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COVID-19 forced the postponement of the spring induction ceremony for GCU’s Eta Chi chapter in Delta Mu Delta, the business honor society. But that didn’t stop the students and advisors from coming up with something even better: The virtual ceremony Friday attracted so many inductees, it looks like a staple for the future.

Ian Youngblood, a former GCU rugby player and nurse in the Canyon Health and Wellness Clinic, volunteered to work in New York when the pandemic hit. Near the end of his stay, he was struck down — not by COVID-19, but by a brain cancer with a slim survival rate. “At 29 years old, nobody expects to get news like this,” he said. But he’s determined to fight it.

When she started her undergraduate career in the College of Fine Arts and Production, Rachel Schumacher just loved to act. Now, four years and exposure to the different areas within theatre later, Schumacher has accepted a full-ride scholarship in lighting design from the University of Connecticut and plans to begin this fall.

GCU alumnus Joey Hermosillo powered through like he usually does. He took a few Ibuprofen for a headache, then headed to Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix, where he’s a charge nurse in the Trauma/Surgical Intensive Care Unit. But by the middle of his shift, he didn’t quite feel like himself and, a few days later, he found out he tested positive for COVID-19. All he could think of was getting back to work so he could continue to do what he does best — help his patients.

GCU’s effort to make personal protective equipment (PPE) has become a key task for Public Safety and University Event Services, whose employees have turned the operation from five days a week to 24/7. The boost in production enabled the University to make sizable donations to several community outlets.

It wasn’t a complete shock to GCU Justice Studies students this summer when racial tensions flared regarding police officer actions across the country. They had created plans to help alleviate those issues in their Community Based Strategic Planning class. More importantly, they provided solutions.

July 4 is the day Americans celebrate the nation’s independence. But how that date emerged and how we have celebrated it through the years are a series of surprises revealed by Dr. David Dean, Assistant Professor of History at GCU. He wrote a compelling summary of the holiday for GCU Today with historical peculiarities, such as what two presidents died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Mental health counseling and religious faith haven’t always been on the same page. Today, that is changing. Dr. Laurie Tone, adjunct counseling instructor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, led a webinar Thursday that described how the integration of faith and counseling can give people hope, especially in these uncertain times.

A global pandemic didn’t stop the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions from helping its graduate students — all working nurses — move one step closer to completing their master’s degrees. The college worked hard to make the three-day summer residencies for Family Nurse Practitioner and Acute Care Nurse Practitioner as COVID-19-safe as possible. Despite the current health climate, “Most of the students said, ‘I’ll still be there,'” said Stephanie Herrick Kays, Graduate Simulation Coordinator.

Beakers, goggles and graduated cylinders have long made their homes in countless chemistry labs. But not this summer, at least not in Dr. Kimberly Horsley’s introductory chemistry class. She wanted to find out if some lab activities could be done at home, and COVID-19 presented a unique opportunity to test the at-home-lab-experiment waters. Her CHM-113 students received lab kits in the mail, assembled by the College of Science, Engineering and Technology’s lab team, and the remote chemistry opportunity was on.