ASU Virtual Visit
October 14, 2020

In a sign of the times, ARCS Phoenix Chapter had a virtual visit via Zoom with our 17 scholars from Arizona State University on Wednesday, October 14, 2020.

One of the highlights of our fall ARCS calendar is our site visits to each of our partner universities.  Despite the virtual format, the event was very successful and allowed us to hear from our scholars.  About 15 ARCS members were in attendance.

We heard from Vice Provost and Dean Elizabeth Wentz.  She arrived at ASU just when the pandemic began so she has had to navigate the Graduate College through these trying times.  She spoke about her formation of a Covid Task Force and the receipt of a two year National Science Foundation Grant for the Advance Program to foster gender equity among faculty. 

Dean Wentz thanked ARCS for its support of our scholars and noted that we have given over $2.5 million dollars since 1977. 

Liz Nofen, ARCS University Relations Vice President, gave a really nice talk and shared her experience being a Lawson scholar when she was at ASU in the department of Chemical Engineering.  She mentioned the great benefit of the ARCS award being that it comes with no restrictions and allows the financial burden to be eased for graduate students at a time when they really need to focus on their research. 

ASU produced a video where each scholar had a chance to highlight their research in their own unique way.  Every scholar thanked ARCS Foundation and expressed gratitude toward their donors. 

After the video, we were put into smaller breakout rooms with about four scholars, two faculty members and other ARCS members.  There we had a deeper dive into each scholar’s work.  There was time for Q&A at the end. 

The event went very smoothly and reminded us all how much of an impact we have in the lives of these young scientists.