ASU Local: Empowering California Transfer Students to Thrive in Pursuing Their Passions
ASU Local’s personalized design is what led Madison Davis, a transfer student from Southern California, to pursue her bachelor of arts in sustainability at ASU Local in Los Angeles.
ASU Local’s personalized design is what led Madison Davis, a transfer student from Southern California, to pursue her bachelor of arts in sustainability at ASU Local in Los Angeles.
“The flexibility definitely drove me to ASU Local. The program fit with my current life schedule while I’m working and trying to pick up jobs in the entertainment industry. I realized I could have it all,” says Davis. “I have always had a big passion for the environment, but I had no idea how I could turn what skills I already had into a career.”
Discovering she could earn a degree from the ASU College of Global Futures while living and working in Koreatown sealed the deal for Davis. She could study what she wanted in the city she wanted to live and work in.
ASU Local students like Davis have access to over 140 degree programs, with the option to study in a hybrid model with ASU Online and take courses at ASU’s recently opened California Center in Downtown Los Angeles.
For students like Madison, ASU Local provides the opportunity to earn her degree while working and pursuing her professional interests in the entertainment industry in the heart of Los Angeles, CA.
“I also chose ASU Local because I like being part of something new. That's where I thrive,” says Madison.
ASU Local sites, such as the ASU California Center in Downtown Los Angeles and the ASU Barbara Barrett and Sandra Day O’Connor Washington Center in Washington, D.C., nurture belonging, resilience and in-demand skills. Success coaches guide students and help them navigate every step of the college journey. A hybrid cohort model emphasizes peer-to-peer connections, empowering students to grow their network while developing the capacity to thrive in a competitive job market.
ASU Local was designed for transfer students like Madison
According to Madison, “I think that there's such potential in bringing the sciences and arts together in a new way.” At ASU, Madison is finding a way to do just that while pursuing a sustainability degree from the ASU College of Global Futures. The College of Global Futures is part of the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory, the world’s first comprehensive, university-based approach to ensuring a habitable planet and a future where well-being is attainable for all humankind.
Madison found that transferring to ASU Local from her community college, Pasadena City College, was easy to do. According to Madison, “they helped me see that I wanted to pursue a degree and I could make that happen at ASU.”
Pasadena City College provides the San Gabriel Valley with a high quality, innovative and dynamic learning environment that inspires student success. Each semester they offer academic programs that encompass degrees, transfer programs, and certificates, to over 20,000 students.
Madison credits her community college and a transfer counselor with helping her on her current pathway to getting a degree. After learning that many of her courses were transferable due to MyPath2ASU’s partnership with Pasadena City College, Madison decided to transfer to ASU to pursue both her educational and career aspirations in the arts and in the field of science.
“My advice to transfer students looking at ASU is that you can literally create whatever you want with your college experience. You don't have to be limited by what other people have done or what other people are saying college is supposed to be,” says Madison. “This is a totally different ball game and you get to play how you want.”