partnerships
A major part of ASU’s identity is its commitment to social embeddedness. Since 2002, ASU has forged partnerships to not only meet the needs of its surrounding populations but also to address some of the world’s most complex challenges. Because of these collaborations, ASU plays a significant role in transforming society.
Mayo Clinic
Established in 2003, the ASU/Mayo Clinic partnership represents the innovative, forward-thinking nature of the New American University. Both organizations possess unique leadership qualities, creative energy and enthusiasm for learning and innovation. The combination of these qualities – along with many successful joint initiatives in the last 10 years – is the foundation for several successful collaborative endeavors.
The Mayo Clinic/ASU partnership extends to many research projects, even one that fights cancer. ASU’s physicists, engineers and technologists will play an integral role in the Mayo Clinic – Arizona Campus’ Proton Beam Therapy Program, an advanced cancer treatment method that allows for greater control over radiation doses, shorter treatment times and fewer side effects. ASU scientists will work at the new Mayo Clinic facility developing uses of such innovative technology in cancer treatment.
In September 2011, the Mayo Clinic and ASU established the Mayo Medical School – Arizona Campus. The school features an innovative curriculum with students earning a medical school degree from Mayo Clinic and a master’s degree in the science of health care delivery from ASU, believed to be the first degree of its kind in the nation.
Additional Mayo Medical School/ASU Dual Degree Programs include:
- M.D./Biomedical Engineering
- M.D./Biomedical Informatics
- M.D./Communications
- M.D./J.D.
- M.D./M.B.A.
arts and sciences
ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences forged a partnership with The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust because it recognizes that a great university must have stellar humanities programs as well as top technology, business and science programs. In September 2003, a $10 million grant from the Piper Trust launched the creation of the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing. In addition to creating the center, trust funds were used to establish an international writers exchange program, an endowed chair to attract distinguished authors for residency programs, a scholars program to recruit students from around the world, an enrichment program to support faculty fellowships and renovation of the former president’s house. Jewell Parker Rhodes, the center’s founding director and Virginia G. Piper endowed chair, has published six novels and was featured on ”The Today Show” in 2010.
technology and innovation
ASU’s College of Technology and Innovation is transforming the way people experience engineering and technology through the flexible/accelerated degree program in partnership with Intel. The customized engineering degree is targeted toward the chip maker’s Arizona-based employees. The program is based on the college’s modular, project-based curriculum and when completed will provide a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from ASU, with a focus on materials science.
design and the arts
Sonata del Sol and Poesía del Sol, in which students play music or write poems for end-of-life patients at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, are collaborations between the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, the ASU School of Music and ASU’s Creative Writing Program. The programs help reduce stress and ease suffering for patients in end-of-life care. Faculty members documented responses from the bedside performances and data suggests that in addition to relieving patient stress, the performances also reduce stress for family members and even hospital staff.
ASU’s School of Dance professor Claudia Murphey teamed with the Mayo Clinic in 2011 to document findings that suggest her Motion and Movement classes may slow, halt or reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Murphey took exercise techniques she developed for her father when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and offered them in a series of Movement and Motion classes at ASU SkySong for those diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The series of comprehensive dance techniques she developed address the disease’s limiting symptoms and focus on improving rigidity, tremor, slowness and balance. Her students showed dramatic improvement.
community college
ASU is committed to graduating more students to enhance the nation’s workforce. In the last 10 years as a New American University, ASU has re-imagined the community college/university relationship and is revolutionizing pathways to higher learning. In July 2005, ASU and Maricopa Community Colleges created an alliance to share resources and help more students transition from community college to ASU, an effort led by Maria Hesse, ASU vice provost for academic partnerships.
Two of ASU’s signature community college collaborations are the Maricopa to ASU Pathways Program (MAPP) and the Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) program. The MAPP and TAG programs provide a clear path for community college students to obtain a degree at ASU, requiring them to obtain their Arizona General Education Curriculum and the appropriate associate degree before transferring. ASU is setting a national standard for accessibility through community college partnerships through a multi-tiered approach that includes: transfer advising early in the student’s community college career, tuition incentives to transfer, and clearly outlined transfer equivalencies.
During the past seven years, the number of students transferring to ASU from Arizona community colleges has increased by nearly 13 percent to 4,064 in 2011. Even more exciting, community college transfers are graduating with a four-year degree at a rate 15 percent higher than the national average.
Jill Biden, community college professor and wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, visited ASU in 2010 to learn about this program and subsequently invited ASU student Albert Ojeda, who made a successful transition from Estrella Mountain Community College to ASU, to participate in the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges in October 2010. Read More at whitehouse.gov.