Colleges

Mark Rosewaren won’t be on campus for homecoming Saturday, but he’ll be there in spirit — even though he’s on Air Force duty in Afghanistan. But what makes his story interesting is his reaction after receiving some serious GCU swag.

Students have been training in the cyber field at the University’s 27th Avenue cyber range since 2017. But these days, the hands-on range, now dubbed GCU’s Cyber Center of Excellence, is being fully being operated by the University and Grand Canyon Education in association with their established partner, the Arizona Cyber Threat Response Alliance. Along with its new name, the facility is emphasizing GCU’s culture at the range and incorporating the University’s “Hackers with Halos” approach to the cyber world. The range will open its doors for an open house from 3-6 p.m. Tuesday, when the campus community can drop in and do a little wifi hacking, password cracking and other cybercrime-fighting activities.

“GCU has so many different entities that are run out of student ideas – they really like to utilize the student body,” said graduate assistant Malcolm McGuire, who championed the idea of employing student fitness instructors at the Lopes Performance Center. “We thought, how can we take our pre-med students or our athletic training students and use them and give them experience so that when they graduate at 22 … maybe they can go and get an entry-level job in the fitness world?” Those student fitness instructors are now leading a series of classes at the LPC, including an introductory fitness class, high-energy dance class and a women’s-only, full-body sculpting class.

Hagir Elsheikh, one of five inductees into the GCU Hall of Fame on Saturday, is a domestic violence activist and TV and radio talk show host in Pennsylvania and has founded a staffing agency and a nonprofit that helps victims of violence. But long before she accomplished any of that, she had to flee the political violence in Sudan and survive domestic violence in her own life. She was an online nursing student before getting her degree in 2012, and she visit campus for the first time Saturday.

The recent Honors College Leadership Conference helped those students build connections with business professionals and better prepare themselves for the future. “I think it was a great opportunity to meet established individuals in the various fields, whether it be business or different markets of leadership, but also meeting other motivated individuals that are students as well,” Honors student Elisha Fronda said.

A mid-February trip to New York gave 11 Honors College students the opportunity to meet other young adults from around the world and discuss world issues. They also got to see some of the city’s most iconic destinations. “It was a very incredible experience. It was worth it,” Sara Cordero said. “It was just a really great opportunity to just listen to professionals all over the world and how they all tackle these humanitarian issues.”

Bill Symington, Assistant Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Production, continues to work vigorously on projects outside the University to help build bridges that lead students to jobs in the entertainment industry. Symington has judged for the Kennedy Center, has designed a show for TheaterWorks! and even has helped establish the “Backstage Pass” program with the AriZoni Board of Directors. The program connects students to professionals in the business to help inform them about the business and teach them what employers are looking for.

Collegiate DECA of GCU students were highly successful in two recent competitions. Cristian Rodriguez, only a freshman, won the Collegiate DECA Stock Market Game, and seven GCU students qualified for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) on April 13-16.

TEDxGCU drew a sellout crowd to Ethington Theatre and more praise for how the students manage the annual event. Most evident was the way they increased their coaching of the speakers, who truly appreciated it. “I didn’t view them as students. I just viewed it as a professional providing me with very valuable feedback, constructive feedback, on how I can better my story,” said one of the speakers, Amy Kao.

Student enterprises have become an important part of life on the GCU campus, and for good reason: Not only do they provide students with great experience; they also give them a ton of responsibility. “They’re either running the business or they’re part of the business, and they’re doing it in an environment that’s fairly safe because the new business has the backing of a large enterprise,” GCU President Brian Mueller said. Reprinted from the February issue of GCU Magazine.