A student standing in a white shirt and jeans in a room

Learning and earning: ASU students gain workforce skills on campus

Lori K. Baker

April 29, 2026

More than 16,000 student workers across Arizona State University’s campuses are increasing their odds of landing great job offers upon graduation by adding work experience to their resumes. Today, 300 of those student workers are at ASU Enterprise Technology.

Highlighting the university’s focus on preparing graduates for meaningful careers, ASU is ranked No. 2 among U.S. public institutions for employability in the Global Employability University Ranking and Survey.

Read on to meet four inspiring students who work at ASU Enterprise Technology to power the university’s digital ecosystem while building professional networks, gaining practical skills and improving their competitiveness in a tight job market.

Meet Mabel Tsadia at AI Acceleration

Before Tsadia enrolled at ASU to pursue a master’s degree, she had already built experience in Ghana as a geospatial analyst using remote sensing and spatial data analysis, contributing to projects focused on flooding and illegal small-scale mining. She later became a Mastercard Foundation Scholar at ASU, a program that empowers highly talented, service-oriented young people to pursue higher education and cultivate their leadership potential.

She is accomplishing both as she pursues her master’s degree in artificial intelligence in business and works with ASU Enterprise Technology as an AI acceleration analyst, focusing on how to apply AI to improve business processes.

“My team focuses on evaluating AI products and their features before rolling them out at ASU,” she said. “Overall, my experience here is helping me move from simply using AI tools to thinking about how AI systems are built, evaluated and applied at scale, which is shaping the kind of work I hope to do in the future.”

She says her ASU job is teaching her numerous soft skills she will need in her future career, from communicating in simple, nontechnical terms to stakeholders, collaborating across teams, managing resources and evaluating whether a potential employee’s skills match the needs of the team.

The AI Acceleration team supports the responsible development and adoption of artificial intelligence across the university, helping faculty, researchers and staff integrate AI-powered tools into their work and teaching.

With 16 student workers as AI Innovation interns and AI analysts, the team contributes to initiatives that expand access to advanced technologies while supporting experimentation, implementation and responsible use.

A woman white dark long hair and a white shirt — Annie Cheng is graduating this May with a master’s degree in user experience from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and a wealth of professional experience at Next Lab. Photo by Tabbs Mosier, ASU Enterprise Technology

Meet Annie Cheng at Next Lab

In today’s job market there is stiff competition in the user experience design field, where education and professional work experience are a must. But Cheng will enter the field in May with both — a master’s degree in user experience from the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering and a wealth of professional experience at Next Lab.

Next Lab connects student workers to ASU and industry partners, generating paid project work for students and advancing initiatives that explore how emerging technologies can address complex global challenges. With over 40 student workers, Next Lab brings together a community of future-focused thinkers and creators who experiment with new tools, ideas, and approaches. Headed by Next Lab Executive Director Dan Munnerley, students gain paid applied learning experiences as game developers, digital storytellers, AI engineers, user experience designers and more.

At Next Lab, Cheng gained hands-on experience in user research, design and project management as well as conducted research on topics related to AI such as the AI agent user experience. Here, she gained real-world work experiences such as interviewing stakeholders as part of the product development cycle.

“It’s been a great opportunity for me to learn, do hands-on projects and get paid at the same time,” she said.

Meet Omar Abuasba in Engineering

When ASU software systems run like clockwork, it is due to unsung heroes like Abuasba, who landed his first technical job on the engineering team at ASU Enterprise Technology.

As Abuasba completes coursework for a master’s degree in computer science with a focus on big data systems, he works with software engineers and specialists in systems integration and infrastructure management to deliver scalable and reliable technology experiences to the ASU community. Working behind the scenes as a software engineer integration APIs technician, he connects disparate software systems to improve productivity, reduce manual errors and provide a consistent data flow across platforms.

He is among a group of 10 student workers — from data analyst assistants and full-stack and cloud developers to web platforms engineer technicians — who are pioneering ASU’s research and innovation efforts.

Abuasba has developed career-ready skills working with some of the latest and greatest software tools he says every developer should know. “The work we do and the tools we use are not things you traditionally learn in the classroom,” he said. “The great thing is I was able to gain this work experience as a student and still focus on my coursework because the philosophy here is you’re a student first.”

Meanwhile, he has also learned soft skills — such as communication, teamwork and workplace etiquette — that matter as much or more than technical skills for long-term career growth. “It’s a very supportive environment, not just on my team, but across the engineering core,” he said.

Meet Trevor Kaiser Borning in Learning Experience

Learning Experience is one of the largest university employers of student workers, with over 165 employed as of spring 2026. The employment roster includes over 100 student technical consultants, technical assistants, pod operators and creative consultants across the Tempe, Downtown, West Valley and Polytechnic campuses. Kaiser Borning is among them, working four years as a classroom support specialist. He helps to create ideal classroom environments through routine maintenance and serving on the response team when technology goes awry.

In his role, he is developing both the customer support expertise and technical proficiency he needs to succeed as a contract engineering consultant when he completes his master’s degree in mechanical engineering in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He says he has learned how to make clients feel seen, heard, understood and respected, along with how to simplify technical jargon into language that is easy to understand.

“Working at ASU is a great opportunity for students, not only for good skill development but as a way to meet more people,” he said. “It elevates your career in ways you might not expect.”