Hard work and education run in Eyan Sanchez’s family. His mom, an elementary school teacher, and his dad, a journeyman lineman — one of those hard-working people you see building and maintaining the electrical power system we rely on — taught him the importance of both education and hard work when he was growing up in Mesa, a place that evokes fond childhood memories.
“I grew up riding skateboards and bikes, so I was always at the skate park or riding through Mesa with my parents and my little brother,” Eyan recalled. “I grew up playing baseball in Mesa and have met lots of different people throughout the years.
When the pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt and shuttered physical school classrooms, Eyan used the downtime to his advantage, went online, and discovered ASU Prep Digital (ASUPD).
“ASUPD for me was a result of school closures during COVID. I was doing just as good academically online if not better. I wanted to stick with it and start working,”
Eyan explained. “It gave me time to work, go to the gym, all while balancing out friends, family, and my girlfriend.”
That flexibility also allowed him to hold down a job at Barro’s Pizza at the corner of Power and McDowell roads, which Eyan said has provided him with some of his best Mesa memories.
“I’ve gotten to meet so many diverse groups of people,” he said. “I’ve made tons of friends and learned things about the community. I see customers that I know almost everywhere I go, which I find awesome.”
Eyan is one of 700 recent graduates of the ASU Preparatory Academy system and its five local high school campuses and one of more than 7,000 who participated in ASU Prep programs worldwide. He graduated from the ASU Prep Digital Program and will head to ASU’s main campus next.
“I will be attending the Tempe campus at ASU in August for Accountancy,” Eyan said. “I have always had an entrepreneurial mindset so there are many things I want to do with my degree. I want to get my degree and then get my CPA. I want a good job that allows me to invest in real estate and my other interests,” he continued.
Eyan will also focus on meeting like-minded people through clubs and other campus activities at ASU while making critical connections he hopes will serve him in the future.
“The more you network the better off you will be when you’re older,” he said. “We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. That’s so we can listen twice as much as we talk,” he explained.
His interests run deep and well past numbers, accounting, and real estate. He’s into working on motors and auto body fabrication. Currently, he’s working on converting his truck to be able to go off-road and may consider opening a fabrication shop one day. “Once I have made enough to support myself and my family,” he said. “So, not exactly an engineer, but an accountant with other passions.”
ASU Prep uses innovative approaches to curriculum to prepare all students for success in graduating from a university. Its mission is to design new models for educational success and raise academic achievement for all learners. ASU Preparatory Academy has schools in Phoenix, South Phoenix, Mesa, and Casa Grande. In addition, ASU Prep Digital serves online students from grades K–12 in Arizona and around the world.
ASU Prep Digital is perfect for serious students like Eyan, with diverse interests and who don’t want to wait around to complete high school on someone else’s schedule. He said integrity and time management were at the top of his list of lessons learned at ASU Prep Digital.
“This is because you are digital, they are very strict when it comes to cheating —for good reason, they can’t see you,” he explained. “They have systems that cross-reference everything forcing you to do honest work. Not having a teacher in front of you all day teaches you to manage your time. You learn how to balance many different tasks to complete all of your work.”
The flexibility allowed Eyan to thrive, and his grades reflected his hard work and determination. “Eyan is a great kid and an extraordinary student,” said his Learning Success Coach at ASU Prep Digital. “He’s a good kid from the community. I nominated him for multiple awards.”
Eyan said he studied the same things he would have at a brick-and-mortar high school, but with more choice as to when he did his work. That’s because the school gave him all of his class material at the beginning of the quarter, allowing him to make his own schedule.
“ASUPD allows for you to get ahead, offering concurrent classes where you receive high school and college credits,” he explained. “The teachers and staff are super attentive and want students to thrive while working around their schedules. I worked Tuesday to Friday midday throughout the entire school year and had no problems at all. It was one of the best things for me, it taught me how to manage time and how to be self-derived.”
While Barro’s is a great job for now, Eyan has much bigger plans for the future with his ASU Prep Digital diploma now under his belt. “My long-term plans are obviously to have a stable job. I want a family one day, but not for a while, a long while.” he chuckled.
ASU Prep is chartered by Arizona State University and serves more than 7,000 students across its network. For more information, visit: https://asuprep.asu.edu