By Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau
If you didn’t have any Christmas spirit before visiting GCU’s Peoria office, you’d have to be a Scrooge not to feel some afterward.
The entire main building is adorned with holiday cheer, from the tree in the lobby downstairs to individual cubicles upstairs, some of which practically brim with ornaments.
Just as Cypress Hall denizens on the main campus decorated their doors, so did many enrollment counselors and student services advisors make merry with their cubicles. Giant snowflakes were hung with care from the ceiling in one third-floor corner, where a poster of actor Christopher Walken also proclaims, “Walken in a winter wonderland.”
Enrollment counselor Kelsi Thomas said she just had to create a paper paradise this season.
“I just love Christmas,” Thomas said. “We thought it would be fun to bring a little Christmas cheer.”
Nearby, Julia Babler, also an enrollment counselor, sat in a cubicle in which every item and every surface — even her monitor and chair —had been gaily wrapped in holiday paper. Babler carefully slit openings in the colorful wrap to use her computer’s on-off button, her file cabinet drawers and other necessary supplies.
“My staff did this for my Dec. 2 birthday,” she said. “I’m going to leave it up as long as possible.”
Kayla Pologa’s second-floor desk could almost double as Santa’s workshop. The enrollment counselor assembled 16 pieces of holiday cheer, including whimsical reindeer and shining white trees, to create a feeling of Christmas in her cubicle.
“I decorate my cube every holiday, but I go craziest at Christmas,” Pologa said. “I enjoy being in the spirit and love to have the office be in the spirit as well.”
Her cubicle neighbor Homer Ruiz, who has a sampling of snowmen and a Santa Claus coffee mug in his space, appreciates the lavishness of Pologa’s.
“She brings a lot of excitement into the office,” said Ruiz, an enrollment counselor.
If you didn’t know that Ashly Macri loves both GCU and owls, you need only take a peek at her desk to know it now. A purple tree bedecked with owls adds sparkles in her cubicle.
Even cool guy Andruw “A.B.” Bryant, who dons a black hat and jokes about his popularity, has a desk lined with silver garland.
Steve Rentzall, a student services advisor, and Tammy Stewart, a student services manager, also brightened the third floor with decorations, while Brittany Nicole Rexroat sat behind a veil of white Christmas ornaments.
Rexroat and fellow enrollment counselor Christian Engel shopped for holiday supplies and spread their wares through several cubicles.
“It’s fun getting in the holiday spirit,” Rexroat said.
Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or [email protected].
