Amani Burton is looking forward to meeting a new person every day.

It should be easy, as he is among more than 11,000 new Sun Devils in the incoming class of freshmen at Arizona State University. The incoming class of freshmen at Arizona State University comprises some 11,566 new students. They are diverse mix with academic credentials eclipsing the mark set by last year's pack of incoming students. Download Full Image

“It excites me because I can find so many clubs and organizations that fit me,” said Burton, who’s from Nevada and will be majoring in Sports and Media Studies in the W.P. Carey School of Business.

In keeping with the university’s mission of encouraging accessibility for all, the percentage of minority students in the freshmen class has increased: 38.6 percent this year, compared with 38.4 percent last year. In fall 2007, it was 29.4 percent.

Burton, who is African-American and Filipino, says that’s important.

“It’ll add more cultural diversity to the college, which is great, although ASU’s population is already so diverse, with students from all over the world,” he said.

Kent Hopkins, vice president for enrollment management and services, said that providing opportunity for everyone is part of ASU’s mission.

“It’s something that is so very important to serving our citizens and as a charge from President Michael Crow – that our student body is reflective of our world.”

The incoming freshmen are also academically accomplished. As a group, their average high school grade point average is 3.41 and their average SAT score is 1126, the highest averages of any ASU freshman class.

Last year, the average grade point average for the incoming freshmen was 3.4, and in fall 2007, it was 3.34. The average SAT or ACT – in which the ACT score is converted to an SAT scale – was 1118 last year. It was 1078 in fall 2007.

Scott Fitsimones of Phoenix is one of the elite students coming to ASU. A graduate of Arizona School for the Arts charter school, he is a Flinn Scholar – an honor awarded only to the most accomplished students who choose to go to one of the state’s three public universities. Fifteen of this year’s 21 Flinn Scholars chose ASU.

Fitsimones has been designing smartphone applications since he was 15, and dreamed of attending Stanford University.

But he was drawn to ASU’s reputation for innovation and support of student start-ups.

Fitsimones, who will be living in Barrett, the Honors College, is considering a major in computer systems engineering or another type of engineering. He’s been experimenting with three-dimensional printing.

“I’m not exactly sure what I want to do and I know I can explore that at ASU,” Fitsimones said. “I want a creative role, and I want to meet a lot of cool people who are looking to do that too.”

ASU continues to draw students from beyond the state’s borders. Nearly half – 46 percent – of the incoming freshmen are from outside of Arizona. Twelve percent are from California, and half of those students are minorities.

One of the 1,406 freshmen from California is Taylor Lucido, who graduated from high school in Brentwood, a town about an hour outside San Francisco.

Lucido, who will be living on the Tempe campus and majoring in philosophy, is from a Sun Devil family, with several relatives who are ASU graduates.

“My cousin got married at Old Main last year. I fell in love with the campus and it’s always been my dream to go there,” she said.

“With a big school there are a lot more connections and opportunities, and I feel like I will be ahead of someone who didn’t go to ASU.”

This freshmen class will top 11,000 for the first time, and Hopkins said that each of the five campuses provides a unique environment for the incoming students. ASU at Lake Havasu City will have 42 freshmen, and ASU West will be home to 360 freshman. ASU Polytechnic will welcome 525 freshman and about 1,400 freshman will begin at the Downtown Phoenix campus. Nearly 9,000 freshman will begin their Sun Devil experience on the Tempe campus.

“We have such a wonderful mosaic of campus opportunities for our students,” Hopkins said.

“That tends to provide a different perspective about the who we are at ASU than just reporting one freshman class figure.”

ASU professor Rebecca Tsosie has been appointed vice provost for inclusion and community engagement. Tsosie assumes the position held by professor Eduardo Pagán, who moves to the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences as associate dean. 

In her new role, Tsosie will help the Arizona State University community further understand and learn how to address complex issues associated with race, gender, ethnicity, religion and other forms of diversity. She will offer guidance to university administrators and work in collaboration with campus organizations, such as the Committee for Campus Inclusion and the Faculty Women’s Association, in order to operationalize ASU’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. Tsosie hopes to develop a transformative model of inclusion and community engagement that will set an important standard for leadership in higher education.  Download Full Image

“We want to advance different perspectives, experiences and voices in our faculty, research and student communities,” said ASU Provost Robert E. Page Jr. “Dr. Tsosie has 20 years of leadership, a record of exceptional program-building and an internationally recognized research program. Her expertise will help the university continue to grow in the areas of diversity, inclusion, new knowledge systems and community-building.” 

“I am excited about this work and believe the university is in an excellent position to develop a set of innovative standards and practices that will promote inclusion across the vast physical and intellectual spaces that ASU occupies,” Tsosie said.

Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, joined ASU’s law faculty in 1994. She is a Regents’ Professor of law in the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and served as the first faculty director of the Indian Legal Program from 1996-2011.

Tsosie is committed to transdisciplinary research and treasures her broader connections to other academic units on campus. In 2011, she assumed a joint appointment on the faculty of philosophy in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She is a Distinguished Sustainability Scientist in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability. She is also a faculty affiliate of the American Indian Studies Program within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and a faculty affiliate of the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.

Tsosie was one of the founding co-directors of the provost’s Native American Advisory Council, along with Professor John Tippeconnic, and she continues to serve as an ex-officio member of that body. Tsosie served as associate vice provost for the Office of Academic Excellence and Inclusion this past year. In addition, outside of the university, Tsosie serves as an appellate judge for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation’s Supreme Court and the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s Court of Appeals. 

“I’m thrilled to take on this new opportunity to positively impact the ASU community at an even higher level,” Tsosie said. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with many groups across the university and beyond, and appreciate the interdisciplinary mind-set my colleagues share. Together, we can be a leader in creating a workforce that is reflective of the population we serve.”

Tsosie’s career spans federal Indian law, constitutional law, cultural resources law, bioethics and critical race theory. She is widely published on doctrinal and theoretical issues related to tribal sovereignty, environmental policy and cultural rights. She has lectured on climate adaptation and sustainability, cultural conflict and injustices in the areas of science, ethics and human rights. 

Tsosie received her bachelor's and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and she is admitted to practice in Arizona and California. In 2014, she received the Individual Leadership Award from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. This award honors those who have shown leadership in research, administration, practice, advocacy or policy work advancing understanding of diversity and inclusivity in higher education.

“I am honored to have this opportunity,” Tsosie said. “I love ASU, and I treasure President Crow’s commitment to enable access to higher education for a diverse local and global student population.

"This position will enable me to work in collaboration with our incredibly talented faculty and administrative leaders to design a new set of practices to promote our collective sense of identity as a university community, while also recognizing the multiple benefits of having a diverse faculty and student body. I find this work to be intellectually challenging and personally very rewarding because it goes to the heart of what I value most about ASU and our university’s ability to impact the broader communities that we serve.”  

Professor Eduardo Pagán has been appointed associate dean for community affairs for the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University, starting July 1.

Pagán is the Bob Stump Endowed Professor of History in New College and former vice provost for academic excellence and diversity.   Download Full Image

“Dr. Pagán’s experience working on issues at the university level will help us think deeply about the work ahead of us and will help us increase our success,” said Marlene Tromp, vice provost and dean.

“Our goals are to support our students through programs like our peer mentor program, to support cutting-edge faculty research, and to make ASU’s West campus nationally visible for our interdisciplinary programs and our faculty-led student research.” 

New College is a core academic unit on ASU’s West campus and consists of three schools – Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies; Social and Behavioral Sciences; and Mathematical and Natural Sciences. The college was established in 1984 to offer the benefits of a small-college experience and interdisciplinary approach in partnership with the advantages of a top-tier research university. 

Pagán joined the faculty of the New College in 2004. He has served as co-chair of the ethnic studies program and chair of the Department of Language, Cultures and History, as well as president of the academic senate for the West campus. 

He is an active member of the Barrett, The Honors College faculty and graduate faculty in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. He has taught courses ranging from the history of Native America, the Hispanic Southwest and constitutional U.S. history, to inquiry methods for contemporary issues.

Pagán has published book reviews, scholarly articles and several books, including “Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riot in Wartime L.A.” He has three book projects in progress that examine Puerto Rican nationalism, Navajo participation in Arizona politics and racial violence in territorial Arizona, respectively. Pagán is also a co-host of the television series "History Detectives" on PBS. 

In his new role, Pagán will build ASU’s relationships with West-side and Native communities, and nurture public investment in the college.

“Our community is a key part of our success as a college and our university,” Tromp said. “As ASU President Crow outlined in our charter, we need to leverage our place to serve the communities we inhabit. Connecting our students, our researchers and our programs with those in our community is a high priority for us.”

One program in the New College that illustrates its commitment to the community is the “Gila River Early Educator Attaining Teaching Excellence” or GRE²ATE program. The first class of participants will graduate this year, having earned their bachelor’s degree entirely onsite in the Gila River Community – in collaboration with ASU’s School of Social Transformation and Bryan Brayboy, Borderlands Professor of Indigenous Education and Justice and director of the Center for Indian Education. The program focuses on curriculum planning, child development, family involvement, and integrating culture and Native language into early childhood classrooms. Also built into the program are features to ensure participant success, including mentoring and test-taking and technology training. One of Pagán’s goals will be to build other successful partnerships like this one. 

“His ability to communicate the work of our programs – to help people understand who we are and what we do – will be a genuine invitation to participation,” Tromp said. 

For Pagán, access to education is a personal commitment. The first in his family to go to college, he earned his B.A. from ASU in U.S. history, M.A. from the University of Arizona in Latin American history, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in U. S. history. Pagán says that he sees “education as transformative” and feels his own experiences can help him empower other non-traditional students. 

“We need to be ever mindful to foster department cultures that nurture every student who walks through the door,” Pagán said. “We also need to continue to have a nimble response to the many complex situations that arise when communities find themselves in conflict. Having faculty mentors who understand the particular needs of our student communities is a very important part of the instruction we provide as faculty, and the retention of our increasingly diverse students.”

Prior to coming to ASU as a faculty member, Pagán was an assistant professor at Williams College and acting assistant dean of students at Princeton University. He also served four years with the National Endowment for the Humanities as a senior academic adviser and program officer in Washington, D.C. 

Native American graduates carry an extra responsibility: As a group they overwhelmingly feel a need to give back to their tribes. Download Full Image

That’s what approximately 365 ASU students who identified themselves as American Indians vowed in a purpose statement as freshman and hope to deliver as they received their diplomas on May 15 at Gammage Auditorium in Tempe.

“One of the main things American Indian students talk about why we go to school in the first place is to get educated so we can bring back our communities,” said Naomi Tom, who was the keynote speaker at the spring 2015 American Indian Convocation. “There’s a certain sense of pride when you go back and contribute.”

Hosted by ASU’s American Indian Student Support Services, the event is the 25th anniversary of ASU's American Indian Convocation. Fifty-nine tribes were represented at the convocation.

Tom, who received her Master's of Science in American Indian Studies with a concentration on indigenous rights and social justice, is one of 2,419 American Indian students who attend ASU. Those numbers puts ASU among the top universities in the world with the largest American Indian student populations.

The 31-year-old says she will return to the Tohono O’odham Nation, a population of approximately 25,000 people, near the Arizona-Mexico border. She said she has already accepted a job offer in administration at the Desert Diamond Casino and is looking forward to returning to her tribe after three years of intensive study.

The newly elected Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye, one of several tribal leaders in attendance at the convocation, said a paradigm shift is taking place among several nations and need more American Indian graduates to fill leadership roles.

“We need professional CPAs, bankers, farmers, architects, chemists, lawyers, judges, attorneys, doctors and health officials and educators to help us build some of these programs,” Begaye said. “There are a lot of challenges before us, but there are opportunities for them if they come back. Our message to them is, ‘We have a place for you.’ ”

Begaye said approximately 320,000 people identify themselves as Navajos and that the nation, which is roughly the size of West Virginia, is entering a new era of economic prosperity and independence.  

Those numbers and the message Begaye brings to students is music to the ears of Petersen Zah, the first Navajo president and the last chairman of the Navajo Nation, and special adviser to ASU President Michael M. Crow on American Indian affairs.

When Zah graduated from ASU in 1963, there were only about a dozen Native American students. He was charged by former ASU President Lattie Coor to look for innovative ways to increase the numbers of Native students at ASU, which numbered 672 in 1995. Twenty years later, Zah says he is pleased those numbers have nearly quadrupled.

“You can talk all you want about commitment or wishful thinking, but numbers don’t lie,” Zah said. “Numbers mean a lot, and so I’m very proud of that.”

Arizona State University will conclude its week of graduation ceremonies on Saturday with record-breaking success and festivities that mark more than 30 years of growth in the number of Hispanic graduates.  Download Full Image

More than 1,990 Hispanic students graduated from ASU this spring, and a record number are scheduled to participate in the 2015 Hispanic Convocation slated for 10:30 a.m. May 16 in the Wells Fargo Arena in Tempe. It is a celebration that began three decades ago in a small town square five miles from campus but now requires the capacity of one of the university’s largest venues. 

The event caps off this year’s series of graduation ceremonies and underscores ASU’s success in providing a quality education to qualified students from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

“This year we have nearly 400 students signed up to attend the convocation, which is the highest number we’ve ever had,” said Charlene Vasquez, ASU director of cultural relations who oversees Hispanic Convocation. “People enjoy this convocation because it provides graduates the opportunity to celebrate their academic achievement in a festive, cultural and more personal environment along with family and friends.”

Salt River Project’s Kathleen Mascareñas will emcee the event along with actor and local TV personality J.R. Cardenas, host of the Cox7 “Su Vida” – a television and online program that presents success stories about people and organizations and their impact on the Phoenix community. 

Event planners expect a large crowd of families, with a guest list that runs longer than nearly all other commencement-related events.  

“We know that the average ratio of graduate to guests at other events is one to eight, but for Hispanic graduates it is one to fourteen,” said Rhonda Carrillo, assistant director in ASU’s Office of Community Relations. “So that gives you an idea of the crowd size we could get.” 

The Hispanic Convocation is a tradition established by ASU in 1984, when 49 students participated at an off-campus ceremony in the town of Guadalupe.    

There is more to the Hispanic Convocation than festivities. Over the past decade, ASU has developed programs to encourage postsecondary success and boost access for Hispanic students in Arizona and nationally, Vasquez said.

“The annual increase in graduates participating in the ASU Hispanic Convocation is a testament to those efforts,” she said. “We’re making progress, and we’ll continue to push forward.”

Since 2005 the number of Hispanic graduates at ASU more than doubled, from 630 a decade ago to 1,990 in this year’s class.

Those numbers boosted the percentage of Hispanic undergraduates from 11 percent in the class of 2005 to 19.1 percent among this spring’s graduates, and from 6.6 percent to 9.8 percent for graduate students.

More work remains. During an April 30 presentation in Phoenix organized by the Helios Education Foundation, ASU President Michael M. Crow emphasized that Hispanics hold the highest aspiration of the American dream and that education is key to achieving the dream – financial security, strong families, happiness. Yet, only about 15 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. have graduated from college.  

Crow explained that those born to families in the lowest 20 percent of family incomes – the group below the poverty line in Arizona – will most likely remain there without a college education. In Arizona, 58 percent of Hispanics live in poverty, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty.

A college education makes the difference. He highlighted data showing that, among those in the lowest one-fifth of family income who get a college degree, 84 percent move up to a higher income bracket, breaking into the middle class. And 20 percent end up in the highest income group. Crow acknowledged that education is not the only factor at play in helping people move out of poverty.  

“But it’s the most important predictive variable we can affect,” he said. “You get a completely different economic outcome just from that one variable.”

Award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes was born in Steel City U.S.A., but her head, heart and literary works can often be found the Deep South.

Her latest, “Bayou Magic” (Little, Brown and Company, $17), is a middle school reader novel about Maddy, a young African-American girl in Louisiana who finds out that she has inherited her family’s magical legacy. And when an oil leak threatens to ruin the beautiful bayou, she knows she may be the only one who can help. Download Full Image

Rhodes is founding director of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing and the Piper Endowed Chair at Arizona State University. She is also a professor in the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The author of a dozen books, Rhodes spoke exclusively to ASU News about “Bayou Magic” and her Southern roots, and she offered a sneak peak at her next novel, which was influenced by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Q: “Bayou Magic” takes a very different approach to mermaid lore than the Disney tale so many of us are familiar with. What was the inspiration for this story?

A: I’ve long known about different mermaid lore. I was thrilled when both UCLA’s Fowler Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art featured an exhibit of Mami Wata, “Mother Water.” I think it’s amazing that African mermaids swam beside slave ships and remained in America to comfort the captured and to remind them of their homeland. Literature teaches culture. I want girls of color to know there are heroic mermaids that mirror them. I want all girls to know there are diverse, global mermaid tales that depart from the Western tale of a mermaid transforming herself to marry a human.

Q: You were born in Pittsburgh, but “Bayou Magic” and many of your previous novels take place in Louisiana. What is it about the Deep South that moves you?

A: My grandmother raised me, and she had deep Southern roots. She believed in holistic healing, and she taught me to honor the past, my ancestors and nature.  Grandmother died when I was 19 just as I was deciding to become a writer.  Whenever I visit Louisiana, I feel her spirit – her good-heartedness and love.  I’m also enthralled by the cultural stew – the delicious food, music and people. History feels alive in Louisiana; the atmosphere encourages dreams, magic and creativity.

Q: Why are magic and myth such an important part of children’s literature?

A: The world is already magical for children. Seeing the moon, a family of rabbits, currents in the water are spectacular for a child.  However, I do think children are drawn to stories in which characters perform magic. Magic can help children overcome their limitations and like Maddy save the day. Combine the mythic hero’s journey with magic and young readers feel empowered.

Q: What’s the best part of writing for a younger audience?

A: Hugs and more hugs! Visiting schools is such a life-affirming delight. But I didn’t expect cards, letters and drawings from students. It’s very precious when a child reaches out. I keep a box filled with cards and letters. I imagine when I’m very, very old, they will never fail to lift my spirits. 

Q: What do you hope your young readers learn from this book?

A: Nature needs to be cherished, and the health of animals, humans and our planet need to be balanced with energy needs. Young people today will be the stewards of the future. I do believe legends of mermaids who valued waters and befriended humanity will add an emotional resonance to sustainability issues for children. Which is why through our Piper Writers Studio and our Desert Nights, Rising Stars – we also support youth writing and workshops. Your Novel Year is a Piper initiative, and we have a second cohort in progress. We teach Young Adult and Middle Grade novel writing. These are genres not taught in traditional MFA programs.

Q: Are you working on any new projects?

A: I’m completing “Towers Falling,” which has a publication date for the summer of 2016.  It’s about Dèjà, a homeless girl who discovers how her life has been impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I’m also doing research for two other historical novels. I don’t know if I’ll write one or both or none. As always my writing follows my heart. I’m open to voices, characters that appear like ghosts when I’m doing the dishes or dreaming.

On the wall behind Matthew Garcia’s desk hangs a framed black-and-white picture of a woman, her head and shoulders emerging from the thick foliage of a grove of fig trees. She is Garcia’s grandmother, who worked as a farm laborer in California.

His family history is steeped in agriculture. Download Full Image

“My great-grandfather and great-grandmother came here [from Latin America], and were in some ways, in the 1920s and 30s, forced into the migrant stream of agricultural workers throughout California,” he said. “My grandmother picked fruit, picked figs, picked citrus, did all those things. My grandfather was born, as he said, in a lettuce patch in Calipatria, Imperial County, California.”

Garcia, who is the director of the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies and the Comparative Border Studies Program at Arizona State University, said his family history inspired his academic interest in immigrant agricultural laborers.

In his opinion, farm laborers are often a “forgotten angle” in today’s food-conscious society. He’s been working to change that, in part by gathering the personal stories of the laborers themselves.

Oral history is a research method through which stories, told by the people who experienced them, are collected and archived. It’s “both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies,” according to the Oral History Association website.

Oral histories help to preserve memories for cultural and historical purposes, particularly the memories of marginalized groups that never had a chance to write the history books. Immigrants are one such group.

Tales of the braceros

In 1942, at the height of World War II, agricultural leaders became worried about labor shortages. The Bracero Program was created to bring millions of Mexican guest workers into the U.S. to sustain the labor force. 

Many people have suggested guest worker programs as part of modern-day immigration reform policies. But Garcia cautions that The Bracero Program was rife with problems. For example, the braceros had no rights and could be deported at any time.

The program also brought down the wages of U.S. farm workers, which was one of the reasons that César Chavez campaigned to end it. In 1964 the program did end, but many guest worker programs around the world still suffer from similar human rights abuses.

To learn about this period in history, Garcia invited the braceros and their families to tell their stories with posters written in Spanish.

“We had no idea who would come, but it ended up being very successful,” Garcia said.

The team collected more than 700 interviews and launched the Bracero History Archive, which won the Best Public History Project from the National Council for Public History in 2010. The archive also led to a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit called “Bittersweet Harvest.”

The stories range from short vignettes from people who worked with braceros, to people who are looking for information about relatives, and of course the stories of the braceros themselves, often related in Spanish.

Ron Taylor is a U.S. citizen who worked in the fields alongside braceros when he was a high school student in California. He recalls a summer day when his asthma made it difficult for him to work.

“I began to fall behind and was growing really worried when the bracero in the row to my left began stealthily working my row in addition to his own. Then the one on my right began doing the same thing. Neither of them said a word, but both of them were risking the wrath of the field boss just to help me,” Taylor wrote. “I have never forgotten those acts of kindness or the generosity of spirit they showed. They demonstrated in a very personal way the real purpose of the bracero program, extending an arm to help a neighbor.”

Not everyone was so friendly toward the guest workers, however. Juan Loza, a bracero who was interviewed in Spanish by Mireya Loza, spoke about some of the hardships he encountered. In Lubbock, Texas, he was refused service at a restaurant and violently removed, which was one of “two very big reasons that I felt disdainful, that I felt disappointed with the place,” he said.

When he was sent to work in California, he also faced mistreatment.

“Throughout the whole mile [of field furrows] we had to be bent over with a hoe – twelve inches from start to finish – and we couldn’t get up because there were about three field bosses… we couldn’t [get up] for any reason. They simply sent you back to Mexico again if you didn’t obey them,” he said.

The Bracero History Archive project is complete, but people can still upload stories and images to the site. Now, Garcia is working with the UCLA Labor Center on a new immigration-focused project, Undocumented Voices. The project examines the undocumented youth movement and, like the bracero project, will create a digital archive of oral histories.

Within the immigration debate, Garcia sees his work as building “bridges of understanding,” and helping to highlight immigrants’ humanity. He says it can also help contribute to more informed discussion, such as making people aware of flaws in The Bracero Program so that its mistakes are not repeated in trying to create a solution for current immigration problems.

South Asian American stories

Today, people in the U.S. often associate immigration – particularly undocumented immigration – with Latinos. But there are many non-Latino individuals and communities who have stakes in immigration policy or stories to tell. In fact, a leader of the undocumented youth movement Garcia works with was a young Vietnamese woman, Tam Tran.

Nilanjana Bhattacharjya is an ASU ethnomusicologist who uses oral histories to engage immigrants from the opposite side of the globe. Bhattacharjya is a faculty member in Barrett, The Honors College, and co-chair of the Academic Council of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA).

One reason she finds the archive interesting is that it deals with a racial category that circulates in the context of academics and social and political advocacy, but is only rarely used by most people in the context of their everyday lives. She says most Americans who are lumped into the “South Asian” category self-identify far more specifically, such as Pakistani-American or Punjabi. By defining itself through a category that transcends these more specific identities, the South Asian American Digital Archive encourages people to focus on what they share – as opposed to what divides them. Another unique aspect of the archive is its inclusiveness.

“People can contribute their own stories no matter where they’re from, how they identify themselves, or what their socio-economic backgrounds are,” Bhattacharjya said. This inclusiveness is a big part of what makes the archive a vital resource for both communities and researchers. Ensuring representation, present and historical, is another.

“If someone's teaching an immigration history course that focuses on the United States, it's not necessarily the case that South Asian Americans would be considered specifically within the standard textbook, even though they're one of the most rapidly growing populations in this country today,” Bhattacharjya said. “We aim to provide a resource that people can use, not just in colleges but also in high schools, even in grade schools.”

She added, “For instance, if you wanted to do a report on Asian Americans in Congress, you would want to know about Dalip Sigh Saund. SAADA's the kind of place where you actually find out about him. Until SAADA began to collect his materials, there wasn't a lot otherwise written on him that people could access. But now there's this body of material to look at.”

Dalip Singh Saund was a Punjabi Sikh who represented California’s 29th Congressional District from 1957-1963. He was the son of well-off Sikh parents from the northern Indian village of Chhajalwadi. In 1920, he arrived in the U.S. to do post-graduate work at the University of California, studying first food preservation and then earning a doctorate in mathematics.

Due to his immigration status, Saund could not find a university position in mathematics and shifted his interest to local agriculture. He moved to the Imperial Valley and was a farmer during the Great Depression but after he became a U.S. citizen in 1949, he ran for municipal district judge. He won the election and became well regarded as a judge (A Reader’s Digest article calls his decisions “Lincolnesque”). In 1956 he became the first Asian to be elected to Congress and the rare Democrat to be elected by the heavily Republican 29th District.

This simple act of gathering and displaying accurate information can make a big difference in people's lives. Bhattacharjya recalls hearing from some of her students who attended a lecture by SAADA’s co-founder and executive director, Samip Mallick.

“They said things like, ‘Wow, it was interesting to see someone who looks like me in Congress that early in the 1960s… I thought immigrants and people like me weren't really part of America at that point,’” she said. “But SAADA’s collection establishes that we have these stories of people being very much a part of the U.S. and U.S. history much earlier than most people recognize. So it changes people's ideas of belonging and identity and citizenship.”

Even the act of interviewing can make a difference, as it helps people realize that their stories matter and that their community is real.

In the future, Bhattacharjya hopes to work with SAADA to get ASU students more involved in collecting stories from Arizona’s South Asian community.

“South Asians in the Southwest are a relatively new community, not especially established but very rapidly growing,” she said. “There's nothing written on these people so it'll be great to get some of their stories and histories into the archive. We hope to develop an ASU course in the future that helps students learn interview techniques, learn about doing archival work and actually generate material for the archive.”

By doing that, the stories people carried with them, whoever they are – immigrants, first-generation Americans, guest workers – will be carried on for future generations.

Written by Erin Barton, Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development.

Education is key for the success of Latinos and, in turn, for the success of the state itself. Yet only a small percent of Arizona’s Hispanic population will graduate from college, said ASU President Michael M. Crow.

Despite new programs and scholarships geared to bolster Hispanics in postsecondary education success, he said, that gap will only widen without game-changing progress.  Download Full Image

"As a New American University, ASU is redefining higher education to increase access to a quality education, an effort that extends across all of America's income levels and communities," Crow said April 30 at an event hosted by the Helios Education Foundation at the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix.

"We are also committed in our charter to taking responsibility for the broader community, for the community where we live and work. Both of these aims require that we address the Latino student-achievement gap. Arizona cannot fulfill its greatest potential if it fails to educate the fastest-growing populace in the state."

Crow said Arizona has an opportunity to lead the nation in closing the Latino student-achievement gap and securing a future where every student, regardless of income level, is prepared to succeed. However, poverty remains the biggest roadblock.

He noted that 58 percent of Latinos in Arizona live in poverty, a key determinant for college readiness and attainment. Without change or long-term solutions, it is projected that 62 percent of Latinos in the state will live in poverty, compared with 31 percent of Whites. That outcome could stagnate Arizona’s economy, burden government services and create more poverty. 

Over the past decade, the university and Helios have developed several programs to encourage the success of Hispanic students, educators and administrators.

Those partnerships include the American Dream Academy, where parents and teachers collaborate to transform each child’s educational environment at home and school; the Hispanic Mother Daughter Program, sponsored by ASU's Cesar Chavez Leadership Institute; Spirit of Service Scholars, which honors outstanding students interested in pursuing careers in the public and non-profit sector; and Leaders for Learning, a principal-training program for Hispanic teachers.

But despite the university's attempts to create innovate pathways for Latino students looking to enter college, Crow said more is needed to address the shortfall and steer Arizona towards greater economic prosperity.

Helios Education Foundation CEO and President Paul J. Luna said that despite the gloomy statistics, he believes Arizona still has an opportunity to lead the nation in recognizing Latino success. But it must start at home and continue seamlessly through college.

"The solution starts with the agreement of what we're trying to achieve and understanding the importance of Latino future success," Luna said. "It's also about ensuring that parents and families start to build a college-going culture and that we provide resources and strong support mechanisms to Latinos, who traditionally come from underserved communities."

Crow’s presentation, “Arizona’s Economic Imperative: Leading the Nation in Latino Student Success,” was delivered before approximately 200 education, business, community and civic leaders looking to improve Latino college success as well as the state's future economic growth. 

According to Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will require postsecondary education and training beyond high school. However, only 35 percent of Latino adults in Arizona have any post-high-school training and a mere 9 percent of Latino adults have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Since 2006, Helios has invested more than $155 million in educated-related programs and initiatives in Arizona and Florida.

Walter R. Allen, distinguished professor of education and sociology at UCLA, will discuss the policing of African-American men on college campuses at the 20th annual A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations.

The lecture, designed to promote racial parity, was created in honor of deceased Arizona State University professor and chair of sociology A. Wade Smith. The free lecture will be held at 7 p.m., April 29 at the Arizona Ballroom in the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus. Download Full Image

Allen's lecture, "Black Lives Matter: Hyper-Surveillance and Policing Black Males on U.S. Campuses," will touch on the social science of incidents involving police security and black men. Allen said he chose this topic because of national news like Ferguson, Missouri, even if it didn't happen on a college campus.

"While we celebrate progress that's been made, we recognize there is still a long journey ahead to the place where we don't have these types of problems in American society," said Allen, also the Allan Murray Cartter Professor in Higher Education at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Allen earned his doctorate and master's degree from the University of Chicago in sociology, and his bachelor's degree in sociology at Beloit College in Wisconsin. Allen has done extensive research on higher education, race and ethnicity, family patterns, social inequality and the African diaspora.

His work has been featured in more than 100 publications, and he has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CBS 60 Minutes, the British Broadcasting Corporation and more. He holds leading positions in two different studies that focus on ethnicity and race in legal education and college attendance in California.

"Professor Allen is one of the leading experts in this field," said Patrick J. Kenney, vice provost and dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "We're honored that he is coming to ASU to share his thoughts and insight with us regarding race relations in the U.S."

Founded in 1995, the A. Wade Smith Memorial Lecture on Race Relations' past speakers have included civil rights attorney Lani Guinier, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover and racial activist Tim Wise.

ASU Project Humanities is partnering with the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict to host "Beyond the Hijab: Pakistani Women’s Perspectives" at 6 p.m., March 26 at Arizona State University’s Tempe campus, West Hall, room 135.

A second installation in the Project Humanities "Dispelling the Myths" series, the dialogue will bring to light conceptions and misconceptions about Pakistani peoples and cultures through five distinct voices who demonstrate both commonalities and contrasting experiences, revealing a multi-dimensionality of an often misunderstood society. Download Full Image

Streaming video of the program will be available at http://www.ustream.tv/asutv.

As visiting fellows at ASU this semester, Tehreem Arsian Aurakzai, Zahra Hamdani, Kanza Javed, Mahwish Khan and Aisha Usman will share their introduction to American culture and focus on dispelling some of the preconceived notions of Pakistani women. The five panelists are at ASU as part of a faculty exchange project between ASU and Kinnaird College for Women that is funded by the U.S. Department of State. Two other Kinnaird faculty members visited ASU in fall 2014.

Perceptions of both America and Pakistan stem from media, Hollywood and unawareness, particularly on how middle eastern women are portrayed through these mediums.

“Media tends to focus on extreme cases where women are the victims of extreme violence,” said Carolyn Forbes, assistant director for the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict and co-moderator for the evening. “This distorts our perception in thinking that violence happens to all women in Pakistan instead of realizing that everyday life in Pakistan is like everyday life in most places.”

Neal A. Lester, Foundation Professor of English and director of Project Humanities, will also help moderate the discussion.

“Having these faculty members here to share some of their experiences will be a wonderful opportunity for all attendees to recognize that even in acknowledging cultural differences, we all have a profoundly common humanity,” said Lester.

Both Lester and Forbes, along with professors Deborah Clark, Claudia Sadowski-Smith and Yasmine Saikia, are part of the three-year partnership funded by the U.S. Embassy.

To reserve your seat, register at csrc.asu.edu/index.php?q=forms/event-rsvp. Watch footage from Project Humanities’ visit to Pakistan at www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAnTSQZ5AH8.