By Ryan Kryska
GCU News Bureau
Faith Anderson and Thomas Beatty were just trying to find their classrooms when they instead found each other.
Now, they’re Faith and Thomas Beatty.
These two Grand Canyon University Honors College alumni graduated in the spring. They met at freshman orientation and, four years later, were married in June. Faith started working at the University in July as a program development specialist.
“I really just wanted to make friends and graduate college so that I could have a career,” Faith said about coming to GCU. “I definitely never expected to find a partner for life. … But, yeah, God had other plans.”
Faith and Thomas had been standing in line to ask questions about their class schedule when they met. Both entrepreneurship majors, they had similar questions for the advisor at the end of the line and made an instant connection.
“In my head I was like, ‘I’ll probably never see him again because GCU is such a big place,’” Faith said.
But the first day of class put that worry to rest.
“He was the only person I knew in the classroom,” Faith said, “so I was like, ‘I’m sitting by you!’”
The relationship started with plans to play catch after class since they had baseball and softball backgrounds, but it spiraled into so much more than that. In fact, the two didn’t put on their mitts until two years into dating.
“Freshman year we did a road trip to the Grand Canyon, and I would say during that trip that’s when I knew she was a really special person and I would be with her for a very long time,” Thomas said. “I knew I would marry her like three months into the relationship. I knew very, very quickly that she was the right one.”
Alison Thompson, Faith’s roommate at GCU, said before she knew it, Thomas was “one of the girls.”
“Through the years he just became part of our girl pack,” Thompson said. “It was never a hesitation, just was like, ‘Thomas is coming over.’”
Thompson said Faith and Thomas shared an “Honors College drive” to finish everything well ahead of time.
“They both, no joke, throughout the entire four years would do their assignments like three weeks in advance,” she said. “I would always ask her, ‘Do you really have to do that?’ And they would both say they just want to get ahead of it. They both found it very calming to get it done in that amount of time.”
Faith is from Northern California, while Thomas is from Las Vegas. So Thomas says he doesn’t get to see her parents often. But in June 2017, they flew down and he made sure to ask them a very important question.
“I asked both parents for permission and they told me how special she was to them and how they were so excited to have me as part of their family,” Thomas said. “They told me it is such a blessing that we found each other.”
Thomas had a custom ring made for Faith using a diamond from his grandma’s ring.
“My grandma was a great influence on me,” he said. “She passed away before the proposal.”
Thomas, Faith and a bunch of her friends went for a hike in Sedona at the end of September, and that’s when he got down on one knee.
Their wedding was at a winery in Northern California. Thomas’ uncle was the officiant.
“I really think that part of the reason why I chose GCU was to meet people like Faith, and I was so pleasantly surprised that it happened so fast,” Thomas said. “She is the perfect person for me.”
Faith praised GCU for its role in her life and said “it’s definitely unique being able to go through such a life-changing experience like college with someone.”
“I love GCU with all my heart,” she said. “This is the best place for someone to grow.”
Contact Ryan Kryska at (602) 639-8415 or [email protected].
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