Colangelo College of Business

Ripped jeans and flip flops in class? Not for Adrianna Romero. The business administration major considers dressing in a businesslike fashion a uniform part of her determination to succeed at GCU and in life. That attitude has not only helped her be a strong leader on campus; this summer, she will take part in a hard-to-attain internship program with Charles Schwab. But it’s interesting to see how she reached this point.

The graduation of the class of 2020 was more than a year in the making, but the pandemic-interrupted celebration became a reunion of friends who hadn’t seen each other for months. “Seeing a lot of people brings up a lot of memories of school and friend groups and different years and different people along the way,” said graduate Ethan Collins.

Photos by Ralph Freso GCU News Bureau The final ceremony of Spring Commencement brought back to campus spring 2020 graduates whose ceremonies had to be canceled last year because of the pandemic. The student speaker was Samuel Yonan, the 2019-20 president of the Associated Students of Grand Canyon University.  

Photos by Ralph Freso GCU News Bureau Graduates of the Colangelo College of Business and the College of Fine Arts and Production were honored Monday afternoon at GCU Arena during Spring Commencement. Kennedy Adams, who received her Bachelor of Arts in Advertising and Graphic Design, was the student speaker.  

Jacob Norgord found an inventive way to make his way into the sense of community on the GCU campus: He started a club. The Music Curation and Creation Club resulted from his willingness to reach out to another student with a similar interest, and it proved to be the sparkplug for an experience that changed how he feels about education. “I feel like GCU is the first time I’ve taken pride in something I’ve been a part of, school-wise,” said Norgord, who graduated Monday with his finance degree.

There was no shortage of inspirational redemption stories at Wednesday’s Phoenix Rescue Mission Signing Event as three of four scholarship recipients signed their letter of intent to attend the University in the fall. The recipients, who have completed the nonprofit’s Recovery Program, include Amanda Jaramillo, Jacqueline Mix, Brian Farretta and GCU 2019 alum Jesse Dalla Riva. “These people have had some significant challenges and they’ve taken the first step now, they’ve gone through the Phoenix Rescue Mission Program, they’ve come out of it successfully and they’ve started their new life,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. “For us to be able to offer them this opportunity to take their life now to a whole new level is a blessing.”

It’s hard to tell who got more out of this week’s Colangelo College of Business event that brought together nearly 300 students and eight members of the Sports Business Advisory Board. The students got a ton of questions answered, and the advisors got to see their possible future employees in action. “I was super impressed with the questions the students asked,” said one of those board members, Tami Nealy.

There were innovations aplenty as GCU dealt with the pandemic. But none of the required alterations were more visible than the cutouts in GCU Arena, where the basketball environment still was plenty loud enough to be noticed by visiting coaches. Reprinted from the February issue of GCU Magazine.

The timing was right for GCU student Ashley Courlivant. A side business that she had nurtured for four years took off during the pandemic, and Canyon Challenge judges saw the promise in her Heavenly & Gel company that sells customized press-on fingernails. The senior was awarded first place and $2,500 in the student entrepreneurial competition Friday night.

Dr. Dan Reis has an interesting mix of degrees: His master’s and doctorate are from seminaries, but his bachelor’s is in accounting from a state university. And the latter is what he teaches — he’s a Professor of Accounting in the Colangelo College of Business. But he has combined those very different areas of study into his writings on how business and free enterprise relate to biblical principles.