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How does GCU make a private Christian education accessable and affordable for it’s students? That is the question that was answered at this year’s Cracking the Code CCSC Leadership Forum for Leaders within the K-12 Christian education level. “It was a great event. It was a remarkable group of leaders,” said Ryan Bredow, Assistant Vice President of K12 Educational Development. “We invited them to a conversation. The conversation was built around a concept that we refer to as cracking the code.”

There’s nothing quite like sharing your passion with others, and that’s exactly what Doctoral Learner Eugene Frimpong did as he returned to his alma mater in Ghana West Africa to give a seminar. He hoped to preach and excite his audience with the topic of data analytics.

Students continue to face suicide and bullying every day around the country. Through the Speak Up, Stand Up, Save a Life Conference on Tuesday at GCU Arena, Dr. Lily Matos DeBlieux and Gina Godbehere hope to create awareness of these social issues and how to prevent them.

Run to Fight Children’s Cancer looks a little different this year — the Children’s Cancer Network signature event is moving from the GCU campus to Salt River Fields in Scottsdale. But what remains the same is the University’s continued partnership with CCN, which continues to evolve as that relationship further aligns with GCU’s mission. Another aspect that remains the same is Run to Fight Night at the men’s basketball game Saturday night at GCU Arena, when 200-300 cancer-fighting superhero families will be celebrated.

Every year, we get a few heartwarming stories that make you shake your head when you realize what people do to make the world a better place for their families and their communities. GCU Today picked 10 from the last year that stood out in our minds. Here’s an opportunity to catch up on the ones you missed … or maybe enjoy them again.

Christmas is the season of giving, not getting, and give is exactly what GCU’s Army ROTC cadets did earlier this month by serving breakfast to the homeless and helping create Christmas cards for military personnel overseas for the holidays. “Me, as the leader of all these cadets, I really got to see the service side of my cadets, and I was really proud of them, their humility and everything,” said Cadet Sam Innanen, task force commander.

There was no shortage of Christmas cheer last week for the residents of the Arizona Training Program in Coolidge as well as the students of Sierra Academy of Scottsdale, as GCU’s Critical Mass used their voices to serve students and adults with special needs. Critical Mass member Sam Brown, whose older brother, Hunter, is a student at the Sierra Academy of Scottsdale, says it brought a lot of smiles to the faces of his brother and his classmates. “It was honestly such a beautiful experience seeing all these children, who are special needs, and just how happy they were,” he said.

College of Fine Arts and Production Professor Alison King always had an interest in writing, and when the brand 180 Degree Design + Build asked her to help them make their dreams of making a book a reality, King didn’t hesitate to give it a shot. “Making Architecture,” King’s collaboration with the architecture brand was recently self published and is being carried at Changing Hands bookstore.

There was no shortage of Christmas spirit at Andre’s House of Hospitality when Tim Haas and a group of GCU clarinet students and alumni performed a set of Christmas music for the homeless while they ate dinner Sunday evening. “When you get students that do these kinds of things, nothing’s better than that,” Haas said. “They touched people’s lives on Sunday night, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

GCU baseball players didn’t hesitate delaying their trips home for the holidays so they could help St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance on Super Saturday. The team spent six hours at the Moon Valley Safeway collecting turkeys, nonperishable food and cash donations for the nonprofit organization, which expects more than 12,000 families to stop by today, Tuesday and Wednesday to pick up turkeys and other Thanksgiving meal items. “I could have left Thursday. But I had this; this is important,” said pitcher Cole Hoskins, who was planning to hit the road after his volunteer shift for a five-hour drive back home to Anaheim, Calif., for the holiday. The team collected more than $2,080 and 81 turkeys for SMFBA.