College of Nursing & Health Care Professions

GCU’s first academic year in its return to nonprofit status was filled with so many important stories, picking just 10 was a challenging exercise for the GCU Today staff. Here’s how we voted, with links to the many stories that are worth revisiting.

GCU’s recent nursing graduates posted an impressive 98.21% first-time pass rate for the first quarter of 2019 on a rigorous national examination nursing candidates must pass before receiving a license and working professionally in the field. Of the 112 GCU nursing students who took the standardized exam from January to March, 110 passed the test on their first go-round. “It’s really a testament to the quality of the program and the engagement of the students,” said Amy Leach, National Council Licensure Examination Success Manager.

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau The Saturday morning session of spring commencement at Grand Canyon University featured 1,023 graduates, from the College of Education and the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions. For a replay of the ceremony, click here.      

The most unusual scene of commencement played out Friday afternoon when a 14-man mariachi band performed for one of the graduates near the 33rd Avenue entrance to campus. It was the perfect surprise, but pulling it off was a challenge for the graduate’s fiancee as well as the Events team.

Purple and white leis and necklaces intertwined with shells are popular accessories at commencement ceremonies, but Kathy Taula was sporting the all-time champion of leis Friday afternoon: garlands of white carnations and orchids and a flower garland of yellow carnations in her hair, plus a garland of dollar bills that covered at least a third of her face.

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau The Friday afternoon ceremony of spring commencement at Grand Canyon University featured 912 online graduates from the Colangelo College of Business, the College of Fine Arts and Production, the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, and the College of Theology. To watch a replay of the ceremony, click here.     

Photos by David Kadlubowski GCU News Bureau A total of 865 students from the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, the College of Science, Engineering and Technology and the College of Theology received their degrees Thursday evening at Grand Canyon University’s spring commencement. To watch a full replay, click here.  

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.”