By Doug Carroll
GCU News Bureau
Keeping up with Reyna Mosley is a workout. In fact, it takes a workout to even be Reyna Mosley.
Those who would dare to hang with the Grand Canyon University freshman are advised to catch her at Boot Camp on Tuesday evenings in the campus Rec Center. She's in shape -- and you'd better be, too.
"I love being healthy and fit," says Mosley, 18, a biology major who is studying to become a physician assistant. "It affects my mood."
The usual condition of her mood is extraordinary, and that's at least part of the reason she is Career Services' Student Worker of the Month for February. In her work as one of five peer mentors at the Center for Learning and Advancement on campus, she serves as part counselor and part encourager to a new select group of students each semester.
During the course of a week, she sees about eight students. The program is new to the University this school year and is designed to assist students inside and outside of the classroom.
"I help empower students and connect them to resources," Mosley says. "It's a rewarding job. A lot of them are just looking for guidance, and a lot are first-year students. They might just be having trouble with the whole college experience. If there are academic issues, I'll point them to tutors.
"I think it helps that I'm a student, too, experiencing the same things they are."
When a student comes to her, feeling overwhelmed, Mosley says she will explain what she calls "the circle of control" as a coping tool.
"So many things in life you can't control: time, the weather, others," she says. "But one thing that you can control is attitude. I try to get them to see the bigger picture. I try to tell them there are ways they can make things better."
Mosley, who is from Peoria and graduated from Sunrise Mountain High School, loves science and says she initially had planned to study pre-med at GCU. But she observed in her own visits to doctors that she was spending more time with their physician assistants.
"The physician assistant is the one who's with the patient every step of the way, and that's what I want," Mosley says. "I love people, talking to them and helping them."
That interest extends well beyond her mentoring work. She's in a Life Group, has worked on service projects with AzHOSA and has helped with the Student Success Series on campus. She plays intramural soccer and runs 5K races.
All of this activity makes her supervisor, Chris Barker, the center's director of student academic enrichment, eager to sing her praises.
"She is bright, creative, approachable and reliable," Barker says of Mosley. "As a peer mentor, she is dedicated to student success, and she empowers her peers to be connected. She is extraordinarily involved (on campus)."
So, anyone for Boot Camp?
Contact Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
