Alumni

Corrine Martinez Santanelli was amazed that she was chosen to be the student speaker at Fall Commencement. Listen to her talk, and you shouldn’t be surprised at all. She told the story of an encounter with God convinced to leave behind a 10-year job in a strip club and seek a new life that has resulted in ministry, marriage and a degree from GCU. “If you’re ever feeling not smart enough, not popular enough, not loved enough, whatever you think you’re not enough of, remember that God is true to His word,” she urged her audience.

Selecting Greta Sugai as this semester’s guest residency artist was a match made in heaven for Dance Director Bekki Price. GCU students worked with and learned from Sugai last week as she taught them the choreography for her piece in this winter’s “Emerge” Dance Concert. “With the guest artist residencies, I always like to add to what our program already has. Bringing in artists from all over the country who have worked all over the world and have different backgrounds and different experiences really helps open the students’ eyes up to the different possibilities that they have.” Price said.

The second of seven makeup Commencement ceremonies Monday proved once again that graduates will travel long distances to celebrate earning their degree. “I just felt that desire to walk across the stage,” said Anthony Jackson Jr., who came all the way from New Orleans. “I wanted to feel that same intensity that the locals feel. I just had to do it.”

An expanded list of Lopes on the Road events highlights the Alumni Relations calendar for the 2021-22 academic year. From Seattle to Texas, from Chicago to the East Coast down to Miami, alumni will be able to gather. Another day to mark on the calendar is the Day of Giving on Oct. 21.

When Desiree Ortiz put her education on hold 16 years ago, all she could think about was caring for her daughter, who was born with heart disease. Now, Ortiz finds herself in a position that she never imagined she’d actually be in — celebrating her graduation from her undergraduate sociology program. Ortiz is one of thousands of graduates returning to campus in the coming months to participate in makeup in-person Commencement ceremonies.

Reading the news from Afghanistan in the past month was enough to bring GCU nursing alumna and former Air Force critical care nurse Christine Collins to tears. The children and women she helped were foremost on her mind. But reflecting on the positive and acknowledging her blessings has helped the mother of three cope. “I would always tell people that we’re just ordinary, plain people doing some extraordinary work on a daily basis,” she said.

Chris Goodson’s master’s program in Organizational Leadership and Entrepreneurship at GCU inspired her to pursue an entrepreneurial — and life-changing — goal in the Kansas town where she lives. The 2019 graduate used her knowledge as a real estate appraiser to arrange construction of 10 cottages for the homeless. “I really believe this is God’s project. He’s the one moving this forward,” she said.

Three recent Theatre Education graduates from the College of Fine Arts and Production — Katie Norton, Isabel Potter and Daniel Hernandez — have found that this is a great time to make their mark on the field by teaching in middle school or high school. All three are applying the student-focused emphasis they learned in COFAP. “My goal and the reason why I went into teaching theatre is to inspire the next generation to go big,” Hernandez said.

Foster care, homelessness, dyslexia — you name it and Dr. Danisha Keating lived it. After constantly being told that she was a statistic who wouldn’t amount to anything past high school, Keating successfully proved her naysayers wrong by not only earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees but also a doctorate. “If it wasn’t for GCU’s doctoral program and the way that it’s structured, I would not have been able to know where to start,” she said. “I don’t think I would have been successful anywhere else.”

The bond between a doctoral learner and their dissertation chair is one like no other. This was especially true for Dr. Laurica Yancey, who recently completed her doctoral program. Throughout her program, Yancey had to take on caretaking responsibilities for both of her parent, all while working full-time and going to school. When things got challenging and she was on the verge of calling it quits, her dissertation chair Dr. Theodus Luckett helped motivate and support her through out the remainder of the program. “I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for Dr. Luckett,” Yancey said. “He was an example in terms of I’m paying it forward to other people because of what he’s done for me.”