Recent News

New blog sites for Spiritual Life and the College of Theology debuted this week, giving faculty and staff another way to connect with students. Blogs for other colleges at the University are in the works.

Fall semester at GCU was a time of great growth — in students, courses, programs and learning — and as GCU hosts its first winter commencement this afternoon for about 700 traditional graduates, GCU Today takes the opportunity to celebrate the University’s stellar faculty. They have gone beyond the call of duty to assist students inside their classrooms and outside of them, too, dedicating many extra hours, evenings and weekends to student success. Click here to read stories about several of them.

Students in the Colangelo College of Sports Business will get some great experience this weekend in running an event — they’ll be heavily involved in managing the Hoophall West Classic high school boys’ basketball tournament Friday and Saturday at Chaparral High in Scottsdale. Five teams ranked in the top 25 nationally will be at the event, including Corona del Sol, which has won the last three Division I titles in the Arizona state tournament.

The growth of GCU’s technology degree programs will continue in fall 2015 when the University’s first-ever engineering students arrive on campus to begin working toward degrees with biomedical, electrical and mechanical concentrations. Associate dean Dr. Michael Sheller of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology said the program design began nearly two years ago through the hard work and collaborations led by Dr. Michael Mobley and Haley Peebles, who oversee the University’s Center for Integrated Science, Engineering and Technology. GCU Today has a story about the new engineering programs and how they fit into the overall academic goal to better train young people for STEM-oriented careers.

Story by Janie Magruder Photos by Darryl Webb GCU News Bureau Since it first began tutoring students at Alhambra High School last year, the Grand Canyon University Learning Lounge has been embraced by the campus community — faculty, staff and student tutors. On Monday, 15 months to the day after it opened its doors, the Learning Lounge got another big hug. This time, its teenaged clients came on campus, not for free help in reading, writing, math or other subjects, but to receive Christmas gifts from those jolly St. Nicks in the GCU Tempe office complex. Staff in the University’s international, College of Education Mid-Atlantic enrollment and non-degree/single course divisions brought dozens of gifts for three Alhambra students and their 17 family members. The delivery of gifts, including jeans and T-shirts, remote-control cars, roller backpacks and a “Frozen” waffle maker with pancake mix and syrup, came just a day after more than 350 children and their families in the GCU neighborhood visited campus for Canyon Cares Christmas. The annual event, supported by hundreds of faculty and staff members who purchased gifts and volunteered time, provided the guests lunch, crafts and visits to Santa in the Arena on Sunday afternoon. Alhambra junior Jane Sabuni and her sister, Lillian, came to the Learning Lounge […]

By GCU News Bureau On a day when 530 Grand Canyon University traditional graduates were on cloud nine as they paraded up to receive their diplomas, numbers were the name of the game — and there were two ways about it. First, this was a first. GCU had never before held a winter commencement until Friday afternoon at the Arena, but the University’s ever expanding student population made it obvious a year and a half ago that it would become necessary. First-semester graduates previously had to wait until spring commencement if they wanted to participate in the ceremony. Second, there was the numerical magic of Justin Willman, who wowed the crowd in his entertaining commencement address, just as he had in the October ceremony for online graduates. His closing trick, in which the random numbers he got from four students equaled, when multiplied, the date and exact time (121,214,437, or 12/12/14 at 4:37 p.m.), is impossible to figure. But in between jokes and other tricks, Willman, host of “Cupcake Wars,” had a simple message for the graduates: “No matter how you do the math, the past and the future always wind up adding up to the present.” Three cheers for that. —Rick […]

Students in Grand Canyon University’s new “innovative Computing” club (known by its iC abbreviation) are already working with advisers to help launch academic cloud-computing technology for the first-ever GCU computer science/information technology course. The club of mostly freshmen are also looking forward to collaborating on extracurricular tech projects.

By Cooper Nelson GCU News Bureau Grand Canyon University will continue its fall Chapel/theGathering theme, “Making a Difference,” in the spring semester with a new crop of pastors from West Valley churches scheduled to speak at the popular Monday morning service in GCU Arena. Chapel will remain at 11:15 a.m., with message-board announcements beginning at 11. Students and staff will hear messages from pastors from Fellowship Church, Catalyst Church, New City Church and Bethany Bible Church of Phoenix, along with Faith Bible Church and Church of the Cross of Glendale and Gateway Church of Scottsdale.  Pastors from East Valley parishes, including The Grove Church and Redemption Church, also will be on campus next semester. GCU’s Director of Spiritual Life Danielle Rinnier said a conscious effort was made to bring in pastors from churches near campus to encourage students to join local church communities and expand their worship habits. “We know Chapel isn’t a church service and we really want students to get involved with local churches,” Rinnier said. “We really want to allow students to hear the message from pastors of great local churches so they will hopefully reach out and try these churches and find a good fit.” Jared Ulrich, worship coordinator, held freshman-only auditions in […]

This weekend marked the fourth time this semester that GCU’s student speech and debate team earned first-place honors at a major collegiate forensics competition. GCU Today has a story with more about the team’s fall successes, capped by multiple Top 5 finishes at events at the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association’s Fall Championships Tournament at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., and how it has evolved under the direction of communications instructor Barry Regan.

The first deadline for the Canyon Challenge, the annual competition open to anyone on campus who has a plan for a startup business, is coming up next month. If you have a great idea that you’re dying to take to market, this is a way to test its viability and get considerable cash to jumpstart it.