Without passion, we have no purpose. I use my passion — a camera — to document those who create excellence art at Arizona State University. My purpose is to introduce you to them.
The people in my world are thinkers who challenge us to find commonalities. They’re doers who find ways of spreading healing and compassion. They’re pioneers who look for new ways of seeing the problem. They’re creators who work just a little bit longer and a little bit harder to make a difference. They’re the ones who accept the challenge of taking the good and making it better.
The ASU life is exceptional and vibrant because of the people choose to make it that way. Let me introduce you to them.
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Supply chain management freshman Cory English and other W. P. Carey School of Business students cheer at the annual Sun Devil Welcome at Wells Fargo Arena on Aug. 14. Around 12,700 incoming freshmen celebrated with their classmates before classes began.
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Surf's Jake Copeland, a business entrepreneurship and computer systems information senior, celebrates his $5,000 award through eSeed after the Venture Devils Demo Day awards ceremony Nov. 30. Ninety-one ASU-affiliated ventures delivered pitches as they competed for more than $250,000 in funding and support through ASU's Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
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School of Social Work Director James Herbert Williams and Sen.-elect Kyrsten Sinema pose for a selfie with Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions Dean Jonathan Koppell at a reception honoring Sinema in the Concho Room at the Westward Ho on Dec. 3. More than 100 faculty, staff and students came to rub elbows with their famous colleague.
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Kindergartener Ryan Parsons places blocks on graph paper at the ASU Prep Poly STEM Academy on Jan. 9. The project involved basic coding as he set up a maze with three turns. When completed, students had a little bot motor through a maze. The Polytechnic campus school was named the state's top K–4 school in academics, among district and charter schools.
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Ten-year-old Kenleigh McFaden (left) shares her idea on something that changes the planet quickly, with Evan Tavenner, 10, in their earth sciences class on Jan. 9 at the ASU Prep Poly STEM Academy. Afterward, they exchanged cards and presented the new idea with another classmate.
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Robert George (left) and Cornel West discuss the importance of open dialogue in pursuit of civil discussion and the serious and respectful exchange of ideas. The Jan. 26 event, co-sponsored by the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, was part of the "Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education and American Society" series.
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As part of her service requirements, Eastern Arizona College nursing student Katie Miller spends time with Tim Gutierrez on April 23, providing hospice care. Nursing Director Caroly McCormies (left) joins her in helping Gutierrez to his wheelchair in his home outside Thatcher. Miller is enrolled in the RN-to-BSN program partnership between EAC and ASU.
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Dig It Outdoors educator Cory Pfitzer talks about a magnolia tree at the Young Adult Writing Program for fourth- and fifth-graders from around the Valley on June 6. The students learned about a variety of trees on the Tempe campus. The students will write emails to the trees, then the "trees" will write back.
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Grammy Award winner, Oscar winner and Golden Globe winner John Legend takes the stage April 17 to speak at the ASU + GSV Summit. In 2014, in partnership with the MacArthur Foundation and the National Writing Project, Legend launched LRNG Innovators to harness the potential of teachers, communities and companies to reshape learning while nurturing talent.
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Students move one of the 10 sections of rails into place as they reinstall the 150-foot hyperloop test track on the Polytechnic campus. The AZLoop team worked on several fronts to prepare for the July 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition: track installation, cannibalizing the previous year's pod for electronic components, designing systems and working with funding sources.
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Visitors investigate the vault that will house the 10-meter-long X-ray laser at the grand opening of the Biodesign Institute Building C on Sept. 17. The third of four structures of the institute will be home to the world's first compact X-ray laser and other labs and research-support space designed to promote collaboration among researchers.
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Michelle Govani (center) and Alesia Prakapenka peek around their gonfalons before the Fall 2018 Graduate Commencement at Wells Fargo Arena on Dec. 10. Around 7,800 on-campus and online students received undergraduate and graduate degrees.
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Sophomore Tom Wright, of Great Britain, warms up during a Jan. 5 practice at the Whiteman Tennis Center on the Tempe campus. He and other members of the ASU men’s tennis team played their first varsity match in 10 years, against Duke.
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Sustainability junior Rachel Gregory, who plays defense for the Sun Devils women's lacrosse team, runs through drills during practice at the soccer stadium on Jan. 26. The team opened its inaugural season against Kennesaw State in Georgia.
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Mechanical engineering sophomore Fara Shippee cuts a metal tube March 7 for the staging for Emerge 2018 and its Luna City 2175 in the scene shop of Galvin Playhouse. Emerge is an interdisciplinary experience using art, science and technology to explore inside "a 125-year-old moon-based spaceport/artisan colony."
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Integration and test engineer Bob Roebuck examines the new neutron spectrometer for the LunaH-Map CubeSat in an ISTB4 clean room Nov. 15. The team, led by planetary scientist Craig Hardgrove, is creating the first spacecraft developed and built at ASU. The shoebox-size satellite will search for hydrogen at the moon's south pole.
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Meteorite researcher Robert Ward holds the meteorite that fell during a monsoon storm in the front yard of a north Glendale, Arizona, home this summer. The resident saw the blackened stone in the gravel and was about to throw it away when he realized what it was. It is reported to be the fifth meteorite fall in Arizona and the first in the Valley.
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Workers install a big bronze pitchfork Aug. 31 at the newly renovated Sun Devil Stadium. Phoenix artist Jeff Carol Davenport created the 6-foot-2-inch symbol that was commissioned by Arthur Pearce II and cast at the Bollinger Atelier foundry in Tempe. It is the group's second permanent project; the Pat Tillman statue in the north end zone was the first.
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Freshmen Lauren Rho and Evan Lis sign a large card celebrating the 30th anniversary of Barrett, The Honors College on the Downtown Phoenix campus. The Arizona Board of Regents established the University Honors College in 1988.
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Rylee Rodriguez gets smooches from her parents, David and Dawn Rodriguez, before the Fall 2018 Undergraduate Commencement at Wells Fargo Arena. The Moeur Award winner received a BA in design studies. The family is from Los Angeles.
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And finally, several photos from a recent story about future 2nd Lt. Anthony Lawrence, an ASU Online graduate student whose ream since childhood is to pilot fighter jets. Here, he listens as his pilot, Capt. Daniel "Havoc" Hess, tells him what to expect in their F-16 flight at Luke Air Force Base on Dec. 11.
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Lawrence receives good wishes on his first F-16 flight from a ground control technician. He was a walk-on cornerback with the 2016 Sun Devil football team when he was pursuing a dual major in criminal justice and sociology through the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. He's currently working on a graduate degree in emergency management and homeland security.
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Lawrence watches the canopy close in the F-16D before the introductory flight. He will soon attend the Air Force's Officer Training School and flight school.
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Future 2nd Lt. Lawrence flashes the ASU pitchfork before he takes off in the F-16 at Luke Air Force Base on Dec. 11.
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The photographer himself: Charlie Leight waits to enter the second floor of the new $120 million Biodesign C, the third building of the Biodesign Institute. It had its grand opening in September.
Photo by Nikai Salcido/ASU Media Relations
Top photo: Criminology and criminal justice freshman Damaris Ramirez Lopez unloads the family car at the Casa de Oro Residence Hall during move-in on Aug. 11. She joined around 500 other freshmen moving into the West campus dorm.
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