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They say good help is hard to find; “they” never met our hard-working dual students. For the latest episode of Wave Makers— Rio Salado College’s podcast series where we talk to students, alumni, and community leaders— podcast host and Communications Program Manager Michelle Reese talked to Rio’s first-ever high school interns. Alexandria Woodruff and Alyssa Lovitt were not just "interns” they were also accomplished dual students who already left a considerable mark on the college with their academic excellence and storytelling prowess.
For episode 3 of Wave Makers, Woodruff and Lovitt shared about their future plans, the benefits of dual enrollment, and what it was like helping to make the magic behind the scenes as marketing interns at Rio. The episode was recorded in Spring 2025. Woodruff is now a freshman at ASU while Lovitt is in her senior year of high school.
Reflecting on her Rio journey, Woodruff credits her mother and sisters with putting college on her radar. Woodruff’s mother needed to get her GED and nursing school prerequisites, and managed to accomplish her goals with some help from Rio Salado, Maricopa Community College District, and the Nina Scholars program. Woodruff’s sisters accomplished their own early college experience as dual enrollment students themselves.
“My sister Vanessa was kind of like the guinea pig,” Woodruff said. “She was the one that first learned about Rio Salado and the ACE program. And through both of those she was able to get her associate degrees.”
Woodruff and her sister were both recipients of the college’s Achieving a College Education (ACE) scholarship.
Lovitt was drawn to Rio’s dual program because of a desire to get a headstart on her general education prerequisites for college.
“Instead of paying so much money in college, dual enrollment helped us save that money to do it now and get all that credit so I can get that out of the way in college and have space to do something that I want to do,” Lovitt said.
Lovitt and Woodruff’s future plans both include Arizona State University - though in different states. While Woodruff is studying business and design at the Tempe campus, Lovitt recently received her acceptance letter to the university’s Sidney Poitier New American Film School in Los Angeles.
Woodruff has earned three associate degrees at Rio Salado and took part in May’s commencement ceremony - three weeks before graduating from high school!
Lovitt is a producer for her high school’s student production team this semester.
“What sparked my love for the film world was I used to do acting classes,” Lovitt said. “I did them for three years, and when I got into freshman year I thought 'oh, I'd take a film and television class and, like, we'll watch movies and dissect them. Turns out that's actually a different class called film study but I ended up falling in love with the behind the scenes of how movies work.”
When asked what’s the biggest misconception that her peers have about dual enrollment, Lovitt said it was their fear of too much homework.
“I think that’s a myth,” she said. “Dual is so nice because it doesn’t give you much homework.”
Both students also had much more to say about their families, their professional dreams, and their experiences interning at Rio Salado.
Listen now on Podbean or find Wave Makers on your favorite podcast channel: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube.
Article by Austin Brietta
Catch Another Wave
Want to learn more about our Wave Makers? Check out some of our other spotlight stories about our podcast guests.