College of Science, Engineering and Technology

If you want to get the most out of exercising, it seems that exercising every day makes a difference. Dr. Zachary Zeigler and a team of GCU students looked into the impact of daily exercise versus skipping a day of exercise in men with high blood pressure. Their research was published recently in the academic journal Exercise Medicine. Here’s the skinny on what they found: Don’t skip a day — it appears that daily exercise may be good for your blood pressure.

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.

The black-footed ferret was thought to be extinct in the late 1970s until a small population was discovered in Wyoming in 1981. Arizona’s Aubrey Valley became one of the sites chosen to reintroduce the species through a captive breeding program, and GCU biology professor Adrienne Crawford and a small group of students recently helped the program by volunteering for a recent spotlight count of the endangered species.

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.”

Jose Monarrez is a Students Inspiring Students scholarship recipient. He also came out of the Murphy Elementary School District. So when Grand Canyon University needed learning advocates (LEADs) to help Murphy students, Monarrez was more than happy to do so. He writes about his experience in My LopeLife, reprinted from the April issue of GCU Magazine.

GCU’s Robotics Club left Louisville’s Kentucky Exposition Center to decompress after failing to advance to the final matches of the VEX Robotics World Finals — an international event featuring about 1,100 teams from middle-school to collegiate levels. But then they heard they left a little early — the team ended up winning the Judges Award, given to a team who the judges think are deserving of special recognition.

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.

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 Travis Neely GCU News Bureau Online students from the College of Fine Arts and Production, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Theology and the College of Science, Engineering and Technology participated in commencement Friday morning in GCU Arena. To watch the ceremony, click here.