Campus Life

GCU’s first academic year in its return to nonprofit status was filled with so many important stories, picking just 10 was a challenging exercise for the GCU Today staff. Here’s how we voted, with links to the many stories that are worth revisiting.

The entertainment just keeps building for employees in the Student Life and College of Humanities and Social Sciences buildings — they get to watch the new Student Advising Services building go up next door. The process has fascinated people so much, GCU Today decided to explain in more detail what they’re watching.

The clock struck midnight a bit early for the GCU varsity Overwatch team in its Cinderella run at the ESPN Collegiate Esports Championship this weekend in Houston. The team, the underdog of the tournament, beat No. 2-seeded University of California, Irvine, in a shocking win to make it to the ESPN event. But GCU lost in its first match in Houston, against Orange Coast College, in a close game that many said was the most exciting of the tournament. “No one expected us to be here. But we were. … We still lost, but we did give it our best, and it did show on stage,” said team member Oscar Esquer.

GCU’s Varsity Overwatch Team never expected to topple one of the top-seeded teams in their esports Tespa league, but that’s exactly what the team did, beating No. 2-ranked University of California at Irvine. Now the team, which ESPN calls the underdogs of the Overwatch games in the midst of a “Cinderella run,” is in Houston playing in the most high-profile tournament ever for GCU esports, the ESPN Collegiate Esports Championship.

By the time computer programming majors graduate from GCU, they’ll do so with a multitude of apps in their arsenal. They start building their first web applications the first semester they’re here and don’t stop until their yearlong senior capstone project. Not only that, but they learn not just the standard two computer languages, instead delving into three primary computer programming languages. Few colleges, if any, break computer programming into its own discipline, separate from computer science; GCU does. Said Computer Programming Faculty Lead Mark Reha, “Here we have a nugget right in the palm of our hand because there’s no programs that I’m aware of — bachelor programs — in the entire United States that has this focus.”

GCU students and staff will fan out across the globe again this summer on mission trips, but several already have taken place. One of them was this spring, when 14 students went to the Dominican Republic to conduct Bible studies, serve special needs children and reach out to people on the streets and in prison. Students who hardly knew each other before the trip ended up growing close by the end of the week. Colton Davis, one of the trip leaders, said it showed him “how to actually love people the way that we’re supposed to love as believers.”

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau The Thursday afternoon ceremony for Grand Canyon University spring commencement featured 824 graduates, from the College of Education and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. To watch the replay, click here.  

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau The Thursday morning ceremony of spring commencement at Grand Canyon University featured 828 graduates, from the Colangelo College of Business and the College of Fine Arts and Production. To watch the entire ceremony, click here.  

It’s a day of celebration on campus, but spring commencement 2019 is about more than just conferring degrees on worthy graduates. It also is another reminder of the sense of community that fills the campus. “One of the things that I’ve appreciated the most about that growth is just seeing how the culture of who we are has remained intact,” ASGCU President Noah Wolfe said.

Today’s My LopeLife features Matthew Penskaw’s foray into triathlons during his senior year at GCU. He never thought he would do something like this, but joining the GCU Triathlon team was one of the highlights of his final months on campus.