Our California Portfolio

ASU’s robust California portfolio reflects the university’s efforts to shape stronger communities through higher education and partnerships that inspire creativity, problem solving and business ventures. 

ASU’s operations at the ASU California Center in Santa Monica, and the university’s expansion into the historic Herald Examiner building in downtown Los Angeles, are creating more opportunities for individuals to forge innovative career paths and build stronger connections with top industry leaders. ASU’S inclusive model not only prepares students in California for academic success and innovative career paths, it serves as a catalyst for economic development.

  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

ASU Alumni Leadership Councils

The largest population of ASU alumni outside of Arizona live in California. Alumni chapters located throughout the most populated metropolitan areas in the state keep Sun Devils connected to their alma mater through many networking opportunities and events. ASU established Leadership Councils in California (Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego), comprised of C-suite level or business owner alums, who help advance the ASU charter as well as offer opportunities for alumni engagement and employment, and student recruitment. 

  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

ASU Alumni Association Local Chapters

With more than 170 alumni chapters worldwide, you can stay connected to ASU, no matter where you are! Each regional chapter is run by alumni volunteers with the assistance of the ASU Alumni Association. ASU Alumni Chapters host game watching parties, networking mixers, community volunteer projects and scholarship fundraising to show their Maroon & Gold spirit. If you are looking to take advantage of opportunities to get together, meet alumni, network, rekindle old friendships and, most importantly, promote our alma mater and have fun, reach out to your local ASU Alumni Chapter to learn more. There are four chapters in California – Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and Northern California Chapter.

Los Angeles chapter 

Northern California chapter

Orange County chapter

San Diego chapter

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  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

ASU Alumni Sun Devil Send-Offs

ASU Alumni chapters throughout California in conjunction/partnership with ASU Admissions and ASU Family host “Sun Devil Send-Offs” each summer to meet and welcome incoming families and students to ASU. Somewhere between a pep rally and a maroon-and-gold lovefest, send-offs help ease the transition to college, whether you’re an incoming freshman, international student or transfer.

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  • NorCal

ASU Innovative Network Council

ASU launched an Innovative Network Council with the help of one of Silicon Valley’s most connected people: Ellen Levy. Levy, a consultant and innovator, specializes in building bridges between Silicon Valley and other parts of the world. She used her expertise to design and launch the new council, and serves as co-chair alongside ASU President Michael Crow. The ASU Innovative Network Council enhances the university’s links to high-tech companies and thought leaders in Silicon Valley and around the country, giving students new opportunities to pursue their educational goals and advance their careers.

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  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

Athletic Competitions throughout California

Competition extends beyond Sun Devil Stadium for Sun Devil Athletics through sporting events throughout California. ASU teams compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as part of the Pac-12 Conference, along with UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley and Stanford University. Sun Devil Athletics is comprised of two dozen men and women’s sports and more than 650 student-athletes who compete with their California counterparts in Arizona and California.

NOTE: In response to COVID-19 concerns to protect the health of our athletes and communities, athletic competitions are currently running on modified schedules as listed below. Please check back for further updates.

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  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

California Community Colleges Partnerships

ASU Academic Alliances works with California community colleges to facilitate solutions for student success and achieve partnership outcomes. The Universal Articulation partnership model continually strives to create strategies and make technological advancements to support students on their college journey towards completing their bachelor's degree.

Our work with California community colleges gives students access to ASU's transfer tools to help create a seamless transition to ASU. Academic alignment, partner support, and a streamlined transfer experience are services delivered to assist California students and the staff and faculty that support them.

ASU has partnered with all 116 California community colleges to deliver over 400 articulated guided pathways into ASU on campus and online degrees. The California community colleges MyPath2ASU™ transfer experience helps students be successful in their education journey. Learn more about our pathway solutions for California community colleges.

ASU has become a California community college students' top out-of-state choice because of its reputation as a convenient, high-quality option for higher education. Learn more about ASU Academic Alliances partnerships.

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  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

Partners

ASU’s unique partnerships in California create opportunities for the university, organizations and institutions to enrich communities and solve society’s biggest challenges, together. ASU collaborates with various industries to advance shared goals in higher education, research and career development. Between its commitments to lifelong learning and entrepreneurship, ASU’s partnerships contribute to innovative work in diverse communities, while producing top talent for the future workforce.

Alliance for SoCal Innovation

In 2018, ASU became the only non-local university member of the Alliance for SoCal Innovation. The alliance links innovators to capital and experienced operators through a unique partnership with Southern California’s research institutions and business leaders, with the goal of nurturing and accelerating the growth of a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in Southern California. Partners include: Caltech, UCLA, UCSD, USC, UCSB, UCI, UCR, Sanford Consortium, University of San Diego and ASU.

California Community Colleges Partnerships

ASU Academic Alliances works with California community colleges to facilitate solutions for student success and achieve partnership outcomes. The Universal Articulation partnership model continually strives to create strategies and make technological advancements to support students on their college journey towards completing their bachelor's degree.

Our work with California community colleges gives students access to ASU's transfer tools to help create a seamless transition to ASU. Academic alignment, partner support, and a streamlined transfer experience are services delivered to assist California students and the staff and faculty that support them.

ASU has become a California community college students' top out-of-state choice because of its reputation as a convenient, high-quality option for higher education. Learn more about ASU Academic Alliances partnerships.

Learn more about how some California Community Colleges partners are working with ASU to help students succeed, including the Los Angeles Community College District, Palomar College, Los Rios College, Santa Monica College and the Los Angeles Trade College.

Dreamscape Immersive

ASU and Dreamscape Immersive, the world's leading virtual reality company, have partnered together to launch Dreamscape Learn.The initial Dreamscape Learn experience built will add avatar-driven VR experiences to campus-based and online introductory biology courses. This will be based on Dreamscape’s first original VR adventure, Alien Zoo, which transports learners to an orbiting wildlife sanctuary for endangered life-forms from the far corners of the universe.

Heart of Los Angeles

ASU is creating a vital educational resource for youth in the Los Angeles area through a partnership between Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and the Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) — a non-profit organization serving more than 2,200 underserved youth. The growing partnership prepares high school students for college life through various programs, including an overnight campus visit to ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus where students get to tour the campus and participate in college courses. Watts College also sponsors four HOLA students annually with scholarships to attend SummerUp, an ASU camp where students are mentored on college readiness.

Intel Corporation

ASU is Intel’s largest supplier of global talent. This partnership includes research in packaging, machine vision, autonomous mobility, and gamification of education. Intel and ASU work together in Vietnam, raising the quality of university engineering courses with Vietnamese university partners. Together, ASU and Intel collaborate on course development on electrical engineering and computer science. Intel employees teach at ASU as adjunct professors, serve on different industry advisory boards, and co-develop ideas with other industry partners in research consortia.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Through a partnership with ASU, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a national research facility that carries out robotic space and Earth science missions, helped create the Mars Space Flight Facility on the university’s campus and the Mars Education program. The program provides workshops, field trips and other STEM opportunities for K-12 teachers and students to explore the Red Planet. JPL and ASU are working together for the launch of the Psyche Mission in August 2022 — an ASU-led mission to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. JPL will be responsible for mission management, operations and navigation.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

In 2018, ASU launched a partnership between the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to advance a new generation of art museum leaders who are committed to diversifying the field. The partnership combines academic training and work experience at LACMA — or the ASU Art Museum in Tempe —through a three-year master’s fellowship program.

Los Angeles Times

ASU has partnered with the Los Angeles Times, one of California’s legacy newspapers, to deliver educational content through 20 self-paced college courses online. If you’re an L.A. Times subscriber, you get 25% off courses ranging from health and wellness to business management. Enrollees also get free access to ASU’s key resources and other online educational tools like virtual field trips and a look inside ASU Library’s resources.

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Los Angeles Venture Association

ASU’s SkySong Innovations collaborates with the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) to host investor events and other opportunities for entrepreneurs to make important local connections in the critically important Southern California innovation ecosystem through programs including First Look LA. ASU and LAVA collaborated to create the SoCal Startup Mill, which matches participating startups with top-tier mentoring and entrepreneurial support from LAVA and partner resources.

San Manuel Band of Mission Indians

Based in southern California near the cities of San Bernardino and Highland, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians administers a robust program of philanthropy, which prioritizes the program areas of education, health care, community development and programs that promote the arts, museums and initiatives that protect the environment.  The San Manuel Band of Mission Indians made a $5 million gift to ASU to provide for the renovation of the historic Herald Examiner Building in Los Angeles and to establish an endowment to support the Indian Legal Program’s Indian Gaming and Tribal Self-Governance programs at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU.  The San Manuel gift will support increasing educational opportunities in the field of Indian law, the expansion of work experience for students interested in Indian law and will contribute to the development of Indian law trainings for Indian tribes and organizations.  

The San Diego Union-Tribune

ASU has partnered with The San Diego Union-Tribune to deliver educational content through over 20 self-paced college courses online. If you’re a Union-Tribune subscriber, you get 25% off courses ranging from health and wellness to business management. Enrollees also get free access to ASU’s key resources and other online educational tools like virtual field trips and a look inside ASU Library’s resources.

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  • Los Angeles
  • NorCal
  • SoCal

Thunderbird Alumni Chapters

From day one, T-birds become part of a vast global network of like-minded professionals spread around the world. With over 140 chapters worldwide – T-birds can remain connected and engaged with ASU’sThunderbird School of Global Management community. Whether you’re doing business in the US, in a metropolitan global hub or in an impoverished village in a developing country, you will find local T-birds on the ground and ready to help you tackle your business and cultural challenges. Some chapter gatherings include: getting together for cultural dinners, virtual webinars, volunteer work, outings, or to simply reminisce about their time at Thunderbird. You can find 11 Chapters across California which includes: The San Francisco Chapter, The East Bay/Oakland Chapters, The North Bay Chapter, The Silicon Valley Chapter, The Santa Barbara/Ventura Chapter, The Sacramento Chapter, The Pasadena Chapter, The Orange County Chapter, The San Diego Chapter, The Los Angeles Chapter and The South Bay (So-Cal) Chapter.

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