College of Education

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.

“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.”

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.

Emily Pottinger and Dr. Meredith Critchfield of the College of Education have started a new podcast, “Top of the Class,” that’s designed to inspire teachers and raise up the profession in a variety of ways. “Let’s talk about ‘How do we do it best?’” Critchfield said. “What’s more inspiring than THAT?”

Photos by David Kadlubowski and Travis Neely GCU News Bureau Online students from the College of Education participated in commencement Saturday afternoon at Grand Canyon University Arena.   

Time after time over three days of commencement, Grand Canyon University volunteers sought to make the experience special for the graduates. One of the ways they do it is the “tunnel walk” after each ceremony — applauding the grads as they walk out of the Arena after the ceremony. It was just one of many memorable moments.

Photos by Slaven Gujic and Travis Neely GCU News Bureau Online students from the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, the College of Education, the Colangelo College of Business and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences received their diplomas at commencement Friday night at Grand Canyon University Arena. To view the ceremony, click here.   

Inspired by her teachers as she was enduring some trials and tribulations during childhood, Kassandra Gutierrez fell in love with doing that for a living. “I want to be in education forever,” said Gutierrez, who delivered the student address at commencement Thursday evening.

“We’re here tonight to hopefully, not only mourn together and remember together, but to celebrate their lives together,” Dr. Tim Griffin, Dean of Students, said at Tuesday night’s Celebration of Life ceremony. The GCU community honored the lives of Christian Applegate, Roy Pietrek, Keisha Nicole Oyola Perales, Dr. Tiffany Mealman and Taylor White.

Alpha Epsilon Gamma, GCU’s chapter of Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education held its spring 2018 induction ceremony on Wednesday. This year, two educators were awarded the Lopes for Literacy Award for their outstanding practice of incorporating culturally inclusive practices in their teaching: GCU alumna and the 2016 AZ Educational Foundation’s Teacher of the Year, Christine Marsh; and Dr. Ben Vilkas, a GCU online faculty chair and adjunct instructor. Altogether 18 traditional and non-traditional students were inducted. Since 2009, the chapter has inducted over 1,000 members into the honor society. Dr. LaPrade provided the keynote address.