Welcome to the Fall 2009 semester!

Dear fellow Barrett Downtown students:

On behalf of the entire Barrett Downtown community, I welcome you to the Fall 2009 semester and the 2009-2010 academic year. With the hard work and dedication of Jill Johnson, Dr. Laura Peck, and numerous Barrett Downtown students, Barrett’s inaugural year on the Downtown Phoenix campus far exceeded everyone’s expectations. True to Barrett fashion, however, we are not going to rest on these laurels: we are going to have an even better year this year.

We are delighted to welcome to the Barrett Downtown community students from programs that have recently moved to our campus. We are excited to have you here and we look forward to working with you in this and future semesters. You join a community of scholars who have embedded themselves into this vibrant urban laboratory that is Downtown Phoenix. The programs that are here on our campus share professional counterparts within a mile’s radius from the campus and you may take an internship with one of these organizations.

As both Jill and Dr. Peck mentioned in their letters, there are several Barrett-associated student organizations here on this campus. All clubs share a common purpose: to foster a sense of community among those in Barrett Downtown. From the Book Club to B-Town D-Town (our residential college), these clubs are great ways to meet people who share common interests and passions in a unique setting. And if there is a club that you want to create, I remind you that it takes three students and a faculty/staff advisor to create and register a club here at ASU and the Downtown Phoenix campus.

This leads me to the club I help to run, the Barrett Leadership and Service Team at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, or BLAST’D. For this semester, we are planning several signature events, including a social in the A.E. England building at the Civic Space Park, a light rail progressive dinner with our Tempe campus friends, and other unique events. We are also in the process of partnering with various nonprofit and nongovernmental agencies to provide opportunities for you to help make our shared community a better place.

BLAST’D’s meetings will be on the first Friday of each month. While we are still figuring out the exact time and place of our meetings, we do know this: we want you to join us! Do you want to help plan our events or service opportunities? Do you have ideas for events that we’ve overlooked? We are a small program here on a small campus, and so we want to hear from you. I strongly encourage you to join us at our meetings and in our work.

So once again, welcome to this new year. We have a lot of activities planned and we’re excited for what is to come. And as always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Jill Johnson, Dr. Peck, or me.

With all best wishes for a fantastic semester and year–

Edward C.H. Jensen
President, Barrett Leadership and Service Team at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus
echj [at] asu [dot] edu, edwardjensen.net, facebook.com/edwardjensen