Archive for March, 2021

The Celebration of Life service Tuesday night was filled with happy memories, the kind of memories that make you smile. That fit the theme of the evening — the nine GCU people who died in the last year were known for their smiles and laughter. “Clearly, you have been impacted by those that we have remembered this evening, and what you do with what you experienced by your relationship with those that we have just referenced will be a tribute to them when you leave,” said Dr. Tim Griffin, Vice President of Student Affairs, Dean of Students and University Pastor.

In this week’s Fitness Facts column on physical health, Connie Colbert lists the positives and negatives of caffeine. It does have some health benefits, such as improving your energy level and decreasing your chances of developing some neurological disorders, but there also are many negative side effects.

In this week’s #Askingforafriend column on mental health, Caitlin Rudgear discusses the value of self-awareness and how to achieve it. It can help you make better decisions in life.

Dr. Araxi Hovhannessian, Senior Adjunct Professor and Dissertation Chair in the College of Doctoral Studies, was delighted to see three of her learners earn their doctorates in the last year, and she also gets a kick out of watching them become even better teachers than she considers herself. When not coaching dissertations, she likes to travel to faraway lands.

Lena-May Haught and Wendy Bowersox want to help change a troubled world. That’s the fiery passion of students in Social Work programs at GCU. Haught, a sophomore, hopes to one day bring children in foster care to the farm, and Bowersox hopes to improve government policies to help the underserved. Haught will enter the new bachelor’s degree program in Social Work in the fall while Bowersox has been studying in the year-old Master of Social Work program, both examples of GCU meeting the demands for more social workers when they are needed more than ever.

There were innovations aplenty as GCU dealt with the pandemic. But none of the required alterations were more visible than the cutouts in GCU Arena, where the basketball environment still was plenty loud enough to be noticed by visiting coaches. Reprinted from the February issue of GCU Magazine.

The Spring Songwriters Showcase went off without a hitch Monday night. No surprise there — the Recording Studio is more than capable of presenting the livestream. But the list of performers did have some surprises, such as Yoo Jin “Gabby” Kim, who had to fully learn English when she came to GCU from South Korea three years ago, and freshman Briseyda Payan, who converted to Christianity only a year and a half ago.

Singing together at Chapel is a unifying experience, and it was especially so for the senior members of the Worship team who took the stage for the final time Monday. “Everyone was so full of joy but also somber, like, ‘Man, that was it,’” electric guitarist Joseph Vaught said.

Photos by Garrett Ohrenberg GCU News Bureau The final Chapel of the 2020-21 academic year featured music by the seniors on the Worship team and a brief talk by Dr. Tim Griffin, Vice President of Student Affairs, Dean of Students and University Pastor.  

The timing was right for GCU student Ashley Courlivant. A side business that she had nurtured for four years took off during the pandemic, and Canyon Challenge judges saw the promise in her Heavenly & Gel company that sells customized press-on fingernails. The senior was awarded first place and $2,500 in the student entrepreneurial competition Friday night.