Outreach

Women can be leaders too, if they set their mind to it. That is why Miss Arizona and Honors College Alumna Jacqueline Thomas’ LLC and blog Lady Leaders partnered with GCU’s Honors college to host the Empowering Female Leaders Panel. Thomas brought several strong GCU women in leadership positions, such as the College of Nursing and Health Care professions Dean Dr. Lisa Smith, Executive Vice President of GCU Sarah Boeder and Vice President of Faculty Operations Kelly Palese, to help empower young women on campus to unlock their leadership potential. “Lady Leaders is committed to providing tangible resources, tools and mentors for women,” Thomas said. “Now that I have been blessed with this network and resources, I want to be able to give it back. That’s the soul purpose for these lady leader panels.”

Dr. Ryan Melillo, who teaches anatomy and physiology at GCU, wanted to make sure his son, Evan, was in an environment where the Christian worldview was prominent in his education. So his family chose to move Evan to a private Christian school — a choice being supported by GCU and GCE employee-giving program Allocate to Elevate. Allocate to Elevate just launched its eighth year this month with a new name — it was previously called Donate to Elevate — and a new pledge goal of $3.2 million.

“I really do believe the big gap between engineers – male and female – is that girls are told it’s a boy’s job,” said sophomore psychology major Madi Abercrombie, a member of the GCU Robotics Club, at Saturday’s Girl Powered STEM Workshop. “We’re empowering girls at a younger age and helping them to have confidence.” About 40 fourth through eighth grade girls spent the morning programming robots, making a slime-like non-Newtonian fluid called gooey gak and making simple battery-powered motors. They also listened to a panel of women, including GCU Associate Dean of Engineering Dr. Janet Brelin-Fornari, speak about their careers in STEM fields. The workshop was a collaboration between the Robotics Club and K12 Educational Development, as well as VEX Robotics and the Robotics Education Competition Foundation.

Eight-year-old Shiann Sloan has been through a lot in her young life. She was born with a birth defect in which organs from her abdomen were formed outside her body, she has chronic lung disease and has a hole in her heart. She also is partially deaf and so music therapy has become a big part of her life. Shiann got the surprise of her life when she had the chance to meet Daigle at her recent concert at GCU Arena, thanks to GCU alumna Kelly Schindler and her work with HopeKids Arizona.

There was no shortage of Lope pride circulating around Phoenix on Saturday as the Honors College participated in its third annual service day. More than 150 Honors students helped multiple nonprofit organizations, including 110 at third annual Phoenix Famtastical Festival. “I’m very surprised how many people came out today,” Honors student Kendall Smith said. “… I love that vibe that GCU Honors gives off.”

Beth Guckenberger said she was ill-prepared for her life in missional work and found herself in over her head many times. But she shows up, with her pink Bible, her heart and her mind and knows that God will show up for her, too. “Do you know how many times I’ve been in over my head? Every day,” she told students at Chapel. ” … But here’s what happens. When you get into God’s business, and you get in over your head and you cry out to him, he’ll say, ‘Hey, whatever it is you’re asking of me, I’m already in agreement of it.” Her talk came just before Monday night’s mission fair at GCU Arena and tonight’s The Gathering, where several mission groups will conduct break-out sessions. Her talk also came at a time when the Worship Team was celebrating something of their own — the release of the new Canyon Worship album.

Alicia Burns, Director of Operations for Grand Canyon Education, is a frequent GCU volunteer. Commencement is her favorite, but she also loves Welcome Week, Habitat for Humanity and any other community outreach.

God’s love can be found anywhere, despite things like language barriers and difficult sites, that was the take away from multiple mission trips GCU students went on this summer. Students traveled all over the world to help serve and share their love for the lord with communities in need. “God is the same everywhere, and He doesn’t change whether you’re in the United States or in different countries,” junior Karli Burns said about her mission trip to Costa Rica. “It was worth it because it just showed me how much God’s love is universal.”

It was after a rash of drownings in the early 2000s that GCU basketball great Ray Arvizu and the late Robert Ortiz came up with an idea to organize Niños Seguros, with the focus being on keeping children safe. That back-to-school and safety fair, now in its 15th year, returned to GCU on Saturday. About 1,500 to 2,000 west Phoenix students picked up backpacks and school supplies, received basic health screenings, including from the University’s nursing students and staff, and joined in the community celebration that also featured vocalists and ballet folklórico dancers. “We have great Hispanic families and great entrepreneurs. We’re proud of our Hispanic heritage. We’re proud of our schools. … At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make it better,” Arvizu said of the community-building and culture-rich event.

Through four different trips this summer, 79 Honors College students benefited from some eye-opening experiences in 13 different countries in Europe, Central America and Southeast Asia. “You can see that these students start to think on a global perspective,” Program Manager Dennis Williams said. “They start to think about the world as a whole and start to think about ways that, whatever it is that they do, how they can have an impact in their local community in whatever way, in our nation but even globally.”