Miguel Lopez may seem like your typical ASU student, but behind the studious and talented freshman is a young man who has seriously stepped up on campus and become a prominent leader at ASU. Entering his fall semester, Miguel was awarded a scholarship opportunity with Arizona State University’s Leadership Scholarship Program, a highly-competitive scholarship that is awarded to 20 of Arizona’s most impactful incoming freshmen and 5 out-of-state incoming freshmen resulting in some of the biggest leaders on campus. Being able to stand out among an honorable community of 100 current ASU leaders isn’t a small feat, but Miguel has been able to do just that.
It’s no surprise that engineering is one of the most tedious and studious majors at ASU, and Miguel, being a Computer Systems Engineering major, has the responsibilities of rigorous course loads, night-long studying sessions, and homework for weeks. Even before entering ASU, Miguel often showcased his love for our school at sporting events by being one of the four members of Sparky’s Troopers (those awesomely spirited Star Wars-like trooper heads decorated in maroon and gold). The start of Sparky’s Trooper (https://www.facebook.com/sparkys.troopers) came when Miguel, his brother, and his brother’s two friends wanted to show some school spirit in a unique way. Miguel was a freshman in high school at the time.
This year alone, Miguel has proven time and time again that his leadership skills are no joke. He was elected President of the PLEX (Palo Verde East & West) community for the Residence Hall Association (RHA) and was one of the members on the planning committee in charge of improving RHA to accommodate ASU’s new “Residential Model.” Among the workload was drafting a new constitution, working on logistics, and immense amounts of brainstorming. Miguel’s efforts will be most apparent next year when RHA’s newly revamped organization structure is implemented.
Next year, you can see Miguel pursing his new major; Computer Science Engineering and taking on the role as a Community Assistant for University College at ASU. Miguel has decided to take a short break from on-campus organizations and will focus on continuing his involvement as a CIDSE mentor next year (CIDSE are a group of mentors volunteering for the Ira A. Fulton School that help freshmen of the college during their orientation). In addition to that, Miguel will have an internship with Apriva in North Scottsdale where he will intern as a software developer. Although he is just 1/4 of the way into his college career, Miguel has already shown ASU what it takes to make an impact and the future will only hold bigger and better things for this Sun Devil!