P21
March 2013
P20
March 2013
Professional rodeo clown JJ Harrison says his GCU master’s degree could help him get
back into teaching after he hangs up his spurs. Photos courtesy of JJ Harrison
– by Cooper Nelson
Rodeo clown’s onlinemaster’s degree
could rope himback into teaching
alumni
alumni
It’s
hard to imagine
Christina Cullers
ever sounding “like a dead horse,”
but that’s how she says last summer began for her.
Cullers, who graduated from Grand Canyon University’s College of Fine Arts
and Production last May, was just starting an intensive, two-week OperaWorks
program in Los Angeles in June when she was thrown for a loop by a vocal
nodule that temporarily ruined her beautiful soprano.
The doctor’s prescription: no singing or talking. Even with those severe
restrictions, she stayed on at OperaWorks.
“I had to learn to communicate without the use of my voice,” says Cullers, 22,
who was GCU’s Musician of the Year for the 2011-12 academic year. “I learned
a ton without singing, about the emotional and physical freedom that leads to
vocal freedom.”
After she had healed sufficiently to sing again, she headed off to Zwickau,
Germany, for three weeks at the Schumann Liederfest, another program for
young artists with career potential. She received private coaching and took
classes on diction and vocal interpretation, and during her stay she visited the
church in Leipzig where
Johann Sebastian Bach
had been the organist and
Martin Luther
had been a choirboy.
She also performed for the Germans, an experience that was both nerve-
wracking and exhilarating.
“You’re singing
their
music, in
their
language, and that’s the awesome thing,”
Cullers says. “You can see them listening to you, and you realize this is
their heritage.”
The little girl whose big voice used to turn heads before she was even a teenager
(“I would just bust out singing”) has auditioned for master’s degree music
programs at Arizona State University, the University of Texas and the University
of Oklahoma. In the meantime, she is training with GCU’s
Dr. Sheila Corley
and
working part time as an instructor with the Arizona Girlchoir.
Cullers says her study as an undergraduate with Corley, who has a sterling
reputation as a voice coach, was “the best thing to ever happen to me,”
providing a level of instruction and mentoring that she couldn’t have
received elsewhere.
“For every student, there’s a right teacher, and she was that teacher for me,”
says Cullers, who grew up in Phoenix not far from the GCU campus. “It was a
God-ordained match.
“She invests in her students so much that it even breaks down her health. She’s
a seasoned teacher and a godly woman who wants her students to be stewards
of the gifts God has given them.”
Cullers says she isn’t sure where her career path will lead, adding that she’s
looking to God for guidance. At GCU, she broadened her horizons with leading
roles in Ethington Theatre productions of “Amahl and the Night Visitors,”
a one-act opera, and “The Boy Friend,” a musical. Her senior recital, performed
in the magnificent surroundings of Trinity Cathedral in central Phoenix,
was spectacular.
“It could be that God has a career for me so that I can be an influence and a light
to others,” Cullers says. “Theatre and opera can be dark places, with people
who are broken and need God. ... If God pushes, I will follow. I want to be
onstage only if that is where God has called me to be a witness.”
■
JJ
Harrison
takes the role of class clown seriously.
The 37-year-old Grand Canyon University alumnus maintained his prankster
reputation from school and turned it into a lucrative career as a rodeo clown. But
when rodeo life ends, he has a master’s degree to fall back on.
Harrison earned his master’s in teaching from GCU in 2002. But, similar to his
personality, his path to a graduate degree was anything but normal. As part of
GCU’s non-traditional online degree program, Harrison listened to lectures on
VHS tapes and submitted his assignments to professors through snail mail.
After two years of classes, he earned his degree and went on to become one of the
Northwest’s most recognizable rodeo barrelmen and entertainers. He knows the
higher degree will help him after his rodeo career ends.
“You can’t run away from a bull at 65 years old or with a surgically repaired knee,”
said Harrison, a native of Washington who lives in Walla Walla and performs in the
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.
“My master’s degree is something I can fall back on when my days in the rodeo are
over,” he said.
Harrison earned his undergraduate degree in teaching from Washington State
University. After graduation, he sought a school to help advance his education and
improve his career as a teacher.
“GCU offered the best program,” Harrison said. “Online was the best option
because I couldn’t afford to stop working to get an education.”
Harrison began working around bull-riding and rodeo when he attended
Washington State. After graduating he taught science and social studies for eight
years at Garrison and Pioneer middle schools in Walla Walla. He stepped away
from teaching in 2008 to join the rodeo circuit full time.
Since then, Harrison has performed at major rodeo events such as the Columbia
River Circuit Finals and the National Finals Rodeo, which is considered an all-star
event for rodeo. He emerged as a celebrity in the Northwest for routines such as
dancing into the arena in an inflatable pink fat suit and dirt-skiing behind horses.
Through his rodeo success and fame, Harrison maintained his love of education. He
keeps his teaching certificate updated and prides himself on a family-friendly act.
For example, he chose a soft drink instead of a beer as his barrel sponsor.
Harrison met his wife,
Melissa
, when both worked at Garrison Middle School.
Melissa works as the director of marketing at Walla Walla Community College,
where JJ also works part time as a promoter.
He said that his wife and son
Huck
, 4, are his two biggest supporters. Melissa
enjoys the rodeo life but understands the impact of JJ’s advanced degree and the
importance it could have on their future.
“(Right now) he’s not using his master’s degree for his education career, but it has
helped him to get to where he is today,” Melissa said.
“He’s doing a great job in the rodeo, though,” she said, adding that his performances
“are something that can keep me laughing, and I’ve seen them 50 times.”
■
Soprano Christina Cullers
sees God’s design in her singing
NOTEWORTHY
PERFORMER
BUCKING SUCCESS
– by Doug Carroll
Christina Cullers says she never thought of herself as an actor, only as a singer, until she
took the stage at GCU. Photo by Darryl Webb
