alumni
Alumni engagement is one way to measure the quality of a university and ASU’s alumni are among the best. They are some of the university’s most significant advocates who engage with their communities and take innovative steps to solve today’s most challenging issues.
Peace Corps
ASU has ranked on the annual list of Peace Corps “Top Colleges and Universities” every year since 2010. The university currently has 67 alumni serving as Peace Corps volunteers in 35 countries and since 1961, 918 alumni have served overseas with the corps. ASU now ranks 19th among all large universities.
arts and sciences
New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences alumnus Ed Vasko, managing director and co-founder of the Valley-based technology consulting firm Terra Verde Services, developed an innovative program with New College built on project-based internships that ensure participating students gain valuable, tangible experience to share with prospective employers. According to Elizabeth Langland, dean of the New College, internships that culminate in a completed project offer students an ideal way to connect their education with potential professional careers.
ASU’s School of Letters and Sciences’ greatest achievement is its students and their success as prepared lifelong learners. The school helps students adapt to an evolving technological world and rise to the challenges ahead. NCAA wrestling champion and alumnus Anthony Robles, who was born without a right leg, graduated in 2011 and gained national attention for his inspiring story and indomitable spirit. He said getting his bachelor’s degree at the School of Letters and Sciences fulfilled a twin dream when he enrolled at the university.
“There were two things I wanted to accomplish when I came to ASU – win a national championship and graduate from college,” Robles said. “Winning the championship has been a dream come true, but the five years I spent at ASU wouldn’t have meant a thing if I did not get my degree.”
education
Javier Cardenas, child neurologist at Barrow Neurological Institute and an ASU special education graduate, is using an interdisciplinary approach to positively impact kids with brain injuries. Cardenas leads the Barrow Resource for Acquired Injury to the Nervous System (B.R.A.I.N.S) clinic at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. The clinic, the first of its kind, aims to integrate education into the treatment of children with brain injuries. The goal is to successfully reintegrate them into the classroom by increasing their attention, retention and engagement.
engineering
Assistant professor Cody Friesen, an entrepreneur, business owner, scientist and ASU alumnus, is making a significant impact on the field of renewable energy. Friesen graduated from ASU’s School of Engineering in 2000 and started a company in 2007 that makes low-cost renewable energy storage. Friesen received his doctorate from MIT, has had seven patent disclosures, and leads a renewable energy research team at ASU where he also develops engineering curriculum, teaches and performs community outreach with White Mountain Apache Tribe science teachers.
business
The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is serving students in more ways than ever before. In 2011, the business alumni community reached a milestone, counting more than 80,000 members and serves as an immense networking resource for its students and alumni.
Aaron Matos, founder and CEO of Jobing.com, a well-known business with a big presence in Arizona, received his bachelor’s degree in management from ASU in 1995. Matos is on the Dean’s Council of 100 at the School of Business and was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award in 2010.
journalism
Christine Devine is making her mark as an acclaimed news anchor for KTTV Fox 11 in Los Angeles. Devine, a 1987 graduate of ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, has won 15 Emmy awards and written a memoir, “Finding a Forever Family: A News Anchor's Notebook on Adoption within the Foster Care System.” Her weekly news segment, "Wednesday’s Child," is an 18-year-old program that finds homes for foster children in the Los Angeles area who are the hardest to place. Devine was inducted into the Cronkite Hall of Fame in 2001 and was given the Founders’ Day Alumni Achievement Award in 2002.
design and the arts
When Rebecca Finell, a 2005 graduate of ASU’s School of Design, created Frog Pod – a wall-mounted invention used to scoop, rinse, drain and store children’s bathroom toys – as her junior year studio project, she could not have anticipated where that would lead. Finell’s bright green creation won the 2005 Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association Innovator of the Year award. Finell started her own company, Boon Inc., featuring the Frog Pod as her first product. The Frog Pod became the darling of the juvenile products market and was distributed through numerous retail stores and more than 250 upscale boutiques around the country. Boon projected revenues of $9 million for 2006 and $50 million for 2011.
In 2003-04 ASU School of Art alumnus Steve Hilton, a former high school astronomy teacher turned ceramicist, combined his interest in astronomy with his passion for ceramics by creating a clay model of the surface of Mars. The graduate student’s model became the training ground on which users at ASU practiced operating remote technology for the ASU Mars Space Flight Facility’s monitored rover.
