Andrew Hickey — Outstanding Undergraduate
Andrew Hickey
B.S.E. in Mechanical Engineering
Graduated from Mingus Union High School in Cottonwood, Arizona
Andrew Hickey was attracted to Arizona State University by an environment that combined the small academic community of Barrett, the Honors College with a large university that enables undergraduates to get involved in research, helps them find internships, start entrepreneurial ventures and work on community service projects.
Hickey certainly took full advantage of that range of opportunities.
He served on the Barrett Honors College student council, explored the intricacies of the internal combustion engine through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative and led a team of students in creating a nonprofit called Tink Tank, a mobile workshop designed to provide disadvantaged youngsters an educational introduction to engineering and technology.
As the scholastic chairman for the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, Hickey conducted events to promote members’ academic and professional development. As a result, Lambda Chi Alpha cumulatively earned the highest grade point average among ASU fraternities during the 2014-2015 academic year.
He was also involved in ASU’s First-Year Success Center in the role of a mentor to a diverse group of about 100 students who faced financial and academic challenges, or were first-generation college students. His work earned him the center’s Catalyst Award for the positive impact he had on the students he helped.
While in high school, Hickey and two fellow students entered a national SkillsUSA engineering design and technology competition — with a project aimed at improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines — and from among thousands of teams were chosen as Silver Medal winners.
He says that achievement cemented his decision to pursue an engineering career.
His most memorable moment in college was something a bit silly — but for a good cause.
To help raise funds for the ASU chapter of the Society of Women Engineers he competed in a mock Mr. Engineering Pageant. This involved a talent performance, modeling swimwear , reciting “nerdy pickup lines,” and a dance routine for which he wore a “ridiculous outfit” and twirled ribbons.
A winner of a U.S. Army Reserve National Scholar Athlete Award who earned state-level honors in football, soccer and tennis as a teenager, Hickey now finds his new hobby of dancing “to be a great way of self-expression.”
After graduation, he will work as an intern at Intel this summer before starting graduate school at Stanford University in mechanical engineering. Beyond that, he has sights set on also getting an MBA degree and eventually starting his own business venture, with the goal of “being part of something meaningful that makes a positive impact on society.”
Whatever he accomplishes after leaving ASU, Hickey says he will owe a debt of gratitude to two Fulton Schools of Engineering faculty members in particular.
He credits Professor of Practice Steven Trimble and Professor Patrick Phelan with not only helping him become a better student but also showing him what it takes to be a leader.