Outreach

In five years, GCU’s Fall Festival has gotten big. How big? Big enough that it can accommodate a seemingly endless line for cotton candy and also the seemingly contradictory presence of a west Phoenix dental practice.

Did you ever dream of a day when GCU would defeat Arizona State University and the University of Arizona? GCU junior Lindsay Fernandez has made your dream come true. The 22-year-old from Peoria, a commuter student in the College of Health Sciences who aspires to be a cardiologist, is the new Fiesta Bowl Queen.

Lindsay Fernandez, a junior in GCU’s College of Health Sciences whose goal is to become a cardiologist, has made the finals of the competition for Fiesta Bowl queen.

Coaches and players from the GCU men’s basketball team kicked off the latest version of the ’Lopes for Literacy program on Tuesday, Sept. 28, with a visit to an enthusiastic classroom of third-graders at Washington Elementary School in northwest Phoenix.

The GCU missions program is set to expand with a new vision for Global Outreach. Jacob Page, GCU Global Outreach Director, is leading the charge to create a passion and awareness in students that will stay with them long after graduation.

Anthony Greco and Rob Bonora, two recent graduates of Montclair State University, acknowledge that they might be. They’re from Nutley, N.J., after all, but that’s not what has people wondering what’s up as they walk across the country in the blazing summer sun.

Thunder dispensed hugs, high-fives and fist bumps on Friday, June 11, in a first-ever visit to the Gompers Habilitation Center on North 27th Avenue in Phoenix, not far from the GCU campus. Dozens of developmentally disabled participants in the Gompers day program gave the Antelopes’ mascot a reception befitting a rock star. The hour-long visit was arranged by Mack Sloan, an instructor in the University’s College of Health Sciences, and Gompers’ executive director, Mark Jacoby. Jacoby said the facility puts on a Thanksgiving dinner and invites The Gorilla (Phoenix Suns), Big Red (Arizona Cardinals) and D. Baxter (Arizona Diamondbacks). He said Thunder is welcome to join the party. “Talk about a cyclone of chaos!” Jacoby said of the annual event. “They really enjoy the mascots coming in. They have a blast.” The Gompers program has almost 200 participants, ranging in age from 7 to 70. The range of disabilities is just as wide, Jacoby said. The three primary functions of the site are a private school, an adult program and a dental center. An additional 130 are based at the Gompers Vocational Center near 53rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road. Sloan, who has had a long-running relationship with the Arizona […]

Pictured left to right: Akysha Carter, Anna Whitbeck, Gilbert Parra and Jessica Terry Not so long ago, Gilbert Parra’s life wasn’t such a pretty picture. “I was out in the world, getting in trouble,” he recalls. “One day I had this feeling, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Parra was running with the wrong crowd, but he started going to church and was saved two years ago. Now 19, he will be a second-semester freshman at GCU and is using his artwork to make a powerful statement about his new direction in life. “I have a vision of how I want (my work) to look, and it just comes out,” he says. “Since I’ve been saved, it’s not about me anymore. It’s about the Lord.” Parra’s striking acrylic painting, titled “In God’s Hands,” won a $1,000 prize and a $500 Target gift card in the recent “Hearts in the Arts” competition sponsored by GCU. The contest was held in conjunction with the “Go Red” campaign against women’s heart disease. Parra says “In God’s Hands” was inspired by the story of his friend Jesi Smith, a cheerleader at GCU who was diagnosed with a heart disorder as a child and has undergone […]

Several Grand Canyon University students have taken the opportunity this summer to serve on overseas missions. Last week, missionary teams left for the Dominican Republic and Germany, with more teams leaving for Honduras and Guatemala soon. GCU Spiritual Development Director Joe Brooks is leading the team in Germany. Brooks created a blog at http://joebrooksmissions.wordpress.com/ to chronicle his team’s experience in Germany.  He has posted team introductions, photos, videos and more. GCU nursing student and missions coordinator Nicole Hill is part of the team in the Dominican Republic. She started a blog at http://nicolemissions.blogspot.com/ with photos and updates. Follow the missions’ blogs and check back here at Herd on Campus for updates on GCU students in the mission field this summer. Learn more about mission opportunities for both campus and online students at the Spiritual Life page at my.gcu.edu.

Three dozen military veterans talked baseball on Tuesday, April 27, with the GCU baseball team, and it’s hard to say who had the most fun. “I love this,” said junior Tyler Bair. “I want us to make this an every-year thing. This is awesome, and it’s the least we can do.” The team’s visit to the Arizona State Veteran Home in Phoenix was prompted by a letter to the Arizona Republic written by 66-year-old Steward Mathews, a former Army paratrooper who resides at the home. In the letter, published in late March, Mathews said he had been told by several major-league teams training in metropolitan Phoenix that they didn’t have time to make such a visit. Antelopes Coach Dave Stapleton saw the letter and went to work on setting up the outing. The players distributed white GCU Baseball T-shirts to the vets and exchanged some high-fives. More significantly, they worked a large room that had been set up for the occasion, actively engaging the residents in spirited conversation. “I read (the letter) and thought it was a perfect opportunity,” said Stapleton, a former major-leaguer whose brother served in Vietnam. “There’s a lot of (major-league) players who would do this. But […]