Online Life

Assistant Professor Tim Kelley says he has fielded at least 80 inquiries, most of them online, about the challenge, which will award a first prize of $3,500 to the best plan for a start-up business. Cash prizes also will be given for second and third places.

GCU’s Canyon Challenge will involve three phases. A two-page executive summary of a business plan will be due on March 23. Two weeks later, select candidates will be asked to submit a full business plan and a PowerPoint presentation. Then five finalists will present their plans before a panel of judges and an audience.

Dr. Steve Gerali says respect has been slow in coming for youth ministry, but that’s changing and an opportunity awaits a well-rounded curriculum at GCU.

Faith Based Marketing Specialist Spencer Fehrenbacher is hitting the road for another Rock and Worship Roadshow, only this time he’s got a new travel partner in Stephanie Cashin — and the effort will be bigger and better. “It’s all about the power of the sun and our beautiful campus,” says Cashin, who will be with Fehrenbacher on a seven-week, 26-city tour covering 17,000 miles, starting Thursday in Biloxi, Miss. “We want to show prospective students how nice it is here (in Phoenix). While students in Chicago and Spokane are freezing in January and February, we have a beautiful, sunny campus to offer them.”

It all began with Mark Glazier and his seven-foot Santa Thunder. The Tempe enrollment manager sent us a photo of the custom-made Antlered One in a Santa suit, standing sentry at his desk, and wondered if we would post it on GCU Today. We did last week, inviting others to send photos of their Christmas-themed work stations. The good news: We heard from several people. The bad news: The cell-phone shots weren’t so hot. So on Wednesday afternoon, we took a field trip to Tempe and Peoria to see for ourselves what the season hath wrought.

Employees at GCU’s Peoria offices received a surprise visit Friday afternoon from a pair of standup comedians, Robert Wagner and Floyd Haas. The occasion was a team-building exercise organized by Regional Director of Operations Reggie Alfonso. “We wanted to change it up,” said Alfonso, who was seeking a departure from the usual activities such as flag football, potlucks and games.

GC+You is a weekly blog contributed by GCU Dean of Students Tim Griffin and Student Development Director John-Paul Reiger. This week they hand over the duties to ASGCU Multicultural Director Matt Muchna.

Grand Canyon University has learned of a marketing scam. The scam is targeting financial institution websites and .edu websites; it claims that your privacy has been breached at Epsilon Corporation. A virus on your computer detects you are logging into GCU.edu (or other financial and/or academic institutions’ websites) and a pop-up window, designed to look as though it is from the bank, directs you to a non-American Savings Bank website. It asks you to click through to a site purporting to offer a “free” credit report.

Although Brooklyn-born Deborah Lynn Lovell has Multiple Sclerosis (MS), it took her years to admit it. Her mission in life now is to help people avoid making the same mistakes. She is now following another dream — earning a college degree. She enrolled in the Communications program at Grand Canyon University.

By Doug Carroll Communications Staff A completely redesigned website for Grand Canyon University is less than a month from being up and running. The new-and-improved www.gcu.edu, in the works for most of a year, officially will debut during the week of June 27, according to Senior Marketing Manager Suzanne Lyons. An extensive review of the site will take place during the week of June 13. “We’ve constructed this website in such a way that it can grow with the University,” Lyons says. “I think people will like the way it has integrated our online, campus and prospective students. There will definitely be a sense of community.” Visitors to the site will notice dramatically improved navigation, and the site’s flexibility will allow changes to be made swiftly. Components such as photo slideshows and video will be much more prominent. The site also will emphasize Search Engine Optimization (SEO), to help with marketing to prospective students. “We looked inside and outside the education space at what made a good website, and we also responded to what our internal staff said they wanted,” Lyons says. “We asked, ‘What would be the student’s expectations when they came to our site?’” Community outreach efforts such […]