ASU honors alum and doctoral candidate Kendon Jung receives Fulbright Award for study in Germany

Kendon Jung is committed to combating climate change and advancing sustainability through service design for behavioral, organizational and social change.

Jung, currently a PhD candidate in design, environment and the arts at Arizona State University, has been selected to participate in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program for the 2024–25 academic year. 

Jung received both a bachelor’s degree in sustainable urban dynamics and a master’s degree in higher and post-secondary education from ASU. He is an alumnus of Barrett, The Honors College at ASU. 

The Fulbright program annually awards more than 2,000 grants to support independent study or research, teaching, graduate study or artistic practice abroad. It was founded in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through the exchange of people, knowledge and skills. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, it is the largest and most prestigious educational exchange fellowship program in the world.

Jung, who is a manager in ASU’s Sustainability Practices Office, has begun a 10-month stint in Cologne, Germany to study how service designers advance sustainability. With support from the Fulbright Award he will work with Birgit Mager, professor at the TH Köln International School of Design and founder of the Service Design Network, to interview designers from across the globe.

As a manager in the university’s Zero Waste initiative for four years, Jung was inspired to use service design to make sustainability tangible, usable, and accessible.

“If we are going to answer (ASU) President Michael Crow’s call to build a ‘fully-sustainable’ university, we have to continue to operate at the highest possible level and create an ecosystem that makes sustainable behaviors second nature for every Sun Devil,” he said.

Jung said his Fulbright Award will allow him to draw on his past experience as a commissioner on the city of Tempe’s Sustainability and Resilience Commission and further develop his skills facilitating mutual understanding through transdisciplinary collaborations to design solutions to today’s wicked challenges.

“We need climate action now, but we can only move at the speed of trust. And design is a way to help,” he said.