Photos by Ralph Freso/GCU News
Arizona real estate and land developer Mike Ingram wasn’t about to miss the opening of Grand Canyon University’s newest building, even if it meant missing Bible study.
The 51,000-square-foot Sheila and Mike Ingram Honors College, the showcase home for the university's honors students, made its debut on Thursday at the main entrance to campus.
Once home to the College of Education, the renovated building is the crown jewel and architectural centerpiece of campus. It was designed by Caroline Lobo, founder of Suoll Architects, and built by Butch Glispie, president of Pono Construction, who have their hands in most of the campus’s buildings.
The mission? To fulfill GCU President Brian Mueller’s vision of creating the largest, most impactful honors college in the nation.
“The reason we decided to put the Ingram name on this honors college is because Mike and Sheila are such a strong reflection of what built Arizona,” Mueller said at the ribbon cutting.
Through his El Dorado Holdings, Mike Ingram is perhaps best known for creating master-planned communities in towns such as Maricopa and Buckeye.
It’s that kind of entrepreneurship and Christian leadership that the university wants to reflect, including in the Ingram Honors College.
Mueller shared GCU’s mission to educate leaders who will take that Christian worldview into every workplace.
“I think the Honors College is going to play an extremely vital role in that. … It will be the largest honors college in America,” Mueller said. “They’re going to come from all 50 states. They’re going to come with greater than 4.1 weighted GPAs.
“They’re going to be literally the smartest young people who will be the future leaders of our country, and they’re going to come right through this campus and through that building, and the goal is that some of us will stay alive long enough to see the first GCU grad become the first president of the United States of America.”
Ingram shares that vision. He and his wife, Sheila, were not honors students themselves but said they value education.
“It’s a beautiful building. It’s a real tribute to the leadership, especially to Dr. Breanna Naegeli, our dean,” said Ingram, who was introduced to GCU by former Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo and was sold on the university, its students and its Christian mission after attending basketball games.
He’s there regularly, taking in the vibrant game atmosphere and the energy of the students and always bringing a corral of people with him.
Like he did at the Ingram Honors College opening.
Ingram said he’s been attending a Tuesday morning Bible study group, one he started with Colangelo, since 1992. And he has since added a Thursday morning Bible study to his schedule.
“A lot of them are here. We’ve got a big group,” said Ingram of the Bible study friends he brought to the opening to introduce them to GCU. “We’re awful close. We love to study the Lord’s work together.”
One of the friends he brought from his Thursday Bible study group, philanthropist Jonathon Fisher, also is a big supporter of GCU.
“GCU is different. GCU is a movement, a powerful movement,” he said. “… It was very clear to us it was something we wanted to give money to, get involved in, help inspire young people and to follow in very large footsteps that have created a path before us.”
Ingram Honors College started as an institute in fall 2013 with 59 students, grew to 750 students by the time it opened as a college in 2015, and now is home to 3,400-plus students.
The university’s intention is for the college to reach 7,000 students by 2030. It grew 13.4% in just one year, from 2,998 in the 2025-26 academic year to the 3,400 honors students in 2026-27.
More than 1,300 new honors students started their studies at GCU this academic year, “making us the fastest growing honors program in the country,” Naegeli said during the grand opening event.
To reach this milestone – moving into a building of its own – Naegeli said, “This truly was a community effort to see all of this transformation come to light, so I am forever grateful.”
It’s a home that reflects the input of GCU’s honors students.
“They wanted to know, ‘What spaces do you want? Individual spaces? Collaboration spaces? Places to create community? Places to just exist and build what it means to be an honors student here at GCU?’ They made every one of those visions come to life,” Naegeli said of the building, designed to be a communal and collaborative hub.
“I think it (student input) is one of the reasons this ended up being so great,” said Daria Shlapak, a project management intern for the college who helped pass out brochures at the event. “They were craving space like that. Every time I see students come in, their eyes just light up and say, ‘Oh, it’s so cool.’”
What makes their eyes light up on first impression has to be the towering two-story glass lobby that allows passersby to see what’s going on inside the building.
On self-guided tours following the ribbon cutting, visitors could see all those communal and collaborative spaces, from large meeting rooms that could easily fit 100 students, to intimate cubby spaces for more private study time.
The space is welcoming, with curved, wood-slat covered walls to add warmth and texture, as well as geometric rugs and lounge areas with colorful orange, purple and green seating. At the same time, glass features throughout, from the walls to the stairs, add a modern touch.
Kaylee Aschbrenner, president of the Ingram Honors College Student Advisory Council, already has spent some time in the new building, though it’s been open for just two days.
“It’s such an incredible space,” Aschbrenner said. “Not only is the design so spectacular and different than anything else on campus, but you can tell that it’s made for an honors student – just that accessibility of study spaces and the collaborative spaces.
“We have a specific kind of table in this room, too, that you can’t find anywhere else (on campus) because they are built for collaboration and for working.”
Her favorite area?
“The study cubbies,” she said. “They’re little nooks inside of the wall where one or two students can get together and focus, and there’s charging ports there, and they’re a little soundproofed as well, so you can really block out those extra distractions.”
Mariana Florez, director of public relations for the college’s Student Advisory Council, said she loves the café vibe inside parts of the building.
“You can still talk to people if they pass by. Or, you can also make study reservations and be locked in,” she said. “No one’s talking to you, you can use a whiteboard.”
Florez also likes that there’s space for the 80-plus-member Leadership in Action group – a student-led group in the college designed to build professional skills.
“We haven’t had a room to hold all of our students,” she said, until now.
Beyond that, Florez said, “I just love the community that’s here.”
It’s a community the college will continue to build on as its new home continues to grow.
This summer, work on the building's third floor is scheduled to begin and will include an auditorium for conferences and banquets.
Said Florez, “I think it’s, honestly, such a gift to the students. We have so many spaces to study. We have easier ways to talk to the full-time staff now and other leadership … and just have a place to be in.”
Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected].
