Outreach

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 […]

About 200 student, faculty and staff volunteers turned out on a glorious spring day to spruce up apartments and homes in the Canyon Corridor neighborhood, as part of GCU’s Serve the City project. By Doug Carroll Communications Staff How quickly could you paint the exterior of a house? A weekend? A day? Would you believe … three hours? Armed with rollers, brushes and big buckets of paint, a GCU team of 20 volunteers under the leadership of Sarah Clayton launched into attack mode on Saturday morning, March 20, at a home in the 3500 block of West Campbell Avenue. The task also involved some tree trimming and yard cleanup. Before noon, the workers were done and heading back to campus for sandwiches. “The best part is serving our community, but it’s also a chance to hang out with students and work as a team,” said Clayton, the resident director of the North Rim Apartments. For Serve the City, purple-shirted volunteers were divided into seven teams to tackle projects across the Canyon Corridor neighborhood. Work was done at the Willow Springs apartment complex and also at six homes in the community. Five of the homes received a fresh coat of paint, […]

A team from GCU will participate in the annual Bike MS event hosted by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) Arizona Chapter. Bike MS 2010 is scheduled for March 27 and 28 in Florence, Ariz. The goal is to raise funds toward finding a cure for MS. The members of this year’s GCU for Joy team include Eric Liu, Office of Assessment; Brian McGuire, Office of Institutional Research; Kevin Thrasher, Center for Learning Advancement; team captain Jim Helfers, College of Liberal Arts; and Lance Hinderleider, COE Enrollment. There’s room for more to join the team. Participation requires a $75 registration fee and at least $250 in donations. Bike MS is a two-day event. Cyclists can ride on either day or both, and they can choose any distance from 30 to 160 miles over the two days. Helfers, a cycling enthusiast, became involved with the event after learning his sister had been diagnosed with MS. “I believe that this is an important event for GCU, since there are members of the organization who are afflicted with the disease, as well as many of us who have family members who suffer from it,” Helfers says on a fundraising page for the event. […]

By Doug Carroll Communications Staff Jean Marseille of Phoenix has seen plenty in his work as an intensive-care nurse at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital. But nothing prepared him for the devastation he witnessed on a weeklong relief trip to his native Haiti in the wake of the January 12 earthquake. Marseille, whose wife, Alicia, is a GCU Enrollment Manager, was on a plane to the Dominican Republic only days after the earthquake hit. From there, he bused into Port-au-Prince, where the Rev. Rick Frechette, a Roman Catholic priest, runs the free St. Damien Pediatric Hospital and a nearby orphanage. “When I got there, it was like nothing I had seen before,” says Marseille, 37, who grew up in the same orphanage. “All the buildings were damaged, and people had no place to go. I saw so many injured. There were things they couldn’t show on TV.” Marseille got busy, helping a team of a dozen volunteer doctors who saw more than 700 patients a day and worked around the clock with little rest. To support relief efforts coordinated by Frechette in Haiti, more than $25,000 was raised by GCU employees, students, alumni and friends — a sum that was matched […]

As summer approaches and students prepare to return home, get jobs or do whatever it is that college students do in the summer, several GCU students will put their personal ambitions on hold and commit themselves to a mission. The following students have signed up for mission opportunities in Kenya, the Dominican Republic and Germany.  Beth Nowatzki Junior – Nursing Ever since I served in Kenya in June 2008, God has placed a huge desire in my heart to help His children in need, especially in a medical sense. Adequate medical care and disease education are far too limited to people in Third World countries. I am a nursing student, so I feel it’s important to reach out to these people, provide the best care possible and equip them with the tools and resources to stay healthy. And while providing this much-needed care, people can be introduced to the ultimate healer, Jesus Christ. I am thrilled to be used by God and to be able to share His love with those in the Dominican Republic this summer. Our team will care for their physical and spiritual wounds.      Karissa Kelsey Junior – Athletic Training My inspiration for this trip began while […]