ASU’s partnership with Teach for America has been addressing some of the most pressing educational needs of our time and now, with a five-year $18.85 million investment from entrepreneur and philanthropist, T. Denny Sanford, ASU and Teach for America will be majoring changing the way ASU recruits, selects and prepares future K-12 teachers.
“We intend to use this generous investment to help reach Mr. Sanford’s goal of elevating teaching to its rightful place as a preeminent profession in our society,” says ASU president Michael Crow. “We will upgrade the professionalism of teacher preparation, integrate other colleges at the university into teacher education programs, and work to make the teaching profession more attractive to high-quality students from fields including science, math, engineering, English and history.”
Read more about what this means for ASU, our students and our communities here.
An Arizona State University program that has helped nearly 8,700 parents across the Valley improve the education of their struggling children earned one of the nation’s most prestigious community engagement awards.
The American Dream Academy received the 2009 C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award from A۰P۰L۰U, the oldest higher education association in America.
The American Dream Academy has had a profound impact on Phoenix’s K-12 educational community. Parents of struggling K-12 students enter the nine-week program to gain knowledge and skills necessary to improve the educational development of their children, including methods to improve parent/child relationships, reduce dropout rates and ensure high school graduation…(read more)
Over the past 2,000 years, organized learning has evolved. Today, however, there are social, economic and cultural needs not being met. American society has undergone massive shifts over the past 50 years but our universities have hardly changed at all. The very identity of the university is at stake. So, ASU is changing that identity. ASU is reinventing higher education in America. By breaking the mold, ASU has created a place where local solutions have global impact. Join us. And pursue the work you believe in.
Kenja Hassan talks about working toward developing a meaningful presence for ASU in targeted communities around the state.
Kenja Hassan is the assistant director of ASU for Arizona: Building Great Communities. She received a bachelor’s degree in religion from Princeton University and a master’s in religious studies from ASU, both with an emphasis on Navajo traditions.
She is currently finishing up a project called the State of Black Arizona which generates dialogue among African American communities in Arizona to find out what their successes and needs are. The project will culminate in a book and an online publication which are geared toward spurring focused research and inspiring a continued conversation within African American communities across the state.
I am writing to let you know about a post-doctoral fellowship opportunity with our Community-Campus Partnership (CCP). Please see the attachment. This initiative is located in the School of Government, but it will involve faculty and students from many other campus units. There is widespread interest in this project on our campus and among key stakeholders in North Carolina. I am biased, of course, but I believe this is a wonderful opportunity to get involved in a community-based research project that will make a practical difference in communities and advance our knowledge about engaged scholarship. What more could you want? Please forward this announcement to anyone who might be interested. If someone has questions about the project or the fellowship, the best person to call or email is the project director, Will Lambe, at (919) 966-4247 or whlambe@sog.unc.edu. Many thanks.
Manfred Laubichler talks about teaching, theoretical biology, historical biology and stretching the limit of what is known.
Manfred Laubichler is a professor in the School of Life Sciences at ASU. His research covers three distinct yet overlapping areas: theoretical biology, the history of biology, and evolutionary developmental biology. He is also an affiliated professor in Philosophy.
Jacquie Scott, faculty chair of the Barrett Honors College, talks about The Human Event, being open to new ideas, and what it means to be passionate about learning.
Jacquelyn Scott Lynch joined the faculty of the Barrett Honors College at ASU in 2001. She holds a B.A. in Economics and English from Kalamazoo College and a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Arizona State University. Her scholarship focuses on Darwinian literary criticism, Irish and African American literature, and social and biological theories of race. In April 2007, she received the college’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Academic Service, and she was honored with ASU’s inaugural Faculty Achievement Award in Teaching Performance.
As Secretary Duncan looks to turnaround schools nationally, he may want to look at the progress of University Public Schools Phoenix this fall. University Public Schools, an affiliate of Arizona State University, has partnered with Phoenix Elementary School District on a new charter school at the old Phoenix Prep building.
ASU Professor Ariel Rodríguez knew students in his Program Planning course would love the chance to enjoy a 2.77-acre classroom with sunshine, waterfalls and artwork.
But he threw them a curveball in the form of a challenge at the Downtown Civic Space Park: Create events that inspire the people of Phoenix to join you here.
The course recently taught 20 students how to create, organize and oversee several community events that brought hundreds of residents and visitors to the park.
Students in the School of Community Resources & Development partnered with the City of Phoenix and ASU’s Parks and Recreation Student Association to offer the free activities. This included a big-screen outdoor showing of the movie “The Dark Knight,” complete with complimentary popcorn and refreshments, which drew a crowd of more than 200 people.
“We had an opportunity to see, literally 200 yards away from our College, how the theories we were learning in class could be put into practice immediately in the park,” says Samuel Richard, a senior in the College of Public Programs.
Rodríguez says, “The park is an ideal place to develop programs that can simultaneously impact people living at the Westward Ho, ASU students at Taylor Place, people coming from Tempe on the light rail…and other residents in the community.”
In the course, students learn the need to focus on planning event details such as equipment rental, security, weather contingency plans, waste disposal, marketing and venue seating.
“They even had to work out small details like making sure the grass in the park wasn’t watered shortly before the movie, or it would be wet where people were sitting,” says Rodríguez.
Students have also offered a gardening seminar for clients of an adult care facility operated by the Foundation for Senior Living in Phoenix. They arranged transportation to the park and taught the seniors to plant flowers which they were able to take home. Another event brought several seniors from the nearby Westward Ho to play board games.
For more information about the School of Community Resources and Development, visit http://scrd.asu.edu.
Corey Schubert
Manager of Media Communications
ASU College of Public Programs
602.496.0406 office
Denisse Leon, who graduated from ASU in 2007, talks about her own journey to pull together her many interests and the idea that you can’t really make mistakes as a student—each “mistake” is just a new experience.
Denisse Leon moved to the United States about 6 years ago from Mexico City to attend ASU, where she was an Entrepreneurship Ambassador in the spring of 2007. She graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in social and behavioral sciences, and is currently doing Americorps service at the National Farm Workers Center at El Mirage. She also works as a freelance web designer and marketing consultant, and plans to apply to the University of Oregon for a master’s in arts administration or intercultural service, leadership and management. Her main interests lie in helping promote the arts through different media and using art to create social change.
ASU’s partnership with Teach for America has been addressing some of the most pressing educational needs of our time and now, with a five-year $18.85 million investment from entrepreneur and philanthropist, T. Denny Sanford, ASU and Teach for America will be majoring changing the way ASU recruits, selects and prepares future K-12 teachers.