The most dramatic development in modern-day American mass media is not Facebook, MySpace, blogging or the social media. Nothing has expanded more rapidly, and has greater implications, than the meteoric rise of Spanish-language television, says Craig Allen, ASU journalism and mass communications professor.

Allen’s “The Influence of Spanish Language Media in Arizona” is the subject of the next Humanities Lecture Series at ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. Hosted by ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences and University College, the lecture is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m., March 24, at the Nursing and Health Innovation Building Two, 550 N. Third St., Phoenix, Innovation Auditorium, Room 110. Download Full Image

The spring 2011 Humanities Lecture series is free and open to the public.

Allen, associate professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will relate his four years of research into the history of Spanish-language television, its remarkable growth, and some of the social effects that extend from the Spanish TV explosion.

“This field’s most interesting aspect is the story of its development,” Allen said. “While ignored by scholars and unknown to most of the American public, Spanish television provides the modern model of mass communication. It has a history and tradition completely different from English television. It is the Spanish tradition that, if the U.S.  hopes to remain media savvy, Americans today must know.”

Allen says we are at a critical time in our country’s history when Spanish-speaking individuals comprise America’s only growing population at an estimated 70 million people. That number is expected to double by 2050, representing about one-third of the U.S. population.

“Spanish television is not just a social phenomenon but is one of America’s most amazing business success stories of this century,” Allen said. “It started with nickels and dimes and today it is a multibillion dollar enterprise.”

Allen has been active as a consultant to television news organizations outside the United States and is the author of two books – "News Is People: The Rise of Local TV News" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001) and "Eisenhower and the Mass Media" (University of North Carolina Press Enduring Editions, 1994). He is currently writing a book on the history of Spanish television.

For directions, visit http://nursingandhealthasu.edu/contact/nursing-buildings.htm">http://nursingandhealthasu.edu/contact/nursing-buildings.htm">http://nur.... For parking information, visit http://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/contact/parking/htm">http://nursingandhealth.asu.edu/contact/parking/htm">http://nursingandhe.... For more information, call Mirna Lattouf, series lecture organizer, at (602) 496-0638 or visit http://sls.asu.edu/news.html.">http://sls.asu.edu/news.html">http://sls.asu.edu/news.html.

‘“Winning the future,’ as President Barack Obama outlined in his recent State of the Union address, will mean out-educating, out-innovating, and out-building the rest of the world,” noted Juan Sepúlveda in his Feb. 28 keynote speech at the 2011 Leadership for Equity and Excellence Forum in Phoenix, “and this success will be inextricably linked to improving educational success in the Latino community.”

Sepúlveda, who is executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, shared some sobering statistics with the nearly 200 educational leaders, equity specialists, and university students who attended this annual conference organized by ASU’s Equity Alliance, a center in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ School of Social Transformation co-directed by Professors Alfredo Artiles and Elizabeth Kozleski. Download Full Image

“Today, 52 million Americans – 16.5 percent of the population­­ – are Latino. Twenty-five percent of our pre-K children in this country are Latino. But 50 percent of Latino students are not graduating from high school,” he said. “Of those who do make it to college, half need remedial help. Only 13 percent of adults in the Latino community have an undergraduate degree.”

The stage is set early for low educational attainment levels, with under half of Latino children participating in early-childhood education programs.   

The urgency of Sepúlveda’s mission to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for Hispanics is great, especially given the administration’s goal of moving the United States from 9th in the world back to number one, by 2020, in percentage of citizens who earn an academic credential beyond a high school diploma.

Over the last 18 months, he and his team have crisscrossed the country, making people aware that this White House Initiative exists, reaching across communities and geographic boundaries and into businesses and faith-based organizations to help create public-private partnerships that will connect the people and the resources needed to tackle this national challenge.

“I’m a big believer in crowd-sourcing,” Sepúlveda said, “using a lot of brains to fugure things out, like how do we share budget and process? How do we give community people a voice in how policy is crafted along the way? Of the 100-plus communities we’ve visited, 30 have already signed on as partners.”

The White House Initiative also encourages states to compete for “Race to the Top” funds, a $4.35 billion fund established by the Obama administration in 2009 to reward education innovation, reform, and assessment.

“Districts can also apply on their own;” he emphasized, “if they’re ready to step it up but are in states that have decided not to play, they can apply directly.”   

When asked by a member of the audience about what his office was doing to help undocumented students, Sepúlveda talked about their ongoing efforts to gain support for the Dream Act, which at different points in time has had the support of as many as 11 Republican senators, and expressed sadness at the wasted potential in the 55,000-85,000 kids that fall into this category. 

But he also expressed a strong sense of disappointment in Americans’ inability to find the same depth of passion for the needs of the 12 million Hispanic children of school-age that are U.S. citizens as they have for the Dream Act.

“We need to break out of the cycle of acceptance of under-achievement for Hispanic students,” Sepúlveda cautioned. “People need to become passionate about the fact that the biggest bulk of kids who are facing equity and achievement issues are documented citizens.”

Local to Global Justice, founded by ASU students in 2001, will hold its 10th annual Local to Global Justice Teach-In on ASU's Tempe campus Feb. 25 through Feb. 27.

The organization’s mission is to educate ASU students and the greater community about issues of local and global justice, while promoting diversity, freedom of speech, and academic freedom of discussion—connecting local diversity, sustainability, and social justice issues to larger global struggles. Download Full Image

A weekend of panels, hands-on-workshops, and plenary sessions are mingled with music, dance, film, activities for kids, and food!

The Teach-In kicks off Friday night with music by “Artifical Red” at 6:30 in the Farmer Education Lecture Hall, followed by a screening of the 26-minute film "In The Footsteps of Yellow Woman" and a Q&A with its teen director, Camille Manybeads Tso, who explores her Navajo ancestry by imagining and bringing to life her great-great-grandmother Yellow Woman’s participation in the Long Walk.

Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, a scholar, attorney, and activist, will be the afternoon keynoter on Saturday, Feb. 26. He is a research professor in the Graduate Program in Human Rights and the Faculty of Law at the Autonomous University of Mexico City. Professor Pérez-Bustillo has written extensively on global human rights discourse and practices; their historical, philosophical, and ethical origins; and about the rights of indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, and the displaced (“peoples in movement”), while helping to organize world forums on migration and peoples in movement and use comparative research to prevent and eradicate poverty.

Sunday afternoon’s keynoter will be Nancy Meyer of Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization founded by family members of those killed on September 11 who have united to turn their grief into action for peace. By developing and advocating nonviolent options and actions in the pursuit of justice, they hope to break the cycles of violence engendered by war and terrorism.   

For the full schedule of the weekend's activities, visit http://www.localtoglobal.org/2011teachin.htm or">http://www.localtoglobal.org/2011teachin.htm">http://www.localtoglobal.o... download the complete conference program, including maps to the event, at http://www.localtoglobal.org/2011Teach-InProgram02222011.pdf.">http://www.localtoglobal.org/2011Teach-InProgram02222011.pdf">http://www...

Equity Alliance, a center in the College of Liberal Arts & Science’s School of Social Transformation, will hold its 2011 Leadership for Equity and Excellence Forum on Feb. 28 and March 1 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Phoenix. This year’s conference theme is “Beyond the Sidelines: Let’s Get to Work!”

ASU faculty members and students interested in engaging with other equity-minded educational leaders are invited to attend this action-focused conference, which has a terrific line-up of workshops and keynote sessions on the agenda, including presentations from Juan Sepúlveda, director of the White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanic Students; Willis Hawley, of the Diverse Students Initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center; and Beth Harry, of the University of Miami’s Department of Learning and Teaching.    Download Full Image

ASU students can attend for the reduced conference rate of $75 if they volunteer for a portion of a day, or they may attend for free if they volunteer for a full day of the two-day conference. Post-doctoral fellow Jennifer Huber is organizing volunteers for the event; she can be reached at Jennifer.Huber">mailto:Jennifer.Huber@asu.edu">Jennifer.Huber@asu.edu. As a social justice event, this conference would be of interest to students in all education-related degree programs, justice and social inquiry, women and gender studies, social work, leadership and ethics, public service and public policy.

The Equity">https://exchange.asu.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=54c22473896545e7811f4d532fd1e5... Alliance at ASU, co-directed by Professors Alfredo Artiles and Elizabeth Kozleski, houses the Region IX Equity Assistance Center, serving Arizona, California, and Nevada on issues related to civil rights in education. Given that well-educated and supported educators are at the heart of educational equity, the center works to build capacity at all levels to bring about systemic and sustainable change that delivers positive outcomes for all students.

The full conference program is posted online">https://exchange.asu.edu/owa/redir.aspx?C=54c22473896545e7811f4d532fd1e5... at www.equityallianceatasu.org/ea/conference/sessions.

For">http://www.equityallianceatasu.org/ea/conference/sessions">www.equityall... more information, contact Elaine Mulligan at 480-965-8378. 

On the surface, the summer Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad program may have appeared to be a unique opportunity for Arizona State University faculty and graduate students, accompanied by a handful of Valley teachers, to travel to Ghana to experience for themselves the history and culture of the West African republic. Upon the group’s return, the real value of the scholarship study was revealed; it will be shared at a multicultural curriculum conference on Feb. 26 that is part of the ASU West campus Black">http://asunews.asu.edu/20110203_blackhistory">Black History Month calendar of events.

“Sharing Stories: A Multicultural Curriculum Conference” takes place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Kiva Lecture Hall and is free to the community. Phoenix Union School District and Cave Creek Unified District teachers will receive recertification credit for attending. Download Full Image

The conference brings together faculty and graduate students from ASU’s New">http://newcollege.asu.edu/">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and Mary">http://education.asu.edu/">Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College who experienced a monthlong exposure to Ghanaian history, culture and social justice while travelling with Valley K-12 educators who teach a range of subjects, including English, journalism, home economics, reading and special education.

“This is a significant event we are proud to host,” says Duku Anokye, an associate professor of Africana language, literature and culture in the New College Division of Humanities">http://newcollege.asu.edu/harcs">Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies (HArCS). “It brings together a diverse group of educators and students and allows them the chance to share their experiences, as well as the curriculum they created from those experiences.

“The mix of participants in the Fulbright-Hays program was diverse in ethnicity, gender, age and experience, which allowed them to tackle important issues using a variety of perspectives,” adds Anokye, who travelled with the group and has studied Ghanaian culture during the course of nearly a dozen trips to the country on the Gulf of Guinea. Also on the 28-day study were New College faculty member Charles St. Clair and Teachers College Professor Les Irwin; three students from the college’s social justice and human rights graduate degree program, Vinita Quinones, Paul Bork and Ted Novak; and pair of HArCS graduates, Rosie Huf and Kevin Watson.

The group landed in Ghana’s capital city of Accra, a metropolis of nearly two million people located on the Gulf of Guinea. For the next four weeks they travelled into and through Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast and Takoradi; from these locations they ventured into neighboring sites, towns and villages. The focus of the project – ">http://asunews.asu.edu/node/17546">“Stories from the Other Side” – was to collect interviews that would shed light on the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade that marked centuries of injustice on a global scale. Additionally, four teachers from Betty H. Fairfax High School and another from Starlight Park Elementary School were on board and brought their own special talents to the trip. The teachers and the Ghana participants have developed K-12 curriculum materials  and a documentary video based on their research. The curriculum materials have been compiled in a single study guide edited by Irwin.

The conference will feature the results of the group’s work. Included in the half-day event will be the premier of their documentary, “Stories from the Other Side,” that uses the lectures, demonstrations, tours, workshops and interviews from the summer travel. Breakout sessions with individual members of the Fulbright-Hays group are scheduled, and the study guide will be available for sale.

“Travel is one of the best teachers I know,” says Anokye, who has taught at the West campus since 1999. “You learn firsthand about the people, places and culture. You interact with new and intriguing ideas, values and perspectives that aren’t always communicated in the written accounts of life in those places. These are the experiences we will be sharing. The lessons and the documentary are engaging and will give folks a good dose of what it was like as Americans to travel to Ghana; anyone can benefit from this kind of dialogue.”

Anokye says the conference will be of particular interest to Valley educators.

“As educators, attendees will have opportunities to explore various lessons and interview faculty and students who participated in the Fulbright-Hays program,” she says. “They will gain a clear understanding of how the trip affected the participants as teachers and as students. Teachers will return to their home sites with a study guide that connects lessons to Academic Standards and helps them associate what they have been teaching with new and fresh resources.”

She also believes there is no better time for Valley teachers to wrap multicultural lessons into their classroom curriculum.

“Our state is diverse and growing,” says Anokye. “Arizona has a rich history and culture that is rapidly changing. The Phoenix metropolitan area is rarely seen as the culturally diverse region it has become. We have seen growth increases in the number of African Americans, American Indians, Asians and Hispanics/Latinos. This explosion of population has turned the dusty myth of Arizona into an oasis of multicultural experiences, which brings with it its own set of new necessities.

“Culture creates a powerful lens through which issues of social justice and human rights may be observed. Culture is also essential to learning. Teaching that acknowledges, that responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full, equitable access for education for students from all cultures.”

For more information, contact Anokye at 602-543-6020 or via email at aanokye">mailto:aanokye@asu.edu">aanokye@asu.edu.

Davina Spotted Elk, a Navajo, is looking for a few good teachers – teachers-to-be, to be exact – who would like to complete elementary education degrees from Arizona State University without having to leave their families and support network on the Navajo reservation.

The Tuba City native, whose grandmothers are from Big Mountain, Ariz., and Monument Valley, Utah, is project director for “The Four Corners Teacher Preparation Project.” The project represents a strategic partnership between ASU’s Center">http://center-for-indian-education.asu.edu">Center for Indian Education and the Department of Diné Education, in cooperation with Navajo Nation schools, to address Arizona’s shortage of Native certified teachers by using distance-learning technologies. Download Full Image

In Arizona there are more than 80,000 American Indian/Alaska Native children of school age – but only about 1,000 Native public school teachers.

In October, ASU was awarded a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education for the project. Now Spotted Elk is heavily into the recruiting phase, getting the word out about the degree program to Navajo Nation residents who would like to enter the teaching profession as specialists in meeting the cultural and academic needs of young American Indian students.

American Indian or Alaska Native people who have completed the equivalent of an associate’s degree are eligible to apply to the program, which will accept up to 16 individuals to earn a bachelor’s degree and certification in elementary education in two years.

Participants will attend ASU classrooms virtually, from Kayenta Unified School District classrooms using videoconferencing technologies. Each classroom will be able to see the other in real time. The academic programming for the grant is carried out in partnership with ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College.

“Until now, earning a teaching degree has meant, at the very least, having to leave one’s family and community on the reservation for long weekends in a big city,” Spotted Elk explains. “This program brings ASU right into the Navajo community.” 

All tuition is covered by the grant and participants are offered a monthly stipend to cover living expenses, a book allowance, use of a laptop computer and printer, and weekly individualized tutoring sessions. In addition, participants will enjoy mentoring throughout their “induction year” as new teachers. In exchange for this investment, graduates must teach for at least their first two years in schools serving large American Indian student populations.

Spotted Elk encourages potential applicants to come forward as soon as possible, to start the process of ASU admissions. Those accepted to the program will begin taking a full-time course load in the fall.

“For those who might be just a few credits shy of earning the associate’s degree or meeting ASU admission requirements, there might be time for them to pick up the needed classes between now and the end of August, so I urge anyone interested to contact me,” she emphasizes.

Spotted Elk will oversee the day-to-day activities of the four-year grant project. She has worked as a researcher with the Navajo Nation and served as an academic specialist and project director on federally funded grants related to elementary, early childhood, and special education; and co-authored a research study on strong marriages among Navajo couples. Many will be familiar with her work as associate producer of the KUED-TV documentary “We Shall Remain: Navajo,” and she was production assistant for the film “The Long Walk: Tears of the Navajo.”

Center for Indian Education co-directors Bryan Brayboy and Teresa McCarty serve as principal investigator and co-principal investigator for the project, respectively. Both are faculty members in the culture, society and education research cluster of the School of Social Transformation, an academic unit of ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Brayboy is Borderlands Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and McCarty is the Alice Wiley Snell Professor of Education Policy Studies and a professor of applied linguistics.

The project draws on knowledge gained through the Center for Indian Education’s highly successful Indigenous Teacher Preparation Program, which has prepared 10 Native teachers to date, with a 100 percent retention and graduation rate. One-third of the graduates have continued into master’s programs in Indian education. Two other of the center’s recently funded projects prepared 40 Native teachers for certification. These 50 educators are now making a difference in classrooms in their respective tribal communities or in schools with high American Indian enrollments.

The project’s ultimate aims, Brayboy notes, are to create culturally-relevant learning environments where Native American/Alaska Native elementary students will have every opportunity to thrive and experience academic success before moving on to middle school.

“Research shows that the critical difference in student academic outcomes, particularly for linguistic and cultural minority students, is the presence of highly qualified teachers,” he explains. “Further, effective Native student learning is closely associated with curricula that incorporates students’ language and culture. Teachers who share the cultural and linguistic background of Navajo students in the Four Corners area offer a critical contribution to children’s schooling experiences.”

Spotted Elk, the mother of four children, thinks the program could appeal to others who might be drawn to education as she was – as a way to be an advocate for young Indian people.

“I was so shy when I was young,” she says, recalling one missed opportunity to speak up that still brings a feeling of regret. “I was asked by a documentary filmmaker when I was 11 to talk about how relocation efforts related to the Navajo/Hopi land dispute were affecting my grandmother, Katherine Smith, and I chose not to share what I felt. I still resent that missed moment, but I turned that anger with myself into a commitment to advocacy,” continues Spotted Elk. “Graduates of the Four Corners Teacher Preparation project will be prepared to serve as advocates in their Native communities – as teachers, role models and leaders.”

SOURCE:

Davina Spotted Elk, DSpotted">mailto:DSpotted@asu.edu">DSpotted@asu.edu

480-965-3264

MEDIA CONTACT:

Maureen Roen, Maureen.Roen">mailto:Maureen.Roen@asu.edu">Maureen.Roen@asu.edu

480-965-7203

Described as “one of the most significant writers of postcolonial India,” author and playwright Kiran Nagarkar brings insight, humor and storytelling excellence to two events at Arizona State University on Feb. 18.

Nagarkar will host a Q & A at 11 a.m., Feb. 18, in the Piper Writers House, ASU’s Tempe campus. Seats are limited and an RSVP is required: Margaret.coulombe">mailto:Margaret.coulombe@asu.edu">Margaret.coulombe@asu.edu Download Full Image

He will also offer a public reading "You Cannot Choose Your Parents, but You Can Choose Your Ancestors" and discussion at 3:30 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Originally from Bombay (Mumbai), Nagarkar’s books include: "Seven Sixes are Forty Three" (1974) and "Ravan and Eddie" (1994), which was translated to an award-winning screenplay by filmmaker Dev Benegal. Nagarkar’s third novel, "Cuckold," was published in 1997, a blend of Indian history with the many forms of love in the life of Maharaj Kumar, prince of Mewar, and husband to Indian saint Mirabai. Spanning governance, mysticism, the arts, warfare and religion, "Cuckold" earned him the Sahitya Akademi Award for best novel. Religion and fanaticism take on different forms in his book "God’s Little Soldier" (2006), in which Nagarkar examines intolerance as told through the transformative journey of Zia, from his privileged childhood to Jihadist, missionary and arms dealer. 

One reviewer writes of his work: “a master of his craft, Nagarkar’s words contain rebellious outrage against the existent socio-political scenarios, in the form of living metaphors. Each of his works explores nonconformist individuals in an insensitive society. While doing so, Nagarkar never detaches from the simplicity and innocence of his central characters. His empathic and clear-sighted treatment of human nature and coruscating jet black sense of humor combined with scathing irony is what brings Nagarkar and his works close to the heart of readers.”

For more information: Margaret Coulombe, Margaret.coulombe">mailto:Margaret.coulombe@asu.edu">Margaret.coulombe@asu.edu; 480-727-8934 or go to:
http://www.asu.edu/piper/public_events/calendar/events_cal.html">http://www.asu.edu/piper/public_events/calendar/events_cal.html">http://...

February offerings in the ThinK (Thursdays in Kiva) series at ASU’s West campus feature a mixture of events celebrating Black History Month and others focusing on the yearlong theme of “Much Ado About Food.”

Events are free and open to the public (visitor parking on campus costs $2 per hour) and are held in the Kiva Lecture Hall, in the Sands Classroom Building at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road in Phoenix. Download Full Image

ThinK is sponsored by ASU’s http://newcollege.asu.edu/" target="_blank">New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, the core college on the West campus.

The schedule is:

Feb. 3, 5:00 p.m.: Black History Month Film: “Soul Food”

Sunday dinner at Mother Joe’s is a mouth-watering, 40-year tradition. As seen through the eyes of her grandson Ahmad, love and laughs are always on the menu, despite the usual rivalries simmering between his mom Maxine and her sisters Teri and Bird. But when serious bickering starts to tear the family apart, the good times suddenly stop. Now it’s up to Ahmad to get everyone back together and teach them the true meaning of soul food. This 1997 film was the basis for a television series on Showtime that ran from 2000 to 2004.

Feb. 10, 4:00 p.m.: Why we like the foods we do: the good, the bad and the fattening

This talk will cover where our food preferences come from and how they can be changed. While there are some genetic differences in sensitivity to tastes and preferences for tastes, most of our food preferences are learned and therefore can be changed. The presenter is Elizabeth D. “Betty” Capaldi, who became ASU’s University Provost and Executive Vice President in 2006. Born in New York City, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester and her Ph.D. degree in experimental psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Capaldi has contributed more than 65 chapters and articles to the scientific literature, co-authored three editions of an introductory psychology textbook, and edited two books on the psychology of eating.

Feb. 17, 5:00 p.m.: The Techno-Bucolic: How animals and machines make us human

Life down on the farm has always been technological. The hoe and plow seem benign but modern machinery appears less so. How we farm tells us something about how we think and live. This talk will looks at the trajectory of modern technological farming and examine the implications of a culture enthralled by technology. If all farming is technological, can we ever arrive at a humanely scaled techno-bucolic? The presenter is Ronald Broglio, a faculty member in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, on the Tempe campus.

Feb. 24, 5:00 p.m.: Black History Month documentary: “Stories from the Other Side”

“Stories from the Other Side” is a collection of interviews from the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad scholarship participants’ monthlong journey to Ghana, West Africa, last summer, shedding light on Ghana’s culture, people, language, spirituality, traditions and rich history. The documentary, produced by New College faculty members Charles St. Clair and Duku Anokye, captures the experiences of faculty and graduate students from ASU and teachers from the Phoenix Union School District. “Stories from the Other Side” explores the transformation of the teachers and students as they visited slave castles, museums, took part in language and dance classes, and interviewed Ghanaian about their lives, their memories about slavery and the impact of contemporary human trafficking.

For more information, call (602) 543-4521 or email ncevents">mailto:ncevents@asu.edu">ncevents@asu.edu.

A Phoenix high school student’s volunteer work with an Arizona State University community service program has earned her a national award.

Rebia Khan, a junior at Xavier College Preparatory, has won the Aspirations in Computing award from the National">http://www.ncwit.org">National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT).  Download Full Image

She is one of 35 young women selected to receive the award from among more than 900 applicants.

NCWIT is a coalition of more 250 corporations, academic institutions, government agencies and non-profits that promotes the participation of girls and women in computing and information technology use.

The award recognizes female high school students for computing-related achievements and interests.  Winners are chosen for their aptitude in computing and information technology, leadership ability, academic record and plans for post-secondary education.

Khan was involved in Engineering Projects In Community Service – called EPICS – in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

Through EPICS, students to take on community service projects that require solving engineering and technology problems for not-for-profit community agencies, schools and government agencies.

Khan learned about EPICS after one of her high school teachers noticed her interest in technology and volunteer work.  The teacher told her about the pilot program that allows high school students to join an EPICS project team by enrolling in a class at ASU called EPICS GOLD.

“Rebia is an outstanding young woman and very deserving of national recognition,” says Richard Filley, director of EPICS. “Even as a high school sophomore last year she seemed like a natural in my ASU EPICS GOLD classes.”

Khan also has twice been elected by ASU classmates as an officer in the EPICS Maroon Club, which takes on community service projects in the metro Phoenix area. 

The national NCWIT award recognizes her work with an EPICS team that has designed a solar panel system to provide electricity for a rural girls’ school in Bangladesh.

Because the country’s government provides electricity only a few hours a day, it restricts schooling time for the girls.

The EPICS team members are attempting to work with companies in Bangladesh for help to implement their solar panel system design.

The impetus for the project came from an alumnus of ASU’s engineering program, Enamul Hoque, who wanted to honor his mother.

Hoque’s family members are natives of Bangladesh, where his father was once a school teacher. Because of the country’s poverty, his mother never had an opportunity for a formal education.

After coming to the United States, the Hoque family helped establish and maintain a school for the poor in the Bangladesh city of Dhaka.

Khan helped the project team with the computer-aided design of its solar panel system for the school.

The award also recognizes work she does at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. She uses her computing skills in research to analyze programs for quantifying neural recovery of song birds.

Khan says her work on the EPICS project provided valuable lessons.

“I realized how engineers can help people and help change systems that might help change the world,” she says.

“It gave me the confidence to get involved in the entrepreneurship part of it, because we had to speak in front of the Women and Philanthropy committee” to get an EPICS grant for the teams project, she says.  “It’s really taught me what it’s like in the real word and how to use my skills.” 

Khan has since started an EPICS club at her high school.

“Girls are really interested in this kind of thing,” she says.

http://engineering.asu.edu/epicsgold">

href="Read">http://engineering.asu.edu/epicsgold">Read more about EPICS.

Written by Amy Lukau

Evelyn Cruz, Professor of Law, published an article in Voices of Mexico, a Mexican academic magazine.

The article entitled, “The United States v. Arizona: The Power Struggle Over Setting Immigration Enforcement Priorities,” offers an overview of SB 1070 and the federalism issues involved. Download Full Image

Cruz teaches Immigration Law and Comprehensive Law Practice, and directs the College’s Immigration Law & Policy Clinic, which represents unaccompanied minors in immigration removal proceedings and received the 2007 President’s Medal for Social Embeddedness at ASU.

Staci McCabe, Staci.McCabe">mailto:Staci.McCabe@asu.edu">Staci.McCabe@asu.edu
(480) 965-8702
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law