Archive for March, 2019

Photos by Ralph Freso and Elizabeth Tinajero GCU News Bureau The ninth annual Run to Fight Children’s Cancer brought out another big crowd Saturday for the 10K, 5K and Cancer Survivors Walk.       

Adrianna Gavazzo could have celebrated her eighth birthday anywhere — at her favorite pizza place, at an arcade or at a theme park. Instead, she told her mom she wanted to have her party at Run to Fight Children’s Cancer. She and about 50 of her family and friends gathered at Run to Fight on Saturday on the GCU campus for cupcakes and to hit the 5K course in honor of Cavazzo, who is now cancer-free. She was just one of hundreds of runners and volunteers who participated in the event, the largest Arizona race of its kind bringing awareness to pediatric cancer.

Students volunteering with GCU’s Homeless Ministry ventured out recently to St. Vincent de Paul to serve the homeless, giving haircuts and donated clothes and washing individuals’ feet. “These people are our friends, and we are so grateful to have the chance to love and serve them in the name of Jesus,” said communications student Anders Carlson, who helps lead GCU’s Homeless Ministry team.

Students did a number on GCU’s math professors Thursday on the Promenade as they hurled pies in their face to recognize National Pi Day. The event, which also included a bake sale, complete with pies of a different kind, was organized by GCU’s new Math Ed Club to celebrate math. Associate Professor Ben VanDerLinden acknowledged how the United States performs poorly when it comes to math but is looking to the next generation of math teachers, like the ones in the club, to change that course. “These guys care,” he said.

As Grand Canyon University prepares for Run to Fight Children’s Cancer, when some 3,000 runners, volunteers and more will be on campus, the University’s Sports Medicine Club is also getting ready to take their place at the event, as they have since 2017, making sure runners’ health is well taken care of. As it turns out, March is also National Athletic Training Month, so stop by and say hi to the athletic trainers and athletic training students on campus that day.

All the world’s a stage, as Shakespeare said, and GCU’s Theatre Department is taking that to heart with a new theatre troupe, Parables, which will leave the comforts of the GCU campus and take the show on the road, so to speak, to local schools in the community. What’s also different about this performance group, actually made up of two ensembles, is that its main focus is to spread the Gospel through theatre.

Fifteen beautiful pieces of choreography premiered at the Spring Student Spotlight Dance Concert on Tuesday night in Thunderground. The show offers choreography in several different styles of dance, showcasing the wide range of talent coming out of GCU’s Dance program. The second and final night of the concert starts at 7:30 today.

In this week’s Fitness Facts, Connie Colbert has the statistics and the risk factors for colorectal cancer. If you’ve already reached your 50th birthday, you need to get screened.

In this week’s Mental Health Vitamin, Dr. Deb Wade references the NCAA basketball tournament for her coaching on the qualities of athletics that we can apply to the game of life.

Editor’s note: This story is reprinted from the February issue of GCU Magazine. To view the digital version, click here.  By Lana Sweeten-Shults GCU Magazine Say “senior” on a college campus and a picture emerges of students distracted by picking out their cap and gown as they study for finals. But Judith Cobb of Columbus, Ohio, isn’t the typical senior. The 82-year-old nurse who has retired twice decided that any kind of restful retirement just wasn’t for her. Instead, she barreled forward and returned to college, enrolling in Grand Canyon University’s master’s degree program in Addiction Counseling in May 2018. It wasn’t the first time she has sought an “encore education.” “I was always older than the instructors,” Cobb said with a laugh. “I got my bachelor’s degree in ’97 when I was 61, and I was 52 years old when I got my first degree (an associate’s degree).” Cobb retired from community health nursing in 2005, when she was 69. But rather than downshift, she landed a job with Columbus Public Health, where she worked until 2010. Not eager to rest on her laurels, Cobb said her ears perked up when one of the sisters in her professional nursing […]