College of Nursing & Health Care Professions

With 2,200 students involved in intramural sports and 800 to 1,000 in club sports, that’s a lot of sprains, strains and abrasions GCU’s student athletic trainers see during their clinical rotations. Those trainers also serve the campus community at such events as the Wellness Challenge weigh-in. It’s not just about learning for these student athletic trainers; it’s also about serving their fellow students.

Graduates juggle raising children and balancing jobs with their studies. GCU Today talked to several graduates about the road to receiving their degrees during fall commencement Friday.

The first of four online commencement ceremonies convened Friday morning in GCU Arena, and Pam Aydelott sure stood out — she was wearing a 1940s-era nursing outfit. It took her nearly a year to put it together.

More than 10,000 of GCU’s nursing alumni live in the Valley and their loyalty to the University keeps them united. “When you see each other on the unit you say, ‘Go Lopes!’ and you take care of each other, as you would with any other nurse, but to another degree,” said Chuck De La Riva, a nurse at Abrazo West Campus in Goodyear.

While the men’s soccer team had a goal — to defeat Oral Roberts University — some families who attended Friday night’s game had a second goal: to offer support to families battling cancer. The Children’s Cancer Network was at the game to kick off its eighth annual Run to Fight Children’s Cancer.

Nurse Carma Erickson-Hurt, a GCU online faculty member, recently returned from the Houston area, where she gave more than 200 tetanus shots to those who needed it. But traveling to disaster areas is more than just giving shots, she said. It’s connecting with people.

When Jennifer Florez looked up after a rollover accident on Labor Day weekend, the first people she saw were two young women, dressed in GCU nursing scrubs, who her mom, Sandra — a GCU graduate — calls the family’s “angels.” But they don’t know the students’ names, and they want to thank them.

Welcome Week 2017 promises to be another busy and festive time for students as they return to campus. But it’s extremely important, too. “The week says to all, ‘You belong here,’” said Charity Norman, manager of GCU’s Student and Family Program.

Richard Busby, a professor in the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, has worked in the medical field for 40 years and has traveled to 28 countries to aid those with limited access to medical care and to serve struggling communities. He shared stories about his recent experience in Kathmandu, Nepal, and his passionate view on integrating faith into the classroom.

Here’s a family that has taken devotion to Grand Canyon University to a new level: Not only does Renee Taillon work and study at GCU, so do her three children — twins Christian and Jared and daughter Kirie. “We really do bleed purple in our family,” Renee said.