EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published as the "5-on-5" feature in the April 2025 issue of GCU Magazine, available in the purple bins on campus or digitally.
When Aaron Koehne followed his big brother’s footsteps to Grand Canyon University, the former Maywood, Illinois, resident was looking for that same sense of community he found in high school sports. So he volunteered with Local Outreach’s ministry at nearby senior living facility Colter Commons, sandwiched between the main campus and GCU’s burgeoning east side.
That was it.
He discovered what he was built to do. Once a student leader in that department, Koehne now manages the mega machine that’s Local Outreach’s 23 groups and 114 student leaders, each of whom span out into the community, sharing their faith and doing good deeds every week.
1. You’re a cog in the wheel of Local Outreach, at the center of it all. But when you started at GCU, you were an accounting major. Why GCU, and why accounting?
Accounting was the language of business, so I thought business was something I would want to go into. I thought having a more specialized knowledge of how business works from a financial side could only help. … It was something practical, not that I thought I would always be an accountant. As for GCU, my sister and brother went here, my wife went here, and most of my friend group went here.
2. Were your parents accountants?
My dad was in education. He was a principal, so that’s what brought us out to Phoenix. He is now an eighth grade teacher at Trinity Lutheran (in Litchfield Park, Arizona). My mom is a Christian musician.
3. Tell me about your evolution from a Local Outreach student leader to the department’s manager.
I had gotten involved with all the ministries as a volunteer. Kind of everything they had, I was doing – Canyon Kids, the homeless ministry. … I mainly got into service here. I found serving as a new outlet, where sports kind of took up my time in high school. When I came to college, I was looking for what would fill my time, and serving was that thing that did that. … After graduation, I worked in accounting for a year and then I came back to do this role. I liked business, I liked math. It’s something I did enjoy, but I also wanted something a little more relational. So when this came up, I was excited.
4. What is this we hear about your love of carpentry and building some of the wood furniture in the Local Outreach offices?
During that COVID year, we built a lot of furniture for the office. A couple of students and I built this bar together. It was kind of the first project we worked on, and after that, I started building desks and other furniture. I learned by watching YouTube videos, and then kind of picked up different skills throughout the years.
5. We heard your slim, but mighty, three-staff office just interviewed 150 students to take on Local Outreach leadership roles next academic year. With so much machinery to manage, what do you love about Local Outreach?
I liked community, and being able to meet with other students who had a heart for serving made for some great friendships. They became some of my good friends. One of the coordinators I hired, Alexis (Lopez), she was actually on my ministry with me as a student. We both worked at Colter Commons together, and now we both work in this office together. I just love supporting our students and seeing them grow as leaders; it’s really pouring into those leaders. … GCU has such a unique model of relying on student leaders. We give them the responsibility, and they really answer that. With each of these ministries, we tell them, “This is your little nonprofit.” … It’s really our leaders who are out there doing the work.
