Recent News

It has been a great spring for Grand Canyon University athletic teams, but there was another accomplishment that also was significant: Sand volleyball players Mackenzie Phelps and Shannon Dugan reached the semifinals of the national tournament. Their success was fueled by a partnership that’s a winner on and off the court.

They did it — twice! On the single biggest day in GCU athletics since its transition to Division I two years ago, the Lopes clinched the Western Athletic Conference regular-season baseball championship by defeating Sacramento State on Saturday afternoon, and then the lacrosse team won the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association national title by knocking off Colorado.

Alex Carlson, a student in the Colangelo School of Sports Business, recently was rewarded for his hard work with a trip to New York to work as an intern at the Jordan Brand Classic, the top high school all-star basketball event in the country. Carlson came back with great stories to tell about the experience and a new perspective on what event planning is all about.

Joy Patrick-Akpan, a doctoral learner from Lagos, Nigeria, had flown for 37 hours on her first trip to the United States for the recent residency, but you’d never know it by the way she carried herself. You understand why when you hear about the challenges she overcomes daily to do her doctoral work.

Grand Canyon University hosted the third and final Lopes Leap to Teach job fair on Thursday. The event drew dozens of dozens of job-hunting students and school officials dealing with Arizona’s statewide teacher shortage.

The longest-tenured employee at Grand Canyon University, Dr. Michael Baird of the College of Theology, is retiring after 36 years, and he will leave behind a long list of grateful students and fellow faculty members. Baird was so good at his job for a simple reason — he loves to teach.

The accolades keep pouring in for “Canyon Worship,” the EP released earlier this month by Grand Canyon University’s Center for Worship Arts. Some of the most heartfelt responses came from GCU Christian worldview students after they heard the songs for the first time.

Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal caused more than 5,000 casualties and left nearly 11,000 injured. GCU’s Muney Shrestha, a facilities application administrator, is collecting donations for her parents and siblings, who are among the thousands of survivors seeking aid after the devastating tragedy. GCU has donated $5,000 to relief efforts and students, faculty and staff are encouraged to contribute through monetary donations and prayer.

Three days of commencement ceremonies at GCU ended Saturday afternoon, and there were enough cheers to fill a stadium and enough tears to use up a box of Kleenex. Amid all the emotions were more stories of grit and determination — and not just among the graduates.

By GCU News Bureau In the cool, crisp minutes before Friday’s commencement at Grand Canyon University, Dr. Michael Berger joked that he’d seen a range of reactions to the suddenly stormy and briefly rainy skies. The locals were the ones bundled up under sweaters and jackets. Out-of-towners didn’t seem to feel the chill in the 60-something-degree air. Still, the rain was minimal, the puddles puny, and anyone unfamiliar with April in the Valley of the Sun had to marvel at how the crystal-clear weather blended with the ceremony message about new opportunities and wide-open futures for GCU’s 560 morning graduates. Their degrees were conferred in the Colangelo College of Business and the College of Doctoral Studies, and most completed their degrees entirely online. Berger, dean of GCU’s College of Doctoral Studies, is a concierge and guest-greeter each year at commencement, actively intercepting anyone he can to route them to tickets, entrances, restrooms or whatever they might need before he has to “step away and do the dean thing” with other University leaders at the ceremony. He is one of hundreds of GCU volunteers who make commencement a warm and inviting atmosphere for locals and visitors alike. Spotting the College of Doctoral Studies regalia in the crowd, Berger introduced himself to learners whom he might have known […]