College of Humanities and Social Sciences

The new master’s degrees in teaching content programs at GCU meet educators’ needs, enabling high school teachers to keep their jobs teaching dual enrollment and adjunct college professors to maintain their positions at colleges and universities. The programs were designed to dovetail with the standards imposed by the Higher Learning Commission, which oversees colleges and universities in 19 states, including Arizona.

GCU is always evolving, with new buildings rising up and offices and colleges moving to new spaces. All the change makes for an interesting first-day of class. The GCU News team fanned out on Monday to talk to students, professors and even the Success Patrol and Academic Career Excellence Centers, who there there to make sure students found their classrooms.

You wouldn’t normally expect to find onesies, high-heeled shoes or Burt’s Bees at a college retail store, but you will find those things peppered among the notebooks, binders and a sea of purple T-shirts at the new Lope Shop. The store, which touts Champion and Nike concept areas, a tech area, boutique and more, opened Wednesday at its new 9,500-square-foot space on the Promenade. With its floor-to-ceiling glass display windows and modern, open feel, it’s a far cry different from its much smaller space — only one-fifth as big — on Lopes Way.

For the second consecutive year, GCU made the top 10 of Niche’s Best College Campuses list, scoring a No. 7 ranking (up from No. 8 last year) for its college life — and the accolades don’t end there. The University also is No. 6 on the Best Dorms in America list and No. 7 in Best Online Colleges.

The terminology might sound the same, but when it comes to “nonprofit” and “not-for-profit,” there are subtle differences between the two. So when it comes to referring to Grand Canyon University, it’s important to use the correct terminology: We are a nonprofit.

The Summer Institute isn’t quite like the traditional s’mores and campfire summer camp. Instead, the more than a dozen academic camps in various GCU colleges saw high school sophomores, juniors and seniors learning about Trojan malware, investigating the qualities of polyvinyl alcohol cryogels, writing poetry or executing mock warrants — and making friends while staying in the University’s dorms for the two- to four-day camps. The institute geared up recently with various science camps and will continue throughout the summer with humanities, business, honors camps.

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.”

Alpha Chi, the national honors society, gave its Outstanding Chapter Sponsor award to Honors College Assistant Dean Breanna Naegeli at its national convention last month. Naegeli has worked hard to grow GCU’s chapter, and it sent a record number of representatives to the conference — including three who did presentations.

It wasn’t just another great year for the Speech and Debate team at Grand Canyon University — it was the team’s best year ever. GCU finished 19th and had a top-eight team in a national debate event last month, then had two top-48 finishers in a national speech event.