Alumni

Ivan Nechunaev, a former All-American swimmer, reached another milestone when he became the first GCU graduate to be accepted into The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. But what he plans to do with that prestigious degree is even more significant.

GCU’s Speech and Debate team will hit the tournament season running this year with 11 returnees and a new director, Michael Dvorak, who has coached GCU speech competitors for two years. Dvorak, a College of Humanities and Social Sciences faculty member, brings 10 years of expertise and a history of winning to GCU’s four-year-old team.

Michael ‘‘Big Dog’’ Abell wasn’t always blind, but he started losing his sight at age 9 as the result of a firecracker accident. It took nearly three decades for him to lose his vision completely. Heeding a calling from God, Abell completed his master’s degree in Professional Counseling from GCU this month and now leads the “Visionaries” support group for the visually impaired.

Grand Canyon University has established a new Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter for students, staff, faculty and alumni. The post, one of two on college campuses nationwide, is more than just a social club — the goal is to be involved in community projects.

GCU director and acting instructor Michael Kary is using his passion for theatre to fuel another passion – helping the needy. His new Samaritan Theatre, featuring College of Fine Arts and Production alumni and students, will donate all ticket sales from each production to a worthy cause. Its first performance, “The Servant and the Fool,” opens June 30 at Horizon High School in Scottsdale.

A new GCU mission was at work Friday when a group of GCU volunteers of the Alumni Phoenix Chapter signed up to make and distribute more than 100 pizzas at St. Vincent de Paul in two hours. “It’s a hard job, and it’s one we can’t do without our volunteers,” said Jessica Dickerson, the kitchen coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul.

Grand Canyon University alumni Bo Hall and Matt Cavallo both have had some challenges, some bigger than others — Cavallo, for example, is fighting multiple sclerosis. But both have come through their travails like champions. “Pity and self-wallowing can last forever if you let them,” Cavallo said.

Grand Canyon University employees typically have big hearts and a desire to help others, and the Volunteer with a Purpose Fair held Wednesday gave them a chance to do just that. More than 200 attended the event and signed up to support some of the charities that help the young, the poor and the ill. “We want to be a Kingdom of God, both as a University and individually, and as followers of Jesus Christ we want to help bring justice and hope,” said Jim Miller, GCU’s new corporate chaplain.

Cassandra Irving, a former Grand Canyon University basketball player who graduated in 1999, felt a calling to create sports camps for disadvantaged children in India and Ukraine, and she hopes to bring kids from the U.S. and Canada to those countries to build global relationships. “This is my way of giving back,” she said.

Jackie Schiller II, who was inducted into the Grand Canyon University Alumni Hall of Fame in February, is a former major in the Marine Corps, and nearly seven years ago he led the first raid of a ship controlled by Somali pirates. “There was definitely tension,” he said. “But the Marines — we are famous for going strong.”