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14 • GCU MAGAZ I NE
Students
dig this
T
he culture of Grand Canyon
University is portable. Students
regularly take it with them when
they leave the campus boundaries to
volunteer in the neighborhood, across the city
and around the world.
They get up early on Saturday mornings to
help Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona
renovate nearby homes and to minister to
children who join them at the Canyon Kids
program in local parks. They reach out with a
smile to the homeless, the abused, the elderly
and anyone who just needs a hand.
But that same culture also brings
neighborhood residents onto campus to get
the help they need in school and in business,
through programs such as the widely
acclaimed Learning Lounge.
As much as GCU has developed into a
little town within a campus, it is also very
much a campus within a city. Full circle of
togetherness and inclusiveness. Full circle of
benefits. Around and around it goes, where it
stops … well, it doesn’t stop.
Serving the City
The program that has gotten the most
attention is GCU’s partnership with Habitat for
Humanity, which aims to renovate 700 homes
in the neighborhood and already has done
more than 100.
On Serve the City day in early October,
nearly 300 students who might otherwise have
spent their Saturday morning sleeping chose
instead to pick up paintbrushes, shovels and
wheelbarrows and spend the day toiling for
their neighbors.
Freshmen roommates Madeline Lindey
and Madison Lawson had a dance-off while
painting. Junior Kyle Hammond said he wasn’t
surprised by the positive atmosphere the
students carried on.
Spirit of giving
outside campus
is shovel-ready