A new community
ASU is about people and progress
ASU recognizes its responsibility as part of the communities it serves. ASU asks what is needed and responds with efficient, timely and effective solutions. Furthermore, ASU searches out opportunities to share its expertise, infrastructure and resources with the community, while simultaneously throwing open its doors and inviting those outside the university’s physical boundaries to visit, learn and recreate. That standing invitation holds equally true for ASU’s backyard neighbors, as it does for colleagues across the country or around the world.
Collaboration is key
Talk alone does not yield progress. Only through earned trust and a thorough understanding of people, places and their problems is it possible to create transformative change. In the eyes of ASU, everyone touched by the university is a potential partner in, potential beneficiary of, and potential contributor to the realization of healthier future.
ASU nursing students have been empowered to open a clinic in downtown Phoenix to assist residents. The iTeachAZ program pairs teacher candidates with mentor for year-long service in a local K-8 school. Endeavors like the ASU Preparatory Academies and the American Dream Academy prepare young people and their families to achieve a college education. The Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation supports the success of non-profit organizations and acts as a resource for growing more and better non-profit leaders. These are but a few examples of the community commitment that is woven into everything ASU does.
It’s all about access
Excellence and access are not mutually exclusive. ASU has demonstrated that quality higher education can (and should) be made available to every student capable of performing university-level work. In fact, it has done so while increasing, not sacrificing, excellence.
Welcoming new talent – whether embodied by a local first-generation freshman, a community college transfer student, a military veteran or an international student from a distant country – is what matters to ASU. Intellectual curiosity is the order of the day and ASU is skilled at forming alliances with all manner of community representatives to support the success of these students. Once at ASU, students become partners buoyed by a university community wholly invested in their success.