Honors College

From natural deodorant to COVID-19 research, there was no shortage of impressive student presentations at this year’s CSET Research Symposium and Honors Showcase on Saturday. Honors finalists delivered in-person presentations while CSET finalists presented orally via Zoom. “It just goes to show how active and engaged our students were both inside and outside the classroom this year despite COVID-19 and limitations on what they could and couldn’t do,” Honors College Associate Dean Dr. Breanna Naegeli said.

Another successful academic year wouldn’t be complete without an Honors College Banquet to celebrate the students’ accomplishments. They were recognized Wednesday for their hard work during the pandemic. “We’re extremely proud,” Program Manager Dennis Williams said. “It’s been a very challenging year for them, but we’ve seen so many of our students step up as leaders, step up in all these areas. This is, I think, going to be an extra special year.”

It was a big weekend full of connection building and leadership within the Honors College. This year, the Honors College hosted their annual Leadership Conference in a hybrid format, allowing students to choose whether they would like to participate in person or via Zoom. Doing so brought in a record number of attendees for the event. “I Think that just goes to show how much students are wanting to have this experience,” Honors College Program Manager Dennis Williams said. “It’s certainly well above any numbers we’ve had for this event when you combine the Zoom attendees with our live attendees.”

College is all about learning experiences, and the Honors STEMists club took learning to the next level when its members built two wheelchairs and donated them to the Neighborhood Christian Clinic. Best of all, the Honors College students got to meet the family of a recipient. “It was just a very raw moment,” said one of the students, Abby Abraham. “They just kept saying, ‘You don’t understand how much this means to us.’”

The Honors College leaders showed last year that their teamwork goes beyond their work duties — five of them earned graduate degrees. Associate Dean Dr. Breanna Naegeli finished work on her doctorate, while Program Managers Dennis Williams, Cathleen Daly and Anna Cofrancesco and Program Development Specialist Faith Beatty all received their master’s degrees. “I feel as though this story illustrates the support we have for one another both personally and professionally,” Naegeli said.

The Honors College wanted to make sure students who participated in the PAC Professional Development Program this year were properly celebrated. They gathered Wednesday night on Canyon 49 Grill’s outdoor patio for a socially distanced dinner and PAC (Professional, Academic and Career) awards ceremony. The top three were Andrew Jennings, Ethan Connery and Ashley Larson.

When social distancing guidelines were set in place to combat the spread of the pandemic, students in the Honors Voices Club and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) came together to formulate a way to still serve their community. They created care packages for students in isolation at GCU Hotel and for health care workers on campus.

Honors College students got a Zoom visit Tuesday from Dr. Connie Mariano, a White House physician for three presidents. In a talk titled “Turning Standing Out to Outstanding,” Mariano shared her experiences and told students what aspiring medical professionals should focus on.

Madeline Bradshaw was interested in aerospace engineering, and her time at GCU sparked her interest in computer-aided design. Then a summer internship led to a great job she secured even before graduating last spring — she’s an Associate Engineer for Aerojet Rocketdyne and has clients in NASA and the Department of Defense. She credits her GCU professors for helping her reach her potential.

It’s the same scholarship that has been changing the lives of incoming Honors College students for years, but now it has a new name: the Academic Excellence & Servant Leadership Scholarship. The annual reception for scholarship winners had to be conducted online because of the pandemic. “We wanted these students to have an opportunity to engage with one another and have a moment to reflect on how special this scholarship opportunity really is,” Honors College Associate Dean Dr. Breanna Naegeli said.