Arizona State University

A global education program will offer a glimpse into a post-Apartheid South African city where technology is helping the community to transition.

 “ASU in Cape Town, South Africa – Summer 2009” is an annual program directed by Mirna Lattouf, a faculty member in  ASU’s School of Letters & Sciences. This coming summer, Toni Farley, a faculty member in the School of Letters & Sciences and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, will join her. Program participants will get the opportunity to volunteer, study, explore and live in Cape Town, South Africa from May 28, 2000 to July 18, 2009.

A 90-minute information session for the study abroad program will be held at 5:30 p.m., Dec. 8 at the Tempe campus, ECG-G238.

“Cape Town is a city of two tales,” Lattouf said. “It is a wealthy beach resort city with exquisite natural beauty, but in contrast there’s also the remnants of the Apartheid period, which has created an alternative society of crushing poverty and overpopulation in the townships.”

Located on the southern tip of the African continent, Cape Town is a city with a diverse range of attractions, sights, activities and landmark beaches. The program will examine the influence of technology on this transition in one of the most beautiful regions of the world.

“We want to know how technology is used and is transforming schools, the workplace, health care, and business in South Africa,” Lattouf said. “We will also examine how technology brings about new challenges.”

Courses are open to all students, with the focus on Interdisciplinary Studies and Computing and Informatics. They are designed to fulfill general education degree requirements of students majoring and minoring in various programs.

For more program details, please call (602) 496-0638 or visit: https://studyabroad.asu.edu/home/node/6671.

ASU freshman Emily Timm used to read to avoid her two younger brothers on long road trips. Now she reads several a books a month out of pure joy.

Timm wants to bring that joy to Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix campus by creating a monthly book club.

“Books are a bit of an escape and a way to unwind during the semester,” Timm said, a 19-year-old freshman enrolled in Barrett, The Honors College and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “A book club is also a good way to meet people, make new friends and learn more about ourselves and each other."

The Downtown Phoenix Book Club will hold its first meeting at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 10 at the Starbucks lounge inside of Taylor Place, 120 E. Taylor St. The meeting is open to the public.

Jill Johnson, senior program coordinator at Barrett, The Honors College, said Timm’s idea is a perfect opportunity for students and faculty to share their common love of reading.

“Emily told me that as a college student, she spends so much time reading only required texts for class and missed reading just for fun,” Johnson said. “I came to find out that she’s not alone – many students love reading recreationally and chatting about books with others.”

Timm said the monthly meetings will be facilitated by ASU faculty members, who will select and discuss their favorite books. Marianne Barrett, an associate professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, selected Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for the Dec. 10 meeting.

For more information on The Downtown Phoenix Book Club, call Emily Timm at (480) 239-9267 or e-mail her at etimm@asu.edu.

What was life like in the ancient Andes? Kelly J. Knudson, an assistant professor in the Arizona State University School of Human Evolution and Social Change, will address that question during a free lecture at 6 p.m., Dec. 4, in room A-191 of the Life Sciences Center, Tempe campus.

Knudson’s lecture is titled “Ancient Andean States Through Biochemistry and Bioarchaeology.”

“With their long history of research and excellent preservation, the ancient Andes are ideal for the study of political integration and the formation and collapse of states and empires,” Knudson said. “I will discuss the rise and fall of the Middle Horizon (AD 500-1100) Tiwanaku polity of southern Peru, western Bolivia and northern Chile by integrating data from bioarchaeology and biogeochemistry with other lines of archaeological data.”

Knudson specializes in analyzing chemical signatures in human tooth enamel and bone to explore patterns of subsistence behavior and migration.

The lecture is sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, Central Arizona Chapter. Information: Almira F. Poudrier, (480) 965-1754, or almira.poudrier@asu.edu.

Students from all colleges, majors and schools at Arizona State University can register for winter session classes offered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. There are more than 100 options – online and on campus – for students to complete general education requirements, take courses in their major, complete a minor, or retake a class and improve their GPA.

Winter session begins Dec. 30 and continues through Jan. 16.

“One of the benefits of winter session is its length,” says Gerry Corey, interim associate dean for Student and Academic Programs in Liberal Arts and Sciences. “Students can accomplish a great deal in just three weeks.”

A variety of introductory-level classes are among the offerings, such as Introduction to Communication Inquiry and first-year English Composition. In addition, there are many upper-division classes available, including the History of the Vietnam War, Latinos in Hollywood, Science Fiction Studies, and Environment and World Politics. These classes are available online.

Other classes are offered in English, history, political science, mathematics, psychology and kinesiology.

“Regardless of a student’s major, there are a wide range of classes that will satisfy a variety of graduation requirements,” says Corey.

More than 80 classes in the college this winter are offered online and can go toward completing a minor. Some minors can be completed entirely online and winter session is a valuable option for students, Corey says.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers online minors in communication, film and media studies, history, religious studies, sociology, women and gender studies and political science, and will soon be offering an online certificate in writing.

“Students can get ahead during their break taking classes on campus or online,” Corey says. “Students also can improve their GPA or graduate early if they plan ahead.”

Current ASU students can register now for classes, and others who are interested can apply for a non-degree seeking program to receive college credit.

More information at clas.asu.edu/winter or 480-965-6506.

Ashley Lange, ashley.lange@asu.edu
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

The Fountain of Youth to be found in an anthill? 

Aging – we are all doing it. It is relentless and terminal. Auguries and alchemists, mendicants and magicians, philosophers and science fiction writers, researchers and plastic surgeons have employed all their various arts in the pursuits of “turning back the clock.” Yet, we stand in modern times with a span of a century to our name, at most. Technological wizardry abounds, so why do the factors that determine life span still elude us?  

If you ask Arizona State University researcher Juergen Liebig, he would point to his favorite study animal, the ant, to provide answers.

Liebig is one of a trio of scientists who are taking an audacious approach to studying gene regulation, using the ant to model human aging, with support from a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) $40 million pilot program, The Collaborative Innovation Awards.  

As its name suggests, the award will allow scientists to attack problems that one person can’t solve, according to Jack Dixon, HHMI vice president and chief scientific officer.

“We were looking for projects that could really represent breakthroughs and change the way we think,” says Dixon.

One of eight teams selected, Liebig, assistant professor in School of Life Sciences and member of the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will partner with team leader Danny Reinberg, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the New York University School of Medicine, and colleague Shelley Berger of the Wistar Institute, both top researchers in the field of epigenetics. 

The eight collaborative projects collectively engage 33 researchers and 16 institutions in the United States and Chile. What can ants, not typically known for long life, tell us about human aging?

Potentially much, says Liebig. Ants in a colony are genetically closely related, yet these sisters’ body types, behavior and purpose can become specialized and vastly different. Queens typically arise as the single reproductive female in an ant colony, living for as long as 30 years in some species. As head of the colony they stay in the nest dedicated to perform one major task, egg-laying, for their whole life. Workers on the other hand perform brood care, colony maintenance, and complex foraging tasks. Among the workers additional behavioral and morphological differences may exist. Some individuals are larger and more robust with a focus on colony defense, which earned them the name soldiers. How can such big differences arise in each of these ant types’ longevity and behavior without some real differences in their DNA?  

According to Liebig and his collaborators, the answer can be found in the rising field of epigenetics – the study of inherited changes in the activity of genes - for example, when they turned on or off; changes not caused by alterations in the DNA sequence.  Epigenetic changes occur during normal development and tissue differentiation, and correlate with certain disease states in humans, such as cancer.

“But, little is known about the molecular basis for epigenetic changes that underlie aging or behavior,” Liebig says. “One advantage of using ants as models is that as individuals they follow very different behavioral and developmental trajectories, and these changes are plastic.” 

It is this behavioral and developmental plasticity that drew the collaborators to work together. Liebig studies three species of ants, each which allows the HHMI team to examine a different aspect of how epigenetic factors can influence outcomes in behavior, morphology, and longevity.  

Harpegnathos saltator (literally meaning “jumping sickle jaw”) is a primitive species of ant where workers are able to perform either reproductive or helper tasks. A worker can become a reproductive functional queen, if the original queen dies or is removed. Such a trait is not found in “higher” order ants because these species have become structurally specialized. Carpenter ants, Camponotus floridanus, allow Liebig, Reinberg and Berger to examine what epigenetic factors or genes control longevity. Queens in this species are structurally specialized, growing large and also long-lived. Finally, using ants from the genus Pheidole, whose soldier caste development can be artificially induced, allows the researchers to closely examine (and potentially manipulate) what genes are expressed or repressed, and identify the factors regulating structural specialization and behavior.   

The first task for the collaborative team will be to get the complete sequences of the genomes for these three ant species. Reinberg is currently identifying partners specialized to do this task. Then the group will examine the gene expression profiles of the different castes (worker, queen, soldier).

 “This collaboration is fortuitous,” says Liebig. “Danny and Shelley were looking for a model system to study epigenetic factors of differences in ant behavior and development. They contacted my colleague Bert Hölldobler, who knew I was looking for geneticists interested in differential gene expression in behavior, aging, and development in ants.” Hölldobler is the Pulitzer Prize winning coauthor of “The Ants,” and leading expert in ant communication and social organization.  

Liebig notes that the project is risky. For example, the complete sequence of the ant genome has never been achieved before. 

“Often potential research partners are reluctant to cross barriers in scientific specialties and there is not funding for such risky ventures when there is interest to do them,” Liebig says. “The beauty of this project is that the HHMI Collaborative Innovation Awards create the opportunity for us to blend our skills to develop a new approach and model system for the study of behavior and aging.” 

Arizona State University has become the world leader in the study of social insects, and study of their levels of organization from organism to society, according to luminary Edward O. Wilson. Liebig believes that the study of social insects and using them as models for human systems has the potential to transform understanding about aging, sociobiology, neurobiology, learning and memory and behavior.  Liebig believes his collaborators on the HHMI project would agree.

“Social insect societies are remarkable in that their specialization extends beyond the organism level, to function at the level of the ‘superorganism,’” Liebig notes. “In that way, the division of labor seen between reproductive and non-reproductive individuals is analogous to cellular specialization in different organs in a multicellular organism. The prediction is that epigenetic regulation may determine behavioural castes in ant colonies.”

“Who knows? Separating these effects may even give us the tools and understanding to look at what regulates longevity in humans,” Liebig adds.

Twenty large laundry baskets and bins stuffed with the ingredients for a Thanksgiving meal were assembled by staff and faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for the St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance.

News of the community service project in the dean’s office, which had a goal of filling five baskets, quickly spread to other units in the college. In three weeks 20 baskets weighting 818 pounds, were collected and delivered to the food bank.

“The college has participated in food drives in the past, yet this opportunity was more focused, allowing donors to connect with recipients. It wasn’t just bringing in cans of food, but rather, a specific item or a spice for a Thanksgiving meal,” says Rebecca Albrecht, director of special events for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

“Because there was a range of items going into the baskets, people could participate at any level, from a single can of corn or a $10 gift card or a board game.”

St. Mary’s told the college that the baskets were earmarked for students and recent graduates of their Community Kitchen Program. The training program helps individuals who struggle with unemployment and poverty gain the skills necessary for a job that offers a living wage, benefits and opportunities for advancement in the food service industry, according to St. Mary’s.

“These baskets will be a true blessing to our students and their families,” wrote Sandra Freyer, director of programs at the food bank.

In addition to the dean’s office, also participating in the service project were: the schools of International Letters and Cultures, Life Sciences, Human Evolution and Social Change, Justice and Social Inquiry, Human Communication; and several departments and programs including mathematics and statistics, physics, philosophy, military science, history, Jewish studies; and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies.

Declaring the Thanksgiving project a success, the staff in the dean’s office is now working with the local Army National Guard Recruit Sustainment Program to provide gifts and necessities for at least three families during the holiday season.

The Recruit Sustainment Program provides resources and support to newly enlisted soldiers and their families, Albrecht says.

“Some of them are on track to be deployed soon,” she notes.

We’re chunky stew.

That’s the analogy David W. Coon uses when he discusses inclusion at Arizona State University where he is a professor of psychology in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.  And, like his fellow ASU faculty members, he is working with his students to bring together the ingredients in a tasty porridge that encourages availability, accessibility and acceptability in their thinking.

“My research and interests are woven into the classroom and lab lessons and are tailored to meet the unique needs of underrepresented populations,” says Coon, who for nearly two decades has been actively involved in the development and implementation of successful community intervention programs serving diverse populations and in the training and supervision of mental health professionals and trainees to assist distressed older adults and family caregivers.  “One of the key benefits of working with different groups is the opportunity to transfer lessons learned from one group into effective intervention strategies for another.”

Coon grew up in Bartlesville, OK, a company town dominated by petroleum giant Phillips 66 (now ConocoPhillips).  His mom, dad and a grandmother set the groundwork for what would become Coon’s life passion.

“My parents, and one grandmother in particular, instilled in me an ethic of care, grounded in social action and social concerns. At an early age I was concerned about barriers that were faced by underserved populations.  I became aware of the importance of three key considerations – the availability of programs and services, the accessibility of those programs and services, and their acceptability by those who needed them.

“We have different patterns and ways of being in this world.  My interest in the discovery of these unique and shared approaches helps guide my work.”

Coon’s family-directed life lessons have come full circle as he guides undergraduate and graduate students through their coursework.  He holds bachelor’s degrees in foreign service and public affairs and in linguistics and cross-cultural communication from the University of Oklahoma, as well as an M.Ed. in counseling from the university.  He received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Stanford University in 1996 and was a postdoctoral fellow in geropsychology in 1997.  He has taught at ASU since 2004.

His research is well known and nationally recognized.  A Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, he has provided important information on the adaptability of social and behavioral interventions for Latina caregivers tending to loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease.  He is also one of the first to systematically look at cross-generation issues in the transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

"David has made fundamental contributions to the field of gerontology," says Marcia Ory, a professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Health at Texas A&M’s School of Rural Public Health.  "A specific contribution is his testing innovative interventions in diverse settings and populations, thus expanding the current knowledge base.

"He is an excellent educator (who) has mentored many students through geriatric clinical psychology internships and postdoctoral fellowships.  He continues to motivate students to see the importance of working with older adults on social and behavioral issues."

In his teaching, Coon emphasizes to his students that their thinking must take in multiple perspectives.

“I want my students to embrace inclusion and a wide spectrum of viewpoints,” he says.  “I don’t want anyone to simply ‘fit’ inclusion into their work or their thinking.  For example, we spend a great deal of time, working in multicultural teams, raising issues of underrepresentation and disparities in health care.  We also discuss acculturation and how this process influences these issues and the formulation of effective interventions.”

Coon, who has received Stanford University’s Gwen Yeo Award for excellence in ethnogeriatrics, attributes much of his success in the classroom and in the lab to the community partnerships he has developed with such organizations as the Arizona Alzheimer’s Research Consortium, Sun Health Research Institute’s Center for Healthy Aging, Phoenix Caregiver Cooperative Group, Barrow Neurological Institute, and the Alzheimer’s Association, among others.

“Our partnerships are a cornerstone of what we do when it comes to breaking down barriers, developing and improving interventions and services, and working against the disparities that exist,” he says.  “When you partner with people in the community who have the same goals to meet the needs of those who are underrepresented, the synergy is amazing.

“You can’t just build it and they will come, like in ‘Field of Dreams.’  You have to find effective ways to partner with others.”

In addition to his classroom and lab lessons, Coon hopes he is instilling passion in his students.

“I want them to find something they love to do,” he says.  “But, really, I want them to think critically about what they read, hear and are exposed to, and I want them to think about these things from multiple perspectives and to become excited about it.

“I want them to be the catalysts in developing and delivering programs that help address disparities in our society.”

Recycle. Reclaim. Sustain – these days it’s all the rage. The arts are on the environmental stage this December, as the featured sculpture in the Night Gallery is comprised of reclaimed concrete that also incorporates the environmental elements of fire, earth, air and water. 

The work is titled Concretion – the sixth element and is the creation of Steven Biltz, a sculptor, ASU Herberger College of the Arts MFA alumnus and current ASU employee. See Biltz’s piece at the Night Gallery, alongside works by ASU Herberger College School of Art graduate students, faculty and alumni in Concretion – the sixth element, which runs Dec. 5-31. The Night Gallery encompasses 3,800 square feet of exhibition space in a location not yet leased by a retailer in the Tempe Marketplace and is a creation of the community partnership with the ASU Herberger College of the Arts.

“This retail access allows us to be organic and responsive to opportunities that can help us continue to connect with the community,” says Joe Baker, director of community engagement in the ASU Herberger College of the Arts. “Our primary function is education and the Night Gallery is unlike traditional gallery spaces.”

The organic nature of how Night Gallery exhibitions become accessible to the community is complementary to how Biltz approaches his work. It’s only natural that he now adds this non-traditional space to his list of distinguished exhibitions. Known for his large, concrete sculptures that incorporate reclaimed materials, Biltz has shown pieces all around the Valley from the Phoenix Art Museum, to Sky Harbor International Airport, to the Tempe Sculpture Park. His concrete work also has been exhibited at the Tucson Museum of Art and the Denver Art Museum. In addition, one of his professional sculpture projects is the horses that stand at the entrance to the P.F. Chang’s restaurant at its La Jolla, Calif. location.

Experience Biltz’s new, reclaimed installation, Concretion – the sixth element, at the Night Gallery Dec. 5-31, which is located at the Tempe Marketplace, 2000 E. Rio Salado Parkway in Tempe.  The Night Gallery is near the Barnes & Noble store and entrance is free. Hours are 6–9 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays. 

The Night Gallery opened in late June 2008, and has featured other Herberger College alumni artists such as David Young, Michael Anderson and Jose A. Benavides. Earlier this year, Benavides received an Artist Projects grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Anderson, who studied sculpture on the Tempe campus in the late 1960s, still works as a sculptor, and his steel works are in public and private collections across the U.S. and in more than five countries. David Young’s kinetic sculpture work was featured in the initial Night Gallery exhibition. Young won the International Sculpture Center’s (ISC) 2007 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award during the fall of 2007. The ISC is the world’s leading international organization devoted to the creation and understanding of sculpture.  

Arizona State University Regents’ Professor David C. Berliner has been honored with the 2008 Sylvia Scribner Award by Division C of the American Educational Research Association for his significant contribution to the fields of learning and instruction.

Berliner, a professor of educational leadership and policy studies in the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, has contributed to significant advancements in education that reflect the work of the late Professor Sylvia Scribner, whose work reflects a wide range of concerns within the field of cognition, particularly learning and instruction. The Scribner award comes with a cash prize and an invitation to deliver the Scribner award speech in 2009.

Berliner’s esteemed research career has focused on three major themes: teacher expertise, use of educational research to combat falsehoods about education, and use of instructional time.

“Professor David Berliner joined ASU in 1988, bringing with him a national reputation, a host of awards, and volumes of published research to his credit. He has defended public schools and challenged the logic and evidence cited by outspoken critics of education, including the media,” said George W. Hynd, senior vice provost for education and innovation and dean of the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education.

"His ascent to research prominence began in the 1970s with his innovative studies on factors which impact student achievement," Hynd said. "His brilliant work completed during his tenure at ASU, including his landmark book ‘The Manufactured Crisis,’ has propelled him to international prominence. It is an honor to count David Berliner among the faculty within the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education and at ASU.”

Berliner has analyzed the characteristics of expert teachers and the effects they have on their students. He tied his findings on teacher expertise to general research in cognitive psychology regarding expertise in other fields.

“Experts in all fields organize information and act upon it in ways that novices cannot,” he explained. “Expert teachers see the whole world differently. Research demonstrates it takes three to five years for a teacher to become competent and up to seven years for that teacher to maximize student performance on achievement tests.”

Berliner said his research in education policy and leadership also revealed that many statements made about education by politicians and the public were “undeniably false.”

“American schools have problems, but they are not uniformly bad. In international performance, many of our states and millions of our students are highly competitive,” he asserted. “The tragedy for America is that schools serving poor kids—often brown and black kids—are not performing well on the international tests. The real issue is that some of our schools are not good. It’s not all of our schools.”

Berliner’s studies also found huge discrepancies in how teachers use instructional time in school. He said this research is relevant in today’s education debates as policymakers consider extending the time students spend in school. “Adding more time to the school day will not have much effect, but there are dramatic results from making sure students are involved in their tasks,” he said. “The goal is getting kids to be attentive and involved, not merely having more time in school.”

Berliner has edited, authored and co-authored several publications including “The Manufactured Crisis,” with B.J. Biddle, and “The Handbook of Educational Psychology,” with R.C. Calfee. In his 2007 book “Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America’s Schools,” written with his former post-doctoral student, Sharon Nichols, Berliner refers to Campbell’s law, a well-known social-science adage about the potential for distortion and corruption when too much value is placed on indicators used for social decision-making. Published by Harvard Education Press, "Collateral Damage" has received praise from scholars and educators and is being studied by education policymakers at local and national levels.

What do you get when you round up a couple hundred volunteers, wake them up early in the morning, provide them with trimmers, cutters, trash bags, rakes and more, and send them out to clean up a community park?

According to The Business Journal, the state’s preeminent weekly business publication, you receive the very first Heart of Business Award in the Outstanding Company Project category.  That’s exactly what Arizona State University’s decades-old, all-volunteer program, ASU Cares, received November 20 in an event at the Arizona Historical Society Museum in Tempe.

“This is recognition that goes to the volunteers, the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County,” says Terri Cranmer, director of operations for ASU Public Events.  “This program is all about bringing volunteers together to make a difference in the community, to improve our community.”

This year, ASU Cares partnered with the City of Phoenix and Maricopa County to go to work on cleaning up and beautifying CaveCreek Wash Thunderbird Park, located near the university’s West campus.  ASU’s largest one-day annual community-service project, ASU Cares volunteers trimmed overgrown vegetation, removed litter from the Cave Creek Wash area, the playground, and trails, and scrubbed and cleaned the park’s common areas.

“The effort was impressive and the impact was immediate,” wrote County Manager David Smith in a letter of nomination to The Business Journal.  “One of our more popular parks was enhanced and beautified, and the positive difference in landscaping will last for some time to come.”

The volunteer corps was made up of ASU students, faculty, staff and neighborhood residents.  Planning for the March 29 clean-up began more than four months earlier, as ASU Cares worked the city and county to secure equipment and review logistics.  Weekly meetings plotted everything from safety precautions to necessary equipment needs, and from food and refreshments to registration.  Volunteer leaders arrived on site as early as 5 a.m. and didn’t leave until nearly 12 hours later.  Team volunteers worked for five hours at the clean-up, totaling nearly 900 hours in maintenance work.  Including pre-event logistical work, more than 1,200 hours were volunteered to clean the park.  Among the many items brought to the park to handle the debris and brush cleared by volunteers were six dumpsters and a wood chipper.

René Vera, City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation deputy director, nominated ASU Cares for a Heart of Business Award for a number of reasons.

“The ASU Cares team is the best, the organization of the event was top-notch, the results were amazing, and the commitment was genuine.  For an all-volunteer effort designed to make a positive difference in the community, it doesn’t get any better than this.”

ASU Cares is an annual project that over the years has brought together thousands of university faculty, students and staff in a volunteer effort that has resulted in the beautification of over 100 acres of Valley park facilities.  Created to foster partnerships with the community and encourage student volunteerism within the greater metropolitan Phoenix area, the project closely aligns with ASU President Michael Crow’s vision of a New American University that is engaged and inclusive and assumes responsibility for the society it serves.

“If you saw one of these things, there are projects that can’t really be done by anything less than a few hundred people in any area of time,” says Virgil Renzulli, ASU vice president of public affairs and a regular volunteer each year.  “This is probably the most visible aspect of our commitment to the community, and everyone involved is passionate about participating and making a difference.”

In addition to the park improvements made by ASU Cares volunteers, for at least one volunteer there was a personal impact as well.

ASU student Abel Arriaga says, “I loved the experience.  Doing the hard labor reminds you why we are going to school.  Digging up a bed spring that had been buried for years made me feel vindicated.  It was nice to clear out the area and make it look respectable for people going through the park.  I saw residents pointing to the work we were doing, so I know we made a difference.  I wanted to go out with my friends and represent ASU as more than just a school, but also as an institution that gives back.”

More than 50 companies in the greater Phoenix community are realizing the benefits of a novel internship program offered by ASU’s Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at ASU/SkySong.

The program, Sun Devil Entrepreneurship Network (SDEN), connects Arizona’s vibrant start-up community with the energy of entrepreneurially minded students and is available to students across all four of the university campuses – Tempe, West, Polytechnic and Downtown Phoenix.

The program is in its second year. It placed 58 students with local businesses in its inaugural year, currently counts 85 working students, and has its sights set on 150 placements by July of 2009.

“SDEN was developed from the recognition that entrepreneurs approach business differently,” says Richard Franklin, corporate liaison at ASU/SkySong, the Scottsdale Innovation Center.

“No two days are the same; the leaders of these businesses and companies wear different hats, work different hours, and have a passion for the value they add through their companies. We created SDEN to target these types of companies primarily and quickly supply them with like-minded, entrepreneurially biased talent. SDEN applicants have that same type of entrepreneurial mindset and they understand and appreciate the variety and divergence in the approach.”

The program is different from any one of the many internship opportunities offered through ASU’s 22 colleges. It is the university’s entrepreneurship-focused internship program and, while course credit can be arranged for an SDEN internship, is billed more as a real-world setting, experiential opportunity for students that has become a top priority for the Department of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

SDEN places interns and mentees with entrepreneurs and makes its possible for students to know which entrepreneurs are offering internships, project positions or serving as mentors to tomorrow’s leaders.

Franklin notes that businesses taking advantage of the young ASU talent are privy to fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

“This is an opportunity for local businesses to bring onto their individual teams some great talent and to connect their companies with the cutting-edge knowledge being generated by ASU’s four campuses.

“Students bring to the real-world workplace added service, given their interests in venture creation. Students from majors such as business, nursing, the arts, law and engineering – to name just a few – offer a range of knowledge, interest and skill sets that could be just the right fit for a business, large or growing.”

Entrepreneurial action is a key component in ASU’s vision of the New American University. Programs such as SDEN engage students, faculty, alumni and the community in advancing and promoting an entrepreneurial culture both within the university and throughout the Greater Phoenix community. Current efforts to breed a greater attention to entrepreneurship are supported by a recent $5-million grant from the Kauffman Foundation that was given to ASU to expand and establish programs like SDEN across the four campuses and its academic units.

“This is a fast-matching mechanism that links high-energy, entrepreneurial companies in the Valley with like-minded students,” says Franklin.

“Our goal is to give students the opportunity to work in a real-life entrepreneurial setting. The benefit to the employer is that they get some great help in their businesses and the benefit of new approaches and new ideas that have been grounded in an interdisciplinary, problem-focused approach.”

For more information on SDEN, contact Richard Franklin at 480-884-1812 or via email at SDENinfo@aus.edu.

The rough economy has people looking for answers about the housing market, unemployment and the safety of financial assets. Top economic experts will deliver their forecasts for Arizona and the nation at the 45th Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon co-sponsored by Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business Economics Department and JPMorgan Chase. The Dec. 10 luncheon at the Phoenix Convention Center is widely recognized as the Valley’s largest and most trusted economic event, drawing a crowd of about 1,500 people.

“The forecast luncheon is popular with the media and the public every year, but this year, we obviously expect it to take on an even more important tone, where we can potentially help people with knowledge about the economy’s future,” says Professor Lee McPheters, director of the W. P. Carey School of Business’ JPMorgan Chase Economic Outlook Center.

The featured luncheon speaker, Dr. Joel Naroff, was named forecaster of the year by Bloomberg Business News in 2008, by the National Association for Business Economics in 2007, and by MSNBC.com in 2006. Naroff has also been recognized as a top forecaster by USA Today and recently received the Lawrence R. Klein Award, sponsored and judged by the W. P. Carey School of Business, for having the most accurate economic forecast among those who participate in the renowned Blue Chip Economic Indicators survey. He is president of Naroff Economic Advisors, and he consults with banks, corporations and governments about how to strategically deal with economic developments.

Other presentations at the luncheon will include:

1. An outlook for the financial markets
2. An economic outlook for Arizona and the Western states by McPheters, editor of Economy@W. P. Carey, whose work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and The New York Times
3. An outlook for the Phoenix-area real estate market by Elliott D. Pollack, president of the highly regarded economic and real estate consulting firm Elliott D. Pollack & Co.

The 45th Annual W. P. Carey School of Business/JPMorgan Chase Economic Forecast Luncheon will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center’s South Ballroom on Wednesday, Dec. 10 from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Admission is $75 per person. Proceeds from the lunch are used to support student scholarships, faculty research, and other academic and professional activities at the W. P. Carey School of Business Department of Economics. For more information, including registration details, go to http://wpcarey.asu.edu/ecn/efl.

Research at ASU into treatments and cures for cardiovascular diseases is being boosted by a joint contribution from foundations led by two ASU alumni.

The Crown Foundation and the Haven Charitable Foundation announced on Nov. 17 a gift of $198,000 to support research led by Michael Caplan, an assistant professor in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

The Crown Foundation was founded by Eric Crown, co-CEO and chairman of Insight Enterprises. In November he was inducted into ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business  Hall of Fame. Crown studied at the school prior to starting Insight Enterprises. Kari and Paul Yatkowski are the founders of Haven Charitable Foundation.

“As an Arizona State University alumnus, it is an honor to help with potential scientific breakthroughs and to fund a project that might otherwise have gone unfunded,” said Kari Yatkowski, who is vice chair of the American Heart Association’s 49th Annual Phoenix Heart Ball.

Caplan’s project, Intracellular Signaling in Response to Biomaterials, will use the funding to examine the behavior of cells that come into contact with materials used to make stents, artificial vascular grafts and similar medical devices. 

There have been recurring cases of patients developing blood-clotting (thrombosis) and recurrence of their original cardiovascular problems (restenosis) caused when blood comes into contact with the materials of which the devices are made.

“We and others in the field of biomaterials are trying to make better materials that will avoid problems like this,” Caplan said. “If we are successful, we would not only be able to make better stents, but we would also be able to make artificial vascular grafts for replacement of small blood vessels.”

It’s not currently feasible to use artificial grafts to replace vessels smaller than 6 millimeters in diameter, due to problems with blood clotting, he said.

The funding “supports ASU’s commitment to remain at the forefront of medical discovery,” said ASU President Michael Crow. “Our scientists in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering are engaged in research and discoveries that will impact health care for generations.” 

The Crown Foundation works to assist nonprofit organizations that seek to improve quality of life through education and health efforts.

The Haven Charitable Foundation focuses on support of families with children, assisting agencies working on issues of health, education and domestic violence.       

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack and Katie Barclay Penkoff will receive Girl Scout World Awards at an event on Dec. 6 that pays tribute to outstanding Arizona women and their contributions to their communities.

The World Awards will be presented in seven categories at the event from 10:30 to 1:30 p.m. at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa on Saturday, Dec. 6. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano is among the honorees.

Jennings-Roggensack, executive director of ASU Public Events, started her career in the arts in the 1970s when she became program coordinator for the Fine Arts Series at Colorado State University. Out of approximately 200 candidates for the position, Jennings-Roggensack was told that she was chosen because she possessed something that couldn’t be taught - passion for the arts.

She has shared her passion ever since at places such as Santa Fe, N.M., where she worked for Western States Arts Federation and at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. She came to ASU in 1992 where she oversees ASU Gammage and Kerr Cultural Center. Since joining the university, Jennings-Roggensack organized the Beyond series, which brought national and international performers to the Valley. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the National Council on the Arts, where she served as ambassador until 2004. She also served as co-chair for the 2004 presidential debate at ASU.

“I’ve been here for 16 years. I was a military brat who never lived anywhere. This is the longest that I’ve ever lived and worked anywhere,” she says.

Although the downturn in the economy has made her job more challenging, Jennings-Roggensack still enjoys connecting communities and individuals to the arts.  

She also has a strong connection to scouting.

“Scouting was a big part of my life. My whole family was involved with scouting,” she says.

From wearing her uniform to school even when it wasn’t cool to having her home serve as “cookie central,” Jennings-Roggensack loved earning badges, especially those that had to do with the arts.

“Scouting taught me a lot about working toward goals and that everyone had a story to tell,” she says.

And the World of the Arts award that she’ll receive on Dec. 6 is not only an affirmation of her life’s work, but of her longtime dedication to scouting.

“I am so honored,” she says. Katie Barclay Penkoff will receive the World of the Future award during the ceremony for her work in the Youth in Transition Service Learning program where she directs ASU students who work with incarcerated teens at the Black CanyonSchool and Adobe Mountain School that are operated by the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections.  

Student mentors meet with incarcerated teens twice weekly to participate in activities, work on plans for re-entering society and talk about what’s going on in their lives. Youth in Transition was developed in 2004 as an outgrowth of another program for incarcerated women called Adelante Jovencitas or “Moving Young Women Forward” that was spearheaded by the Girl Scouts, Arizona Cactus-Pine Council; Catholic Charities, DIGNITY Services/Diversion Programs; and the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections.

The program’s sponsor is the Arizona Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. Youth in Transition’s goal is to help young women successfully re-enter the community, thereby reducing recidivism rates. Mentors work with the young women and men they are paired with while they are incarcerated and after their release.

Mentors work with incarcerated teens on issues such as creating a re-entry plan, writing a resume and finding a place to live before they are released. Mentors keep in touch with the girls and boys after their release, helping them deal with issues and problems. Although some young women and men have gone back to their former lives, others have made real progress by earning their General Equivalency Diploma (GED), securing employment and staying sober.

“We have seen the impact of the Youth in Transition Program at many levels,” Barclay Penkoff says.

For more information about the awards, go to www.girlscoutsaz.org.   

On this year’s senior class:
"These seniors, you can go through them all, some of them have been here a couple of years, some of them have been here through their whole career, but obviously they’ve had a lot invested into this program, won a lot of football games, been leaders in this program and had a lot of success. To me, Senior Day is really important that we all get together and let them go out the right way at home. That’s what this week is all about as far as I’m concerned."

On which of the seniors stand out in his mind:
"You have to look at Rudy [Carpenter] and what he’s done. He’s been a starter for a lot of years and won a lot of football games at that position, which is not an easy thing to do. What he has accomplished at that position is about as good as anybody who has ever played here, at that position. You can go down through everybody. Start wherever you want to start. Troy Nolan is a junior college transfer who hasn’t been here the whole time, but again, I don’t want to point one out and not the other, but when you look at what Rudy has accomplished, statistically and as many games as he has started at that position without being hurt, it’s pretty amazing to me."

On how Carpenter has handled his time here:
"He’s handled what has happened this year. Obviously, when you’re a senior and you’ve had the success that he’s had, and to only have won four games right now in his senior year, obviously it’s disappointing, not just to him but to everyone else in the program. He’s handled it very well. Obviously we’ve had a new offensive front and there are just a lot of different things that he’s dealt with. I compliment him, because he’s never sat there and complained or done anything like that. He has just played. Like anybody in life, you mature. Since I’ve been here, how he handles things is awfully good as far as I’m concerned."

On the impact made by the seniors who were junior college transfers:
"Well, you take Troy [Nolan], Luis [Vasquez], Morris [Wooten], they’ve had a tremendous impact on what has happened in last two years on defense; there’s no question about it. You get junior college players and they help the program get better, and obviously we were very fortunate in getting those guys. They’ve had a great impact on how we’ve played defensively. Luis has had a great career, Morris has had a great career and Troy has had a great career, in the two years that they’ve played. They’ve had an impact on Arizona State."

On Oregon State’s success this season:
"Without a question, you look at what Mike [Riley] has done there and his coaching staff, and it’s a total tribute to them. I’ve mentioned this before, they believe in what they’re doing, and they recruit the kind of kids that fit into what they do. They play hard, find a way to win and they’ve had a number of different times this year to win close games and they’ve won. Obviously we were one of them, last week was another one, USC was another that they found a way to win, and to me that says a heck of a lot about Mike Riley and his coaching staff and the players. Obviously now they have one more, but what a great year, what a great program and a great group of coaches."

On UCLA’s defense:
"They are as good of defense as we’ve seen. You take their two tackles, [Brigham] Harwell and [Brian] Price; those are dominating football players that make it very difficult. If you’re good in the middle, like they are, and penetrate and create problems, that’s where it starts. They have a lot of experience in their front seven, and their secondary has played very well for them. So, they’re one of the better defenses that we’ve seen. They get four-man pressure. When you can get four-man pressure, you can play zone behind. They’ll play man and zone, but when you can get four-man pressure, you can play zone, so you have to be able to throw it in the right places."

On if they take momentum into this game coming off two straight wins:
"It’s always easier after you win a couple games obviously. A bye is a lot more fun after you win a game. Again, we understand where we are at, but we’ve had some success and that always helps. Having confidence always helps, and they’re (UCLA) the same thing. You can take our two teams and they are very similar. Our records are similar, we’re both pretty good on defense, and both have struggled at times offensively. It’s very similar and we’re all trying to fight for the same thing; trying to get that fifth win. So it’s very similar."

On the Pac-10 possibly ending up with two BCS teams:
"It would be awfully good. That obviously could happen. To get two in the BCS, it didn’t happen last year, happened this year and it’s happened before, so that says a lot about our league."

On the perception of the Pac-10:
"There’s so much parody in our league that people knock each other off and every week is a hard game. I think when you end up playing each other, it almost prepares you for playing anybody, and I think that’s what has happened. I think as these teams go into the bowl opportunities you’ll see some pretty good success there."

On having UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel back in the conference:
"I like Rick. He’s an outstanding football coach. I competed against him when he was at Washington and he’ll get that program going in the right direction. It’s his alma mater, a place that he feels very strongly about. He’s very well known and a good recruiter. It’s good to have him in. As I’ve said before, there’s not a bad coach in this league, and he just adds to it."