GCU TODAY • 2 1
Graham, 23, whose mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were
nurses. “Mentally, the soldiers are so strong, and physically, they want
to get better and get back to serving their country.”
Graham is no stranger to the military. Her dad, Glenn, is a colonel
in the Air Force, and she was raised on air bases around the country.
She discovered an interest in and knack for pole vaulting in high school
and joined ROTC, which offered her a full-ride college scholarship. She
enrolled at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to compete in
pole vault and pursue a nursing career.
At UCCS, she managed a packed schedule of classes, meets and
training until 2012, when her coach left and it became apparent the
school was not going to replace him. Graham connected with Todd
Lehman, an assistant track and field coach at GCU, who coaxed her to
Phoenix. GCU’s nursing faculty and admissions staff helped transfer her
credits and set up her courses.
“It was definitely an act of God,” said Graham, who arrived on
campus in August 2012 and met Hansz, a GCU junior and ROTC cadet.
Nursing and the military bloomed on Hansz’s family tree, too. As a
child growing up in Africa, she learned from a neighbor who was a nurse
how to remove stitches and reduce fevers.
Years later, she visited Phoenix during Destination GCU in 2010
and imagined the hands-on training she would get in the University’s
cadaver lab. She signed up for 23 college credits and, looking for a way to
pay for college, ROTC.
“I enjoyed the discipline, the exercise, the whole experience,” said
Hansz, 23. “The people in it made it all worth it, and the prospect of
coming out of college debt-free, well, I was quite happy.”
By the time Graham arrived, Hansz understood ROTC culture and
helped Grahammake the transition. They were in the same military science
class, prepared for summer training and went to Hawaii together once.
The CONHCP arranged for Hansz and Graham to earn credit for
doing clinical work at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu when
they weren’t training with the Army’s 25th Infantry Division at Schofield
Barracks. They worked 12-hour hospital shifts and visited Pearl Harbor
and the beach, just briefly.
“Every night, I would pick them up from Tripler in the van after their
shift and I would get all these wonderful stories — ‘I helped deliver a
baby!’ — ‘I helped amputate a toe!’” Bravo said. “They were so excited
about the nursing they were doing.”
GCU’s will-do attitude
Bravo credited GCU’s nursing faculty, including Dr. Cheryl Roat, with
helping students make room for everything in their schedules.
“Dr. Roat is so supportive of our program, and she loves the Army
nurses that come to her because she knows they’re going to be qualified,
committed and dedicated,” Bravo said. “And there’s a difference in our
GCU kids, too. They bond and stay in touch.”
Army nursing students tend to be bright, driven and busy, and you
can’t help but want to see them succeed, said Roat, the nursing college’s
director of regulation and compliance.
“Time-management priorities, self-discipline and servant leadership
are essential to both the military and to the field of nursing,” she said.
“We value what these students are striving for, and we’re so proud to be
part of this program.”
Grahamwas named the University’s top senior scholar athlete in 2014
and set the GCU record for women’s pole vaulting with a 4.03-meter vault
in 2013. “I made such wonderful friends in ROTC, and I could see by going
through training with them howmuch the camaraderie, teamwork and
discipline helped me in my sport,” she said.
Hansz had her own brand of adventure as a ROTC cadet, traveling to
South Korea for a summer internship and to Romania to teach English
to Romanian Naval cadets. And she got engaged, to GCU alumnus Gavin
Wilcox who proposed after their graduation on Dec. 12. Graham also
is engaged, to Jake Greenwald who plans to be a chaplain in the Army.
Wedding dates are pending.
Hansz and Graham are modest about their national military
distinction for academics. “I’m very honored because there are so many
smart and amazing nurses who also graduated with me,” Graham said.
Added Hansz, who awaits her Army assignment, “I did my best in
nursing school just to do my best. But the icing on the cake is this.”
Bekah Hansz enrolled at
GCUwith many pre-nursing
course credits earned in
high school.
photo by darryl webb
Graham received
the Roland L. Beck
Award for top
senior scholar
female athlete
in 2014.
photo by
darryl webb
