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GCU MAGAZ I NE • 33
Alan Pickett, B.S. in
Public Safety and
Emergency
Management, ’14,
earned his
ministerial license as a reverend in
the Church of God. Pickett is an
assistant conductor with Amtrak in
NewOrleans but soonwill be
commissioned in the Army Reserve
as a chaplain. He also is enrolled in
GCU’sMaster of Divinity program.
Catherine Herron,
M.S. in Leadership,
’14,recently
appeared on Trinity
Broadcasting
Network (TBN) local station
WMPV TV-21 in Mobile, Ala.
Herron recorded two of her
original gospel music songs for
WMPV, both of which aired in
June 2016.
Kate Beausoleil, M.
Ed. in Secondary
Education, ’14, is
the seventh grade
physical science
teacher and assistant cross
country coach at Pleasant Valley
(Iowa) Junior High School.
Beausoleil has completed three
marathons and mentors runners
for the Quad Cities (Ill.) Marathon.
Danielle Rodzen,
B.S in Psychology,
’15,lived out her
dream when she
traveled with GCU
on a mission trip to Kenya and
also took a solo trip to Ireland.
Rodzen is a child life assistant at
Phoenix Children’s Hospital and a
resident director at GCU.
Dr. AnnWolven,
Ed.D. in
Organizational
Leadership with an
Emphasis in Higher
Education Leadership, ’15,
recently presented at the
international OLC Innovate 2016
conference in New Orleans.
Wolven’s presentation, “Faculty
Metamorphosis through Mobile
Technology,” identified how
mobile technology influences
students’ learning. She is an
English instructor at Illinois
Eastern Community Colleges.
Alena Gladwin, B.S.
in Biology with an
Emphasis in
Pre-Medicine, ’16,
was chosen for a
one-year paid internship with the
Translational Genomics Research
Institute (TGen) in Phoenix. TGen
is a nonprofit focused on the
development of research and
treatment for cancer,
neurological disorders, diabetes
and other complex diseases.
Alena was a 2016 Outstanding
Senior award recipient at GCU.
James Morales,
B.S. in Secondary
Education
(Emphasis inMath),
’16, is the newmusic
instructor for Four Peaks
Elementary School and Fountain
Hills (Ariz.) Middle School.
Morales has worked in the high
school program the Fountain Hills
Unified School District for more
than a decade.
Camila Moreno,
B.S. in Nursing, ’16,
has been hired as
the full-time night
shift RN at Banner
Thunderbird Medical Center in
Glendale, Ariz. Moreno will be
working in the medical/surgical
observation unit and credits her
preparation at GCU for landing
the job so soon after graduation.
GCU NEWS & NOTES
Mission work goes overtime
A student on the East Asia team is planning on returning next
year to visit the friends that he made. A student on the Middle
East team enjoyed her time so much and was so moved by the
needs there that she extended her stay by a month.
Those are the typical — but hardly ordinary — stories you
hear every year about the annual mission trips undertaken by
Grand Canyon University students and staff.
This year, GCU sent out 357 students and leaders to 20
countries. The East Asia and Middle East trips both were
4-6 weeks and were student-led — they did college campus
ministry there and were able to build relationships and share
their faith.
Kayla’s song still resonates
“Dancing by Your Side (Home Now),” the
tribute song by GCU sophomore Kristyn
Roberts to her late friend and roommate Kayla
Castro, touched a lot of hearts.
Roberts said that she got multiple shares on her Facebook
page after the GCU Today story and video were published.
“As much as I cried the first time I heard this song, boy,
did the tears keep flowing watching the passion and emotion
that was behind it all,” one person wrote. “It has brought a
tremendous amount of comfort in my own life with losses I've
dealt with as well.”
To read the story about Kayla's song, go online to
Science experiment is working
After igniting in Arizona, the Chief Science Officer (CSO)
initiative is spreading rapidly to other states, and GCU helped fan
the flames by hosting a three-day summer institute last month.
The GCU-sponsored program quickly grew to 200 students
after one year. CSOs are junior high school and high school
students elected by their classmates to promote STEM
(science, technology, engineering and math) subjects in
their schools.
Officials from Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada,
Washington, Oregon and New York attended the institute and
since have committed to starting similar programs.
To read more about the CSO program, go online to