S4E6: Seattle Colleges Conversations with! Senior Director and Head of Global Partnership Development Chris Johnson at Arizona State University

In this our sixth (6th) episode of Season 4, Seattle Colleges host Evan Franulovich interviews Senior Director and Head of Global Partnership Development Chris Johnson of Arizona State University about their institution and about what they have to offer international students who transfer there.

1:19 - Meet Chris!

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Transcript

Evan Franulovich  0:05  
Welcome to Seattle Colleges International Programs and our show Conversations with! where we talk to people that help you understand how you too, can be an international student in the United States and why Seattle Colleges should be your first choice. We'll talk to students and staff and agents and government folks, all kinds of people about what you can expect when you're getting ready to apply or travel here, what you'll experience while you're with us, and how it can all lead to an amazing life. Don't forget to check out the Seattle Colleges International Programs website at intl.seattlecolleges.edu where you can find a treasure trove of information about the school, the programs here and best of all, fill out and submit your application. Again, that's intl.seattlecolleges.edu.

Evan Franulovich  1:04  
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Seattle Colleges Conversations with! We are here in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. How's it going?

Chris Johnson  1:17  
It's good. Welcome.

Evan Franulovich  1:19  
Thanks. You speak Arabic? 

Chris Johnson  1:21  
A little bit. 

Evan Franulovich  1:22  
Oh, really? Did you study at university? 

Chris Johnson  1:25  
I studied it when I lived here. So I lived in Saudi for little over a year. I've lived in Kuwait. I've lived in Egypt, so off and on. I've studied it over the years, but never mastered, of course. 

Evan Franulovich  1:36  
Wow, impressive. But hey guys, let's find out who we're even talking to here. We want to welcome Arizona State University. 

Chris Johnson  1:47  
Forks up. 

Evan Franulovich  1:49  
Forks up. Big division one school down in the southwest part of the United States. Why don't you tell everybody who you are, what you do for Arizona State University, and then we'll just go from there?

Chris Johnson  2:01  
That sounds great. Thanks for having me. First of all, delighted to be with you. I'm Chris Johnson. I head up global partnership development at Arizona State University. Previously, I was the head of international recruitment so helping international students all over the world find their way to their dream educational career at ASU in the desert, where we don't have rain and we don't have snow. I have been in this line of work for 25 years at lots of different institutions, but I've been with ASU for about four and a half, and love working with the students from community colleges. I'm an instructor part time at a community college, and have worked with Seattle Colleges for probably 20 years. So super glad to be with you and talk to your students. 

Evan Franulovich  2:52  
Well, what do you teach at a community college? 

Chris Johnson  2:54  
I teach political science. 

Evan Franulovich  2:55  
Oh, very cool. 

Chris Johnson  2:56  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  2:56  
Like any particular angle?

Chris Johnson  3:01  
The gamut, mostly first year courses. So American politics, global politics, things like that.

Evan Franulovich  3:07  
Is that in the Phoenix area that you do it? 

Chris Johnson  3:09  
Yeah, I teach part time for community college in the northwest part of Phoenix. 

Evan Franulovich  3:16  
So which community college would that be? 

Chris Johnson  3:19  
Glendale, Arizona. Not the California, Glendale.

Evan Franulovich  3:25  
Well, we have Chris on here because Arizona State is one of our tag partners. And if you start your education with Seattle Colleges, you do your first two years, then you can transfer off to another institution. We want you to consider Arizona State. Why wouldn't they just go two subway stops down the road to University of Washington? Why would they go all the way down to Arizona State?

Chris Johnson  3:51  
Well, I mean, first of all, I think it's important to say Arizona State has a lot to offer. There are many universities that have a lot to offer. So certainly no shade at any other institution. But here comes the shade. 

Evan Franulovich  4:09  
Here comes the shade. 

Chris Johnson  4:09  
No, I'm not going to shade on any other. But a couple of things why Seattle students should be considering Arizona State. First of all, ASU makes it incredibly easy to transfer our 'My Path to ASU' tool is arguably one of the best, if not the best in the business. Students sign up on My Path. They plug in their Seattle courses and their grades, and the system tells them exactly what they have to take. So each semester all the way through. There's no guessing. There's no uncertainty. We've already articulated most of the courses from Seattle, and they're already in our database, which has over 1.5 million courses from 1000s of institutions around the world. One, we make it easy. Two, we have all kinds of programs. ASU has over 400 programs for the bachelor's level. So you want engineering, we've got 100 of those. You want business, we've got 50 of those. And the list goes on and on. Third scholarships, transfer students are eligible for ASU transfer scholarships, both for international and for domestic students, so we make it worth your while financially to come down to Arizona and complete your degree. And the fourth thing I'll say is ASU is really focused on student success, student outcomes. Our charter talks about we measure ourselves not by who we exclude, but by who we include and how they succeed. And so we know from other institutions, students sometimes struggle. They can't get the classes they need. They can't finish in four years. That's not a problem at ASU, we have the classes to be able to move students through. Last year, we had about 28,000, if my memory serves me, transfer students. 

Evan Franulovich  6:09  
What? 

Chris Johnson  6:10  
We know how to do this and do it well, and working together with Seattle and ASU, it can be a really seamless transition towards achieving your dream educational career. 

Evan Franulovich  6:23  
Right. So Arizona State usually comes to our transfer fairs. They come and you can talk to them in-person, both in the fall and in the winter. But you mentioned a tool. Is this a tool that the student goes on and uses, or is this something their transfer advisor would use for them on their behalf?

Chris Johnson  6:41  
So it can be both, but it's designed for the student. 

Evan Franulovich  6:44  
Okay. 

Chris Johnson  6:45  
So it's very simple. You sign up, you mean little bit of information as part of that. If you sign up, it's called my path to ASU. As part of signing up for that and doing certain things along the way, you can also earn micro scholarships that count towards your tuition bill. So we make it financially worth your while to take advantage of it. But don't take my word for it. Go to the site, look at one of the videos and see how easy it is to map out exactly what your plan of study would be, what courses you need to take when you need to take them, so that you can start doing that in your first semester at Seattle, so you don't have to wait until the end of your fourth semester or sixth quarter, as the case may be. And think about that transfer. You can lay the groundwork knowing that's where you're thinking about going, and know exactly what the what the plan is going to be. 

Evan Franulovich  7:47  
So maybe the plan is we're going to go to Seattle. We're going to see what Seattle's all about. You discover maybe the weather isn't what I thought it was going to be, or maybe Seattle's not the kind of city I was looking for. That's okay. It's not for everybody, go down to the desert, have a whole different experience. Or maybe you plan it from the start. Maybe you say, 'Oh, I just want to have a two regional experience. I want to try this out and then see a whole different part of the United States.' So if they know that's their plan, at what point do you recommend that they reach out to an advisor at ASU to kind of help them understand the process?

Chris Johnson  8:27  
You know, I think the earlier, the better. 

Evan Franulovich  8:30  
Yeah. 

Chris Johnson  8:30  
You know, one thing that I really want to stress is that it's really important for students to complete their their AA, or AS with Seattle prior to transfer. You know, there's just so much benefit in getting that extra credential. But that being said, I think certainly, after a year ahead of time is not a bad timeframe only because of special scholarships, other special programs that you can take advantage of by planning ahead, but you can literally start it any time. So you could start it today, literally today my path to ASU and map out what that journey would look like, so that you know, as you're picking your classes with your advisor at Seattle. 

Evan Franulovich  9:22  
Okay. 

Chris Johnson  9:23  
I know these classes are going to count for these things, and I can be very comfortable and know I'm following the plan. 

Evan Franulovich  9:29  
All right. Okay, so you mentioned, everybody's always interested in money, of course, and you mentioned quite a bit of quite an opportunity there for these students. Can you give a little more detail about how much they might be able to get the process of applying for these scholarships, or are they automatically considered? Can you go into that?

Chris Johnson  9:49  
Absolutely. So most of the scholarships at ASU, there's no special application. You're automatically considered. It's based on your GPA. It's based on other factors, depending on whether you're a domestic student or an international student. The range of those scholarships is roughly from 3000 to 10,000 renewable for a second year. So four semesters kind of deal, and depending on your major and the kind of experience you want to have, you can also attract additional scholarships on top of those by choosing programs at certain of our campuses. So this is probably a good point where I make the Baskin Robbins analogy. 

Evan Franulovich  9:49  
All right. 

Chris Johnson  10:21  
Often people think of a university like ASU or Washington State. Wazoo is one thing, right? ASU is many different flavors on the ice cream bar. You want big school marching band D1 football experience. That's our Tempe campus. You want to be in an urban environment, surrounded by tall buildings, lots of pavement, lots of opportunities. That's our downtown campus. Maybe you want something a little more small, intimate, with about 5000 students, that would be our West Valley campus, where we still have 140 majors, all the services at every other campus, West Valley and our Poly campus for this year have an additional two $3,000 scholarship on top of the main scholarship. Now, of course, everything was scholarships subject to change without notice, the usual caveat. 

Evan Franulovich  11:34  
Sure. 

Chris Johnson  11:35  
But we really feel strongly that ASU has an experience and a flavor of an experience, that's right for many different kinds of students.

Evan Franulovich  11:47  
So students that don't, that aren't familiar with the geography of Phoenix, West Valley is a different part of the city, or is it all part of Tempe? 

Chris Johnson  11:56  
No. So Phoenix is the main metropolitan area, so to put it in a Seattle context, Phoenix would be the Seattle but then Tempe might be a Bellevue or a Renton. 

Evan Franulovich  12:12  
Gotcha. 

Chris Johnson  12:13  
And our West Valley might be an Everett, and our Polytechnic might be Tacoma. Not quite that spread out. Generally takes about an hour between our furthest campuses. But just to give you an idea of the flavor and the experiences that we have.

Evan Franulovich  12:30  
So the downtown one is actually downtown Phoenix or downtown Tempe? 

Chris Johnson  12:34  
Downtown Phoenix. 

Evan Franulovich  12:35  
Okay, you can be down in the big city there.

Chris Johnson  12:38  
Absolutely. You can have access to all the professional sports you're literally three blocks away from the baseball stadium, the Indoor Stadium where all the basketball teams and concerts come. You're close to the state capital. If you're interested in public affairs, you're close to the headquarters of all the big businesses that are downtown. Our downtown campus specializes in pre professional programs, health sciences, public service, but our world class School of Global Management, the Thunderbird School of Global Management, is also downtown, so there's a lot of great experiences. Not every campus has every major, it's important to note. But even at West Valley, which is nominally a smaller campus, we still have 140 programs to choose from. 

Evan Franulovich  13:31  
It's crazy, yeah. 

Chris Johnson  13:32  
And I always challenge students, find me a school or campus with 5000 students that offers 140 majors. 

Evan Franulovich  13:38  
Right. 

Chris Johnson  13:38  
And you can't do it.

Evan Franulovich  13:40  
Right. You know in Seattle, our five top majors are engineering, computer science. What are your top three or five majors?

Chris Johnson  13:52  
It's going to be very much the same, computer science, engineering of various types. We're getting a lot of interest in data science in cyber and then, of course, a lot of the business programs, marketing management, international business, data analytics, is really a hot one for international students. And of course, I mentioned earlier, ASU has dozens of engineering programs, so if you want aeronautical engineering all the way down to unmanned autonomous vehicles engineering and most things in between. We've got that for you.

Evan Franulovich  14:29  
Right. Do you have the businesses in the Phoenix area to offer OPT after they finish up?

Chris Johnson  14:36  
Absolutely. And you can actually go on our website and you can see a report of where ASU students are doing their CPTs and OPTs, and who are the biggest employers. And they're companies that you would know, Amazon's and Microsoft's, and ASU is a big CPT and OPT employer as well. 

Evan Franulovich  14:55  
I didn't know Microsoft had a campus down in Phoenix. 

Chris Johnson  14:58  
Most of the big tech companies have a strong presence in Phoenix. We all know historically Silicon Valley.

Evan Franulovich  15:06  
Yeah, yeah. 

Chris Johnson  15:07  
Arizona is becoming silicon desert. 

Evan Franulovich  15:10  
Okay. 

Chris Johnson  15:10  
So most of the major chip manufacturers in the world have opened or are have expanded facilities in Arizona, advanced manufacturing around it, EV batteries and things like that. EV car manufacturer has moved into Arizona, so the folks that provide the software that runs all of that are also coming to Arizona.

Evan Franulovich  15:33  
Right, right. So you mentioned aeronautical engineering. We get a lot of people interested in that particular field because of Boeing. Any big aerospace companies in the Phoenix area?

Chris Johnson  15:47  
A lot of them have a strong presence in the Phoenix area. None of them are headquartered there, right? We haven't managed to lure Boeing to Arizona yet, but give us time. 

Evan Franulovich  15:56  
Yeah, yeah. 

Chris Johnson  15:57  
But Boeing is certainly there in a substantial way. Airbus is there, Embraer is there, Northrop Grumman is there. And then the companies that supply components, like Lockheed Martin and so forth.

Evan Franulovich  16:12  
So Phoenix is a big city, right? How many people? 

Chris Johnson  16:15  
5 million. 

Evan Franulovich  16:16  
Oh, that's a lot more than I thought. 

Chris Johnson  16:18  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  16:19  
I don't even know. That's crazy. 5 million people, it's really grown over the last 10-20 years.

Chris Johnson  16:24  
It's been the fastest growing city in the country for the last 10 years.

Evan Franulovich  16:28  
Wow. So with that many people, lots to do. In Seattle, we have all kinds of things downtown, lot of touristy kinds of stuff. What do you guys got to offer in the whole greater Phoenix area? 

Chris Johnson  16:42  
Yeah. I mean, we've got, all the things you would expect at a big city, like the sports, the concerts, the entertainment. We're very much a western city. So if you want to get a taste of cowboy culture, you can go and ride a mechanical bull. You can put on your cowboy hat. We also like Washington, have great mountains. 

Evan Franulovich  17:04  
It's true. 

Chris Johnson  17:05  
And we have one of the seven wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon is just up the road, about three hours away. 

Evan Franulovich  17:11  
Yeah. 

Chris Johnson  17:11  
So you want the outdoors, we've got that. If you want to go and experience those dark desert skies. We've got that too.

Evan Franulovich  17:21  
Yeah, four corners is not too far away. It's a great place. Actually. Arizona is just a really amazing state, lots of natural beauty. So if you end up not appreciating Washington for what it has to offer, Arizona is amazing. I went to school just down the street from you guys. We won't talk about that too much, but Arizona state's a really great school. You did mention basketball. I have so many students that come to Seattle and they're a little bit sad that we don't have an NBA team. You guys, do.

Chris Johnson  17:52  
We do. We have an NBA team and a WNBA team. 

Evan Franulovich  17:55  
Oh, yeah. 

Chris Johnson  17:56  
And our NBA team, the last couple of years have not been its best. Our WNBA team, as of the time of this recording, was playing for the WNBA championship. I don't know how it's going to turned out, but yeah, basketball is serious stuff in Arizona.

Evan Franulovich  18:15  
And even if you're not a big Phoenix fan, you can watch them play some of your favorite teams. 

Chris Johnson  18:21  
Absolutely. 

Evan Franulovich  18:22  
LA is not very far away. So that's a really good place. That's really great. 

Chris Johnson  18:27  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  18:28  
Let's talk a little bit about housing students. You know, they have three options at Seattle Colleges. You must have a number of options as well, I'm guessing. Can you explain what you guys have to offer?

Chris Johnson  18:40  
Sure. Most of our transfer students, choose to live off campus and apartments and things like that. We do have on campus transfer accommodation. It is limited. So that early application and that early sort of getting on the list is really important. We have a few students who want home stays and those, those are an option as well. We don't get many takers for that, but that is a possibility. The vast majority, though, are in off campus apartments. 

Evan Franulovich  19:14  
Right. If they do end up going with a homestay option, do they have to work with an agency, or do you guys help set it?

Chris Johnson  19:14  
We refer them to an agency that helps them set it. 

Evan Franulovich  19:20  
Okay, very good. What about public transportation within the city of Phoenix? In Seattle, in my opinion, we have such great public transportation. How is it getting around such a big city like Phoenix?

Chris Johnson  19:40  
I won't lie, most of the students come with cars in some fashion or another. 

Evan Franulovich  19:44  
Okay. 

Chris Johnson  19:46  
Tempe itself has really good public transportation. Phoenix has very good public transportation. We have light rail, we have busses, ride shares, van pools. I mean, all the different things. When you go more to the outline the public transit hasn't developed yet as fast as the cities have developed. But if you're a student in Tempe or downtown, or even at the other campuses, you don't have to have a car. You can still access ASU has a fleet of its own shuttle busses that circulate between all the campuses. So if you want to live in Tempe, but take a major at one of the other campuses, you totally can do that. And these are primo coach busses, leather seats, Wi Fi, plug ins, bathrooms. They're they're state of the art. They run 6am to midnight. So if you want to go to a concert downtown, great. Take one of the ASU shuttles. You're three blocks away. Go to the show. Take the shuttle home. It's awesome. 

Evan Franulovich  20:49  
What about Amtrak? Does Amtrak come through Phoenix? 

Chris Johnson  20:51  
Sadly, we don't have Amtrak. 

Evan Franulovich  20:53  
I thought you guys did. 

Chris Johnson  20:54  
They keep talking about it. But right now, Amtrak crosses the northern part and the southern part. But Sky Harbor is one of the 10 biggest airports in the United States. 

Evan Franulovich  21:09  
It's true. 

Chris Johnson  21:10  
And it's one of the 20 biggest in the world. As of last year, at the time we're recording this, it was number 17 in the world. 

Evan Franulovich  21:18  
Right. 

Chris Johnson  21:18  
So you can get anywhere in the world, normally one stop from Phoenix. 

Evan Franulovich  21:24  
Unless it's 125 degrees outside, then sometimes the planes are a little delayed.

Chris Johnson  21:30  
That is true. But thanks to our friends in Boeing and their hot weather testing that they do in places like Arizona, that happens very rarely, maybe one day a year.

Evan Franulovich  21:43  
Yeah, average temp in Phoenix, Arizona?

Chris Johnson  21:46  
Depends on the time of year. 

Evan Franulovich  21:48  
All right, let's say July.

Chris Johnson  21:51  
July is going to be toasty. 

Evan Franulovich  21:52  
It's going to be really toasty. 

Chris Johnson  21:54  
I'm going to put this in metric equivalents. We're going to be high 30s, low 40s. It's not unheard of that it will get up to the high 40s and even touch 50. 

Evan Franulovich  22:06  
Wow. 

Chris Johnson  22:08  
Evenings will drop down into high 20s, low 30s typically. It is a desert, so we have no humidity. 

Evan Franulovich  22:17  
It's really nice. 

Chris Johnson  22:18  
So it cools off very nicely in the evening. Our best weather is really October till April, and we'll see temperatures typically mid 20s by day, upper teens, mid teens in the evening. 

Evan Franulovich  22:31  
Right. 

Chris Johnson  22:32  
Super comfortable. Lovely to be there. 

Evan Franulovich  22:34  
So what I've noticed being in Riyadh and Jeddah earlier, Jeddah is a little more humid, but Riyadh pretty dry. It feels like Arizona here. 

Chris Johnson  22:41  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  22:41  
A little bit.

Chris Johnson  22:42  
Yes, very dry. 

Evan Franulovich  22:44  
If you're a student from this region, you'll feel very much at home in Arizona.

Chris Johnson  22:49  
I don't have the data to prove it, but having been in this line of work for many years, Arizona is the top destination for students from the Middle East. 

Evan Franulovich  23:01  
Really? 

Chris Johnson  23:02  
Historically, yes. Whether they actually study there or not, but because the similarity of the weather. 

Evan Franulovich  23:08  
Sure. 

Chris Johnson  23:08  
And the warm welcome, you know the fact that we have 163 countries represented on campus, and certainly for the Middle Eastern region, we have significant populations from every country, pretty much every country in the region. So a student who goes to Seattle, who's from Oman transfers to ASU, they're going to find an Omani community, or Saudi or Kuwaiti or Emirati, or the list goes on and on.

Evan Franulovich  23:36  
So I'm guessing there must be mosques nearby? Do you have prayer rooms on campus? 

Chris Johnson  23:44  
Both. So the campus mosque for Tempe is just a block away from the main campus. It's not physically on the the campus property, but it's literally one block away, and we have prayer rooms in most of the academic buildings, I believe it.

Evan Franulovich  24:01  
What about like a MENA Student Association, or you have clubs? 

Chris Johnson  24:09  
Absolutely. Yeah, we've got a large MENA Association, but because of the size of our communities from the MENA countries, each of them has their own fairly strong association. So there's a Saudi Association and Omani Association and a Kuwaiti Association. 

Evan Franulovich  24:28  
That's pretty cool. 

Chris Johnson  24:29  
Emiratis and so forth.

Evan Franulovich  24:31  
They go out and rumble probably.

Chris Johnson  24:36  
I have not seen that myself, but I'm usually not on campus after 5:36 o'clock. So what happens when the lights go down?

Evan Franulovich  24:47  
Maybe out on the football field. Maybe, yeah, when I say football, I mean soccer, soccer, for sure, very cool. Yeah. What about sports? You know, when I went to school, we had a really great. Outdoor adventure program. So you didn't need a car, they could either maybe take you up skiing, or they take out rock climbing. Do you guys have something like that?

Chris Johnson  24:55  
Maybe, yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  24:50  
When I say football, I mean soccer.

Chris Johnson  24:52  
For sure. 

Evan Franulovich  24:53  
Very cool. Yeah, what about sports? You know, when I went to school, we had a really great outdoor adventure program. So you didn't need a car. They could either maybe take you up skiing, or they take out rock climbing. Do you guys have something like that?

Chris Johnson  25:07  
Absolutely, virtually every weekend there's a trip to go somewhere, either run out of the international student office or out of the campus recreation and health and wellness programs. So you want to go skiing, great, you know, they'll hook you up with the transport, with the lessons, if you need them, with the equipment, if you need that, if you want to go, you know, mountain biking, hiking. For long weekends and things like that, they'll do trips to LA they'll go to Las Vegas. There's so many things to do, and it's all so close by.

Evan Franulovich  25:48  
All right. Well, it all sounds great, but the big thing that I always get asked when people come into my table, they're like, all right, how much does it cost? So let's talk tuition and fees for Arizona State.

Chris Johnson  25:59  
Yeah, so at the time we're recording, tuition is about $35,000 a year. There's a few fees that are on top of that, but that generally covers most of it, living expenses, insurance, you know, flights home, pizza money and so forth, adds another $25k or so. So for an international student, you're looking at an I-20 number in the low $60,000 range before scholarships. 

Evan Franulovich  26:26  
Gotcha. 

Chris Johnson  26:27  
And then the scholarships would would help bring that down. 

Evan Franulovich  26:31  
Bring that down. 

Chris Johnson  26:32  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  26:31  
But when they're coming from, Seattle Colleges, they would just work with their DSO, I'm guessing, to help transfer that I-20 down to you guys?

Chris Johnson  26:42  
Absolutely, yeah. We make it super easy. The DSO at the home campus of Seattle just has to put in our school code, and our team picks up that a record has been transferred, and we do the rest.

Evan Franulovich  26:57  
Off you go. You guys are not on a quarter system?

Chris Johnson  27:03  
We are not. We follow the semester calendar. 

Evan Franulovich  27:05  
Gotcha. 

Chris Johnson  27:06  
So two long semesters. So instead of a 10 week quarter, we have a 15 week semester. So we start mid August, run till late November, early December, and then we kick off again, second week of January roughly, and wrap up last week of April roughly. And then, of course, we have a summer semester. 

Evan Franulovich  27:31  
You do? 

Chris Johnson  27:31  
Yeah.

Evan Franulovich  27:33  
Is it two summer sessions or just one summer session?

Chris Johnson  27:36  
All of our semesters have double sessions. So within our, let's say fall, we have the 15 week session, but we also have two seven and half week sessions, and we do the same thing in the summer. In the summer, I think they're six week sessions rather than seven and a half weeks. But same basic idea.

Evan Franulovich  27:56  
So I've never even heard of this. So what are they, accelerated classes? Do they take a smaller load, or is it the same number of classes? 

Chris Johnson  28:08  
The credit value is the same, whether it's a seven and a half week or a 15 week or a six week. So as long as you get to the 12 credits or 15 credits or whatever you need to be at per semester. It doesn't matter whether you do all 15 week courses or you do a mix of seven and a half week and 15 week. It's really about you, your journey, your classes, your schedule, your life, what works best for you and and you know, we try to have a lot of different options for students. 

Evan Franulovich  28:39  
All right. So once they get there, I mean, when they're at Seattle Colleges, they get academic advisors. We have an International Programs Office where they can go to the front desk to get help. I can only imagine you guys have a very robust Assistance Program. 

Chris Johnson  28:55  
We do. So part of the way our orientation works is that the students are involved in the academic orientation alongside the rest of their orientation stuff. So typically, international students will have their classes set up long before they ever set foot on campus. 

Evan Franulovich  29:16  
Okay. 

Chris Johnson  29:17  
But there's a robust program that brings together academic advising, international student advising, but also just general student advising, student activities, so that there's really sort of this three pronged approach to supporting every student and helping them be successful in their journey. Let me phrase this a little differently. There are so many people who want to help at ASU, sometimes it's a little challenging to know who's the right person to ask which question.

Evan Franulovich  29:54  
Yeah, that's cool. Guys, we are running out of time. I want to give you the opportunity to tell them whatever I didn't ask you. Sometimes I don't know what I don't know. So what have I left off? What do you what do they need to know about coming to ASU that I haven't asked you about? 

Chris Johnson  30:10  
You know, the thing that I would sort of bring up, is ASU is a different kind of school. We've been ranked number one in innovation the last 10-11 years running, and that's a ranking, and big deal about that. But what underlies it and why it's important is this philosophy of we educate for the future. We point to the future. We're constantly adapting to the future. So students sometimes get frustrated they can't find the traditional degree names they're looking for. We have those degrees. We've rebranded them because the market has told us this is where we need to go. We use a ton of technology. We're not hiding from technology. We're running forward with technology because we know the students of today and tomorrow. That's the world they're going to graduate into and work into. So we need to prepare them. It's just a different way of doing education. But if you're looking for an education that's going to give you the tools, the preparation to be successful for the future, ASU can do it, and don't take my word for it. Big survey was done last year, ASU was ranked in the top 35 universities in the world by employers as being desirable. We're number two for public universities in the US, but in the top 35 for the world, and that includes Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cambridge, Oxfords were in that conversation. 

Evan Franulovich  31:45  
Wow. 

Chris Johnson  31:46  
ASU is not a traditional university in that sense. We're providing access and excellence, and we're doing it at scale. 

Evan Franulovich  31:56  
Nice. 

Chris Johnson  31:56  
So lots of things that are different about ASU. 

Evan Franulovich  31:59  
All right, guys, well, if you do two years with us or a year whatever at Seattle Colleges, then you're looking for a good place to transfer. Give these guys a thought. Shout out to Chris. I'm guessing you're available email. You want to give them your website?

Chris Johnson  32:17  
Sure, yeah. I mean the place to start two websites asu.edu, of course, the other one I mentioned earlier, My Path 2 ASU. Check that one out and find out about how easy we make it to transfer and the extra scholarships you can potentially get.

Evan Franulovich  32:34  
There you go. Just real fast, does he have a name?

Chris Johnson  32:38  
That is Sparky the Sun Devil. 

Evan Franulovich  32:41  
Sparky The Sun Devil. 

Chris Johnson  32:43  
Fun fact about Sparky, he was drawn by a former Disney animator, and the urban legend is that his face was drawn based on Walt Disney.

Evan Franulovich  32:53  
What?! I've never heard that. That's awesome. 

Chris Johnson  32:56  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  32:57  
Well, come down, meet Sparky. Let's say they come to Seattle Colleges. They've been there six months. They still have some time to go, but they want to go tour some campuses. Do you guys give tours? 

Chris Johnson  33:10  
Absolutely. Just go to visit.asu.edu You can find out about our hosted tours, our self hosted tours, our online tours. Come when you are as you are, how you are. We've got tours many of the days of the week.

Evan Franulovich  33:24  
Go check it out. It's worth going down. If nothing else, you'll get a suntan. 

Chris Johnson  33:28  
A little vitamin D. 

Evan Franulovich  33:33  
Get you through the long winter in Seattle. Great. Thanks so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it.

Chris Johnson  33:40  
I really appreciate you and all the great work that you do for the students at the Seattle Colleges. It's such a pleasure to be with you.

Evan Franulovich  33:47  
Well, thanks. Thank you guys for joining us. We're here every Wednesday. Keep coming back. We've got schools that we interview, we've got students that we interview. We want to help you understand the International Student Life in the process, living in the United States, we want to make your life easy. Don't forget to like, subscribe. Come back every Wednesday. Take care. Thanks so much. 

Chris Johnson  34:13  
Go devils.

Evan Franulovich  34:14  
Take care. 

Chris Johnson  34:15  
Yeah. 

Evan Franulovich  34:15  
Bye, bye. 

Chris Johnson  34:16  
Bye bye. 

Evan Franulovich  34:16  
Conversations with! is painstakingly crafted for you by the Seattle Colleges International Programs department and supported by the lovely folks here on our campus. This show is produced and edited by me, Evan Franulovich. We welcome your emails and questions about coming to Seattle Colleges. Please reach out to us via our website or just give us a rating and a review on Apple podcasts as this helps others discover the show. Also, don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or YouTube at Seattle Colleges Intl. And be sure to check out all of the shows here on 'Conversations with!' Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next week.