College of Education

Being a teacher these days encompasses so much more than leading a classroom lesson. They also are on the front line as community leaders who must support students in many other ways. They furthered their education on trauma-informed education Friday at the Making T.I.E.S. Conference in GCU Arena by learning how to help students who may be experiencing a crisis in their lives, from bullying to relationship struggles, a stressful home life, abuse and more. “Schools are seeing a tremendous need to be informed and ready to help kids of trauma as they enter the classroom,” said Corinne Araza, Director of K12 Development. It was the first conference on trauma-informed educational support organized by GCU.

The idea for the April issue of GCU Magazine actually was hatched in 2015, when we told the stories of some of the incoming students in the Class of 2019. Now they’re graduating, and it was time to see what their four years were like. The answer: It was a head-spinning time of growth, both on campus and for the students themselves. This issue also features the University’s first graduates from its engineering program and its Students Inspiring Students initiative, a look at how GCU teaches computer programming differently, the heartwarming story of Jesse Dalla Riva‘s transformation from drug addict to graduate, and a My LopeLife piece by another 2019 grad. There’s more: what’s ahead for the GCU men’s basketball program, the increasingly important communication tool utilized by online instructors and students, and yet another heartwarming story — this one on recent GCU Hall of Fame inductee Sharky Baker. To read the digital version, click here.  

Learning and Living Communities are designed for GCU freshmen who prefer to share a residence hall room, suite or floor with students of similar academic interests. Along with the connections they make organically, there are organized activities in Juniper Hall, the building housing six LLC’s: Honors, Colangelo College of Business (CCOB), College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), psychology from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), and nursing and athletic training through the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions (CONHCP). “It has a different feel,” Kayla Warren said of her freshman year in Juniper. “It is academically centered, where we were all in the same mindset.”

Washington High School senior Juan Ballez has watched his father struggle with mobility in his hand and, for years, wished there was a way he could help. Now, on the cusp of graduating, he thinks he knows a way — by becoming a biomedical engineer. His dream of helping people, like his father, came closer to fruition Tuesday at GCU, when he found out he was one of 43 students in the neighborhood surrounding GCU to receive the Students Inspiring Students scholarship. “It feels like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders,” said Juan after receiving the scholarship, which covers four years of tuition and books. “… I was determined. I was like, I can’t have my parents pay for it (college). I don’t want that burden on them.”

Members of the College of Education are praying for Joe Popma, an adjunct faculty member since 1994 who is battling cancer. Popma, who has been teaching for 66 years, worked as faculty in GCU’s first distance learning program, which delivered content via VHS tape, and helped develop GCU’s first online program, M.Ed. in Education Administration. He also was a faculty supervisor for teacher candidates as well as principal interns.

Lopes Leap to Teach always draws a lot of school district representatives eager to hire GCU students. The vibe at Thursday’s event centered on the importance of creating teachers who are leaders and can fit into a faculty well — a specialty for GCU’s College of Education. Howard Paley of the Isaac School District said he has found that GCU students are “much more willing to accept a broad variety of colleagues. … They’re looking for a good team.”

Saturday’s Hall of Fame ceremony showcased several of GCU’s most inspiring stories from alumni who have made a impact on their communities and careers throughout the years. One of this years inductees was Reginald Freeman, who received his masters from GCU in 2008. Since Freeman has surpassed numerous milestones in the Firefighting field and continues to give back to his community in Hartford Connecticut. This year’s other inductees included Randi (Johns) Riggs, Hagir Elsheikh, George Holm, and Sharky Baker.

“GCU has so many different entities that are run out of student ideas – they really like to utilize the student body,” said graduate assistant Malcolm McGuire, who championed the idea of employing student fitness instructors at the Lopes Performance Center. “We thought, how can we take our pre-med students or our athletic training students and use them and give them experience so that when they graduate at 22 … maybe they can go and get an entry-level job in the fitness world?” Those student fitness instructors are now leading a series of classes at the LPC, including an introductory fitness class, high-energy dance class and a women’s-only, full-body sculpting class.

College of Education students from Grand Canyon University are taking advantage of an innovative pre-service resident teaching program that enables them to create and implement lesson plans and work directly with students on an accelerated basis. These benefits are evident at Westwood Elementary, where GCU students are putting educational theory into practice.

GCU’s Academic Excellence Site (AES) partnership with Westwood Elementary is multi-faceted, from a pre-service resident teaching program to the Learning Lounge, Canyon Professional Development, Leadership Coaching and Parent View. Among the many positive results: Westwood students are building skills, gaining momentum and developing a vision for higher education.