Recent News

GCU President Mueller, who has made it a priority to expand STEM programs and enrollment at GCU to help build a highly trained workforce, was honored at the IEEE’s annual banquet Saturday at the Hilton Phoenix Airport.

By Janie Magruder GCU News Bureau Dance faculty and students in the College of Fine Arts and Production are studying this week with guest artist Dr. Padmaja Suresh, a renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher from Bangalore, India. Suresh is an intellectual performer whose productions have won her critical acclaim around the world. She has lectured and danced at various international conferences, including at UNESCO, and her school, Aatmayala, shares dance with underprivileged children in her community and rural areas around it. Participants in the classes will be adding what they learned from Kwame Shaka Opare, a classically trained West African dancer based in Baltimore who was a guest artist on campus in January, when he composed a dance with two sections of his original work for the spring performances. Opare, who started touring in the late ’90s with the Broadway show STOMP, is renowned for his ability to engage students and audiences and convey the meaning and purpose of his work. At his lecture last month, Opare connected deeply with students as he shared about his experiences teaching youth in Baltimore. He described the stages of transformation that they experienced, which became the basis of his master’s thesis and concert. Suresh and […]

If you saw “Scapin,” the College of Fine Arts and Production’s October performance in Ethington Theatre, you will not be surprised to learn its director and some of its cast and crew members are competing in a prestigious regional festival this weekend. GCU will be represented at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Hawaii by instructor Michael Kary and seven students who played big roles in the enormously impressive and hilarious play.

Sure, cell phones have become an important part of everyday life, but Jamie Rasmussen of Scottsdale Bible Church used one of his cellular experiences to relay an important message, in his Chapel talk Monday morning, about what’s important in life. “I wonder how much time you and I spend on things that don’t matter,” Rasmussen said.

The second Ministry Forum of the semester Monday had an interesting title: “The Church: Bread of Life or Opiate of the People?” And the discussion proved provocative when the panelists tackled the issue of what helping the poor really entails and how far social justice needs to go to truly make a difference.

On Wednesday, as a highlight of GCU’s weeklong celebration honoring the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death in 1616, guest lecturer and acknowledged Shakespeare expert Dr. Paul Hartle gave a talk on how the playwright created elaborate settings—using only his words. “Imagination produces the landscape,” Hartle, visiting from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University, told a rapt audience of 200 students, faculty and staff in GCU’s Ethington Theatre.

By Laurie Merrill GCU News Bureau  Monday is the start of Shakespeare Week, when GCU’s cup will runneth over with student performances and presentations of some of the Bard of Avon’s most beloved classics spread across campus daily. “Celebrating the greatest writer in the English language in this way is the least we can do for the next generation, who will enjoy and carry on his works,” said Dr. Sherman Elliott, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Monday: 12-12:45 p.m., members of the speech and debate team will read Shakespeare near the southeast corner of the Intramural Field. Tuesday: 10:45–11 a.m., students from the College of Fine Arts and Production (COFAP) will perform scenes from “As You Like It” on the Promenade next to Building 6. 12:45-1 p.m., COFAP students will perform the balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet” on the Building 57 staircase. Wednesday: 11:15 a.m., Dr. Paul Hartle, fellow/senior tutor from St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, will speak to students about Shakespeare at Ethington Theater. 12:30-12:45 p.m., Critical Mass will perform outside Ethington after Hartle’s presentation. 4:15-5:15 p.m., Hartle will present “Shakespeare Mashups — Adapting Shakespeare for Today’s Young Audience” in Building 16, Room 401. Thursday: 12:45-1 p.m., COFAP students […]

By Jeannette Cruz GCU News Bureau Like most college students, Cody Dumas arrived at Grand Canyon University eager to take on a new experience. But as college life, family life and work sunk in, so did stress. By his junior year, Dumas was having trouble sleeping. Although hesitant to get on-site help because of his negative perception of counseling, his experience eventually contributed to a new initiative on campus to reduce the stigma of mental illness. “We all have issues that we are facing,” said Dumas, president of Associated Students of GCU, the University’s student government. “I have never struggled with depression or major anxiety, but it was identified that I wasn’t sleeping due to stress that I had been building up in my life from being a student and growing up. At the time, I was really against seeing a counselor mainly because of the stigma that revolves around it — things like seeing a counselor means there’s something ‘wrong’ with you.” Dumas’ experience inspired him and ASGCU to organize “Embrace,” a week of awareness and understanding of mental health issues. The activities begin today and are open to students and staff. “When I realized that I was struggling […]

What would you have to change about yourself in the workplace if your employer was God? You might need to pray more often for the ability to do what’s right, to be more forgiving and do walk humbly, and you might do a “heart check” to ensure we are loving and serving others. That was the message at Friday’s Integration of Faith, Learning and Work “Lunch and Learn” faculty program, entitled, “Work That Honors God.”

By Janie Magruder GCU News Bureau Patricia Brazil and her daughter Michelle had lived together in a house on Camelback Road for 45 years, from the day mother brought daughter home from the hospital as a newborn. Their aging home needed a paint job and new windows to improve its insulation from summer’s sear and winter’s chill and to block noisy street traffic. So it was nothing short of a blessing when, in the fall of 2014, a team from Habitat for Humanity and Grand Canyon University dropped by the Brazils’ home to discuss a new neighborhood revitalization program that would assist homeowners in gussying up their property. The women loved meeting the friendly, purple T-shirted students who attended classes right across the street and decided right then to take advantage of the offer of help. They would use their income tax refund to pay their share of the project and pitch in on the sweat equity, too. Patricia, who died two months later, never got to see the shiny new windows or the warm sandstone paint her daughter chose. But Michelle, who lives in the three-bedroom house with her 6-year-old son, Nathaniel, feels that her mother would approve. “I hope she’s […]