StARs Shine Light on College Life for Potential Students

A group of six students at Arizona State University’s College of Public Programs are using new media in unique and creative ways to recruit students.

The students are in the Student Ambassador for Recruitment program, or StAR, which provides them an unedited student voice as they work in concert with staff recruiters to assist in the recruitment and retention process.

This is the first and only program of its kind at ASU. It’s among only a handful of similar social-media-focused recruitment programs across the nation, including Cornell University.

The StARs each have an interactive blog linked through the college’s Web site, and they frequently answer e-mails from potential students who have concerns and questions about student life at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. The team members also make videos for YouTube to show examples of what they’re learning and how much fun it is to take classes at the college.  Read more.

Organizer Turns GreenSummit into a Sustainability Event Drawing Thousands

They say big ideas come from lightbulb moments.

Chris Samila's big idea began with a real lightbulb.

Vacationing in Costa Rica early last year, Samila noticed homes and businesses using energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.
"Chris couldn't believe they had them but that we really didn't," said Lance Lamoreaux, who was with Samila on the trip.

That led Samila, a senior at Arizona State University majoring in global studies and political science, to create a sustainability conference and exposition that drew 4,000 people at ASU last year. This year's event is expected to draw about 10,000 to the Phoenix Convention Center on Friday and Saturday.
The 2008 GreenSummit Expo and Conference offers a Green Innovations Expo on sustainable living and an Advancing Sustainability Conference sponsored by ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability.

Read the rest of this article from the Cronkite News Service here.

ASU Criminology Students Assist Trinidad and Tobago

If it takes a village to raise a child, the village touched by students in Arizona State University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice is global in its scope.

Graduate students Andrew Fox and Kristine Denholm have leant their time and talents to projects targeting youth crime, gang crime, and other critical social problems in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The country, off the northeast coast of Venezuela, is blessed with natural resources including petroleum and natural gas, and its tourism industry is expanding.

But the government of Trinidad and Tobago is coping with a sharp increase in violent crime. Gangs, guns, and organized criminal activity are rampant.

Fox and Denholm became involved in Trinidad and Tobago projects through ASU’s Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety (CVPCS). Both students have traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to assist ASU professors in efforts to gather crucial data for the country’s Police Service, Ministry of National Security, and Ministry of Education.  Read more.