Nahti Keo

Engineering Futures Mentor

The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE) student organization at Arizona State University recently named Nahti Keo as their president, a Barrett Senior Chemical Engineering student at Arizona State University.

Keo started out like a lot of engineering students, in that his interest in the field sparked during high school, and he decided to study chemical engineering because it would allow him to be flexible with different job opportunities.

Keo said he’s also studying to be fluent in Chinese and is working toward becoming more involved with American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE).

He is also an Engineering Futures Mentor at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering to underclassmen.

Keo is also a first-generation college student in his family that migrated from Cambodia during the Vietnam War era, and said it’s influenced his perspective and the way he’s approached school.

“Our parents worked really hard to be able to try to support us and give us a better education and life,” Keo said.

“We’re doing something that their parents didn’t have the opportunity to do.” Keo added. “So, I feel like that kind of pushes us to work hard and to be successful, and make them proud.”

Keo said being apart of the Chinese Flagship Program, which helps students become fluent enough to study abroad in China, will give him an advantage in the engineering world, since a lot of projects are in collaboration with people from around the world.

“When I first heard about the program, I thought it would be a really cool way to tie the international aspects of engineering and my goal was learning Chinese to be able to use those language skills.”

Keo encourages underclassmen to utilize all the opportunities offered at the school to help succeed which include tutoring resources, clubs and study abroad programs, and recommends making friends in your classes will make the coursework more manageable, especially during Junior year when the curriculum in particular is difficult and time consuming.

Keo is personally taking advantage of the study abroad opportunities by preparing for his capstone year in either China or Taiwan, and plans on pursuing the four plus one program that helps students earn both their Bachelor’s and Master’s in just five years.

By Laura Stack, Science and Technology Writer, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
August 9, 2019