Photos by Ralph Freso
Two bros walk down Lopes Way, discussing favorite teams.
“Celtics,” said Jack Edlin. “My dad’s from Boston.”
“My dad likes Green Bay,” said CJ Lundfelt.
They are headed to Chick-fil-A because, after all, this is the Grand Canyon University campus and it’s a lunch favorite. CJ has been talking about nuggets for more than an hour, since Jack arrived at the LOPES Academy, where CJ is a participant in a program that provides an immersive university campus experience with academic, job and social skills development for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Jack, a junior in finance, is his peer mentor — really a friend and colleague first, but one who also helps guide when needed.
“I love Chick-fil-A,” CJ says.
He’s asked about Subway. “Too messy. Too soggy.”
CJ is an amateur food critic.
“What’s your favorite place?” Jack asks.
“Benihana,” CJ says. “Coconut shrimp.”
Jack Edlin is from Las Vegas, a clean-cut former high school athlete, smart and determined, the finance director of TedXGrandCanyonUniversity and treasurer of the GCU Finance and Economics Club. But there was more inside, he recognized, after his grandfather got ill and praised the nurses who helped him.
“I wanted to be that guy,” he said.
After he came to GCU, he found he could also help people in other ways — with finances and in service. That’s why as a freshman his eye met an interesting flyer taped to the wall. It was asking for peer mentors for the LOPES Academy.
He knew nothing of the initiative that started in 2021 with the support of benefactors Don and Kim Cardon. Participants are enrolled in a two-year program of courses, internships and job training, but are also matched with GCU student leaders who became peer mentors to help them experience college life — eating lunch, doing activities, watching basketball games, hanging out, going to Chapel.
Jack was unsure about it at first, until it dawned on him. The job was just being a friend “and a true example of how to hang out with one (someone with a disability). I just treat them like everyone else is treated. A lot of people don’t know how to interact, but you just be yourself.”
What he realized was that it wasn’t just a two-hour segment twice a week, a service to be fulfilled, but something he looked forward to.
“They are so funny. We spend a lot of time laughing,” he said. “You see a smile on their face, and you see God working through their lives.”
Jack spent so much time and had such a good connection with participant Charlie Paparone over the past couple years that “we became best friends,” he said. “He’s so awesome. He’ll ask you all kinds of questions, and he knows all the answers.”
He said when Charlie would come to basketball games and join Jack’s group of friends he would tell him: “You are with the boyz!”
Even though Paparone completed the program, they still talk weekly.
“Honestly, he is a natural,” said Dr. Heidi Boldway, LOPES Academy director and College of Humanities and Social Sciences assistant dean. “His interaction with the participants helps them grow. He challenges them and teaches them to think critically.”
On this morning, the activity is a campus scavenger hunt, ideal for first-year students like CJ to learn the campus. Participants pick up a sheet of 12 locations at the LOPES Academy at the Cardon Center and fill out questions on each spot.
CJ stands at the counter of GCBC, the campus coffee shop in the Student Union, to write down his favorite drink. “How do you spell it?” Jack asks CJ, who writes out espresso, before heading to the next location.
“I love your shirt,” CJ tells him while walking.
“Thanks bro,” Jack says.
They hit the nearby Lopes Performance Center next to see the basketball court and gym.
“This is where we do curls for the …” Jack said, pausing.
“Girls,” CJ says.
They head to the Prayer Chapel, and Jack asks him if they go left or right.
“When we go in, we have to be quiet,” Jack tells him, offering a fist bump.
CJ writes down his quiet thought: “thankful for God.”
The biggest challenge is maintaining patience and “seeing things from their perspective,” Jack said later.
“You can overcome these challenges by being a good listener, putting yourself in their shoes and serving as a positive role model for them to follow.”
Jack figures the experience will help him in future jobs where you deal with all kinds of people, though he’s not the typical peer mentor. Many are studying special education, behavioral health, and the like. But in any future profession one will have a coworker with neurodivergence, said program manager Courtney Patton.
Parents tell her that their children say the highlight of the day is time spent with peer mentors. “Parents have shared it has positively impacted the learner’s confidence to try new experiences at the university and made them feel good about themselves.”
Peer mentors are helped with strategies to work with the population, such as modeling behavior, establishing boundaries, providing a structured framework to make decisions, repetition, positive reinforcement and providing opportunities for independence.
Jack is so adept he became lead peer mentor this year, and it shows as he heads down Lopes Way with CJ. He admires how much the participants are into the school, wearing all the GCU gear and doing everything with enthusiasm. “They are in college and never thought they would be,” he said.
He tells CJ he has an intramural flag football game that night, then asks him: “What’s super cool about you?”
“Independence,” CJ says.
“What do you want to do in life?”
“Golf.”
At last, the time has come. CJ is at the Chick-fil-A counter, as Jack makes sure he has his wallet, water bottle and knows what he is going to order. Twelve nuggets and fries.
“Hungry,” CJ says.
They wait for their food, and Jack checks the time. He scurried to CJ after morning class and has one right after lunch, but says this is what God put on his heart, to be right here with CJ.
“You’re a good guy,” CJ tells Jack, breaking the silence.
It was pure, warm spontaneity.
CJ draped his arm around Jack’s shoulders. For just two seconds, though, because they’re bros.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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