ASU among elite universities in scholarship program for Peruvian students
This year, Beca Cometa, a two-year college-preparation program that gives promising young Peruvians scholarships to nine top universities in the United States, has chosen ASU as a partner university. ASU photo
Among the thousands of first-year Sun Devils arriving at Arizona State University for the fall semester will be eight students who have traveled nearly 4,000 miles from their native Peru.
The eight are part of Beca Cometa, a two-year college-preparation program that gives promising young Peruvians scholarships to nine top universities in the United States. This is the first year that ASU is a partner university, and eight of the 32 scholars chose to become Sun Devils. The other eight universities are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton, New York and Brown universities, the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley.
Beca Cometa, funded by Intercorp, a corporate conglomerate in Peru, chooses students who are in the top 20% of their high school classes, speak English fluently, come from low-income families and are active in their communities. They come from across the country.
The program started in 2022, and Beca Cometa chose ASU to become a partner university this year, according to Nayara Dixon, assistant director of international recruitment initiatives at ASU.
“They were interested in the idea of institutions that work with innovation, and they found that ASU is number one in innovation, so they added us,” said Dixon, who traveled to Peru to meet with program administrators, students and their families.
Beca Cometa is unusual because it’s offered by a private company, according to Chris Johnson, director of international graduate recruitment and international partners at ASU.
“Typically, it’s more common to see a government that says, ‘We have a skills gap’ or ‘We need our young people exposed to something different,’" he said.
“But for this program to say, ‘We’ll put all this money behind sending a student abroad,’ and not limiting the choice of program, is incredibly rare and we’re incredibly grateful to be considered.”
One of the new Sun Devils is Renzo Israel Adriano Lopez, who is from Lima.
“I am really excited to join thousands of other Sun Devils at the Inferno Fest event during orientation,” said Lopez, who is majoring in neuroscience.
“I want to surround myself with multiple communities, whether playing for the men’s soccer club, joining the BRAIN Research Center, or supporting children’s mental, physical and academic health with the REACH Institute.”
He chose ASU because “… I would be able to learn from the best professors how to combine innovation and real-world impact quickly. One of the most pressing problems in Peru is inequality, and I want to use my ASU education to work to combat this problem and make a real difference.”
The other Beca Cometa Sun Devils are majoring in math, computer science, psychology, architecture, engineering and art.
The two-year college-preparation program is intense, according to Kelly Villanueva, program manager for Beca Cometa. More than 2,500 apply every year, and about 60 students are selected.
They receive preparation for the English-language proficiency exam and the SAT, plus college application coaching. Fees are covered for exams, college applications, visas and transportation. The scholars also have access to mental health services, extracurricular events and even workshops on what college in America is like.
Lopez said the college-prep program, called Cometa Camp, taught him teamwork and the value of friendship.
“I will always remember with joy the study groups I joined, the friends I made in my preparation for our college interviews and how all of my peers actively made time to help one another and to share resources so that we could all reach our maximum potential,” he said.
Villanueva said the support continues when the scholars are abroad.
“We do not say goodbye to scholars once they travel to the U.S.,” she said.
“We maintain a long-distance bond over the four years they are there since we aim to ensure that all of our scholars graduate from their U.S. colleges and universities.”
The scholarship recipients complete monthly check-ins with the mental health service teams and provide academic progress reports. They also support the program by participating in webinars, college application panels and reaching out to applicants at their schools.
Even students who don’t attend one of the partner universities remain in the network, Villanueva said.
“This means that no matter what happens, whether they are admitted to a university partner school or not, they are always part of our community,” she said.
Lopez said that he and the seven other Sun Devils in Beca Cometa have bonded and will support each other in Arizona even as they make new friends.
“Definitely, I am convinced that in every friendship I make, I’ll find the grit to pursue my dreams,” he said.
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