Honors College Banquet celebrates best, brightest

By Rick Vacek Published April 20, 2018

The Honors College Banquet emcees were students Brendan Dyer (left) and Sean Thomason.

Story by Jeannette Cruz
Photos by David Kadlubowski
GCU News Bureau

Grand Canyon University recognized, celebrated and encouraged those who have gone above and beyond Thursday at the Honors College Banquet.

The banquet featured a buffet, a congratulatory address by Dr. Antoinette Farmer-Thompson, Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and the dean of the Honors College, and an alumni address by Cathleen Daly, 2017 Outstanding Senior of the Year. Emcees of the night were students Brendan Dyer and Sean Thomason. More than 20 of the most outstanding students were recognized for their academic excellence, commitment, leadership and impact.

The night was an opportunity for students to take a break and celebrate one another.

In her opening address, Farmer-Thompson encouraged students to use their gifts and talents to go out and bless society.

Quoting the words of a prominent writer, she said, “I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

She urged, “So students, faculty, staff … while you are here go ahead and do your best to make a difference, and I promise you God will create a path. Try to be the light and whenever you are light, darkness cannot exist around you no matter the challenges. Make sure you continue to persist.”

Daly talked about her post-college experience (referring to it as “freshman year of adulthood"), the power of prayer and the difference between “God-size dreams” and “good dreams.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a good dream. Good dreams make you happy. Good dreams are realistic. Good dreams can be life-altering. But the God dreams give you purpose and joy,” she told the students. “God dreams are not guaranteed to be easy, and they will be filled with trials. God dreams will make you grow. They are the dreams that keep you awake at night and keep you dreaming during the day. … How that dream will look will be different for everyone and that’s the exciting part.

There were lots of smiles inside GCU Arena.

“As you celebrate tonight and finish up the semester, whether it’s your first year or last, I challenge you to step out of your place of comfort and ask yourself, ‘Do I want the good dream or do I want the God dream?’ … Someday you will be so grateful that you didn’t settle for the good dream.”

To wrap up the night, with an emphasis on “doing something” and never giving up, Noah Wolfe, 2018-19 student body president, pushed students to stay committed and to engage the problems around the world by taking action.

“My hope and prayer is that we don’t take what we are doing and accomplishing for granted, but we use it to make the world a better place,” he said.

This year’s Outstanding Senior Award was presented to biology major Emily Ghena, who was instrumental in recruiting more than 1,000 new members into the National Society of Collegiate Scholars in the 2017-18 academic year. Additionally, this is her third year as founder and president of the Honors STEMists organization. Ghena plans to pursue a career in dentistry.

Josh McGuire was awarded a prestigious Dean’s Selection Award by Farmer-Thompson. McGuire co-founded Storage Together and created Prophet Insight, which uses artificial intelligence to provide location-based data analysis for small and medium-size businesses. McGuire also has been selected to represent the Colangelo College of Business as this year’s commencement speaker.

“It’s always so hard to pick one or two award recipients because, as celebratory as this event is, they are all so deserving of recognition,” said Breanna Naegeli, Assistant Dean to the Honors College. “There is so much that goes into making the Honors College – the administration, the students, the Career IMPACT Center, the colleges, Athletics. We are all working together and nurturing the same students so that they can thrive.”

Below is a list of other Honors awards and recipients:

Canyon Spirit: Camden Bole

Student Athlete of the Year: Samiha Mohsen

Academic Excellence: Jessica Symes

Exceptional Commitment: John Varkey

Inspiring Leader: Shaun Wang

Servant Leader: Denisse Delos Santos

Outstanding Community Outreach: Cooper Floto

Global Impact and Innovation: Gabriela Calhoun

Honors College Advocate: AZHOSA and Jill Schiemann

Honors College Faculty of the Year: Dr. Val Martinez

Honors College Symposium Finalists