DIGITAL GCU Today AUG issue

1 8 • GCU MAGAZ I NE the recipients, 91 percent are people of color, who then pay it forward as college students by working 100 hours per academic year in the Learning Lounge. And local parents have another way to gain access to an education they otherwise might have considered unattainable for their families: If they work for the University, their children’s tuition is miniscule. Part of the challenge is increasing awareness among parents who don’t speak English. One of the ways the University does that is with Casa Abierta (Spanish for “open house”), where monolingual parents are given a complete rundown of tuition, benefits, how to budget for college and how to apply for student loans. Emily Belt, Regional Director of Operations, Traditional Campus, takes great satisfaction in enlightening parents and students during the enrollment process and then continuing the conversation through the college experience. She remembers what it was like for her when she attended a small Midwestern college and had to figure out how to pay for it. “No one ever talked to me about how I could leave school and not owe a ton of money,” she said. “No one ever discussed loan amounts with me. They just said, ‘You can’t pay for this? Here, this is what you need to sign, and we’ll get you a loan that pays for the rest of it.’ “We put plans in place where they can actually afford to go to college, and we teach them how to pay it off while they’re in college. Now they’re not starting off in a hole.” A key part of those plans is giving students access to jobs, both on campus and in the community. Approximately 2,500 students are employed by GCU, beginning a process that focuses on preparing all students, no matter their background, for what’s ahead in the working world. Students who want to work elsewhere can access the Academic and Career Excellence Center’s Jumpstart for Jobs program, which gives them everything they need – resume assistance, interview and business etiquette tips, and instruction on how to act professionally – to get in the door and make a positive impression once they’re there. There’s an annual clothing drive to get students the proper business attire (an acute need for some less affluent students), and they even can do mock interviews with representatives from outside companies to get a better feel for what the experience will be like. “That, to me, shows we’re invested and supporting people who just need more support,” Belt said. “They don’t need handouts. They’re not less capable or less qualified. They just need a different level of support.” “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself.” – Luke 10:27 W hen Belt and Student Services Manager Timothy Jones got the Diversity Office started last spring, the first thing they discovered was how much students didn’t know about what GCU already was doing in terms of diversity. “People would say, ‘I wish we did this.’ And we’d say, ‘Well, we DO do that,’” Belt said. Said Jones, “We weren’t trying to reinvent the diversity wheel. Most of the wheel is already in motion.” The office’s location, adjacent to that of Jeremy Mack, Director of Student Engagement, speaks of its importance. “What the office provides is, number one, a location for students to go to whenever The Students Inspiring Students initiative has awarded full-tuition scholarships to local students, 91 percent of whom are people of color. Emily Belt and her daughter, Elisabeth Watch NEWS.GCU.EDU for more coverage of diversity at GCU