GCU TODAY • 2 7
Leadership, ’12,
is
chief at Hillside (Ill.)
Fire Department.
Pilz, who has been
with the department
since 1990, previously was
lieutenant and captain.
Ethelda Prophet-
Vason, MPA with
an Emphasis
in Health Care
Management, ’12,
published her first book, “But
God and by His Grace,” a story
about faith and finding oneself.
Vason said of becoming an
author at 65, “God does work in
mysterious ways.”
Robert Lonadier,
M.S. in Nursing
with an Emphasis in
Nursing Education,
’13,
of Ocala, Fla.,
is president of the National
Association of Orthopedic
Nurses, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to advancing
orthopedic nursing through
research and education.
Janet “January”
O’Connor, B.S. in
Nursing (RN to
BSN), ’13,
invented
a salt gargle for
sore throats called GoGargle!
O’Connor and her husband,
Tim, have placed it in more than
40,000 stores, she said.
Melanie
Schneider, M.Ed.
in Curriculum
and Instruction:
Reading with
an Emphasis in Elementary
Education, ’13,
a first-grade
teacher at Centennial Elementary
School in Gilbert, Ariz., was
named Higley Unified School
District Teacher of the Year
for 2015.
Michael Serna,
M.A. in Christian
Studies with
an Emphasis
in Christian
Leadership, ’13,
who lives in
Elkhart, Kan., published two books,
“The Excellent Life: A Journey
Through an Excellent Life” and “All
Sufficient God: A Call for a Higher
Standard.”
Jennifer
Amman, M.Ed.
in Educational
Administration,
’14,
was named
Teacher of the Year for the Taylor
County School District in Perry,
Fla. The kindergarten teacher
also was honored by Gov. Rick
Scott and the Florida Senate.
Shyra Ann Cannon,
B.S. in Nursing,
’14,
is a nurse at
Diamond Canyon
School in Anthem,
Ariz., and a newmember of the
International Nurses Association.
Cannon is working on an M.S.
in Nursing with an Emphasis in
Leadership degree at GCU.
Bobby Cox Jr.,
M.Ed. in Secondary
Education, ’14,
was
named Teacher of
the Week by WITN-
TV in Greenville, N.C. Cox is a
history teacher, assistant football
coach and substitute bus driver at
West Craven High in Vanceboro.
George Hammond,
M.A. in Christian
Studies with
an Emphasis in
Pastoral Ministry,
’14,
has received his license
to preach, is teaching Sunday
school and leads a men’s group
at Rock Springs Church in Milner,
Ga. He also works with Turning
Point, a Georgia-based
gospel group.
Laurie Johnson,
MBA, ’14,
is
administrative
assistant to
the director of
Christian education at Lewis
Chapel Missionary Baptist
Church in Fayetteville, N.C.
Johnson also is the public
relations manager for the
church’s music ministry.
Eetu Karvonen,
B.S. in Exercise
Science with
an Emphasis
in Physical
Education, ’14,
has won more
than 30 national swimming
titles in his native Finland and
hopes to qualify for the 2016
Olympics. Karvonen has coached
swimmers for 15 years.
SPOTLIGHT ON
Heather Jancoski, ’09
In just one year, Heather
Jancoski has shown
her students at South
Mountain High in Phoenix
that persistence can be
glamorous in broadcast
journalism.
The 2009 GCU graduate
(M.Ed. in Curriculum and
Instruction: Technology)
had barely walked through
the classroomdoor when
she had a dozen disciples
(“Our own little mini-family”) producing Jaguar News, a weekly
television program about happenings on campus.
Not long after, Jancoski’s determination tomake contact with
the Public Broadcasting Service paid off in a collaboration on school
safety with PBS NewsHour’s Student Reporting Labs. “The things you
taught us — that’s what we’re doing!” her students told her.
“To see it on the national news was great for them, too,” she said.
The learning process continued with Jancoski’s insistence that her
class develop social media skills to apply the proper analytics to those
communications. And that optimized a mash-up of story ideas.
For her efforts, Jancoski, 33, was honored in the Creative Media
category in Cox Communications’ 2015 Connect2STEMAwards,
and even that had a side benefit: An assisted-living home wants her
students to do a video about the facility andmentor residents on
producing their own stories.
But the Avondale resident mainly is focused on having her students
ferret out stories on the culturally diverse SouthMountain campus. “I
just feel like these kids have somany stories to tell,” she said, adding,
“People ask me, ‘You’ve been teaching only one year and you’ve done
all this already —what are you going to do next year?’”
Sounds like a tease for the evening news. Only this teacher is all
about muchmore than happy talk.
