Photos by Ralph Freso
Hailey-Cate Bull is a freshman from Colorado, so one would assume she didn’t know that this is Grand Canyon University’s 75th anniversary.
On Monday, she was moving in her belongings with her parents and was hit by a sea of smiling faces behind the reception desk of Cactus Apartments.
“Congratulations!” the resident advisors hollered, blowing kazoos.
They handed her a purple gift bag attached to balloons, a reward for being the 75th resident to check in at Cactus Apartments, as Residence Life did in each of 30 living areas on campus to celebrate the university’s silver anniversary.
Bull was thrilled and surprised to get a gift. But it turns out she DID know about the anniversary.
“We have done our research on GCU,” said her father, Harry Bull.
He said they even bought a banner online proclaiming the anniversary and hung it in their Parker, Colorado, home in preparation for the day.
“This is very exciting,” said Hailey-Cate, who will study elementary education and is on the GCU dive team.
Cactus resident director Lauren Thompson said her staff was as excited as the recipient, presenting the bag filled with treats, a purple GCU tumbler and a little reading on the 75th anniversary. “When they saw it come in with balloons on it, they couldn’t wait to give it out.”
Grand Canyon College opened in September 1949 in Prescott, Arizona, with 95 students who attended classes in an old national guard armory before the founders bought 90 acres of land in west Phoenix. It grew to nearly 1,000 students by the early 2000s but was in financial trouble by 2008, when GCU President Brian Mueller and his administrative team arrived.
The university has grown to 25,000 ground students and 100,000 online students since, and its astounding success was chronicled in GCU’s recent book “75 Years of Purpose: 15 Years of Transformation.”
Welcome Week organizers wanted to celebrate that milestone with what students love most – freebies.
Ethan Young, a junior in business management, was taken aback by being handed a gift bag as No. 75 to move into Diamondback Apartments. He didn’t know GCU’s history.
“I would put it at more like 1960s or 1970s. … But I am a candy eater,” he said, pulling out the treats in the bag.
Mom Rosie Young, who was helping him move in, was just excited her son is at GCU after he spent two years at a community college.
“But more so I am excited that he is excited. It’s all he talked about was GCU and that he wanted to go here,” she said. “I was like, the opportunity is there, if we can make it happen, we are all in it for you.”
Young worked hard to get a scholarship and joined the bowling club.
“He is really excited about his next chapter in life,” she said, which on Monday started with a fun bit of luck.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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