Innovation and ASU

With so many students at Xavier interested in excelling in the science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) fields for their careers, Arizona State University would be a prime choice for their furthering education. As an academic institution, it would offer Xavier graduates the highest levels of opportunities in these fields. “Being a part of the robotics team, I think that the school’s advancements in the STEAM field are very progressive for aspiring innovators as myself,” says Skylar Smith ‘18. Furthermore, being residents of the state of Arizona would greatly aid the ingenious girls of our school to attend a cutting-edge university for minimal cost. ASU and its Honor College additionally offer substantial fiscal compensation to the bright young women of our State in understanding that their intellectual capabilities will only progress the innovative tendencies of their foundation. Instead of searching far and wide for a prosperous education at increasingly inflating rates of tuition, Xavier graduates should look to ASU and its multitude of programs, designed for student success, in order to promote their developing intellects and interests in the fields of their unique choosing.

 

 Innovation is defined as “the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods” by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It is the ability to transcend the known standards and customs of an infrastructure through calculated theories involving changes and procedures of an institution. Without innovation, the world would not be open to growth or positive change and would thus be stuck in a phase of idleness and sterility. Innovation has granted this nation the ability of international commercial flight, space exploration and many medical advances to increase the life efficiency of multiple organisms alongside a minutiae of other breakthroughs.

 

 Arizona State University has been credited as the most innovative school in the nation for the second year by U.S. News and World Report rankings, with Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology just behind ASU, respectively. According to the ASU website, In the past two years, ASU has developed a data-mining tool designed to detect student struggles early in their progression so that counsellors may intervene before the problems grow too momentous to be resolved. In this way, ASU keeps their students on track for obtaining higher level degrees and opening the doors to greater individual achievement. They are also the best university in the nation for student-faculty collaboration. This greatly contributes to their cumulatively heightened grade point averages and successful team research endeavours.

 

 Furthermore, ASU is the most innovative university for also aiding their students in tackling financial obstacles associated with pursuing a higher level of education. Through their cutting-edge Starbucks College Achievement Plan, ASU promises full reimbursement to their students seeking online degrees as employees of the corporation. With several Starbucks locations around their campus, the university offers plenty of opportunities for their students to participate in this plan without missing out on being a part of their collegiate community.

 

 ASU has also asserted its dominance as number one for innovation in the fields of engineering and science. This was attained by successfully landing two rovers, the Spirit and the Opportunity, on Mars. Through this achievement, NASA has been able to develop the first mineral map of Mars’ landscape with ASU’s geologist, Philip Christensen. Additionally, the university utilizes its collaboration with the Mayo Clinic within its medical program to allow students access to the widest array of research discoveries, unprecedented minds, and international opportunities. Currently, ASU is working on developing a cure for Ebola and exacting a low-cost test for assessing the Zika Virus.

 

 Amongst many other aspirations, Arizona State University has proven to be worthy of the title, “most innovative.” They constantly encourage their faculty and students for new ideas in hopes of advancing not just the individual, but also the university as a whole. Through its growth in the fields of medicine and engineering as well as its proficiency in tracking student progress and catering to their financial needs as undergraduates and graduates, ASU has a foreseeable future full of success in all of its educational and worldly applications.