Photos by Ralph Freso
Judah Floyd started his candidacy for student body president with a polished answer to the opening question on how he would meet students’ needs and desires.
“Needs and desires,” he said, “are two different things.”
For example, students need scooter safety, but they desire longer dining hours.
The role of student body leader is a liaison between students and administration – often a tension between needs and desires.
“We're all human. We don't always agree on every little thing, and sometimes we have different views or opinions on what decisions are being made,” he said during the Associated Students of Grand Canyon University’s Meet the Candidates forum at Thunderground on Tuesday.
“It's important to listen, it's important to ask questions when engaging in open-ended conversations that really strike at the why. Why do you feel like that? Why would you want that? What is your suggestion?"
Floyd and his running mate for vice president, Gracie Zimbardi, are the uncontested team for ASGCU leadership in the 2026-27 academic year in an election that begins with voting today.
The two assembled a team of 120 students for their campaign, including 30 in marketing alone, to face off against the opponent, which is abstain.
“We didn’t know that. You got to prepare for everything,” Floyd said after the candidates took prepared questions and several more from a student audience.
The team encouraged students to vote anyway, because it’s important to express the right to vote and send a message to administration that they have support from the student body.
“We are two students excited to make a difference on campus,” Floyd said.
Floyd is a lean 6-foot-4, wearing a politician’s red tie and dark suit coat, who expressed his ideas with confidence and intelligence. Zimbardi said it drew her to team up with the junior resident assistant in Juniper Hall when considering a run while serving as ASGCU senate director this year.
The duo detailed their goals to increase scooter safety on a campus full of mostly electric scooters zipping about, to increase the dining hours at the campus eateries, to collaborate more closely with various departments, such as Residence Life, Spiritual Life and others, and to more actively engage a diverse group of students, such as commuters.
Misters and hammock stands on campus even got a mention.
Floyd was full of life advice from parents and mentors on how to accomplish those goals.
“My mom told me, ‘Wake up every day finding ways to help your family and every moment how to praise the Lord,'” he said. “I’ll give you a second one for free, from my nana: ‘If someone offers you an opportunity, take it. You may not think you are qualified for it, but you’ll never know unless you try.’”
Afterward, the junior accounting major even threw out another one: “My eighth grade teacher said, ‘Christ is perfect so we can pursue excellence.’ So I am going to take it on myself.”
Zimbardi’s parents also played a role in leading her to this stage.
Her pastor father in Riverside County, California, she said afterward, “is probably the greatest leader I know. He gave me advice on how to communicate with people, lead people and create a team. I personally felt well-equipped, but not only that, I love GCU. … Everyone cares so much for students.”
And one from mom that she shared with the audience: “Always give it your best ‘yes,’” she said, even if you are tired or uneasy and just want to go home. “Always give your best ‘yes’ to community, outreach and showing up for others.”
Floyd and Zimbardi said they are outgoing and love talking to people. Floyd is a long-distance runner, completing a marathon last year, and said GCU is a perfect 5K route through campus where he can high-five people along the way.
He said that on runs he sees ways to improve campus, even wakes up at night with thoughts, or in interactions with students, such as a freshman in Juniper who asked him what it means to pursue excellence.
“I said, ‘with humility,'” I think that’s what we are exactly talking about here. Pursuing excellence with humility. Excellence with humility means working hard to serve others every day.”
He hopes to take that communication style into his professional life, even joking about the atypical vision of an accountant in such a talky role. That’s why he’s focusing on auditing and said he already has a job lined up after next year’s graduation with KPMG, an auditing and tax advising company.
Both are fans of the exercise tracking Strava app – he running, she walking – across campus to meet with people at GCBC or his favorite, Sweet Disciple, where he often orders gelato. (“I recommend it to each and every one of you. Get your boys together. Get your friends together…”)
It’s also important, Zimbardi stressed, to share the Gospel and infuse the Christian worldview in discussions.
It helped her choose her own career path. After two younger siblings were adopted from foster care, her family faced the children’s mental health needs, she added afterward.
“The experience with my sister and the success we had in shaping her life through mental health practices and also leading them to Christ shaped my desire,” she said of her decision to study behavioral health science at GCU. “It’s heavy and hard, but because of my previous experience, I desire to be that change for people, while incorporating the impact that Christ has on us.
“Friends always told me, ‘You’d be a great therapist. You can just sit and listen.’”
Their first job, Floyd and Zimbardi say, will be to listen to students.
“We are not going to waste any time making the greatest university even greater,” said Floyd, unable to resist another aphorism on stage. “You only live once. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
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