Brock Blakley, a senior studying accounting and artificial intelligence in business, was awarded the Sigma Nu National Scholar of the Year award for the 2025-26 academic year.
The award designates Blakley as the most academically outstanding student out of the national Sigma Nu Fraternity membership, which includes over 150 active chapters and colonies across the country.
Despite the large scale of the award and its prestige, it wasn't something that Blakley had been particularly aware of before he applied.
"I didn't even know it was an award until it was recommended by some of our alumni," Blakley said. "There's a lot of alums that are involved in Sigma Nu —that's part of what makes the chapter so good and so successful —and (they said) I'd be a good candidate."
Criteria for the award include consideration of the applicant's academic excellence, extracurricular activities and demonstrations of leadership for the Sigma Nu Fraternity, according to a press release from the national Sigma Nu organization.
Academically, Blakley holds a 4.0 GPA and is a member of Barrett, the Honors College, where he focused his thesis on the intersection between his two areas of study: accounting and AI use in business.
"We created a software that helps automate complex accounting processes specifically for laymen," Blakley said. "Let's say you were to buy a business. This can help you get through that process, help you automate that process and do all the correct accounting."
Blakley said he thought his expertise in both accounting and AI engineering gave him a unique perspective, which he hopes to utilize in his own career in the business world someday.
Blakley's previous professors added that his academic talents were apparent from the way he carried himself in the classroom as well.
"If (Brock) came to class and just sat there and listened, he'd get an A-plus, but he's sitting front row and he's asking questions," said Roger White, an associate professor in the W.P Carey School of Business. "He doesn't want to just understand the how; he wants to understand the why."
White taught Blakley in the course ACC 350 Internal Reporting, and White was one of the people who wrote a letter of recommendation on Blakley's behalf for the Scholar of the Year award.
For faculty within ASU like White, Blakley's success has been especially encouraging and helpful to use as a model for other students, who may look to achieve similar accomplishments someday.
"He's looked at as a role model and a leader," White said. "That's exactly what we want — young men in his fraternity and budding accountants in the major that he's in professional organizations with, looking up at this guy and thinking: 'Hey, if I work hard, there's really no limit to the recognition and the success we can achieve here.'"
Alongside academics, an applicant’s extracurricular activities also factored into the Scholar of the Year award.
Blakley was the president of the Leadership Forum at ASU — a club that brings in guest speakers to lecture on leadership — while also teaching an introductory business course at W.P. Carey and being a member of the McCord Scholars Program.
The McCord Scholars Program includes a mentorship program, which Blakley attributes to providing him with a lot of the direction and purpose he has since found at the University.
During Blakley's freshman year, he was a mentee in the program, crediting his mentors in the program with helping him figure out the best roadmap for his time at ASU.
Another organization that provided Blakley with much of the support and drive he has used to become successful was the one that introduced him to the Scholar of the Year award in the first place: Sigma Nu.
"I, right off the bat, had like not only my big brother in the fraternity, but other guys doing things like being tour guides, teaching the intro classes, starting clubs, talking to me about double majoring, and it opened my eyes," Blakley said. "I always was a motivated kid, but when you're surrounded by people that are better than you, it forces you to raise the bar."
Blakley has several other awards and recognitions from ASU, rounding out his application. He was named ASU's Emerging Leader of the Year in 2025 and was a finalist for ASU Tempe Leader of the Year.
Balancing academics, extracurriculars and the recognition that has come from Blakley's success in those endeavors has made him strategic about his time management.
"It's being intentional," Blakley said. "Sometimes you're gonna sacrifice maybe sleep or time or fun events for what's eventually gonna be a greater good down the road. It's learning how to strategically max out your plate."
Edited by Dhemi Bell, Alan Deutschendorf III and Kate Gore.
Reach the reporter at sluba@asu.edu and follow @samluba6 on X.
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Sam Luba is the Lead Community and Culture Reporter at The State Press. He is a junior studying political science and justice studies with a certificate in political history and leadership. This is his fifth semester with The State Press, working previously as a Senior Reporter and part-time Politics reporter.
