Photos by Ralph Freso/GCU News/Gallery
Colton Romero’s path to Grand Canyon University started in Brevard, North Carolina, and indirectly went through Alaska.
It was in Alaska where the uncle and aunt of Brooke LaRowe, a GCU sophomore and the girlfriend of Romero, told their niece about the qualities of GCU that persuaded her to enroll last fall.
So when Romero began to narrow his choices as a high school senior with an interest in Worship Arts, LaRowe became a wealth of information about GCU.
“She hyped it up every day that I called her, and it just honestly got me excited just to see what it was all about,” said Romero, who was one of 200 freshmen to move into Acacia Hall in The Grove complex of freshmen residences.
Today marked the first of three days that some 16,000 of GCU's approximately 24,000 ground students will be moving into their campus residences, and they were accompanied by their parents, who watched their children take the next step in their lives.
Not even a brief downpour around 6:15 a.m. dampened the spirits of freshmen and their families.
Members of GCU’s baseball team, under first-year coach Steve Bieser, were part of the Welcome Crew, helping incoming freshmen move in.
Romero was assisted by his parents and LaRowe, a business management major with a Christian ministry minor. The excitement of moving onto campus alongside fellow freshmen at The Grove residence halls overshadowed any doubts about attending a college nearly 2,000 miles from his hometown of about 8,000 residents.
“I come from a small town that is very simplistic,” Romero said. “You can find it in a lot of places, and one of the schools I considered had the same (Worship Arts) degree but felt too much like home. I needed something new and exciting, and just something that will change my perspective on things instead of feeling, like, at home.”
Romero’s Discover GCU trip, capped by a stop to see what the Worship Arts program is all about, reinforced his decision to attend GCU.
“The equipment was crazy,” Romero said. “Just walking in and seeing all the guitars hanging from the roof, and then seeing the recording booth and having their own recording studios that you can rent out was just amazing.”
LaRowe said many students from her uncle’s band program have enrolled at GCU, and that raised her curiosity as a high school senior looking to attend a private college.
“I knew it was really far, but I figured I’d check it out,” said LaRowe, a life leader at Saguaro Hall. “I just fell in love with the campus. And in the months leading up to decision time, God just made it so obvious that I should be here, and I couldn't say no to Him. Honestly, I just had so much peace about it.”
Tristan Luna was ready to adjust to the GCU campus from his hometown of Desert Hot Springs, California, with a population of about 32,000, which is only 8,000 larger than GCU’s on-campus enrollment.
“I wanted to (grow) my faith and (relationship with) Jesus, and I wanted to be able to get out of my comfort zone, especially because I'm going try to play baseball here,” said Luna, who plans to major in early childhood special education.
While standing in front of a suitcase, Vincent Luna felt his son was in good hands.
“It feels like a home,” Luna said. “Everybody's been really nice. I'm kind of afraid, but I'm a single parent and trying to keep my kid in a basket. But I think he’ll be fine. And luckily, he's got great mentors that have helped him get here.”
One of those mentors was Desert Hot Springs High School Principal Omar Tinoco, who helped Luna move after checking in with one of his former students Sunday at Arizona State.
“It's one thing to have them for four years and see them go through all their classes and get to the point to graduate,” said Tinoco, who faked a cough to prove he was too sick to attend to his principal duties. “But a lot of times we don't get to see the next step in their journey.”
Stacie Oldham praised GCU for preparing her daughter, Brooke, for her next academic step from Fresno, California.
“It’s exciting and a little surreal, but I'm just excited for her,” Oldham said. “She's going to do great. (GCU) has done a great job getting us ready.”
Brooke Oldham learned of GCU through her brother’s fiancée and became heavily invested after learning about the elementary education program and the need for teachers.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a while,” Brooke said.
Student Body President Judah Floyd, the third of four siblings to attend GCU, knows the importance of making everyone feel a part of the Lopes family.
“I think that starts on day one,” said Floyd, who praised his sisters for preparing him as an incoming freshman, and he did the same for younger brother Josiah and other incoming students as a resident assistant at Grove Hall.
We're going to make sure you have a flawless experience all the way through because that's who we are. Our culture is that everyone is part of our family.”
Floyd recalled moving into Juniper Hall as a freshman and having his residence advisor carry his refrigerator to his room. “I was immediately invested in the culture that they were building.”
GCU President Brian Mueller smiled while observing the smooth process in which freshmen checked in at Acacia Hall and felt encouraged by the growth of students from various parts of the country, including Romero and LaRowe from North Carolina.
“We'll probably have a little group of people now from that area of the country start to come know about GCU and come here,” Mueller said. “There's different pockets of the country where all of a sudden somebody comes and they have a great experience, and then it starts to grow.”
GCU expects to attract a record 141,000 students during the 2026-27 academic year, continuing a period of remarkable growth as the largest Christian university in the country and a major provider of talent to Arizona and the national workforce.
Stabilizing tuition for 18 consecutive years, combined with the addition of the College of Law and the College of Construction and Industrial Technologies, can only strengthen GCU’s brand, Mueller said.
“It's going to be one of the largest law schools in the country,” Mueller added. “It's going to be taught from a Christian worldview perspective, which is appropriate because the legal system that comes out of the Old and New Testament and those traditions, and so we're excited about that.
“And then we have another new college, the College of Construction and Industrial Technology. There's a severe shortage of construction professionals in our country today. It's a real threat to the growth of the economy, and so we expect attendance could be up to 10,000 kids in that college, preparing to rebuild the country and to continue to build the people.”
Andrew Rasoe was relaxed as he reminisced about moving into Juniper Hall as a freshman before serving his next three years as an RA.
“It was just an incredible time just to see everyone being joyful and super energetic, and that's just kind of how the memories of every single year have been,” said Rasoe, a biology major with an emphasis in pre-medicine.
“The most stressful time is definitely during move-in, and the parents just want the best for their kid when they're moving in, and we want the students to have the best possible experience. And I think that we, as the building of Acacia, can do that today.”
GCU News senior writer Mark Gonzales can be reached at [email protected]
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