ASU education outreach program seeks to discover ways to inspire more females to help boost nation’s technological expertise

What will spark girls’ interest in engineering careers? An ASU education specialist will look for answers in a multi-year study focusing on 60 girls in several middle schools in the greater Phoenix area. Download Full Image

Girls in Engineering: Shaping the Future is scheduled to begin this upcoming school year with selected groups of sixth-grade girls in the Kyrene School District. The study will follow their progress through their middle school and high school years as they participate in hands-on learning experiences designed to encourage them to explore the world of engineering.

The Kyrene School District includes parts of Chandler, Guadalupe, Tempe, Phoenix and the Gila River Indian Community.

The project is led by Tirupalavanam Ganesh, an assistant professor of engineering education in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Its start-up funding of $20,000 is being provided by the Engineering Information Foundation, a national organization that works to improve engineering information and education around the world and supports efforts to diversify the engineering workforce by promoting recruitment of women into the profession.

“We believe that having more women working in engineering fields is paramount in solving the world’s problems,” said Ruth Miller, executive director of the Engineering Information Foundation. “We hope this project inspires many of these girls to consider going to engineering school and on to careers in engineering.”

The endeavor will benefit from work Ganesh has done for several years with a National Science Foundation-funded project, Learning through Engineering Design and Practice. It’s part of the NSF’s Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers program. Studies and activities developed for those efforts will be incorporated into the Girls in Engineering project.

Studies show that women are not being attracted to the engineering field in numbers sufficient to help meet the growing demand by industry for engineering expertise in the 21st century.
   
Ganesh cites data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics reporting that fewer than 18 percent of students enrolled in undergraduate college and university engineering programs are female – as of 2008, the most recent year for which complete data is available.

“It’s important to have a mix of our nation’s citizenry be represented in science and engineering enterprises,” he said. “We don’t want females to simply be consumers of technology. We want them to be involved in shaping, designing and building new technologies.”

The key, Ganesh says, will be communicating messages about the ways engineering is relevant to society’s progress.

“We need students to see engineering as something that is fulfilling and enjoyable and valuable to the world, not something that is only a job to earn money,” he says. He adds that it's critical to attract students to the field while they’re young.

“It’s important that we foster a sense of curiosity, a sense of excitement about learning to be inventive,” he says. “I’m passionate about learning how we can do this more effectively.”

For more information, visit Girls in Engineering: Shaping the Future.

ASU President Michael M. Crow and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Sandra Day O'Connor joined writers, political scientists and sociologists for a June 13 panel in Washington, D.C., on social, economic and political division.

Leaders and experts discussed such topics as immigration, poverty and race – issues that divide Americans. Crow emphasized the need for "intellectually rigorous, focused, thoughtful debate" in addressing the complexities of such issues. Download Full Image

He also highlighted the efforts of ASU through the recently launched Center for Social Cohesion.

A fellow at ASU's Center for Social Cohesion, Constantino Diaz-Duran is walking across the country to celebrate his eligibility for citizenship and to uncover what it means to be an American.

Diaz-Duran came to the United States from Guatemala 10 years ago. He plans to chronicle his walk from New York to Los Angeles. Click here to read about his journey and find out how you can be a part of it. Download Full Image

Diaz-Duran was featured on the July 4 episode of "American Morning" on CNN, outside the First Avenue Coffee Shop in New York City, where he began his journey.

The Center for Social Cohesion, a joint project of Arizona State University and Zócalo Public Square in partnership with the New America Foundation, is dedicated to studying the forces that shape our sense of social unity.

Access the episode below.

Arizona State University engineering doctoral degree candidate Elodie Billionniere is among those the Phoenix Business Journal has selected to recognize as “up-and-coming” young leaders in the greater Phoenix area.

The Journal’s annual “Forty Under 40” feature spotlights high achievers from ages 20 through 40 in local business, education, government, politics, science, social causes and other fields. Download Full Image

Billionniere will complete work this summer to earn a Ph.D. in computer science through the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, one of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The Journal recognizes her for work she’s doing as a research specialist for ASU’s University Design Consortium, and for her consulting work in developing sensor technology for health care applications. The sensor project, called Reactive Mobile Computing, is one of the finalists in the ASU Innovation Challenge competition.

The Journal equally notes Billionniere’s involvement and leadership roles in a broad range of social and professional service organizations and projects.

Read">http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/pdf/40Under40_2011.pdf">Read more.

The term “environmental justice” recently came into sharp and shocking focus for a group of Arizona State University graduate students who traveled to New Orleans.

“Around the city we could see the scars of Hurricane Katrina, especially represented by the spray-painted ‘X’s on the houses that had been searched,” said Stephen Marotta, a student in the master of arts in social justice and human rights (MASJHR) program offered by ASU’s http://newcollege.asu.edu/" target="_blank" title="New College homepage">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. “But in the Ninth Ward, more specifically the western part of the neighborhood closest to the floodwall that failed, the houses were just gone. The whole time we drove the virtually empty streets of the Ninth Ward, I was conscious of the fact that this was a place where many of New Orleans’ poorest residents had lost their lives, and that at least part of the blame belongs to deeper structural factors that have isolated the city’s poor and Black.” Download Full Image

That type of reaction was what Monica Casper, who teaches the “Environmental Justice, Body Politics and Human Rights” course that prompted the trip, was hoping to inspire by taking students to a city that is a focal point for the politics of environmental justice. The course is cross-listed for students in the MASJHR program as well as New College’s master of arts in interdisciplinary studies (MAIS) program. Both degrees are offered on ASU’s West campus.

“I wanted the students to have some hands-on experience,” Casper said. “What I hoped is that students would get to see, up close and personal, some of the devastated areas, and that we could have an informed discussion about environmental justice before, during and after catastrophe.

“It’s one thing to read an article about environmental justice theory, and quite another to see abandoned houses with painted numbers on the façade indicating bodies found, toxicity, and the agency that searched the home. That it is more than five years later, and the devastation is still so present in parts of the city, was heartbreaking.”

The students stayed with ASU alumna Ella “Ellie” McCulloch, went on tours provided by the nonprofit organization Rebuilding Together New Orleans, attended a seminar at Tulane University, toured a levee construction site with a guide from the Army Corps of Engineers, and also found time to get a taste of the local culture and cuisine.

“The touristy parts of New Orleans – Bourbon Street, the French Quarter – were pretty much what I expected,” said Chelsey Dawes, another student participant. “What I found shocking was the lack of infrastructure that has been rebuilt since Katrina.

“I didn’t expect to see a lot of the original damage,” Dawes said. “To my surprise, and despite the difficulty of deciphering between urban decay and flood damage, there were entire neighborhoods that still had abandoned houses, houses with flood markings, and flood debris including downed trees and abandoned cars. I was also saddened to see the hospitals and health facilities that have not reopened.”

Casper said the students learned about some of the bureaucratic politics impeding progress, including jurisdictional battles. “And we got a sense of what could work and what isn’t working with respect to rebuilding,” she added.

Marotta and Casper both pointed to the well-publicized rebuilding project led by the actor Brad Pitt as an example of good intentions that aren’t necessarily having the most appropriate results.

“I had originally been a champion of Brad Pitt’s efforts,” Marotta said. “But after seeing his project, I’m not sure. He is building some bizarre anti-vernacular eco-houses that are apparently pricing many Ninth Ward residents out of their neighborhood.”

According to Marotta, this effort is in contrast to the work being done by Rebuilding Together New Orleans, a program of the Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. “RTNO is helping people get back into their homes without doing all the Brad Pitt modifications.”

RTNO’s Kate Cutrer served as tour guide for much of the visit. “She gave us copies of the book ‘How to Rebuild a City,’ which she contributed to,” said Marotta. “It is easily one of my favorite books. It reflects New Orleans’ general aura of both acceptance and playfulness; it is nostalgic, cathartic, painful and optimistic all at once.”

The disparity in publicity afforded to the efforts of Pitt and RTNO is just one example of how a multitude of factors can affect outcomes in a disaster zone.

“New Orleans was a particularly meaningful place for the students to visit because it is a central location for environmental justice politics, and many of this country’s key figures in the field of environmental justice are located in southern cities like New Orleans and Atlanta,” Casper said. “Given that race and racial politics, along with class, have so much to do with environmental injustice, it makes sense for these areas to be hotbeds of activity and politics. Post-Katrina New Orleans offers an ideal laboratory to study the devastating effects of a ‘natural’ disaster that has so many social and economic components.”

The students’ New Orleans experiences were enriched by their interactions with their host family. “Ellie took us to an awesome jazz show in Merigny – the locals’ alternative to the French Quarter – and took us sailing on Lake Pontchartrain. She and her mother, Betty, were amazing hosts,” Marotta said.

Added Dawes, “Betty showed us all of her belongings, everything she owned for 80 years. She showed us some of the things she kept that were destroyed in Katrina, and she cried when she showed us the pictures that she was able to save. That moment will be forever in my heart.”

While the students would have liked to depart New Orleans with a feeling of hope, it wasn’t easy to do so, according to Marotta.

“Someone said to me while I was there that the storm certainly had a serious impact on New Orleans, but it also exposed the city’s deeper problems,” he said. “I left the city unsure of whether these problems, particularly of racial and economic inequality, would be addressed in New Orleans’ rebuilding efforts.”

Laughter fills the air as students learned Chinese landscape art and calligraphy in their latest Chinese cultural class at Arizona State University, as a part of the STARTALK summer camp.

Fongfong Ding, one of the two cultural instructors, strides to the front pointing to various paintings of her own, explaining with a giggle that she’s a first-time artist as well. “If I can do it, you can do it,” she says, to the welcome laughter of her students. Download Full Image

The excitement in the air is high as brushes and ink splatter over pages and occasionally, faces. After a week at the camp, the Chinese arts class is only one more in a string of classes, and students note as much as they reminisce over their favorite classes.

Tiffany Lam of Liberty High School smiles before saying, “I like all culture classes. Especially the knotting, even though no one else does.” To which her table partner, BASIS Tucson student Amaris Henry answers, “Hey, me too!”

On the other hand, Sydney Jackson, who attends BASIS with Amaris, smiles as she explains, “[my favorite class is] probably the fish. Mostly thanks to the knotty, tassel thing.”

Terra Gifft, a sophomore this coming fall at Willow Canyon High School disagrees, “I like making dumplings.”

Still other students argue over what they like about camp best.

Rebecca Woo, a high school student from Sandra Day O’Connor, notes the Kung Fu class as her favorite cultural activity, “I like learning sparring techniques.”

Her table partner Yosef Jacobsen of BASIS Tucson laughs as he informs us of her motivation, “She’s too weak.”

For some students, however, the intensive but warm approach to language acquisition and familiarity of people in the camp are the biggest key aspects.

Foothills Academy student Emma-li Thompson grinned widely as she said, “I like having live teachers.” And when pressed, continued, “I actually use Rosetta Stone to learn Chinese. It’s bad for me [for learning purposes]. But here at camp, everyone [collectively] has been nicer to me than anyone at my school all year.”

The familiarity students have with each other is indeed fairly evident as the day went on. Despite being split into three major levels of language acquisition, students have been joining up to do gym activities together, watching Twilight in Chinese dub and tutoring each other in Chinese, to name a few.

Similar to the previous two years, STARTALK has split students according to three main levels of linguistic strength: beginners, for those who have very little to no concept of Mandarin; intermediate for students who have taken one to two years of Mandarin; and finally the advanced level, which is most often comprised of heritage speakers or students who have had extended years of experience in the language.

Throughout the two weeks, students have been exposed to various cultural classes in the form of Chinese knotting, making dumplings, visiting the Phoenix Chinese Cultural Center, eating dim sum, cutting Chinese fish, learning martial arts and of course, picking up calligraphy and Chinese landscape art.

Various activities and projects are put on display when the students put their skills to the test on Graduation Day, June 19.

“Our STARTALK Chinese language programs in the past two years have been very successful,” says Xia Zhang, ASU STARTALK program director reflects. “I have all the confidence that 2011 will be even better. I hope that after this program, students will not only bring back home with newly learnt and improved Chinese language skills but also a wonderful memory of their first-time college life experience.”

And that does sincerely seem to be represented in the students as they tackle the second week of classes here at camp.

Written by Kamla Tung, Communications & Chinese Language Flagship B.A.

<p>
Matthew C. Whitaker, founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University spoke about the history and celebration of Juneteenth Day &ndash; June 19 &ndash; on Nevada Public Radio&rsquo;s &ldquo;State of Nevada,&rdquo; with host Dave Becker.</p>
<p>
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval recently signed legislation making his state the 39th in the nation to recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday. Juneteenth is marked by African Americans and others around the world as a day to celebrate the end of slavery and to commemorate the contributions of African Americans in society.</p>
<p>
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring &quot;that all persons held as slaves&quot; within the rebellious states &quot;are, and henceforward shall be free.&quot; However, it wasn&rsquo;t until June 19, 1865, that Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were free.</p>
<p>
Whitaker, an associate professor of history at ASU, told radio listeners that &ldquo;jubilation was the reaction of most&rdquo; of those in east Texas when they learned of the news. However, that emotional reaction was &ldquo;quickly followed by reality of &lsquo;What do we do next.?&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>
According to Whitaker, many of the newly freed slaves &ldquo;immediately set out to find family members who had been ripped from them, they had been separated during slavery. In east Texas and throughout the Deep South after slavery, there were just scores of African Americans walking on feet looking for wives that had been sold away, or daughters or sons or husbands.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
Whitaker shared with &ldquo;State of Nevada&rdquo; listeners that African Americans weren&rsquo;t the only residents trying to figure out what to do. So were many other Texans, especially women on plantations whose husbands were killed in the war, who had come to rely on slaves to keep the plantations going. The exodus of former slaves was a blunt reality to the economy of Texas and the South, said Whitaker, who teaches in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies in ASU&rsquo;s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.</p>
<p>
Juneteenth is now celebrated across the United States and in many foreign countries with traditional Southern food, dance and poetry reading, noted Whitaker.</p>
<p>
A podcast of the radio interview, which also includes comments from the Rev. Ronald V. Myers Sr., M.D., chairman of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation and the national Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council, is at <a href="http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=7942&amp;ProgramID...
<p>
More information about Juneteenth is at <a href="http://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm">http://www.juneteenth.com/history...

Hair.

Some people have too much, and some have too little. Download Full Image

It can incite passion, or compassion: a lover’s touch, a gift to a cancer victim who has lost her tresses.

It’s swept up and thrown away at the beauty shop – or, recently, stolen.

Recent news stories have recounted the theft of thousands of dollars worth of human hair from beauty salons and beauty-supply stores all across the United States. Robbers even killed one supply-store owner in Michigan to get to his stock of hair. A salon owner in Houston said she lost $150,000 in human hair in one robbery.

When hair becomes a hot topic, that means just one thing for Neal Lester, dean of humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: His phone will start ringing and his e-mail inbox will be crammed with urgent invitations. Reporters want to talk to Lester about hair.

So far, he has talked the theft of human hair, in the context of his research specialty – the race and gender politics of hair – with CBC Radio in Canada, the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, SLToday out of St. Louis, and Phoenix’s Fox 10 News.

Lester told the New York Times that “the growing demand for human hair extensions and the high prices had made thefts inevitable. “It’s sort of a sign of the times. Folks are being entrepreneurial, and weaves and hair extensions are expensive, so it’s not surprising that people sell hair the way they sell things on Canal Street, like knock-off purses.”

The current popularity of hair extensions, according to various Web sites, is largely due to Victoria Beckham, who seemingly coaxed her hair to great lengths in mere months. Ezine Articles notes that when the former Spice Girl “first got together with her now husband David Beckham it was a time when public interest in the couple was at a all time high and they were both photographed all the time and would be found on the cover or most newspapers and magazines.

“With this sort of publicity everything about the couple was scrutinised. At that time pictures of Victoria were on the front of every paper or magazine with many different hair styles on view. Some days she had short hair, the next she had long and it was obviously these styles were created thanks to hair extensions. She even spoke about them and explained they were created with natural human hair which caused slight controversy as to where the hair came from.”

Lester said that the new attitude about hair treatments such as extensions is that “you don’t have to convince someone that it’s real” – the fact that you have the extensions is enough.

Human hair has become a hot commodity because it is expensive, not easily traceable – there are no bar codes or identifying marks on it – and it is a fast-growing trend, Lester said.

New York Times reporter Timothy Williams noted that “The hair can cost as much as $200 per package and the average person requires at least two packages. Women spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to have the extensions attached.”

Much of the stolen hair comes from India, where women have their heads shorn as a Hindu religious rite. The website sexyalterego.com says that the Venkateswara Temple in southern India collects a ton of human hair every day from the 50,000-100,000 pilgrims who visit the site.

“The practice of tonsuring doesn’t provide any money for the women offering the hair, instead they hope to be repaid with blessings. The temples sell the hair to wig and hair extension companies around the world. The profit the temples make from the hair is used to fund charity programs and improve local infrastructure such as improve roads to the temple,” the Website states.

According to Sexyalterego.com, only 25 percent of the human hair sold in India is from the temples. “The rest comes from salon floors or hair brushes.” The site says that the women are paid very little for their hair, and that some women are even forced to cut their hair so it can be sold.

The high cost and growing popularity of hair extensions is just one aspect of the story of hair, particularly for African Americans, Lester noted.

For women today, the ideal hair is straight, long and light-colored, the type of hair that will float in the wind. In the era of slavery, straighter also was better, Lester said. “Those whose hair was straighter – more like the owner’s – perceived themselves to be and were considered more valuable.”

Many African-American woman today spend hundreds of dollars and endure hours in the salon and endure harsh chemicals to have their hair straightened, and spend even more money to have the extensions woven in. “By and large, straight hair remains the ideal for African Americans and non-African Americans,” Lester said.

Hair is a topic that covers many “isms” – sexism, racism, ageism – and is fraught with peril. Should an elderly woman be allowed to have long hair? Is that man’s comb-over a bad idea? What does it mean if you have pink hair, or a Mohawk? Why is straight hair so coveted?

If it’s ok that people know that hair extensions are just that – human hair that’s been braided or glued to someone else’s head – why are they so coveted, and so expensive?

It’s only hair. Or is it?

For C. Alejandra Elenes, associate professor at ASU, the words may come easier than for most. What she puts into her work is from the heart and from her upbringing. She writes what she knows, and her most recent effort is no exception to the rule.

Elenes, who teaches in the New">http://newcollege.asu.edu/">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Division of Humanities">http://newcollege.asu.edu/harcs">Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, has authored “Transforming Borders: Chicana/o Popular Culture and Pedogogy” (Lexington Books) and co-authored with Dolores Delgado Bernal of the University of Utah, “Chicana Feminist Theorizing: Methodologies, Pedagogies and Practices,” a chapter in the third edition of Chicano School Failure and Success: Past, Present and Future. Both deal with issues relating to the U.S.-Mexico border. Download Full Image

“My interest in the border, borderland theories and the relationship between culture and knowledge is the result of my experience growing up in a bilingual, bicultural and transnational family,” says Elenes, who has spent her academic career conducting research, teaching and volunteering her services at ASU’s West campus since 1992. “I am the product of two cultures (Mexican and “American”), religions (Catholic and Protestant) and nations (Mexico and the U.S.).”

Her most recent book, “Transforming Borders,” is a significant contribution to transformative pedagogies scholarship, adding the voices of Chicanas feminist teachings, epistemologies and ontologies to the debate. The author looks at the significance of historical events, such as the creation of the U.S.-Mexico border, to understand the experiences of people of Mexican descent in the United States.

“What I hope this book can contribute is not only to add the voices of Chicanas and other people of color to this scholarship, but that in doing so, we operationalize the commitments to social justice by developing models that integrate and intersect race, class, gender, sexuality, power and privilege,” she says.

Elenes, who has served as a board member of the Arizona Association for Chicanos in Higher Education since 2004, admits the book plays to an academic audience, but also believes it contains lessons for all. “Any person who is interested in popular culture, especially narratives and stories of the people of Mexican descent, will be interested in the book and the histories of La Llorona (the Weeping Woman), the Virgin of Guadalupe and Malintzin/Malinche.

“I highlight in ‘Transforming Borders’ how stories change over time and according to who is telling the story,” she says. “I also point out that even though these stories have a long association with patriarchy, they have been reclaimed and re-imaged as feminist and women-centric images.”

Elenes was born in Mexico City and raised in Monterrey in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon. Her father was of Mexican descent, while her mother is Anglo-German and from Milwaukee. After her parents’ divorce, she followed her mother back to the city on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan to pursue a graduate-level degree, earning her master's and doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her older brother and sister remained behind in Monterrey; she remembers travelling back and forth between Wisconsin and Mexico.

“My mom would speak to us in English, and we would answer in Spanish,” she says. “She made sure we celebrated Thanksgiving, even though it was not a holiday in Mexico. Even though my mom is Methodist, we were raised in the Spanish-speaking Catholic Church.

“We were always bridging two cultures, languages and religions,” says Elenes, who teaches undergraduate courses in race, class and hender; Latina/Chicana representation; pro-seminar theory and methods in women’s studies; and courses in the New College Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary">http://newcollege.asu.edu/graduate/degrees/mais">Interdisciplinary Studies and Social">http://newcollege.asu.edu/graduate/degrees/sjhr">Social Justice and Human Rights programs.

“All my life I have crossed linguistic, natural and cultural borders; it was very easy for me to gravitate toward a theoretical framework and a philosophy that allows understanding identities as dynamic and always in the process of changing. This has influenced who I am and my interest in borderland theories as they do speak of my own experience.”

Elenes says the major contributions to Chicana feminist thought comes from an analysis of how Chicana feminist cultural workers have re-imagined La Llorona, La Virgen de Guadalupe and Malintzin/Malinche as feminist and women-centered representations. She points out that the innovative approach is in understanding these representations and re-imagining each as ways of teaching and learning in everyday life, ways of knowing and ways of being. In short, Chicana feminists have re-imagined the three figures in innovative ways; the book places these strategies as pedagogical.

She also proposes in “Transforming Borders” that the creation of the current U.S.-Mexico border in the 19th century shaped the destiny of both countries and also the formation of Mexican and Mexican American (Chicana/o) cultural identities. The border, she says, is a marker of what separates Mexico and the United States, or advanced capitalism separated from the developing world. For people of Mexican descent, the existence of the border is a reminder of the loss of territory to the United States; the historical wound continues to inscribe how people of Mexican descent construct their national identity on both sides of the fence.

“I offer a historical overview, centering on gender, of the formation of the border, contemporary immigration policy in the U.S. (including a discussion of Arizona SB 1070), and how the border region is part and parcel of the processes of globalization and transnationalism,” she notes.

In the classroom, Elenes focuses on showing students the importance of conducting analysis beyond binary thinking, beyond understanding the world only through the lens of opposites. She shares that there are many overlaps between different modes of thinking, ideologies and philosophies, while encouraging her students to embrace ambiguity, no matter how difficult.

“The most important lessons are many,” she says. “I want my students to learn where their ideologies and philosophies come from and to learn and critically assess their world view and know where it comes from.

“When we are able to reflect on our own thinking, we learn to defend it, and to not be offended if someone thinks differently from us,” says Elenes, who earned a 2006 book critics award from the American Educational Studies Association for her co-edited anthology “Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology.”

“When we believe we know one truth and think we are right, we stop learning and understanding other points of view,” she continues. “This critical examination allows us to understand the role that gender, race, class and sexuality has in our society and in our lives.”

A demonstrated, continuous commitment to promoting cultural diversity has earned several faculty, staff and students at ASU’s West campus recognition from the Campus Environment Team. The CET on the West campus awarded its 2011 Excellence in Diversity Awards to Omayra Ortega (faculty), Bobbi Magdaleno (staff/administrator), Bruce Bale (student), Natalie Ohannessian (community servant), and the M.A. program in social justice and human rights (group).

“All of the nominees were extremely deserving, so it wasn’t easy to choose the recipients,” said Margot Monroe, West campus CET chair. “Each nominee models the type of behavior that promotes a positive, welcoming atmosphere on the West campus.” Download Full Image

Ortega, a faculty member in New College’s Division of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, served as chair of the MLK Planning Committee at West, coordinating the highly successful “March on West” event that brought 1,200 students from local middle schools to campus for the annual “I Have a Dream” speech reenactment. Her numerous other activities include serving as faculty mentor of the Black Students Association and mentoring student clubs including the Hispanic Honor Society, Black Student Union, and the Axe Capoeira at ASU, a group performing Brazilian martial arts, music and dance. Ortega is described as an individual who truly models respectful treatment of all individuals in her daily interactions with students, fellow faculty, staff and community partners.

Magdaleno, director of community relations in Public Affairs, received a special unanimous nomination from the CET committee. The committee cited her tireless work as an advocate of all West campus cultural programs. “Bobbi is a constant supporter, and is first to see and voice the value in working with a very diverse group of individuals across several cultural committees,” Monroe said. “Campus committees such as Native American, Hispanic, MLK Planning and the Black History Month Committee all know the value of her commitment to keeping the tenets of valuing diversity live and well on the campus. She also works hard to ensure there is a connection that keeps the West campus on the forefront of community visibility and participation.”

Bale received the student award for his regular support and promotion of campus and community cultural diversity and awareness. Bale volunteers for student and special interest group causes, and meets and befriends people of all cultures, ethnicities and backgrounds. He is described as relishing the opportunity to learn about any cultural different from his own, and has made a point of promoting awareness of different cultures in and around campus.  Recently Bale volunteered for a program called “Meals for Vegans,” which advocates and lobbies for greater vegan awareness and accessibility of vegan meals, although he is not a vegan himself.

Ohannessian is a community member who serves as advisor to the Teachers of the Future student organization. She has lent her assistance to several events at the West campus, including Winter Warmth, Book Bash and Fairy Godmothers, an event that collects prom dresses for girls who cannot afford them. Ohannessian is described as a kind-hearted individual who always puts others of all ethnic backgrounds before herself.

The faculty, students and staff associated with the master’s program in social justice and human rights received the group award for their success in fostering and enhancing diversity and justice. Founding faculty identified a need for a program of study focused on social change, including improving the status of marginalized peoples at all levels from the local to the institutional to global. From its outset the program has emphasized diversity, with a focus on women’s empowerment, outreach efforts, and activities on campus. The MASJHR program evolved out of the first-ever Border Justice event at ASU, which focused on femicides in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Since then the program’s major focus is on courses in transnational feminism, human trafficking, and sexual violence again migrant women.

Along with the award recipients, additional individuals and groups were nominated this year for the CET Excellence in Diversity Award in recognition for their commitment to the support and promotion of cultural diversity. Nominees included faculty members Akua Duku Anokye and Bel Winemiller and groups Kappa Delta Pi and Teachers of the Future.

CET is an advisory group to the Provost that promotes a positive, harmonious campus environment that celebrates individual and group diversity, promotes individualism, provides information to the campus community, and resolves issues in such a manner as to respect all people and their dignity.

For more information about CET at the West campus, contact Margot Monroe at (602) 543-8407 or margot.monroe">mailto:margot.monroe@asu.edu">margot.monroe@asu.edu.