Colleges

Michael Potter, Assistant Professor in the Colangelo College of Business, focuses on all students when he teaches, not just the ones majoring in accounting. He aims to make it relatable by putting it in “understandable English that the students can better grasp.” When he’s not teaching, he’s exploring the glories of duct tape, Jack Reacher and a competitive card game called “Magic: The Gathering.”

GCU has partnered with Phoenix Rescue Mission in many ways over the years, from helping the nonprofit’s restaurant, Mission Possible Cafe, get off the ground, to the organization being a clinical rotation site for the University’s prelicensure nursing students, to GCU offering scholarships to those who have gone through the Rescue Mission’s Transformations Recovery Program. The latest partnership is the Lope Shop’s Give Back Get Back campaign, in which clothing, shoes and other items will be donated to the nonprofit. GCU’s work with Phoenix Rescue Mission was featured in the Community Relations Department’s latest Town Hall Informational.

College is all about learning experiences, and the Honors STEMists club took learning to the next level when its members built two wheelchairs and donated them to the Neighborhood Christian Clinic. Best of all, the Honors College students got to meet the family of a recipient. “It was just a very raw moment,” said one of the students, Abby Abraham. “They just kept saying, ‘You don’t understand how much this means to us.’”

Dr. Rachel Velarde made her return to singing last weekend at the Cal-Western Regional Conference of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. In her recorded performance, Velarde highlighted the classical music of several diverse women. “This is a women’s composer recital and deliberately programmed with people of color and also very contemporary music,” she said.

Dr. Patricia D’Urso of the College of Doctoral Studies is all about the data. “If you have collected valid and reliable data, it is hard to argue with the numbers,” she likes to say. But she also has a number of other interests, some of them extremely challenging. Find out the language she so desperately wants to learn.

Dr. Julia Langdal-Sittu teaches psychology in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and has fun doing so. She makes it interesting and relatable for students by sharing her love of superheroes and having them do interesting exercises, such as the one that had her standing on a chair in GCBC and reciting a speech from “The Lord of the Rings” to the crowded room. And there’s more: She and her husband go on an annual excursion that is above and beyond, and she gets her kicks out of an aggressive exercise that she finds “exhilarating.”

One in four Arizona classrooms need a teacher, and the pandemic made it worse. GCU has launched an initiative to help certify more teachers, called Canyon L.E.A.P. to Teach, an alternative route to licensure. The program kicked off with hits first cohort in late December and already is having success.

GCU’s nursing students continued their successful run on a daunting national licensure examination despite the barriers that COVID presented. The University’s prelicensure nursing students ended the year strong, achieving an impressive 96.17% pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), the test all nursing students must pass before being able to practice as a registered nurse. Much of that academic success can be attributed to the nursing faculty and the changes they made to wrap their arms around their students.

Dr. Nicholas Markette was a successful businessman but wanted something more than profit margins. He turned to education and revels in his role as a Senior Doctoral Adjunct Supervisor in the College of Doctoral Studies. He treasures being able to help learners, even after they graduate, and he also has found value in his role as the head of the largest youth sports organization in the state.

It’s hard to say which Julia Kiefer loves more — living in North Rim Apartments or spending most of her days in the Colangelo College of Business Building. But there’s no debating that the finance and economics major’s dedication to learning and leadership has led to the prestigious internship she earned with The Vanguard Group. “She’s one of our top, top students,” CCOB instructor Mark Jacobson said.