Colleges

Kellie Lotshaw always thought she’d be working on the sidelines of a football field or with athletes in some other collision or action sport. But she’s stepping up in a different way. As an injury prevention specialist at Amazon’s new robotics fulfillment center in Goodyear, the 2015 athletic training graduate is one of only 3% of board-certified athletic trainers who work in the corporate or industrial setting.

It’s not every day that a 10-year-old’s artwork is showcased in a published book. But College of Doctoral Studies chair Dr. Wanda Fernandopulle wanted to set up her daughter, Angelica Gary, for future success in the art world. Thus, the book “Exploring Angelica’s Art” was born. “When I’m not looking at dissertations, doing dissertation defenses and helping all my doctoral Learners out at Grand Canyon, this is my other life in terms of her academics and also honing in on her gift,” Fernandopulle said.

April X. Castillo dearly wanted to be a nurse, but there was an unexpected challenge. The admission exam for the GCU nursing program has a significant section on grammar. She took the test and failed twice. That’s when Dr. Jennifer Santos heard about her plight and offered to help. After a lot of private lessons on things such as comma splices and apostrophes, Castillo realized her dream of becoming a nurse. She is just one of many would-be nurses helped by the GCU English department — Santos and Dr. Heather Brody have volunteered their time to help them study for the language portion of the exams.

Chandler Blue sees perfection everywhere she looks in nature. In humanity, not as much. And yet God favors us with His perfect love, which provides the inspiration for her Canyon Worship 2021 song, “You Choose Me.” It’s Blue’s second song on the annual album but her first solo. Fourth in a series on Canyon Worship 2021, scheduled to be released in September.

Dr. Ana York’s life has been anything but easy. From getting married when she was 14 and having her first child at 15 to having to work long hours while also going to school, York has faced a number of obstacles that could have kept her from obtaining her doctorate. But in the end, her drive and love of education persevered. “I’m very grateful because throughout the process and all of those highs and lows and frustrations, I always saw the hand of God,” she said.

Elaina Marchegger was chosen as one of the student artists for Canyon Worship 2021 even though she wasn’t on campus — she got an internship at a church in Incline Village, Nevada, and took her final year of classes online. “Forevermore,” which she composed with Nicole Raum, is her fourth song in three years on the annual albums produced by GCU’s Worship Arts students and is just one example of the many ways God spoke to her during the pandemic. Third in a series on Canyon Worship 2021, scheduled to be released in September.

Student response to the Write On group has been so positive, they have continued to meet weekly during the summer. Conceived by Dr. Diane Goodman when she came to GCU six years ago, Write On allows students to share their stories and poetry in a friendly, community-like environment that includes constructive feedback. “It’s such a communal experience. Everyone participates equally and everyone wants to be there,” Kaylor Jones said.

GCU’s new initiative with The Garuna Foundation, a missionary-like organization that spreads God’s Word in Southeast Asia, gave the College of Theology an opportunity to fulfill its goal of specific international cohorts. It wasn’t easy to accomplish, but the can-do spirit prevailed. “They liked the idea and said, ‘What can we do to make it happen?’ It’s so refreshing,” said Rev. Dr. Jeff Ehlers, Chairman and CEO of The Garuna Foundation.

It’s as if recent GCU graduate Weylin Pada was back at college. He watched Claire Lee’s class lesson and immediately could recall the professor who used that teaching method. Pada recently joined Lee and several other Lopes who work at neighboring Empower College Prep and have benefited from the deepening partnership with the school, which shares similar values with GCU.

Jazmine Cordon and her high school team engineered a plant-watering robot to help educate middle schoolers who have seen their share of food insecurity. Fiona Tran’s middle school team wanted to help wheelchair users by designing a wheelchair light to make it safer to navigate pathways at night. The two teams, whose projects’ roots are at Sevilla Elementary School West, just a half-mile from GCU, presented their projects at the virtual MESA USA National Engineering Design Competition on Monday. It was the first time students from the school competed at nationals, something that might not have happened, said Sevilla West STEM educator Mia DeLaRosa, if not for help from GCU’s K12 STEM Outreach team.