{"id":1011887,"date":"2026-08-20T01:42:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T01:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1011887\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T01:42:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T01:42:17","slug":"asu-freshmen-alumni-gather-to-paint-a-mountain-in-tempe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1011887\/","title":{"rendered":"ASU freshmen, alumni gather to paint &#8216;A&#8217; Mountain in Tempe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/dnp35lrqnzxpktac.jpg\" alt=\"ASU freshmen, alumni paint 'A' Mountain\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\"\/>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/dnp35lrqnzxpktac.jpg\" alt=\"ASU freshmen, alumni paint 'A' Mountain\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"vod-poster-image\" data-v-5a75adc3=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/video\/fmc-gyi7n6hrsimgok7v\" data-v-892ef6a8=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ASU freshmen, alumni paint &#8216;A&#8217; Mountain<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-892ef6a8=\"\">New Sun Devils and alumni gathered in Tempe to uphold an 80-year university tradition ahead of the school&#8217;s football season. FOX 10&#8217;s Irene Snyder reports.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\"><strong>TEMPE, Ariz.<\/strong> &#8211; It is a tradition that spans over 80 years.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;I think it has a really good significance, and I&#8217;m excited,&#8221; an incoming student said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Freshmen at ASU are hiking A Mountain, leaving their own handprints on top of it.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;This is a great event tradition here. Makes the experience so special. Experience all the new freshman paint the A, and it gets repainted for the first big football game of the year,&#8221; said Coach JJ Van Niel. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s really cool to be connected in the community, not just with the team. Athletic Department, university itself, and with the students.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KSAZ\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Incoming students shared their anticipation for the annual rite of passage.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;It&#8217;s my first time I&#8217;m really excited to get to meet new people and to do that for the first time is actually really exciting,&#8221; said Brianna Cepeda, a freshman.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">These freshmen are hiking up the mountain today with a bottle of water and a cooling towel in hand.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;My biggest excitement to put my handprint on that A,&#8221; Elia Martinez said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">And for returning alumni, the tradition remains a very special part of their college experience, one they are excited to pass on to the next generation.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;Learn what it means to be a Sun Devil, right?&#8221; said one alumnus. &#8220;To put that fresh paint of coat on the mountain, be a part of the student alumni association, we love being a part of this every year,&#8221; an alumnus said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\"><b data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source:<\/b> Information in this report was gathered from Coach JJ Van Niel, Brianna Cepeda, and Elia Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/education\/asu\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona State University<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/us\/az\/maricopa-county\/tempe\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tempe<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox10phoenix.com\/tag\/news\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASU freshmen, alumni paint &#8216;A&#8217; Mountain New Sun Devils and alumni gathered in Tempe to uphold an 80-year&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1011888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,67231,1587,407,1588,50,1589,26228,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1011887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-asu","tag-az","tag-education","tag-maricopa-county","tag-news","tag-phoenix","tag-tempe","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117125302483352183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1011888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}