8 • GCU TODAY
suggested one day in class that students might
want to consider joining what now is known as
the Accounting Society.
So Argust went to a meeting and had what
she calls “an ‘aha’ moment that I belonged
there.” Before long she was attending a student
leadership conference as the group’s secretary,
and that was it — she was hooked. Being in
the club gave her a reason to stay on campus
after making the long drive from her home in
Surprise, Ariz., and then going to class. She
shudders to think what would have happened if
she hadn’t followed DeMilia’s advice.
“I think I would have changed to something
different. I think I would have fallen back onto
something in general biology or something
along those lines,” she said. “And I don’t think
I would have been as involved in school —
obviously not.”
It makes you wonder how many GCU
students feel the same way.
Havocs show their heart
Many GCU clubs spread their positive
influence in multiple directions. To see what
that’s like, look no further than the inspiration
of what has become the University’s most
well-known student organization, the Havocs
student cheering section.
Most people know them as those lovable
crazies who paint their faces and bounce and
scream and turn basketball games in GCU
Arena into must-see entertainment, but they
make noise in another, even more important
way. They also do “Havocs with Heart,” the
group’s outreach program whereby members
fan out into the community to bring their
good cheer.
The new Havocs president for the 2016-
17 school year, Steve Hunsaker, said he was
“blown away” the first time he went to one of
their events at 6 a.m. on a Saturday and saw a
large group of typically enthusiastic students
doing their Havocs thing — and these are
volunteers, folks.
“That’s the GCU way,” he said. “That’s
what sets us apart from a lot of other student
sections in the country.”
But the Havocs are just one of many student
organizations that have become distinctive.
Certainly the most adventurous group —
literally — is the Outdoors Club, which is in
just its second year but has become so popular,
it had to stop trying to attract more students to
its events. There regularly is a long waiting list
for every event even though it schedules one or
two trips weekly.
If you think that all they do is hiking,
hold on to your backpack. They’ve gone
canyoneering and rappelled down waterfalls.
There was the spring break trip to the beach
at Santa Monica, then the wilds of Yosemite
National Park. Snowboarding. Paintballing.
Whitewater rafting. They’ve explored a cave in
Tucson. They even have gone skydiving.
Oh, there’s plenty of hiking and
backpacking, of course. Utah is a popular
destination. They went from rim to rim in the
Grand Canyon. And all of the local trails are
at play.
“We try to change it up a lot just so that
everyone can experience something new,” said
the club’s president, Stefan Dudzinski.
They set up a system of carpools that
reimburse the driver for gas, and they keep
costs down by getting group discounts and
providing inexpensive gear whenever possible.
For example, they were able to get lift tickets
and rentals for $40 on the snowboarding trip,
and Dudzinski, who comes from an outdoorsy
family, regularly rents out his own gear for a
fraction of what it normally would cost.
“We try to keep the trips under $20,”
he said.
You never know what to expect on these
trips, and not just because of what’s out in
nature. The caving trip took them to a lake at
the bottom of the cave, and one participant
decided to get baptized right then and there.
Exploring faith
For those who want something spiritual but
would prefer to stay out of caves, there’s the
Defenders Club, which meets on Monday
nights to discuss Christianity.
It was begun in the fall of 2013 by someone
who knows more than a little bit about
the subject — senior Matthew Mittelberg,
whose father, Mark, is a prominent Christian
Getting a group rate on ski trips is another perk
offered by the Outdoors Club
