Recent News

The annual GCU INsider, reprinted from the August issue of GCU Magazine, contains its usual assortment of information and tips on the new pizza place on campus and other improvements that students will see. And then there are the really important answers to questions you undoubtedly had … such as what shade of purple GCU uses.

Jazz preservation, That’s what Dance Director Susannah Keita and the rest of GCU’s Dance department hope to accomplish by putting such a strong emphasis on jazz dance within their program. Few Dance programs offer jazz dance to their students, making GCU’s dance program a unique and sought after program for students looking to study jazz dance. Recently Keita was even able to present at the National Dance Education Organization’s jazz conference this summer. “We want our dancers to be prepared for the commercial dance world and the concert dance world,” Keita said. “Jazz can be in either.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Employment Projections for 2016-2026, registered nursing is among the top occupations for job growth. Despite that growth in the field, the number of nurses emerging from higher education wont’ be enough. The bureau estimates the country will need more than 1 million registered nurses by 2024, and the outlook is even more dire for Arizona. Read how GCU and partner GCE are trying to alleviate the problem.

Welcome Week at GCU is many things besides the wild scene at Move-In. Incoming students get acclimated to the campus in a variety of ways through activities that go well into the evening, and this year they’ll get to try out an interesting new one — Silent Disco.

The Chapel schedule for the fall semester features a lot of speakers who have brought strong messages to campus before. From Beth Guckenberger to Ron Merrell to Riccardo Stewart and many more, here’s a look at who’s speaking when and what they’ve said before.

John Catania was close to completing his engineering degree, even landing an internship. But the deeper he dug into the program, the more he knew he didn’t feel a connection to what he was studying. He had no passion for it. So he switched his career track to nursing — a decision he hasn’t regretted. One moment comes to mind when he knew he was meant to be a nurse. It was when a patient suffered a heart attack while he was making rounds at the hospital, and he helped save the man’s life. Catania, a GCU online student from Port Charlotte, Fla., who is pursuing his master’s degree to become an acute care nurse practitioner, received the national DAISY Award this summer. The award recognizes exceptional nurses for the work they do.

The Milwaukee Brewers and Grand Canyon University are already teaming up for big wins. The GCU Learning Lounge that opened in April at the Brewers’ training complex in Maryvale created a unique partnership between a Major League Baseball team and university that garnered the Governor’s Tourism Award for an urban partnership last week in Tucson. “It’s such a unique and forward-thinking program, and it shows a commitment by both GCU and the Brewers to the neighborhood they share,” said Debbie Johnson, director of the Arizona Office of Tourism.

College of Fine Arts and Production graduates Klay Wandelear and Brenna Warren both earned a master’s degree this summer from East 15, a branch of Essex University, and enjoyed the experience so much, they’re staying in England for the time being. They said their time at GCU prepared them well. “I think I would have had a really hard time if I hadn’t spent so much time in Ethington Theatre,” Warren said. “How it worked set me up to be a dedicated and respectful actor.”

For the second straight quarter, GCU’s nursing graduates have posted the highest first-time pass-rate among the state’s major universities on a national licensure examination. They exceeded a 98% first-time pass rate for each of the first two quarters of 2019 on the National Council Licensure Examination, which determines whether a student is ready to start working as a nurse. “The fact that we’ve been able to sustain those high first-time pass-rate numbers two quarters in a row shows that we’re doing the right things,” said Amy Leach, the college’s NCLEX Success Manager. “… We’re performing well compared to what the national and state standards are.”

When Luke Elliott started his internship with Avnet this summer, his main interest was strategy. But then the Honors College senior and a co-worker competed at an event where they had to brainstorm, design and create an app, and they won the Salesforce Most Innovative Team award. “It’s definitely a good reinforcement and kind of solidification that I’m doing well, and this is where I belong,” he said.