Supply-chain management senior Mariel Pereyra said that she is "different from the regular student you will find at ASU."
Pereyra, 35, is the recipient of the W. P. Carey School of Business' Civic Leadership Award for the fall 2003 semester.
She came to America from Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1999 to pursue a higher education. After graduating as valedictorian from Phoenix College in 2002 with a general business associate's degree, Pereyra transferred to ASU.
She is a single mother of two - Ricky, 12, and Olga, 11 - and volunteers with them at the Paz de Cristo soup kitchen in Mesa every two months. Pereyra currently holds a 3.8 cumulative grade point average and will graduate from ASU later this month.
"It's important for [my children] to acknowledge that they need to give back to their community," she said. "There is a lot of opportunity for them to contribute.
"We have a word in Spanish, 'ganas' - the will to do something and the perseverance in anything you do," Pereyra said. "I don't think about the immediate gratification. I don't do it because I think there's something that I can get back in return. We are capable of doing more than what we originally think or believe."
In addition to raising a family, maintaining a high GPA and helping feed those in need, Pereyra mentors some of her fellow classmates, is part of the ministry at St. Theresa Catholic Church and is a chaplain at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Supply-chain management professor Sue Sieferd sat on the department committee that nominated Pereyra for an outstanding graduating senior award to the business school. Sieferd said that Pereyra's being a Good Samaritan is what convinced her that Pereyra was a right choice for the award.
"Once we started to actually look at the breadth and depth of her community involvement - that's when we decided that she would make an excellent nominee for this honor," Sieferd said. "I knew that she was managing nicely in school, in spite of being a single mother."
Each semester, the business school, like most others on campus, selects an outstanding graduating senior. Computer information systems senior Matt Brill was chosen this year, but "in recent years [the school] also had a second award for people who are heavily involved in community activities," Sieferd said.
Brill has a 4.0 GPA and is the current president of the Business School Council. He also has helped to organize eKIDZ, a program that familiarizes fifth-grade students with computers, and Business Ambassadors, a campus club that works with high schools as a recruiting tool for the University.
"I've devoted a lot of time and effort to the school of business, and they've devoted a lot time to me. I think it's a reciprocal relationship," Brill said.
Reach the reporter at michael.miklofsky@asu.edu.
