Archive for May, 2020

“It just broke my heart,” Military/Business Operations team member Vanessa Garcia said of not being able to visit with residents of the Arizona State Veteran Home this year for Salute Our Troops. The residents there haven’t seen their families in person for 11 weeks, ever since access to the facility has been limited because of COVID-19 precautions. But employees found a way to celebrate veterans Thursday with a parade of family and friends that was socially distant, followed by a lunch that thanked the veterans’ home employees.

GCU News Bureau Grand Canyon University and Grand Canyon Education employees did not want to let the 10th anniversary of Salute Our Troops pass them by. So they joined in a parade of family and friends at the Arizona State Veteran Home on Thursday morning, observing social distancing protocols. The residents of the facility have not seen family or friends in person for 11 weeks because of COVID-19 precautions. Employees of the facility also were treated to a sack lunch provided by Canyon 49 Grill.

Forget the Freshman 15. A new weight-gain worry is cropping up among adults called the Quarantine 15 — the weight that people have been gaining since they’ve been sheltering at home. But Dr. Zach Zeigler, Associate Professor in the Health Science Department of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, said the habits that are predictors for weight gain in this stressful time can be changed. His coronavirus weight-gain academic paper — he shares credits with six student researchers — was published recently by the journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practice.

The Canyon Angels have a new vehicle investors can use to put their money in startups. Here’s why it’s called a sidecar fund and how it contributes to the circular relationship between Canyon Angels and Canyon Ventures.

GCU News Bureau Dr. Scott Greenberger, Research Manager and Assistant Professor, and Rick Holbeck, Executive Director of Online Full Time Faculty, remotely collaborated over the past three months with Scholarship of Teaching and Learning scholars from Penn State University to facilitate a virtual writing retreat. The retreat, “Reflecting on Teaching and Learning: A Virtual Writing Retreat,” utilized the Guide for Reflective Practice, developed by Greenberger for GCU’s Journal of Scholarly Engagement, to coach faculty in reflective writing on SoTL topics and documenting scholarly engagement. The collaboration began when Greenberger and Holbeck were approached by Penn State SoTL scholars following a conference presentation at the SoTL Commons in Savannah, Ga., in February. The remote collaboration and resulting Zoom retreat were a resounding success. A similar retreat is being planned for GCU faculty this summer to support and engage faculty seeking to use reflective practice to publish instructional best practices.

In this week’s Fitness Facts column on physical health, Connie Colbert provides some tips for how to handle common activities in the era of the pandemic. It’s great to get outside, but use common sense.

Kayla Hartson, Student Fitness Program Coordinator, shares an interval workout you can do on a treadmill or while walking outside.

In this week’s #Askingforafriend column on mental health, Nicholas Rudgear lists five ways to make therapy a good experience. It starts with the relationship.

The Technology Department continues to help build the nation’s cybersecurity community, thanks to a $100,000 grant awarded by the National Security Agency and National Science Foundation. The GenCyber grant will be used to support a free summer camp on the GCU campus in 2021 designed to help high school educators teach cybersecurity. “We’re in trouble if we’re not creating the next generation,” said Dr. Heather Monthie, Associate Dean of Technology in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology.

What makes Dr. Brandon O’Neil’s doctoral degree so interesting is where he conducted his dissertation defense: via Zoom while he was on Air Force deployment in Saudi Arabia — and, on top of that, under the threat of a missile attack. Fortunately, it all went well.