24 • GCU TODAY
E
ric Atuahene squeezed into a child-size chair between two
first-graders at Quentin Elementary School in Avondale and
peered at their drawings.
“What’s your message?” he asked a girl whose sketches
showed one classmate sticking out a tongue and another calling
someone an inappropriate name.
“It’s when someone makes you feel bad,” the child said, pausing, pencil
in hand, to gaze upward into his face. “We’re not supposed to do that.”
It’s a typical day for Atuahene, Quentin’s 40-year-old principal and a
Grand Canyon University alumnus. He visits classrooms at least three
days a week and engages students and teachers in earnest conversation.
It’s one of the most rewarding aspects of his job.
And it’s a typical lesson for Quentin students, who are immersed
in positive messages and encouraged to meet their principal’s high
expectations for learning, behavior and character.
“No one has the right to interfere with the learning, safety or
wellbeing,” is the predominant rule at the nearly 1,000-pupil campus in
the Littleton Elementary School District.
This is Atuahene’s second year as principal, and the new philosophies
and goals he has set in motion and his desire to learn from powerful
‘Visionary leader’ helps
students see the light
Principal’s principles: Atuahene supplies expectations
and demands excellence
B Y L A U R I E M E R R I L L
GCU
Alumni
Principal Eric Atuahene, a GCU alumnus,
spends quality time each day with
his teachers and students, including
kindergartner IsabellaMia Contreras
Ortega, at Quentin Elementary in
Avondale.
photo by darryl webb
