EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally appeared in the November issue of GCU Magazine
Photos by Ralph Freso
Hunter Breshears rolls baseball-sized dough on any given morning at Chewk’s Cookies and plops them onto large baking sheets 1,000 times.
They’re destined for a catered event and to sell at Chewk’s, just 4 miles east of Grand Canyon University, where Breshears got his education, inspiration and business start.
“They always taught me I am not the most important thing in the equation. It’s all about serving people,” said Breshears, who in August opened his 300-square-foot cookie store in trendy Phoenix boutique shopping plaza The Frederick off east Missouri Avenue and 12th Street.
Servant leadership is a common tie three GCU alumni said they took from their studies and into the nearby neighborhoods to start small businesses.
Juan Robles, a 2018 graduate, operates a robust street taco business at Juanderful Tacos just two blocks from campus, and 2016 graduate Lynnette Fredrick opened The Black Sheep, a coffee shop 4 miles to the west.
“GCU alumni are suited for small business success because we provide many opportunities for students to interact and engage in the startup community,” said Dr. Allison Mason, senior associate dean of the Colangelo College of Business.
She said the ecosystem of student marketplaces, entrepreneurial clubs, lab spaces open to all students, Canyon Angels pitch events for investor funding, and Canyon Challenge competitions foster a business mindset not just in her college but across all the university’s colleges.
But what led Breshears to switch his enrollment to GCU was a college visit, when he saw the exploding entrepreneurial atmosphere at startup business incubator Canyon Ventures, where students had turned manufacturing skateboards into vital Phoenix businesses Lectric eBikes and Lux Precision Manufacturing.
Breshears had worked on his idea since his days at church camp in high school, when he learned how to bake what mimicked grandma’s soft, chewy cookies with traditional flavors – chocolate chunk, red velvet, snickerdoodle and peanut butter M&M.
At GCU, he met fellow student Mike Blum, and the two sold personal treasures, such as a car, to buy a 1972 camper and flour and began selling the cookies at student markets. The gooey treats became a huge hit.
The symbol of the cookie is love, Breshears said, but it also evolved into his entrepreneurial studies capstone project. After his December 2023 graduation, he was baking large quantities from a commercial kitchen space for weddings, birthdays and corporate events, while Blum opened a Chewk’s trailer in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Then a perfect space for a retail store became available this summer, 300 square feet with big windows looking out to a central courtyard that enable customers to spot an enviable counter full of cookie goodness.
Breshears’ goals are born of his GCU days: Serve people and solve their problems, such as what moms can bring for kids’ birthday parties or to adult dinner parties, what employers can do to make a corporate event special, or simply what customers can do to make themselves happy by taking a moment to enjoy a cookie and milk.
“You come in and leave feeling warmer and more loved. We always hope our employees make people laugh and smile and not take themselves too seriously,” he said of a team of six GCU students who work parttime there. “We make cookies. We are not performing surgery. We are making cookies and making people smile and laugh.”
Robles had a similar plan in opening Juanderful Tacos, whose logo is, in fact, a smiling taco.
“It resonated a lot with me to try to be of service to others,” he said of his GCU studies. “As the leader of the shop, it’s important to find ways to be in service to the team, instead of always just telling people what to do.”
He also sees his business as a service to the nearby immigrant community.
Robles and his GCU alumna wife, Evelyn Gomez Robles, were both undocumented childhood immigrants, federally protected by DACA, and connect with many in the neighborhood in the same situation, he said. The couple started by selling tacos on Saturdays in their backyard, advanced to a food cart and then opened the store on 37th Avenue and Camelback Road in February 2022.
Robles then worked as a student services counselor at GCU while his business grew, selling fresh street tacos made with his parents’ sacrifice, love and recipes. Then in March, Keith Lee, an MMA fighter and popular food critic who has an enormous social media following, gave Juanderful Tacos a rave review.
It was like winning the lottery, Robles said. The shop sold in one month what it once sold in six, including the most popular, the Quesataco. He doubled his employees to 14 and quit his job to run the business full time.
“My mentality is not to force anything, just let things happen naturally, just keep that faith in God, first and foremost,” he said. “I think it’s worked out so far. The biggest blessings we have had, whether personal or in the business, have happened on their own without having to force it.”
Small business with a heart seems to be a theme among these alums.
Fredrick, a 2016 graduate, took an old tattoo shop in downtown Glendale four years ago and turned it into a friendly coffee shop with a long lunch counter, like an old-school café, so customers could chat while enjoying the rich Honduran roast she sells at The Black Sheep.
What she got from GCU was how to “pour into my employees,” such as naming drinks after them, and remembering every customer’s name. It’s a tight-knit family, like the environment she saw develop on campus.
The shop holds college nights, worship nights and hosts groups from area churches. The wall art is from the community, the latest from prisoners who found faith. Many of the GCU students who work or frequent there fit right in.
“We have a sign that reads ‘eat, drink, be happy,’ which is from Ecclesiastes,” she said. “We are a Christian coffee shop, but everyone is welcome. If people ask, I am going to tell them, yes, everything is backed by Jesus. He’s the one who has made this all happen for me.”
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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