Colleges

Gone are the days of only having the option of earning the traditional bachelor’s degree in English or bachelor’s degree in history. Administrators want to make sure the University’s degrees lead to getting a job. So they’ve consulted with experts in the field and have reshaped many of GCU’s degree offerings, which are now “career-focused,” from a bachelor’s degree in history with an emphasis in public history, for example, to a bachelor’s degree in English with an emphasis in professional writing.

Construction is a staple of summer at Grand Canyon University, but this year it’s even more noticeable. There’s a long list of projects, many of them major additions. Here’s everything you need to know.

There are families that are heavily involved in Grand Canyon University, but the Knotts family has taken it to the next level. Three of Bill and Jenny Knotts’ four children are GCU graduates, and the fourth is a current student.

“I wanted to pay it back,” GCU Enrollment supervisor Michael Rodriguez said at the GCU Volunteer Fair on Wednesday at the 27th Avenue office building as he signed up at the Big Brothers Big Sisters booth. Rodriguez himself was paired with a Big Brother when he was a kid. BBBS was just one of the 20 GCU-supported nonprofits employees were able to connect with at the fair, an event GCU Community Outreach Manager Debbie Accomazzo calls a “matchmaking opportunity.”

Not many college students get to perform in a venue as big as the 7,000-capacity Grand Canyon University Arena. But that’s not the only boon of performing with the University’s three eight-member Worship Team bands. The student musicians and vocalists also refine their craft, connect with students during Chapel and The Gathering, become family with the close-knit group of Worship Team musicians and, of course, inspire those who listen with messages of faith.

Jose Monarrez is a Students Inspiring Students scholarship recipient. He also came out of the Murphy Elementary School District. So when Grand Canyon University needed learning advocates (LEADs) to help Murphy students, Monarrez was more than happy to do so. He writes about his experience in My LopeLife, reprinted from the April issue of GCU Magazine.

If you didn’t know what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was, you did after attending the Canyon Inquiry Project Showcase of Learning, which featured more than 80 students from 10 high schools presenting their projects — everything from the garbage patch to Sylvia Plath, the ways people have protested through the years, the dark side of social media and school mass shootings in America, to name a few. The event was the culmination of the eight-month project, in which teachers came to the GCU campus to immerse themselves in inquiry learning.

Alberta May flew into Phoenix to visit the campus during a Destination GCU event but ended up doing much more than that. She also used her skills as a nurse to help out in, not one, but two medical situations that arose on the flight. May, who is from Marshall, Texas, is furthering her education as an online student, hoping to earn her bachelor’s degree in nursing.

GCU’s Robotics Club left Louisville’s Kentucky Exposition Center to decompress after failing to advance to the final matches of the VEX Robotics World Finals — an international event featuring about 1,100 teams from middle-school to collegiate levels. But then they heard they left a little early — the team ended up winning the Judges Award, given to a team who the judges think are deserving of special recognition.

This week’s edition of Antelope Intros features a program manager and alumna who turned a study-abroad program into an adventure and a university counselor who likes to venture to lots of sports events.