In only its second year, the Young Engineers Shape the World program is exposing high school students in the Phoenix metro area to opportunities available in engineering in an effort to help bolster diversity in the industry and increase the representation of women in engineering.

“As a black woman going into engineering, there’s not a lot of people who look like me, and I’m sure other people of marginalized communities feel the same,” said Brittine Young, a mechanical engineering student at Arizona State University who volunteered for the program. “It’s really important to create a system of support so people don’t feel so alone. You can relate to your counterparts and your peers only so much.” In small groups, high school students built lake-viewing platforms out of playing cards for fictional stakeholders in their first hands-on project of the Young Engineers Shape the World fall program. Photo by: Marco-Alexis Chaira/ASU Download Full Image

Young Engineers Shape the World left its pilot phase on Sept. 15 with a kickoff conference for high school students and their parents on ASU’s Tempe campus. The free program, organized by the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, targets underrepresented groups in the engineering industry, like women, first-generation college students and students who demonstrate financial need.

“In order to solve problems effectively, we need to have people who have been living those problems and have unique perspectives,” said Lauren Preble, a K–12 engineering education and outreach coordinator at the Fulton Schools. “That’s why increasing diversity is so important. Students from diverse backgrounds bring different life experiences with them when they enter an engineering program, and that diversity is what we need for problems this profession will face.”

After a morning of seminars providing information about the program and financial aid and college-readiness provided by Access ASU, the high school students broke into groups for a design challenge to encourage teamwork and problem solving. With nothing but a ruler, deck of playing cards and tape, the teams were commissioned by a fictional stakeholder, Seeking Peace And Rejuvenation Kayaking Society (SPARKS), to design a lake-viewing platform. 

After 55 minutes of designing and building, the teams presented their structures. Each group’s platform was different — some built from rolled-up playing cards, while others assembled a more traditional card tower. Fictitious stakeholders, played by current engineering students or recent alumni, gave the high school students feedback on their designs, but the main takeaway was: Engineers ask questions, and students should too.

Throughout the semester, the Young Engineers Shape the World high schoolers will attend three-hour Saturday workshops to let them explore different specializations of engineering through hands-on learning experiences like the ones at the kickoff conference. Additional events like the Evening with Engineers Industry Nights allow students to ask questions and network with industry professionals.

The workshops are held at ASU's Tempe, Downtown Phoenix and Polytechnic campuses, and at the Tolleson Union High School District Office in the West Valley. The high schoolers participating in the program come from all over; one student drove two and a half hours to attend the kickoff conference.

In addition to the free, hands-on learning experience, if students at least 12 different workshop events, an Evening with Engineers Industry Night and an information session about applying to Fulton Schools, they could potentially earn one of 50 $1,000 scholarships that goes toward an engineering degree at ASU.

During the program’s first year, 98 students participated in at least one Young Engineers Shape the World event. This year, 174 applicants have been accepted, and the program team is looking forward to accepting more students next year. Increased registration is pushing the program to grow to potentially larger classrooms and additional weekend sessions.

“I have done programs through ASU’s school of engineering in the past,” said Abby Thielen, a 10th-grader from Phoenix. “I thought this program was really cool, especially because it’s free and when I first heard about it, it was only for women too.”

Kate Thielen, a high school senior from Phoenix, appreciates the program for opening her eyes to new opportunities in engineering.

“I have a strong interest in the medical field, and I spend a lot of time on other medical programs,” Thielen said. “College is around the corner and I really want to experience as much as possible. I had never thought about the environmental aspect of engineering before.”

One of the Thielen’s teammates, Aditya Mehta, said he would definitely come back for more Young Engineers Shape the World workshops.

“Engineering is the thing I want to pursue,” said the Chandler high schooler, who also has attended other ASU camps in the past. “This event is a great opportunity to see how everything works. There are so many opportunities, and I think that’s really cool.”

Even after just one year of the program, participants such as Loren Kueker have gone on to study engineering at ASU. Kueker was already attracted to the problem-solving and building aspects of engineering, but found the collaboration at the Young Engineers Shape the World events made a difference in understanding how engineering works.

“Communication is one of the biggest parts of engineering,” Kueker said. “People don’t understand that, but they should. With YESW, at the Saturday events, you’re able to meet and network with people. You’re learning to work with other people who just met that weekend.”

In the pilot phase, Young Engineers Shape the World set the program up at schools throughout the Valley and on the Tempe campus. When Kueker was in high school, one of her teachers introduced the program to Verrado High School.

“I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to go into engineering, but it showed me more options than I knew about before,” Kueker said. “It showed me how multiple engineers collaborate on a project.”

Over the next year, Kueker continued attending workshops at her high school. Now a freshman at ASU, Kueker studies chemical engineering within the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy. She is interested in getting involved in Young Engineers Shape the World again in the future, but this time as a mentor.

“I think that Young Engineers Shape the World was really inspiring,” Kueker said. “It brought more people to the engineering field — girls like me who weren’t sure if engineering was right for them. It really opened my eyes and made me believe I could do well in engineering.”

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1744539. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Baseball. It’s a common thread throughout the life of Arizona State University alumnus Judge Lawrence Anderson.

A standout at Brophy Prep in the 1960s, he received a baseball scholarship to the University of San Francisco, where he was the team’s starting catcher. Judge Larry Anderson with fellow ASU alum Jennifer Green. Download Full Image

A spinal cord injury in 1969 left him with paraplegia, ending his baseball career. But his love for the game endured.

“I decided that, because baseball was my passion, and my father was a trial lawyer in Phoenix, that once I had my spinal cord injury and was in a wheelchair, I said, ‘You know what? I can be the umpire in the courtroom,’” said Anderson, a graduate of ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law.

And so began a journey that would lead to Anderson serving as the umpire in the federal courtroom in Phoenix.

What he accomplished, both inside and outside the courtroom, led to Anderson being named the 2018 recipient of the Hon. John R. Sticht Disability Achievement Award. He received the award, given annually by the State Bar of Arizona, for his courage, tenacity and everything he has done to improve access for those with disabilities.

But Anderson is reluctant to talk about those things.

“I shy away from publicity,” he said. “I’m just kind of a private guy.”

Indeed he is. Although he blazed a legal trail for disability rights long before the Americans With Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990, most of that work — as much as possible — was done quietly, behind the scenes, without filing a lawsuit.

So perhaps it was not a surprise that the spotlight-averse Anderson did not attend the State Bar luncheon honoring him for the Sticht Award. After all, Anderson is not interested in talking about himself winning the award. But he does want to talk about the pinch hitter who stepped up to the plate to accept his award for him and hit a home run: ASU Law Dean Douglas Sylvester.

The Sticht Award

“I’ve lived in Phoenix my whole life,” Anderson said, “and I’m almost 70 now.”

But Anderson retired from the bench in 2014, and he and his wife, retired Superior Court Judge Aimee Anderson, had always dreamed of living in Coronado, California, the idyllic community across the bay from San Diego. They bought a house in Coronado in January 2016, spent all of 2017 remodeling it to make it more wheelchair-friendly and then, in June of this year, finally made the move.

“Then all of a sudden, there’s this award presentation and I wasn’t going to be in town,” Anderson said, referring to the luncheon in the Phoenix area. “It’s very difficult. I don’t drive anymore, because of my spinal cord injury and how it’s progressed.”

Anderson wanted to be there: He said he was particularly honored by this recognition. He was a colleague of the award’s namesake, a quadriplegic judge who passed away in 2004.

“When I joined the Superior Court in 1990, there were four of us that were in wheelchairs, believe it or not,” Anderson said, recalling that himself, Sticht and fellow Maricopa County Superior Court Judges Mike Ryan and Michael Wilkinson did a public service announcement for the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“So I knew John Sticht, and it’s meaningful to me, because I know how hard it was for him to achieve what he achieved as a quadriplegic,” said Anderson.

It pained him to not be able to attend the award luncheon.

“It’s a very meaningful award, and I didn’t want it disrespected by my absence,” he said.

So he asked around, looking for a stand-in. Finally, he found somebody: Sylvester, who gladly offered to accept the award and give remarks on Anderson’s behalf.

It’s something a friend wouldn’t hesitate to do. But that’s the odd thing.

“You know, I don’t think that I’ve ever really formally met him except to say hi,” said Anderson, who was blown away by Sylvester’s gesture. “He didn’t know me from Adam.”

Although they weren’t close acquaintances, Sylvester did know who Anderson was and what he had accomplished. And as ASU Law’s dean, he was honored to help pay tribute to one of the school’s earliest and most accomplished alums.

Sylvester told the audience at the State Bar luncheon how, as a student, Anderson had worked with ASU Law’s founding dean, Willard Pedrick, to ensure there were no impediments at the school for Anderson and other students with disabilities. How Anderson excelled during his time at ASU Law, both in the classroom and outside, continuing to challenge himself as an athlete. And about the illustrious career Anderson went on to have.

“As a professional, he went to the highest levels of his profession, both as a practitioner and also as a magistrate judge and superior court judge,” Sylvester continued. “And so he inspired people by never letting his disability and his injury get in the way of his professional success.”

Anderson was able to see the speech, which was captured on video. Clearly emotional, he paused as he searched for just the right words to express his gratitude.

“I’m just very grateful to him,” Anderson said. “It means very much to me personally, that he did it voluntarily, with no ulterior motive, other than to honor an ASU alumnus.”

‘There’s more than one way to serve your country’

As a student at the University of San Francisco, Anderson’s dreams included continuing to play baseball — and one day serving in the military.

“I wanted to be an Army Ranger, airborne special (operations) forces,” he said. “And I knew I would be going to Vietnam. I was and still am very patriotic, but at the time, you either felt you were patriotic and when your country called you, you answered the bell, or you were against the war and you protested against the war. And I was one of those that said, ‘You know what? That’s not right. What we are doing over in Vietnam is the right thing to stop communism.’”

But the spinal cord injury, suffered as a passenger in a motor vehicle accident, ended both his baseball career and his dream of fighting in Vietnam. And upon a half-century of reflection, he sees the fateful accident as perhaps a moment of divine intervention.

“You know, fast-forward 50 years, and I’m disappointed, because we were there (in Vietnam) for all the wrong reasons,” he said. “It’s almost as if it was a blessing that I was in my wreck, because I think I probably would’ve come home in a box, because of my aggressive personality. I was real gung-ho, and my family believes that to this day.”

“So, I have a lot of mixed emotions about the Vietnam War,” he continued. “On the one hand, I felt I got cheated and didn’t get to do what I wanted to do. On the other hand, it probably saved my life and allowed me to live a full life. And there’s more than one way to serve your country.”

A year after his accident, he recalls a history professor challenging him to write down what he wanted to be in 25 years. Anderson wrote, “I want to be a federal judge in my home state of Arizona.”

Judge Lawrence Anderson

“That was my one and only goal,” he said, “And thank God I was able to attain that when I was appointed to the bench in 1998.”

Working behind the scenes

Anderson was involved in a number of high-profile cases as a federal magistrate judge, featuring the likes of Arizona Rep. Ben Arredondo and civil-rights activist Jarrett Maupin II. And Anderson was the judge at the initial hearing for Jared Loughner, the gunman in a mass shooting near Tucson in 2011 that killed six, including U.S. District Judge John Roll, and wounded 13, including then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

But Anderson never wanted to make headlines. Throughout his legal career, both as a lawyer and a judge, he just wanted to make things right.

As a young lawyer, he encountered accessibility problems at Maricopa County’s East Court Building in Phoenix, which lacked a wheelchair access ramp.

“This was 1978, way before the ADA, so I wrote a letter to Ed Pastor,” said Anderson, referring to the future congressman who was then serving as chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Anderson explained how difficult it was to get into the building, not only for people with wheelchairs but also for delivery personnel with a dolly or anybody else using wheels. Over the next few months, Anderson negotiated with the board, and a ramp was added. The ramp, which still bears his initials etched in the concrete, is a tangible part of his legacy, and Anderson is proud of it. But he’s just as proud that he was able to get it built without ever having to file a lawsuit.

“I think there’s a right way and a wrong way to do things,” he said. “And there were many instances where I found a barrier that didn’t comply with the ADA. Even before the ADA went into effect in 1990, and some provisions didn’t start until 1992, I went to them and said, ‘You know, look. I know it’s not your intent, but if you lived your life in a wheelchair, you need to have an accessible entrance. You need to have a wider parking stall. You need to have a sign.’ And most of the time, the people knew me and they did the right thing, because it was the right thing to do.”

Litigation was always a last resort. But sometimes it was necessary.

Anderson was an accomplished athlete before his spinal cord injury and continued to challenge himself afterward. He won the heavyweight division of the national wheelchair weightlifting championships in 1974. He explored the Great Barrier Reef as a scuba diver, snow-skied the mountains of Colorado and went white-water rafting in Category 4 rapids.

So there was no better attorney for a wheelchair athlete named Michael Kaminski, who was seeking the right to participate in the annual Fiesta Bowl Marathon. Anderson filed suit in 1979, and the case was eventually settled, with all wheelchair athletes entitled to take part in the race by leaving the start line 15 minutes before the other participants.

Anderson also maintained his passion for baseball, serving as a Little League coach. After several years of doing so, Anderson — who served as the third-base coach — was told he could no longer be on the field, because his wheelchair was a potential hazard.

Anderson contested, citing his ability to maneuver quickly in his wheelchair and the lack of any previous incidents. The standoff escalated, and eventually Little League officials threatened that not only would his team forfeit their games, but the Arcadia Little League charter would be pulled.

And for Anderson, that was a bridge too far.

“I thought that was so unfair, and such bully behavior,” he said. “If they would do this to me as an adult, as a law-trained lawyer and judge, what would they do to somebody who doesn’t have legal training? They’d just intimidate them and get them to back down.”

The father of one of the team’s players was a lawyer and agreed to represent Anderson in the case. But Anderson, who always viewed litigation as a last resort, was especially concerned.

“Here I’m a sitting judge, and this thing might make the papers, and I’m not sure how this is going to look, with a public official suing Little League,” he said. “Well, not only did it make the papers, it was on the front page, and it was on the front page for the next month.”

Although ultimately successful, Anderson remembers being on pins and needles, having no idea how the case might turn out.

“This was the first judicial opinion in the United States on the Americans With Disabilities Act, because it just went into effect right before we filed suit,” he said. “So the timing couldn’t have been better, but there was no precedent.”

He didn’t seek damages. All he wanted was the right to coach his team without hassle, and for his attorney’s fees to be paid.

Anderson was reinstated as the coach, and his team made a storied run to the state championship, falling one game short of a berth in the Little League World Series.

Over two decades later, Anderson proudly recalls his team’s effort and vividly remembers the details of that state championship game.

“It was a very dramatic game, and we had the bases loaded with two outs in one of the later innings, and probably my best athlete was at the plate,” he said. “And their pitcher struck out my batter with the bases loaded on three of the best pitches I’ve ever seen, at any level. Seriously.”

He never wanted to file a lawsuit. He just wanted to coach baseball.

Judge Larry Anderson and his wife, Judge Aimee Anderson.

At the awards luncheon, Sylvester highlighted Anderson’s extraordinary ability to get things done for the disability community simply by connecting with people.

“And I thought what was always most extraordinary about him is he did this without suing,” Sylvester said. “Almost every single one of these cases was just appealing to people on their level of fairness. The ADA wasn’t there, they didn’t have to do it, but he appealed to people’s fairness, the real sense of what people needed to get done, and case after case after case that he has made such a difference in, he settled, he found ways for people to get these things done, and I think in those ways, he’s a tremendous inspiration.”

An umpire’s retirement

Anderson loves Phoenix, but it was always his dream to retire to Coronado. It’s a place he fell in love with during family vacation as a child, and where he knew he could enjoy a more temperate climate.

“And there’s just a difference here — it’s almost like you go back in time,” he said. “It’s very quaint. There’s older homes. You have a very low crime rate. The weather is phenomenal. I just felt like I was in the Land of Oz. It was just so different, even in the early ’60s, than it was in Phoenix. And even to this day, it’s still a very special place.”

The area’s accessibility and small-town feel appeals to him.

“The nice thing about Coronado when you’re in a wheelchair and don’t drive is, I can leave my house and I can wheel to the bank, the hardware store, the grocery store, doctor’s offices and hospital are two blocks away,” he said. “Even the ferry, the ferry’s only two blocks away.”

And there’s also baseball.

“We just took the ferry on Sunday and went across to Petco Park and watched the Diamondbacks play the San Diego Padres,” he said.

As he navigates his new home, Anderson remains vigilant about access for the disabled. And as always, he’s focused on solutions, not lawsuits.

His bank, for instance, does not have a door that automatically opens at the push of a button. But as Anderson is quick to point out, the ADA only requires reasonable accommodation.

“They don’t have an ADA door, and a heavy door, when you’re in a chair, is very hard to open,” he said. “But they have personnel at their desk right near the front door. So when they see somebody in a chair, whatever they’re doing, they stop and they open the door for you. To me, that’s a reasonable accommodation.”

The courtroom umpire still calls ’em like he sees ’em.

And his courtroom umpiring days may not be over. The local federal court has inquired about his availability, and he says he’s thinking about lending a hand on a part-time basis.

“It would be fun and interesting to meet new people, put the robe back on again and feel like I’m contributing,” he said.

And that is, ultimately, what he has always wanted to do: contribute to society. While he appreciates the recognition of the Sticht Award, it’s not awards that define success. For that, he turns to Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection
of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of
false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a
little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social
condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This
is the meaning of success."

That may indeed be the definition of success. And it is, without question, the definition of Judge Lawrence Anderson.

Ten years after the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, the United States is still walking a line between hope and hate.

What has changed over the last decade when it comes to race and democracy? What can each of us do to move democracy and human beings forward?  Calvin Terrell presents a balanced examination of what's changed in America in the decade since the election of President Barack Obama — and what we can do to move democracy and human beings forward, in ASU's Rising Voices Lecture "Hope, Honesty, and Hate," on Friday, Sept. 21, at South Mountain Community College. Download Full Image

Those questions will be the focus when social observer and changemaker Calvin Terrell presents the next lecture in the Arizona State University Center for the Study of Race and Democracy’s Rising Voices series at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21, in the South Mountain Community College Performing Arts Center.  

Terrell will use the lenses of rhetoric, art, science and religion to provide a balanced examination of America’s last decade, not as a Democrat or Republican but as a “peaceful warrior of critical thought,” said Professor Lois Brown, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy.

“This moment in time seems to call for an honest exploration of America’s past, present and future in a way that would encourage reflection, discourse, and positive change,” Brown continued. “We invited Calvin knowing his ability to deliver a dynamic, interactive lecture focused on education and healing.”

She said Terrell deftly mixes storytelling, dialogue and visualization tools to engage his audiences and bring people to an understanding of how we each can take an active role in influencing and shaping the future of our communities.

“He’s brilliant, inspiring and ever hopeful,” she added, “but also driven by a deep understanding of the urgency of combating racism, bullying, and prejudice so that every individual can bring their full potential to the planet.”

Though based in Arizona, Calvin Terrell is known as a thought leader well beyond the state for his work with faith groups, schools, corporations, governments and civic organizations wanting to create nurturing healthy environments to help all peoples live better together.

The founder and lead facilitator of Social Centric Institute, he has, for more than 20 years, lectured, trained and led comprehensive workshops for valuing diversity, equity and justice-building as well as healing historical trauma around racial intersections, class, religion, gender and environmental disruption. 

His work has garnered regional awards and honors, including from Arizona Affirmative Action, Davis Monthan Air Force Base and, in 2000, the city of Phoenix, which honored him with the Martin Luther King Jr. “Living the Dream” award for his dedication to human rights.

A compelling story about his work with youth is featured in the book “Chicken Soup for the African American Soul.”     

Terrell founded Social Centric Institute “because this work is bigger than a person or personalities,” noted the institute's website. “Change requires a movement of communities, institutions, and peoples dedicated and equipped to sustain a life-long journey.”   

As President Barack Obama said on the eve of his re-election in 2012, “As it has for more than two centuries, progress will come in fits and starts. It’s not always a straight line. It’s not always a smooth path.”

This Rising Voices Lecture is free and open to the public and co-sponsored by the Maricopa Community Colleges. You may register online or contact the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, at email csrd@asu.edu or phone 602-496-1376. The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy is a unit of ASU’s College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. You can also view this on the ASU Events site.

Editor's note: To demystify the process of attaining distinguished graduate fellowships, ASU Now will feature a multipart series of interviews with distinguished graduate award recipients from across the ASU community. The series will showcase the achievements of ASU’s distinguished graduate award recipients and highlight the strategies that led to those achievements. 

Sept. 17-21 is National Postdoc Appreciation Week, and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs in the Graduate College will be celebrating all week long. Alexandrina Agloro is a 2018 postdoctoral Ford Fellow. Download Full Image

In keeping with that spirit, ASU Now talked to Alexandrina Agloro for this installment of our "culture of pursuit" series.

Agloro will join ASU as a postdoctoral fellow in January and will be an assistant professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society starting in fall 2019. She’s also a Ford Foundation Fellowship recipient.

Competition for a Ford Foundation Fellowship is substantial. It’s so substantial, in fact, that the Graduate College has determined that it’s necessary to offer significant support to ASU applicants to increase their odds of success. The acceptance rate, which varies depending on field (e.g., STEM, humanities, etc.) and type (e.g., predoctoral, dissertation, postdoctoral), can be less than 5 percent.  

Through its fellowship programs, the Ford Foundation seeks to increase the diversity of the nation’s college and university faculties by increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students.

One way that the Foundation carries out its mission is by awarding predoctoral, dissertation and postdoctoral fellowships to outstanding applicants who embody and share its mission. Fellows receive an annual stipend of between $24,000 and $45,000 for one to three years, depending on the type of fellowship. 

So, what does it take to win a Ford Fellowship? Agloro, ASU’s 2018 postdoctoral Ford fellow, indicates that sheer determination is at least one vital element. She shared some of the details of her Ford Fellowship pursuit, her choice of ASU as her place of research, and her future role as tenure-track faculty at ASU.

Question: How did you find out about Ford Foundation Fellowships?

Answer: So, I have been applying for the Ford Fellowship for years! I applied as a predoctoral candidate and was an honorable mention. I applied for the dissertation fellowship and was an alternate. And, I applied for the postdoc fellowship last year and was an alternate; I am relentless. I applied again, and I finally got one!   

I was really lucky in graduate school to be part of an NSF-funded EDGE program, “Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education,” at the University of Southern California where I did my PhD. I had fantastic mentorship, and I was looped into Ford as a place where you’ll get really good support for faculty of color, for grad students of color — in closing the gap between what universities offer and the specialized needs for students at generally predominantly white institutions.   

Q: What made you choose ASU?

A: I have been super excited about the ways ASU has been innovating higher education. ASU has been on the forefront of acknowledging that the educational system as it exists right now … the model doesn’t work anymore. ASU has been willing to take the risk to find another model that can work. It's doing this in a landscape where universities are hiring more and more administrators and fewer tenure-track faculty, and student fees are skyrocketing. And, it seems that ASU is trying to keep costs down, trying to hire more faculty, and trying to find ways to engage populations that don’t have access to traditional higher education. That’s what I loved about ASU. It’s a Hispanic-serving institution, and it has a concerted effort to bring in enough Native students to match the population of the state. 

Q: As a Ford Fellowship winner, an ASU postdoc and a soon-to-be faculty member at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society (SFIS), how are you going to juggle all of that? 

A: SFIS has been so generous and accommodating in helping me figure out how to make the transitions. When I interviewed for the position, I told them that I had applied for the fellowship, and if I got it, it would be at ASU and I’d really like to be able to do it. And they said, OK, we will sort this out and, if you get it, we will embrace it. We will find a way to do this. Just let us know. So, I started negotiations, and I was able to call the director and say, "By the way, I got this postdoc." He said, "Well, can your fellowship money buy out your teaching? If so, then we’ll do that." So, it's really lucky that I get to come to ASU, get acclimated, and just do research before I jump in and start teaching. 

Q: This may be a loaded question, but what’s your dream job — where do you want to be five years from now?

A: I’m really lucky that I’ve already had one tenure-track job. It's so much easier to look for a job when you have a job because you know what you're looking for and what you want. I came out for my campus visit to ASU highly suspicious of the whole thing. I mean, hello, it would have to be pretty stellar and phenomenal to uproot my whole life and move across the country. I’m three years into my tenure-track job here (at Worcester Polytechnic Institute). Things are fine. But SFIS just wowed me.

What I love is that the position they are bringing me in for is "Science Technology and Innovation in the Borderlands." It is bringing together the two things that I’ve been trained in, which seem separate, but I’m trained in both cultural and ethnic studies and interactive media and game development. I am an ethnic studies interactive media artist. And, that is exactly what SFIS wants me to do. 

In my previous job, I was teaching design courses and was not fully able to engage my interest in ethnic and cultural studies and my interest in why we play games to make the world a better place. The intrinsic motivation for playing games can be utilized for other things, and that’s what I’m interested in exploring in my research, my writing and my teaching. What was so great and different about the SFIS job was that they weren’t looking for someone to fill XYZ position. They really seemed interested in hearing me out and liking my ideas and saying, great, we want to support you to build some (cool) stuff, so this is what we can do if you come here. They asked, "What would you be interested in teaching if you come here?" And, that was a really fun conversation. So, where do I want to be five years from now? I just really think I want to be at ASU. 

Q: In your free time, when you have any, what do you like to do?

A: I always find a way to weave my work into whatever I do. But, I’m really looking forward to exploring the Southwest and being outside in the time of year that most people (in Massachusetts) can’t be outside. I have an 11-year-old French bulldog, and we like to hang out in public together. We'll go exploring.