GCU TODAY • 7
Getting involved in student
groups is easy — and can
be a Grand adventure
O
ne of the most interesting dynamics of the Grand Canyon
University campus is that, despite all the growth of
recent years, it still takes only a few minutes to walk from
one side to the other. Such intimacy breeds inclusiveness.
And nowhere is this geography lesson more clearly mapped out
than in the rise in the number of student clubs and organizations,
from 22 to more than 100 in just three years if you count all the
teams in the burgeoning club sports program. Numerous studies
have shown that students who are engaged beyond the classroom
perform better academically, but GCU has taken this idea to the
next level — it’s the ace of clubs.
How did this happen? Simple. “We encourage them to dream
big,” said Moyo Harris, GCU’s clubs and organizations coordinator.
All someone has to do to start a club is fill out paperwork, get a
faculty/staff sponsor, petition for the support of at least 50 other
GCU students, and get approved by the Associated Students of
GCU board.
But there’s more to it than that. The clubs are about students
helping each other, the community and even the world, and you see
evidence of that time and again as you delve into their activities.
These aren’t just time-fillers, they’re life-savers.
Take, for example, how getting in a club might have convinced
senior Kendall Argust she was making the right decision in
switching careers.
The commuter student had flunked biology — kind of a problem
when you want to become a pharmacist — and had switched to
accounting when one of her instructors, Dr. Donna DeMilia,
B Y R I C K V A C E K
GCU club scene
hits the heights
The Outdoors Club trip
to the Grand Canyon
was among its many
popular excursions.
