity, leadership, safety, alternate project delivery, facilities management and performance-based procurement. The DEWSC resides within the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.
Return to Foundation News
Aug. 28, 2007 - Phoenix International Raceway
NASCAR's Kyle Petty tournament benefits ASU College of Nursing & Heathcare Innovation
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series driver Kyle Petty and Phoenix International Raceway President Bryan R. Sperber today announced a charitable partnership to raise funds for the Victory Junction Gang Camp and the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation through Kyle Petty’s Victory Invitational Celebrity Golf Tournament, to be held in the Greater Phoenix area on February 27-28, 2008. The philanthropic initiative – Kyle Petty’s Victory Invitational – will be officially unveiled today at a 6 p.m. press conference at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, attended by Petty, Sperber and Bernadette Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation.
By joining forces, both organizations can leverage their strengths by making a better tomorrow for children stricken with serious illness. Proceeds from the tournament and surrounding events will help support ongoing efforts to improve the quality of life for children diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses, support for their families, and contribute to the ongoing training for the professionals who treat them. It’s a commitment to health, dreams and education.
“The Victory Junction Gang Camp looks to do three or four major events each year – and this will be one of them,” said Kyle Petty. “The help of the people at Phoenix International Raceway and the Arizona State University College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation is going to really accelerate this tournament into a premier charitable event for the camp – I can’t thank them enough for what they have done to this point. This will be our first annual tournament, but the goal is to help raise a maximum amount of funds for terminally-ill children or children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. It’s a great partnership and we’re hoping to grow this event in coming years.”
ASU’s College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation is an inclusive world class enterprise of discovery that prepares innovative, evidence-based healthcare providers, educators, leaders, and researchers to optimize health in a culturally diverse global community. The college has evolved from a small baccalaureate program to the largest supplier of nurses in Arizona with more Bachelor of Science and advanced practice nurses than any other school in the state and is the only university offering an on-campus doctorate degree in Philosophy in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation.
"Improving healthcare for children and teens is a strategic initiative of the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation," said Bernadette Melnyk, dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing. "It is a privilege to be a partner with Kyle Petty’s Victory Junction Gang Camp and Phoenix International Raceway to benefit children and the nurses of the future who will care for them."
Return to Foundation News
|
