Amara Murray-Bell

Honors College Associate Dean Dr. Breanna Naegeli was honored as a winner of the prestigious Athena Valley of the Sun Founder’s Award on Thursday night, and Dr. Parm Gulshan, a GCU doctoral graduate, received the Champion Award. Athena supports, develops and honors women leaders, and Naegeli and Gulshan were recognized for their contributions to their field and their impact on the community.

Integrity is a key element in every student’s academic journey and one that Honors College Associate Dean Dr. Breanna Naegeli hopes to highlight during the inaugural Integrity Week. Workshops, information sessions and guest speakers have helped bring forward the message of acting with integrity in all aspects life. “I feel like this is a major step up from anything we’ve done previously,” Naegeli said.

In an academic year faced with a multitude of obstacles, including a global pandemic, GCU’s National Society of Collegiate Scholars made a name for themselves on a national level. For the second time since 2014, the GCU honors organization was named a Platinum Star Status Chapter for the 2020-2021 academic year and also won the second-place award for Virtual Member Engagement Star Status Merit. “It’s always exciting to achieve such an accomplishment and have this national recognition, but once you set the bar, you have a new bar,” said Honors College Associate Dean and chapter co-advisor Dr. Breanna Naegeli. “It’s not only continuing to meet those standards but to find ways to surpass that each year moving forward.”

There was no shortage of enthusiasm recently when the Honors College staged its first mission trip since the beginning of the pandemic. Eighteen students, accompanied by Honors College Program Manager Anna “Anya” Cofrancesco, traveled to Baja, Mexico for a medical mission trip. “It was honestly one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” said one of the students, Cheyenne Archuleta. “I really enjoyed getting to help people and really immerse myself into a new culture. It was a really great way to end my senior year.”

Another successful academic year wouldn’t be complete without an Honors College Banquet to celebrate the students’ accomplishments. They were recognized Wednesday for their hard work during the pandemic. “We’re extremely proud,” Program Manager Dennis Williams said. “It’s been a very challenging year for them, but we’ve seen so many of our students step up as leaders, step up in all these areas. This is, I think, going to be an extra special year.”

When social distancing guidelines were set in place to combat the spread of the pandemic, students in the Honors Voices Club and the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) came together to formulate a way to still serve their community. They created care packages for students in isolation at GCU Hotel and for health care workers on campus.