What began as a way to discover hobby groups has evolved into one of GCU’s strongest career accelerators
Photos by Ralph Freso/Gallery
The Grand Canyon University Club and Community Fair has evolved into something closer to a career-accelerator party.
Students dressing as bananas, karaoke roaring through the Canyon Activity Center and free ice cream no longer dominated the scene. Business suits and formal attire hinted that a shift is underway. Professional clubs in fields of finance, law enforcement, engineering, medicine, artificial intelligence and more are drawing thousands of students looking for a head start.
The fair, one of the final highlights of Welcome Week, featured 102 student clubs, 37 club sports teams, 26 university departments and 22 vendors. The array of opportunities attracted 3,000 students, as undergraduates streamed through row after row of organizations that increasingly look less like casual pastimes and more like paths to career success.
“It’s really cool to see the students wanting to build their leadership and skills,” said Shane Drouse, GCU’s Clubs and Organizations coordinator. “They’re taking on extra responsibility that’s outside of their regular, everyday academics to grow themselves as a person.”
Drouse said the event – coordinated by Clubs and Organizations student leaders, student workers and GCU staff – has evolved in its design to be both a showcase and an on-ramp. A vendor row gave students a taste of what Arizona has to offer. The hobby- and recreation-focused clubs help introduce community. And the real engine of the day has arguably become the professional-leaning clubs.
“We have a club that fits everybody’s needs,” Drouse said. “A lot of it is just matching the job market expectations. In order for them to get to the levels they want to achieve, they need to rely on the network to help them get there because it’s not a solo act. It’s more of a team act.”
At the GCU Women in Finance table, that philosophy already has a track record.
“Finance is a male-dominated field, and as a woman in a male-dominated field, we want to have a community of other women,” said Sofiia Pantina, a senior finance major and president of the club.
The club is less than a year old and has seven women in leadership. A core team of about a dozen students helps draw 35 to 40 women to events every month, focused on networking, skill-building and direct exposure to employers. They expect that number to grow. At last week’s fair, the several pages of sign-up sheets were mostly full.
“We’re really big on networking, building up our resumes, doing an office tour at Vanguard or Schwab or whatever finance company there is,” Pantina said. “We are also big on bringing people to campus to speak or be a part of a panel.”
To reach even more students, and to adapt when space or scheduling is tight, the club launched its own podcast. Director of Podcasts and Media Nevaya Drotz said the platform allows her to blend an interest in film and finance. So far, the club has interviewed women from UBS and Vanguard, and is planning more episodes featuring professionals in trading and wealth management.
“There’s so many fields in finance that women can go into,” Drotz said. “They’re just not advertised.”
The club’s emphasis on visibility and networking is already paying off. Pantina spent the summer as part of a highly selective internship with Alera Group.
“There were 4,000 people that applied, and they only hired 34,” she said. After a 10-week rotation through several departments, her manager pulled her aside to offer her a job. Pantina now works part time as a retirement planning associate while she finishes her degree.
Just a few tables away, the Lopes Justice Society drew students considering law enforcement or federal service. Like their Women in Finance peers, their goal is to get people in touch with the different careers in law enforcement.
The club organizes tours of the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department training facility, as well as visits to GCU’s own Public Safety department. Guest speakers from local police agencies and the FBI walk students through recruitment and application processes.
“We had someone from the FBI in Phoenix come talk to us,” said Ava Lee, the club’s president. “She gave us a lot of information about applying for internships and jobs, and it was super helpful because I also applied for an internship there. It was really awesome getting to talk to someone that’s actually in that job.”
Career prep is central to the new Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers club and GCU chapter. Mechanical engineering major Dariana Jaime, the club’s secretary, said the group is part of a national network founded to support Hispanic students in STEM – but open to people from all backgrounds.
The club connects with SHPE chapters at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona, and with professional engineers at SRP, Honeywell and SHPE Phoenix. They host study sessions, company presentations and general body meetings where students can meet recruiters and mentors.
“It’s a lot of networking opportunities,” Jaime said. “Whether you’re a student looking to get some academic help or you’re already graduated and you’re out of state, you can find a professional chapter, get the help you need to network with people and also find a community.”
The Canyon Artificial Intelligence Research club is using student projects to give undergraduates a hands-on edge in one of the fastest-changing fields. Recent projects include a wheelchair controlled through EEG headsets, a thought-to-text interface and an American Sign Language recognition system that was showcased at a campus capstone event.
“This club gives us the opportunities to get a look into AI, develop projects and explore it overall,” said Joseph Lopotko, the club’s president and a junior software development major. “We run it like a business. We meet once a month, doing a stand-up kind of meeting where we have all of our projects present, show off their progress. It’s very cool to see everyone show off where they’re at in their projects. … We do welcome people from all kinds of majors.”
He said one club member already has parlayed that experience into an internship with a financial firm.
The Real Estate Club is working with partners like Keller Williams to offer a scholarship that covers the cost of a real estate license. Dane Sanderson, a sophomore business management major and the club's photographer, said they bring in experts who deal with escrow, commercial and residential real estate to mentor students.
For pre-med students, clubs such as GCU Minorities in Medicine and the Pre-Med Club help avoid the isolation that can come with a demanding academic track while offering early mentorship.
“Being pre-med, it’s so easy to lock yourself up in a room and just study all day long. It’s a lot easier to have that community around you while you’re doing it.” said Ariyah Snively, co-founder and president of Minorities in Medicine and vice president of the Pre-Med Club. “Clubs help you make those baby steps it takes to get there, mentoring and making the proper connections, making sure it's something you genuinely want to do.”
GCU News senior writer Jason Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected].
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