FlashFood, the entrepreneurship team of current and former Arizona State University engineering, business and sustainability students, recently finished a close second in national voting for Inc. Magazine’s Coolest College Startup of 2013.

The team was one of 12 student startup ventures from around the country to be selected to vie for the public’s votes that were cast through Inc. Magazine’s website. Download Full Image

FlashFood emerged in part from the Engineering Projects in Community Service program (EPICS) in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The team created a mobile-phone application to help develop a network to collect donations of surplus food from restaurants, banquet halls and catering services, and deliver it to communities with people in need.  

The mobile app is designed for use in establishing communications between food donors, collectors and community distribution centers to get food to people in need in a timely fashion.

A pilot operation is now being tested with participation from two food donors – a dining hall and an organic juice company – and two community centers serving as food distribution sites. To date, the operation has collected and delivered more than 600 meals.

FlashFood team members are ASU graduates Eric Lehnhardt (biomedical engineering), Steven Hernandez and Ramya Baratam (computer science), Jake Irvin (marketing and sustainability), Loni Lehnhardt (sustainability), Mary Hannah Smith (sustainability and global studies) and senior materials science and engineering major Katelyn Keberle.

The team’s selection to compete in the Inc. Magazine contest is only the latest step in the endeavor’s progress.

In April, FlashFood members competed in the Rice Business Plan Competition at Rice University in Houston, winning $700 to help fund the startup.

Some team members also traveled to Boston for a workshop organized by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance E-Team Program. As one of 40 teams from around the country selected to participate, FlashFood received $5,000 in travel and venture capital funding. The workshop focused on development of business models and strategies.

Finishing high in the Inc. Magazine contest brings valuable exposure to FlashFood. "Every time you have an event like this, you get fresh contacts, and in this case we met a lot of people in the Phoenix area who can become a part of our program,” Eric Lehnhardt says.

It’s one more in a string of accomplishments that includes:

• First place at the 2012 U.S. Microsoft Imagine Cup competition

• Best in Showcase at the 2012 YUM! Global Sustainability Challenge

• People’s Choice Award at the international Dell Social Innovation Challenge

• Winning support from the ASU Innovation Challenge, the Entrepreneurs @ ASU Elevator Pitch and the ASU 10,000 Solutions Leap Day Challenge

In addition, FlashFood has earned support from the ASU Venture Catalyst program’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, which provides funding, mentorship and office space for promising student entrepreneurship efforts.

Learn more on the FlashFood website.

Written by Natalie Pierce and Joe Kullman

Students in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering are again among those who have been awarded some of the most prestigious fellowships to support graduate studies and advanced research.

The fellowships from both public and private sources are sought after by thousands of top students from the most prominent colleges and universities throughout the country. Download Full Image

Teagan Adamson will be pursuing her goal to aid the battle against cancer with support from two of the most prominent organizations dedicated to advancing the careers of young researchers.

Adamson, who has earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biomedical engineering at Arizona State University, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship as well as a Whitaker Fellowship. She plans to use the funding the awards provide to do research at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBS) at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica.

Funded by the Institute of International Education, the Fulbright and Whitaker programs seek to promote international relations and cross-cultural collaborations among scholars and researchers.

The Whitaker International Fellows and Scholars Program sends promising young biomedical engineering and bioengineering researchers from the United States overseas to advance their careers as well as promote the professions on an international level.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards grants to students and young professionals in a broad range of fields throughout more than 150 countries, seeking to unite scholars and researchers from various cultures and backgrounds who are seeking solutions to global societal challenges.

Adamson, a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honor College, as an undergraduate, began making strides in her research efforts by assisting faculty members in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

With support from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative, she worked for two years in the lab of assistant professor of bioengineering Jeffrey LaBelle. She helped advance research for the development of a new electrochemical diabetes monitoring meter, a technology that could be developed for use in detecting other diseases.

As a result of her contribution, she and a fellow member of the Multiplexed Diabetes Management research team were selected to present their work at the 2nd World Congress on Diabetes & Metabolism in Philadelphia in 2011.

“We were the only undergraduates to speak at this conference,” where the audience was a group of physicians and PhD’s “who were all experts in their fields,” Adamson recalls. “It was really intimidating but it was also a lot of fun.”

In 2012, she was the lead author of an article based on her undergraduate research that was published in the research journal Analyst. The report became the basis for the master’s thesis she completed later that year.

Around that time Adamson decided not to pursue her doctorate and instead to focus her future plans on post-graduate research. She began searching for work and institutions offering opportunities to pursue advances in personalized medicine, specifically cancer therapeutics.

"I am going to use the unique antibodies developed in the IBS lab as a platform to engineer new bi-functional molecules," she explains.

The function of these molecules will be to bind with polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in most pharmaceuticals and also with commonly found receptors on the surface of cancer cells.

By producing molecules with these antibodies, Adamson and the IBS research team will seek to enhance medicine containing polyethylene glycol, specifically targeting it to cancer cells.

"This biomedical advancement would reduce the effects of normal tissues being exposed to the anti-cancer medicines, which as we know has really bad side effects,” she says. With further research, the antibodies could be tailored to individual types of cancer cells.

Even with, securing a position at the IBS lab, support from a Fulbright Scholarship was not a certainty.

"For the Fulbright program, the number of people who will be accepted [to do research in any particular country] varies from country to country, and for Taiwan only 10 people were selected to do research there," Adamson says.

Her academic record and research experience proved impressive enough to earn her a dual fellowship through which the Fulbright and Whitaker programs will share funding of her research, travel and cost-of-living expenses for a year, beginning this fall.

The fellowship will also support Adamson as she continues studies in Taiwan. She will be doing coursework in molecular medicine at IBS and also taking classes in Mandarin.

"I did my minor in Chinese, and since I’m going to be in the country I might as well study a little bit more," she says.

With family members in medical and engineering fields, Adamson's study of biomedical engineering as well as the Chinese language seemed pre-determined. Her family had some roots in East Asian culture.  Her grandparents lived in Taiwan. Her grandfather was an endocrinologist there and and her father grew up there.

Through a high school program, Adamson studied Chinese and came to embrace the culture, while at the same time developing a deep interest in engineering, technology and science.

"These life experiences of Chinese culture, along with exposure to medicine and engineering through my grandfather, a physician, and my brother-in-law, an aerospace engineer, eventually led me to Arizona State University," Adamson says.

Through the cultural experience she will get in Taiwan and the involvement in advanced research to improve cancer treatment, Adamson says she hopes to enhance her marketability for other research positions in the future.

Gaining an international perspective on the biomedical research field will enable her to collaborate effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and those who have varied skills sets, she says.

As an undergrad at ASU, Adamson was active outside of the classroom and the lab. She was a member of the Engineering Student Council and the student organization representative for the Theta Tau engineering fraternity, as well as the fraternity’s vice president of public relations. She also served as a senator representing the engineering schools in the Undergraduate Student Government.

During her graduate semester, Adamson founded the Biomedical Engineering Adventure Movement (BAM!), a club that promotes social and professional networking among biomedical engineers and students through seminars and other events.

She also founded and served as director of outreach for the Students for the Outreach of Diabetes Awareness (SODA). The group provides screening of diabetes to at-risk populations and leads educational seminars on the topic.

Adamson’s hometown is Chandler. She graduated from Horizon Honors High School, an extension of Horizon Community Learning Center.

Nathan Gaw has won a graduate fellowship from Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society. He will use it to complete work for a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at ASU.

He’ll do research with the director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, focusing on upper-limb cognitive neuroscience. His goal will be to create a control model of the upper-limb neuromuscular system for use in education and in programming prosthetics that better emulate human motion.

A student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College, as an undergraduate he assisted in research in the Neural Control of Movement Laboratory, the ASU-Mayo Clinic Radiology Informatics Laboratory and the Spinal Biomechanics Laboratory at the Barrow Neurological Institute.

Gaw did research at ASU through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative. He recently won a first-place award from the Phoenix section of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers for the best student research paper and presentation, plus the second-place award in the Southwest Region stage of the competition.

Gaw served as a representative to industry for the ASU chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

He was the featured student speaker at this year’s spring semester Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering graduation ceremonies.

He graduated from Chaparral High School in his hometown of Scottsdale.

Thao Ngo will use a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue a doctoral degree in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne.

As an undergraduate, Ngo won scholarships from the ASU Parents Association (now the Sun Devil Family Association) and the Collaborative Interdisciplinary Research Community, among others.

She conducted research at ASU with support from the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative and a NASA Space Grant internship. She participated in summer projects at the University of Kentucky and Kansas State University through the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program supported by the National Science Foundation.

She has been working in the lab of ASU chemical engineering program chair Lenore Dai for the past three years.
That research has included work on recycling of electronic circuit boards catalysts for energy systems, and applications of nanoparticles.

Ngo hopes to go into a field in which she can apply her chemical engineering expertise to developing new energy sources and technologies.

She served as an undergraduate teaching assistant in engineering courses and a mentor for ASU’s Motivated Engineering Transfer Student program.

A native of Vietnam, Ngo’s family moved to Sierra Vista, Ariz., more than seven years ago. She graduated from Buena High school in Sierra Vista.

Justin Echols has won a National Science Foundation Research Fellowship to support his studies toward a doctoral degree in electrical engineering.

He was awarded his bachelor’s degree this spring semester and will begin doctoral studies at ASU in the fall with his graduate studies adviser Armando Rodriquez, a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.

Echols will focus on research on control systems – flight control in general and specifically control of hypersonic vehicles.

During his undergrad years, he did an internship in electrical engineering research with the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. His project involved examining the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (sending certain signals into the brain) in reducing seizures in epileptic rats. The goal was to develop a micro-electronic control system that predicts and prevents seizures.

During his undergrad years, Echols worked in the Engineering Tutoring Center, assisting students with theoretical and applied mathematics, physics and engineering concepts.

Echols attended Mountain View High School in his hometown of Mesa.

Janet Reyna will continue work to earn a doctoral degree in civil, environmental and sustainable engineering at ASU with support from a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Her studies and research will focus on urban sustainability under direction of her adviser Mikhail Chester, an assistant professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment.

She received her master’s degree in the field at ASU this spring after earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Purdue University in 2011 – with minors in French, environmental and ecological engineering,  and in global engineering studies.

Her research includes a team project to develop urban infrastructure and energy sustainability assessments for the city of Los Angeles.

She has done a study of transit-oriented development in metropolitan Phoenix to develop strategies for mitigating negative environmental and human health impacts as the urban area continues to develop.

Other research projects involve developing improved assessments of air quality in Phoenix and the surrounding region and work with the Central Arizona Planning Long-Term Ecological Research project (CAP-LTER) to assess the impacts of the building infrastructure in Phoenix on area’s ecosystems.

Another ongoing study focuses on assessing the environmental and energy impacts of water-usage patterns and building infrastructure in the Phoenix area.

Her research has earned grants from the CAP-LTER and the national Air and Waste Management Association.

Reyna’s studies abroad have taken her to France, China and Turkey. She is a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, Pi Tau Sigma (Mechanical Engineering Honors Fraternity), Tau Beta Pi (Engineering Honor Society) and the Society of Women Engineers.

Reyna is from Oklahoma, where she grew up in Tulsa and graduated from Jenks High School.

Michael Thompson will continue to pursue a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at ASU with support from a GEM Fellowship. He earned his bachelor’s degree in the field at ASU in 2012.

GEM is the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM), a non-profit consortium of universities and major corporations.

Thompson’s research focus is on modeling, analysis, control and design of micro scale/nanoscale air vehicles, which are expected to be critical to development of the next generations of mobile sensing, intelligence gathering, defense and military technologies.

His research advisors are Armando Rodriguez and Kyle Squires, professors in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy.

During his undergrad years, Thompson did an internship with Intel Corp. and completed more than 20 specialized training courses at the company in manufacturing-related specialties.

He will do an internship this summer with Ford Motor Co. in Michigan, working on computational fluid dynamics.

He was awarded the 2012 Vertical Flight Engineering Scholarship from the American Helicopter Society and made a presentation at the National Science Foundation Engineering Education Awards Conference.

Alongside doctoral students at ASU he was the only undergraduate from the university to make a presentation at the Emerging Researchers National Conference in Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics.

Thompson has made a patent submission for a discovery in drag reduction in computational fluid dynamics – a result of work he did in the summer of 2011 at the University of Alabama as part of the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates.

During the past year, he was the academic director for the ASU chapter of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers for ASU.

He also worked with the president of the Arizona Alliance of Black School Educators to develop and implement an educational outreach program called STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics program).

The STEAM Enrichment Program works with traditionally underserved youth to expose them to the STEAM fields through hands-on learning activities, and to promote their interest in pursuing careers in these areas.

Thompson was an active member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and before enrolling at ASU was vice president of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Club at Glendale Community College.

He grew up in Phoenix and graduated from Greenway High School.

Jennie Appel will continue studies to earn a doctoral degree in electrical engineering at ASU with the aid of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in the field in 2011 from Auburn University in Alabama. The same year she came to ASU as a research associate. Since then, she has won the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Fellowship Award and the Fulton Fellowship Award.

While still an undergraduate at Auburn, she spent a summer at ASU participating in the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN) Research Experience. There she worked with Junseok Chae, an associate professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering.

The project helped convince her to pursue graduate studies at ASU. Chae is now her graduate studies and research adviser.

Appel’s research focuses on micro electro-mechanical systems, and using them to design and build sensors for devices that can detect signs of diseases or other health problems or improve detection of environmental hazards.

During her undergraduate years, her industry experience included a series of internships with the Southern Nuclear Company Plant in Augusta, Ga., from 2007 through 2009.

Appel is a member of Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society. She is also a mentor for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization.

She graduated from Auburn High school in Auburn, Ala.

Jacelyn Rice won a graduate fellowship supported by the National Science Foundation through ASU’s Decision Center for a Desert City. She will use it to complete studies for a doctoral degree in environmental engineering.

Rice earned a master’s degree in the field from ASU in 2011, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in engineering in 2007 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she served a stint as vice president of the National Society of Black Engineers.

She has worked as an assistant civil engineer at Kimley-Horn and Associates, a land development intern for Pardee Homes, and a planner and maintenance engineering intern for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Her research focuses on water quality and treatment, disinfection byproducts, wastewater reuse and energy usage related to water systems and infrastructure.

To support her graduate studies, Rice has also won GK-12 Graduate Fellowship from ASU funded by the National Science Foundation and a Diversity Across Curriculum Fellowship from the ASU Graduate College.

Rice grew up primarily in Georgia and Florida and graduated from Mojave High School in Las Vegas.

Eric C. Stevens will pursue a doctoral degree in chemical engineering with support from a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

He plans to focus on studies and research in renewable and alternative energy at North Carolina State University.

Stevens is the 2013 Outstanding Graduate from ASU’s chemical engineer program, graduating summa cum laude.

As undergraduate at ASU, he conducted research with support of an ASU/NASA Space Grant and the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI), working with the chair of the chemical engineering program, Lenore Dai. He also worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for a Department of Energy summer research program.

He earned his bachelor’s degree with support from awards, scholarships and grants from the Provost Scholarship, the Moeur Award, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honorary Society, the ASU/NASA Space Grant and FURI, among others.

Stevens served one-year terms as secretary and vice president of the ASU chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, was a lead counselor for ASU’s Summer Engineering Experience, and served as an undergraduate teaching assistant for three chemical engineering courses.

With faculty advisors Lenore Dai and Hanqing Jiang, and fellow doctoral students, he co-authored a peer-reviewed journal article and presented his research at professional conferences and research symposia.

Stevens hopes to continue his research on renewable and alternative energy in a scientist position at a national government laboratory.

He graduated from Horizon High School in his hometown of Scottsdale.

Written by Joe Kullman and Natalie Pierce

Eight, Arizona PBS in partnership with the City of Phoenix Latino Institute, will host two events on May 23 to launch the new three-part, six-hour PBS documentary series "Latino Americans."

The first is a daytime event for teens at 11:30 a.m., followed by an evening arts and cultural event from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Both events will be held in the historic A.E. England Building in downtown Phoenix (424 N. Central Ave., Phoenix 85004) and will feature a highlight screening from "Latino Americans," scheduled to premiere this fall on Eight, Arizona PBS, and other PBS stations nationwide. Adriana Bosch, series producer for "Latino Americans," and others from the documentary will participate in discussions at both the daytime and evening viewing events. Download Full Image

"Latino Americans" narrates the history, growth and experiences of Latinos in the United States from the 16th century to present day. The six-hour film special combines interviews with nearly 100 Latinos from the worlds of politics, business and pop culture. Emmy Award-winning producer Bosch will participate in a panel following the screening to discuss this first-of-its-kind film chronicle of the lives of Latino Americans, and the importance of this history in understanding the Latino identity.

"It is time the Latino American history be told," says Bosch, a Cuban-born filmmaker whose previous PBS projects include "Latin Music U.S.A." and documentaries for the series "American Experience" on Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and Cuban leader Fidel Castro. "Latinos are an integral part of the U.S., and this series shares the stories of a rich collection of people coming from so many different countries and backgrounds. It is the story of Latinos, and it is the story of America."

The City of Phoenix Latino Institute is presenting the "Latino Americans" film event as part of its Evening Community Connections Series, which takes place every Thursday at the A.E. England Building. In addition to the broadcast of "Latino Americans," a companion book by Ray Suarez - senior correspondent for PBS NEWSHOUR - will be released to coincide with the series. It will be published by Celebra, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), and will be available in both English and Spanish. It may be preordered now, and will go on sale Sept. 3. The project will also be accompanied by major bilingual digital engagement and public education campaigns, including the development of a school-based curriculum, which will be available in late summer.

Two semesters of collaboration and communication across disciplines provided Graduate College fellowship recipients with new insights into their research.

Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium (IRC), a two-semester course for Reach for the Stars and Doctoral Enrichment fellows, is an opportunity for a diverse group of master’s and doctoral students to network, collaborate, present their research and shed light on transdisciplinary approaches to the challenges that face us. Download Full Image

Communicating with students from other disciplines has increased motivation towards his studies, says Daniel Kanu, a master's candidate in printmaking. “I was introduced to resources that I would not have otherwise come across.”

Kanu distinguished himself during the course by winning first place in the National Society of Arts & Letters (NSAL) Greater Arizona Chapter Printmaking Competition.

“My research is much more structured than when I began,” says Cheyenne Harden, who is pursuing a master’s in environmental and sustainable engineering. She has expanded her research beyond water quality to include other environmental concerns and began work on a biofuels policy paper with the USDA.

IRC is restricted to students enrolled in IRC; however, IRC student presentations are open to the ASU community and invited guests. For more information, visit graduate.asu.edu/irc.

"The IRC students are recruited from among the best applicants to ASU,” says Andrew Webber, Associate Vice Provost at the Graduate College. “Their participation in this seminar provides them with connections across the university that provide valuable resources for their graduate success."

The following fellowship winners were given the opportunity to participate in the IRC class.

Reach for the Stars Fellowships support first-year graduate students who demonstrate academic excellence and are underrepresented in their field of study. The 2012-2013 fellows are:

Cheyenne Harden, Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Dominique Johnson, Mass Communication, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Daniel Kanu, Art (Printmaking), Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Benoit Ngolo, French (Linguistics), School of International Letters and Cultures, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Natalia Andrea Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Sustainability, School of Sustainability
D'Andre Walker, Criminal Justice, College of Public Programs

Doctoral Enrichment Fellowships support first-year doctoral students who demonstrate academic excellence and are underrepresented in their field of study. The 2012-2013 fellows are:

Alejandro "Alex" Abreu, Media, Arts and Sciences, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Adrienne Baldwin, Social Work, College of Public Programs
William Bowman, Materials Science and Engineering, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
Christopher Gonzales, Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Keeonna Harris, Justice Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Farina King, History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
David Martinez, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Jonathan Martinez, Physics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jonathan Paige, Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Joseph Robele, Counseling Psychology, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Jose Sebastian Terneus, English (Literature), College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Tiffany Trent, Theatre and Film for Youth, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
Oyita B. Udiani, Mathematics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Two students from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication are brushing up on their Italian, honing their broadcasting skills and globalizing their education thanks to a new internship offered through the School of International Letters and Cultures at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus.

Jesus Yanez-Reyes and McCall Hoerz have combined their love for Italian with their professional interest in broadcasting through an internship sponsored by The Italian Language Program in collaboration with KASC (The Blaze) AM radio station, where they host “Buongiorno Italia.” Download Full Image

Broadcast from the Cronkite School building at 555 N. Central Ave., Phoenix, the show is the brainchild of Antonella Dell’Anna, an Italian instructor for the School of International Letters and Cultures.

“I wanted to create something for students that made them think and look beyond the textbooks and classroom,” Dell’Anna said. “When you understand Italian people, the land, their customs, what’s important to them, then students truly comprehend the language.”

“Buongiorno Italia” is a half-hour show dedicated to Italian news, culture, and music. Interview subjects include Italian officials, transplants and community residents who live in the Phoenix Metropolitan area as well as ASU students who have traveled to Italy.

Phoenix native Yanez-Reyes says he originally enrolled at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff where he wanted to major in hospitality. He changed his mind a semester later when he wanted to pursue journalism. He says he knows now he made the right choice and the internship has given him confidence in several areas, including language, culture, geography and critical thinking.  

“We scour a lot of Italian newspapers and websites and have to translate the words into English and then present it in our own words to our audience,” Yanez-Reyes said. “This exercise forces us to not only know and understand the language but what’s important to the people. The newspaper level of their language is different than the level we’re at in the classroom, which forces us to learn other words.”

Yanez-Reyes said through research and first-hand interviews, there are some major differences between Americans and Italians.

“Italians aren’t as focused on work as Americans are, and they look at their quality of life in terms of meaningful social interaction rather than money. Food is a big part of their culture. It’s a way to show hospitality and an opportunity to interact with one another,” Yanez-Reyes said. “Italians say they cherish their ability to walk out onto the street and to have a conversation with someone, even a complete stranger, and have a meaningful conversation.”

Hoerz, a freshman, who hails from Wauwatosa, Wisc., said she contemplated the University of Southern California Los Angeles, University of Southern California and the University of Miami, Fla., but ASU had always been her top choice.

“I knew ASU had the best program for what I wanted to do and in the end, it was a very easy choice,” Hoerz said. She added the internship not only gives her valuable insight into the Italian culture but much needed experience behind the microphone.

“Because I am a journalism major, one of my classes required me to go on the Blaze and read items live on the air. My first time was nerve-wracking and I was not very good,” Hoerz said. “Now that I’ve been on the air for almost an entire semester, I’ve got the jitters out of the way. This is also an experience I can put on my resume and say I did it live on the air, and I now have the clips to prove it.”

“Buongiorno Italia” is broadcast at 9 a.m. on Wednesdays from September to December and February to May every semester. Listen for the show on station 1330 AM or online at www.blazeradioonline.com.

The Italian Language Program at the Downtown campus in collaboration with KASC, is currently accepting internship applications for fall 2013 to fill two 1-3 credit internships (ITA484). To apply email a resume and cover letter to antonella.dellanna@asu.edu before June 15, 2013.

Brittany Morris, a junior in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been awarded a research scholarship from the Center for Religion and Conflict to travel to Kuwait to study the participation of Muslim women in civil society.

The Arizona native grew up with the lush landscape of Pinetop at her door before moving to Mesa. As a child, Morris enjoyed immersing herself in writing and reading books. Her mother, a die-hard Sun Devil fan, would frequently share stories about attending Arizona State University. Download Full Image

It’s only fitting that when it came time to select a college, she only applied to ASU and sought a career in journalism so she could one day report on current events.

It was with help of her cousin, a member of the United States Air Force, that she was able to discover a fascination with the Middle East. While on deployment to Kuwait and Iraq, he would send her local newspapers written in Arabic and Farsi. Morris then became “obsessed” with learning about the land and the Muslim culture.

“I started reading literature and nonfiction about the Middle East. I also began following the news surrounding the war and they way the news was covered. I became very passionate about becoming a journalist to debunk the crazy news,” she said.

While walking around campus, Morris noticed that many female students wore a veil or burqa to cover their face and head. She then asked her Arabic professor, Souad T. Ali, for some background information on the custom. From there her interest in the Muslim culture grew into a point of focus for her student research.

Morris began attending events held by the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, where she found a common belief in the need for peace and understanding among different religious groups and cultures.

“I love the center. They aren’t afraid to cover hotbed topics throughout the world including aspects of Islam,” she said.

The relationship she began building with the center led to a fellowship to focus her research on the effect of veil bans for Muslim women. Morris traveled to France to collect firsthand accounts. She says that many of the women she spoke with who could not wear a veil under the new law were met with criticism, had been raped or knew women that were killed. They felt that wearing a veil would offer them protection and allow them to showcase their knowledge instead of their looks. Others felt that wearing a veil was a family tradition and a way to own their Muslim identity.

With the help of the Friends of the Center scholarship, Morris will soon travel to Kuwait on a study abroad trip offered through the School of International Languages and Cultures to examine the role of education in Muslim women’s empowerment. Students will also study Arabic and Islamic culture/literature. The opportunity brings together her prior research of women’s experiences and the impact of education.

The biggest lesson she has learned through her research is that opening one door may solve a problem, but it also brings forth many new questions to ponder. On the other hand, the unexpected outcomes keep her research interesting.

Morris is expected to graduate in May of 2014, but is already looking forward to applying to the skills she has learned in the classroom.

“I’m excited to be able put my skills and passion into helping women in the Middle East. I really love school but I’m ready to go out and save the world,” she said.

To save the world, Morris plans to travel to places such as India, Afghanistan and Kuwait spreading a message of peace. In the future she would like to become a K-12 teacher

“When I volunteered with Teach for America I was able to work with youngsters and I really enjoyed it. I’m also considering joining AmeriCorps,” she said.

A community screening of “The Dream is Now,” a 30-minute documentary featuring two ASU alumni that was supported by ASU’s Comparative Border Studies, recently was hosted by DREAMZone on the Tempe campus. Attendees were asked to RSVP at http://asutempeapril30.eventbrite.com/.

As the debate about immigration reform in the United States unfolds, “The Dream is Now” is being produced in real time by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim (“Waiting for Superman” and “An Inconvenient Truth”). He said the documentary gives voice to and puts a human face on the undocumented children of immigrants who are desperate to earn their citizenship and give back to the only country they have ever called "home." Download Full Image

According to its website, "The Dream is Now" also goes beyond the personal to place its stories in a larger context and explore the consequences of continuing current policies and maintaining the status quo. Those consequences impact not only these young people today, but also America’s future. The film is intended to bring this pressing issue to the country’s attention, where communities can debate, discuss and decide what is right, what is fair and what is best for the nation, the website adds.

“The Dream is Now” also brings the story close to home by featuring two ASU alumni, Jose and Erika. The documentary describes how Jose has an ASU degree in mechanical engineering, but that his diploma collects dust because he is unable to work legally in the United States. It also features Erika, a courageous leader of the national DREAMer movement who fears that any day her family could be deported.

DREAMzone is a 4-hour ally certification workshop designed to establish a visible support network for undocumented students at ASU. The name DREAMzone is derived from the alias "DREAMers," which undocumented students have adopted as potential beneficiaries of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

Comparative Border Studies, within the School of Transborder Studies, is a strategic research initiative designed to bring scholars, artists and publics together to discuss and debate issues pertaining to geopolitical and cultural borders.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Cantú at (979) 492-7502 or Elizabeth.Cantu@asu.edu or visit borders.asu.edu.

"If you think the cost of getting an education is a lot, the cost of not getting an education is even greater,” says Randy Sanders, a determined Russian major from the School of International Letters and Cultures in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Because I did not get a degree some 36 years ago, it has cost me an arm and a leg.”

Sanders knows what he’s talking about. Download Full Image

During his senior year in 1975, Sanders had to drop out of ASU because of physical illness and visual difficulties. After enduring a lifetime of trials, Sanders will finally graduate this spring with a bachelor's degree in Russian. While a bright future lies ahead, his journey hasn’t been easy.

Born in Mountain Home, Arkansas, Sanders moved to Arizona when he was eight years old. Influenced by an Arizona high school teacher who taught Russian during his senior year of high school, Sanders chose Russian as his college major.

“The Russian language was a hot commodity back then because of the Cold War,” he says. His initial plan was to pursue a professional career in language translation or interpretation. But despite his promising aptitude for language learning, Sanders’ parents legally disowned him when he decided to go with Russian as his major. “Decisions have consequences,” he says. “There was a ‘Red Scare’ going around back then.” 

At ASU he continued to suffer from his physical disabilities and visual difficulties, making it very hard to keep up with his studies. He struggled to walk, read and sleep.

“Intractable, life-threatening pain, daily, constantly, totally consumed me,” Sanders says.

During his junior year at ASU, Sanders suffered a heart attack while climbing A-Mountain with some friends. Forced to drop out of school the next year, he was living off $12 a month for food. Because of his health and dwindling finances, Sanders became homeless for three years.

He eventually found some work delivering pizzas, washing dishes and working on a watermelon farm, where he was electrocuted. He also attended AutoCAD drafting school where he suffered from severe galvanized poisoning from welding, making it impossible for him to work for the next two years.

One of Sanders' major challenges was vision impairment. Even as a high school student, he recalls that “reading was painful, but necessary. ... I could only read for 15 minutes at a time, maybe one hour a day.”

Remarkably, when Sanders was 57, he saw an online advertisement for “The Note-Taker,” an invention designed by ASU student David Hayden. The Note-Taker is a camera device, which simultaneously provides students with a view of the white board and their notes, aiding vision-impaired students in the classroom. Sanders encountered advertisements for The Note-Taker three times before making the decision to go back to school. New knowledge about the availability of disability resources at ASU also helped Sanders make the decision.

“I had been out of work for two or three years at that point," says Sanders. "I was living in a local homeless shelter. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain." He re-enrolled and took additional courses at Mesa Community College to catch up with the updated degree requirements for his Russian major.

While at ASU the second time around, Sanders took nearly every Russian-related course available, and has also excelled in the study of a number of other languages, including Spanish, Mandarin and Albanian.

"Randy was the best student in my History of Slavic Languages course last fall," says Danko Sipka, professor of Slavic languages and applied linguistics. 

After graduation, Sanders plans to pursue a master’s degree in teaching English. “Teaching English is in high demand worldwide,” he says.

Sanders' journey to graduation has been long and frequently interrupted, yet his determination remained. For incoming freshman or non-traditional college students, Sanders recommends a “study first and play later” approach.

“Use your time well,” he advises. “Time does not come back. Remember that school is only the minimum. It is only a start. Start to create the life that you want now.”

Story by Alison Graham, communications intern in the School of International Letters and Cultures.

Engage globally: it’s not just a catchy phrase. It’s one of the eight design aspirations put forth by ASU President Michael M. Crow under ASU’s New American University model. Engaging globally is something ASU's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College has taken to heart.

In early 2012 Mari E. Koerner, dean of the college, had just returned from a trip overseas that left her with the realization that many of the issues faced by international teachers also were issues here in Arizona. Koerner felt compelled to share her insight with her colleagues and encouraged them to be more globally conscious of educational opportunities. So when Ara Barsam first learned about the International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) in an e-mail, he jumped at the prospect of hosting 15 educators from around the world with the goal of further enhancing their teaching skills. Download Full Image

A proponent – as well as a product – of international education, Barsam serves as senior director of grants and associate research professor at the Teachers College. And since January of this year, he has taken on another title: project director of ASU’s ILEP chapter. Barsam sees it as “an opportunity to bring a more international perspective to the work that we’re doing here. It’s important to the Teachers College to be conscious of what’s happening in the education landscape globally and to be able to impact teaching and student achievement, not just amongst teachers in Arizona or the United States, but internationally.”

And, Barsam adds, just as ASU helps the ILEP fellows, “they help us in the Teachers College to think more broadly about education.”

The spring 2013 semester marks the first iteration of ILEP here at ASU, which was selected by the U.S. Department of State as one of five host universities in the nation, and it has since received the Provost's Award for "Excellence in Diversity.”

The 15 teachers selected to participate come from eight countries, all of them with a minimum of five years teaching experience in secondary classrooms. Each participant went through a competitive admissions process that included personality and performance reviews, essays, interviews and tests.

An English and social studies teacher at the International Thebes American College in Cairo, Egypt, Asmaa Saleh recalls rushing to make it to the embassy before close. “We got there, I handed in my file before they closed the admission window, and the security guard was laughing and said, ‘Good luck dear!’”

Saleh’s goal is to “go back to Egypt loaded with new ideas and strategies to apply and spread among my peer teachers.” She hopes to be the “key for the door to technology” within her community.

For Samba Diallo, an English teacher at Lycee Cherif Samsidine Aidara de Velingara in Velingara, Senegal, being accepted to the ILEP was the fulfillment of a dream to study at ASU. In 2000 Diallo was accepted to the university as an undergraduate, but was unable to procure adequate funding. Then, in 2012, he heard about ILEP from a teacher advisor in a workshop he was taking. He applied, was accepted and, out of the five host universities in the United States, was selected to be a participant at ASU.

Enthused by Diallo’s story of perseverance, Barsam said: “It shows that there is a global interest in ASU and this program is a great vehicle to allow teachers, who might not otherwise have the opportunity, to study here.”

Diallo believes that to truly make a difference through teaching, “you have to make students think, and you must foster their interests.” One way he hopes to do that is by reaching them through technology, something that he says his students back home are already “addicted” to, but that isn’t fully utilized in the classroom.

As part of ILEP’s requirements, the fellows spend the semester observing two classes at ASU, completing 90 hours of teaching at a school in the Phoenix Union High School District alongside an American partner teacher, and taking two specialized classes that are designated specifically for ILEP participants – one, a methods course for teaching in the secondary classroom, and the other, a course in education technology.

Barsam says the multifaceted program “helps them integrate teaching methods they learn here back home. ... The goal is to show them different pedagogical styles and blend them with what they’re learning in their methods class.”

Chemistry teacher Anuthra Sirisena already has been preparing to implement what she has learned when she returns to SM Chung Hwa Tenom Secondary School in Sabah, Malaysia.

“I have drafted a few programs and activities I will be carrying out back home,” she says. “I want to be seen as an agent of change and I’m hoping that more teachers will be convinced to try out new approaches and best practices around the world.”

In supplement to their rigorous coursework, the fellows have been on several group cultural outings around the state. So far, they have visited the Ghost Town of Jerome, the Dolly Steamboat at Canyon Lake, Piestewa Peak, the Heard Museum and Monument Valley. The group has even had a chance to mingle with Cronkite’s Humphrey Fellows at a recent Harlem Globetrotters basketball game.

Similar to the ILEP program, Cronkite’s Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program also hosts up to 15 fellows for an intensive, 10-month academic study and professional experience in journalism. In early April, both the Humphrey’s fellows and the ILEP fellows met again to discuss globalization and international cooperation with students and faculty at Yavapai College in central Arizona.

B. William Silcock, associate professor of journalism, is the director of Cronkite Global Initiatives and curator of the Humphrey Fellowship Program at ASU. He believes the chance for the two groups to intermingle is invaluable.

“As the Humphrey Fellows and the ILEP teachers share insights on issues ranging from news coverage of terrorism to comparing educational experiences, barriers of prejudice and stereotypes are broken and new bonds of friendship and professional exchanges are built," he said.

When asked about her experience so far, Sirisena said the program has given her “the feeling of being born again. I thought I knew enough to be a good teacher, but being here and exploring countless possibilities has awakened me from my deep slumber. I feel like a new person with a new set of DNA codes.”

Saleh is equally grateful. “Not everybody gets this chance,” she says. “And, more importantly, not everybody has a team like the one at ASU.”

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin will visit Arizona State University at 4:30 p.m., April 22, in Social Sciences (SS) room 109 to deliver the talk, "From Writing about Judaism to Writing for Popular Culture."

One of Newsweek’s “Most Influential Rabbis of America,” Telushkin is the author of “Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know about the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History.” The most widely selling book on Judaism of the past two decades, “Jewish Literacy” has been hailed by leading figures in all the major movements of Judaism.  Download Full Image

"To live ethically is not only to live in the current moment but to acknowledge a lot of past moments – things we could do better, things we have done well in the past," said Telushkin, in an interview with Jewish Journal. "The recollection of good we have done can inspire more good."

Telushkin employs his writing talents in many arenas, being one of the most influential and popular commentators on Judaism in contemporary America. In 1997, his novel “An Eye for an Eye” became the basis for four episodes of David Kelley’s Emmy Award-winning ABC TV series “The Practice,” and he has co-written three additional episodes of the program. He also co-wrote an episode of the TV series “Touched by an Angel” for Kirk Douglas, in which Douglas stars as a man who, after a lifetime of struggle with his faith, returns to God and Judaism.

Telushkin was the co-writer with David Brandes and the associate producer of the 1991 film “The Quarrel.” The film, an American Playhouse production and the winner of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, was released theatrically throughout the United States.

He has been named by Talk Magazine as one of the 50 best speakers in the United States, and his work touches on Jewish ethics, teachings, humor and anti-Semitism. "Life is relentless," says Telushkin, "and leading an ethical life is relentless. There are always challenges ... we repent for the same sins year after year. Hopefully, each year we get a little better."

Telushkin's talk at ASU is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English and the Jewish Studies Program, which are academic units in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Written by Jake Adler