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1 6 • GCU MAGAZ I NE
Opportunity rocks for students in new GCU business ventures
B Y L A U R I E M E R R I L L
S
omething new is brewing at
Grand Canyon University, and it’s
not just coffee.
This year, folks hankering for a
cup o’ joe on campus will have a new option for
satisfying their yen: Grand Canyon Beverage
Company (GCBC), a University-owned
business managed by graduates and run by
students.
“It’s by the students and for the students,”
said GCBC General Manager Brennan
Williams, a recent graduate and former leader
of the wildly popular Havocs.
GCBC, which also will sell energy drinks,
gourmet donuts, tea and other goodies, is
one of three new student-operated businesses
the University is launching in the coming
months. It will be followed by a T-shirt and
merchandise company this fall and a clothing
and supply exchange next year.
The intent is to create viable business
enterprises in west Phoenix that have a
significant client already in place — the
University itself — and the ability to provide
those goods and services externally as well.
“Why send all those profits off campus to
a bunch of people we don’t even know?” said
GCU President Brian Mueller. “By creating
these businesses, we can take those profits and
reinvest them back into the University and
into the many outreach efforts we have in the
community. And, most important, it helps us
continue to hold the line on tuition, which has
been frozen on the ground campus for eight
straight years.”
GCBC opened its doors in August and has
two locations: the second floor of the Student
Union and the ground floor of the newly
constructed Roadrunner Apartments.
Wake up and smell the coffee
When it comes to coffee, GCU has a fragrant
history. The first coffee shop, in 2002, was
Latte Dah. Next came Jazzman’s, then
Starbucks, Peet’s and Canyon Coffee.
“It was astounding to me how much money
there was in coffee,” Mueller said. “The
University is viewed as a very, very successful
business. Why not use our business acumen to
give our students the opportunities to run their
own businesses?”
As befits the University’s philosophy
to explore assets worthy of investment, a
GCU-owned beverage company was born. To
manage it, GCU hired Williams and fellow
2016 graduates Julisa Smith, Lauren Lentini
and Parker Shipe as shop managers.
With access to GCU’s full portfolio of
resources, they chose a name, picked a logo,
developed a menu, created a mission statement
and selected interior designers to redo the
entire Student Union second-floor space, which
will be theirs to manage.
“There were seven different (décor) ideas
here,” Lentini said. “We wanted to bring it
together and make it flow.”
Their
cup
runneth
over