Sunshine provides warm welcome at ASU Open Door event
Annual celebration, which gives public an inside look at the university, kicks off at West Valley campus
Clinical Assistant Professor Lisa Jaurigue (left), from the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, shows Rylee Dickens, 10, and Freddie Castellanos, 10, how to perform CPR at the West Valley campus Open Door event on Jan. 27. Photos by Charlie Leight
On Saturday, after a wet and cloudy week, the sun came out in spades for Arizona State University’s annual Open Door celebrations that kicked off at ASU’s West Valley campus.
It provided the perfect opportunity for attendees to cook s'mores in solar ovens made from aluminum-lined shoeboxes, an experiment that was just one of more than 60 interactive activities taking place on the 278-acre campus.
Nearly 1,500 people from the community showed up on Jan. 27 for the opportunity to explore and experience much of what ASU has to offer.
The West Valley campus is a tight-knit community of faculty and students that provides both a small-college experience alongside top-tier research, with more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs — including forensics, business, engineering, education and an honors curriculum.
Upcoming events
Feb. 3: Downtown Phoenix campus
Feb. 17: Polytechnic campus
Feb. 24: Tempe campus
All Open Door events run from 1 to 5 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
The Glendale event was the first in a series of four celebrations, which will continue at ASU’s three other campuses throughout February: Saturday, Feb. 3, at the Downtown Phoenix campus; Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Polytechnic campus; and Saturday, Feb. 24, on the Tempe campus.
All Open Door events run from 1 to 5 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
The occasion drew friends and families, toddlers, teens, adults, and a few dogs to the Oxford University-inspired campus, which features tree-lined paths and large areas of lush, green grass.
People entering the campus near the courtyard discovered Seeon Kim, a PhD candidate, performing along with other K-pop dancers. The group, called Era, provides a rhythmic reprieve from Kim’s sometimes stressful studies.
“While I am here I forget about my studies and all I think about are my dance moves,” said Kim, who will be graduating in May from the school’s speech and hearing science program in the College of Health Solutions.
Other activities included a “Launching Lemons” game, which gave people a taste of what it takes to build a business; guests got a new perspective on garbage at a booth titled “Turning Trash into Creative Wonders!”; and the Gary K. Herberger Young Scholars Academy hosted a robotics qualifying competition, drawing teams from 28 high schools around the state.
“This is expanding our reach significantly,” said Todd Sandrin, dean of ASU’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. “This is bringing (young) students to the school that have never been here before.”
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Four-year-old Roman Rangel makes his own first-aid kit with his mother, Mia Duarte (right), at ASU Open Door held on Saturday, Jan. 27, on the West Valley campus.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Isiaha Gonzales, a graduate student in the strength and conditioning master's degree program at College of Health Solutions, leaps for the top bar on the vertical jump test at the Health Solutions booth. The activity gauges the maximal power output capacity in the lower extremity — or, how much power you can produce from the area of the body that's everything from hip to toes. Some of the degree programs at College of Health Solutions focus on human performance, movement and exercise. In the background, visitors examine the "tummy tunnel," an immersive, walk-through game that's a journey through the human gut.
Photo by Keri Hensley/ASU
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First-year ASU students Aniket Kakade (left) and Shasha Daniel perform CPR on test dummies at a display from the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Cori Spade, 7, shares two truths and a lie during a demonstration at ASU Open Door. She was fitted with an OptiTrack jacket that had sensors, which communicated information seen on the screen behind her. During the demonstration, cognitive behavioral information students were able to correctly predict that her favorite food was not corn.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Ra Simms (left) and Liberty Filz, both 7, play with an artificial intelligence "cat" at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering exhibit at ASU's West Valley campus Open Door on Jan. 27.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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Penelope Nishimura (left), 6, and her sister Joules, 8, learn about fingerprints with ASU PD crime prevention coordinator Jason Weber during ASU Open Door. The girls' father, Associate Professor Joel Nishimura, teaches applied mathematics at the West Valley campus.
Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU News
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