Trading a small town for downtown

Editor's note: ASU News is highlighting some of its impressive incoming students for fall 2021.

After growing up in the small border town of San Luis, Arizona, Frida Peralta is ready to experience all that downtown Phoenix living has to offer. Now that she has settled in at Taylor Place residence hall, the incoming Arizona State Univesity student is looking forward to meeting new people and diving into her studies as a sports science and performance major at the College of Health Solutions.

No stranger to the field, having played basketball all four years during high school, Peralta is eager to step off the court and learn how she can channel her passion for sport into helping others.

“I’ve always wanted to help others since I was small, but I never knew how,” she said. “Then, in my sophomore year of high school, I learned about sports medicine and I completely loved it.”

A first-generation college student, Peralta was awarded several scholarships, including the Obama Scholarship and the New American University Scholarship. She’s also part of ASU’s College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), which provides academic support to students from migrant and seasonal farmworker backgrounds during their first year in college.

Frida Peralta played basketball all four years of high school for the San Luis High School Sidewinders. Photo courtesy of Frida Peralta

Question: Why did you choose ASU?

Answer: I chose ASU because I had better opportunities for scholarships there ... and I have family members nearby. I’ve also heard many good things about ASU.

Q: What are you most excited to experience your first semester?

A: I’m really excited to experience being independent for the first time. I'm also excited to meet people who will also be majoring in sports science like me.

Q: What do you like to brag about to friends about ASU?

A: I like to brag about how everything is close by because I'll be in downtown Phoenix. And even though I have the golden meal plan [the "light bundle" meal plan], I also like to show off the different meals I get each day.

Q: What talents and skills are you bringing to the ASU community?

A: I like to think I’m a decent basketball player, but it’s been a while since I’ve played. I was also in choir, but I’ll be honest, I can’t really sing for my life — but I was really good with pitch!

Q: What do you hope to accomplish during your college years?

A: I hope to improve on my ability to make friends. I’ll be honest, I sometimes have trouble making friends because I can’t just randomly introduce myself to new people; it’s nerve-wracking for me. But I am good at holding conversations once they start.

Q: What’s one interesting fact about yourself that only your friends know?

A: I haven’t been diagnosed with it but I think I have hypermobility, and it’s pretty obvious, too. I get injured easily due to it.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem in our world, what would you choose?

A: There are many problems in our world at the moment. There’s poverty, climate change, violence, malnutrition and so many more. But I’d probably want to help with climate change by planting more trees.

Top photo: Students pass by Taylor Place residential hall in the middle of the Downtown Phoenix campus. Photo by Charlie Leight/ASU