Student Profile

Senior nursing student Heather McKean has her sights set on graduation, and then a future in forensic nursing. She credits her friend and fellow nursing student Kim Wright with helping her succeed in the GCU nursing program. “Find a classmate that thinks like you do,” she advises. “Connect with someone you can study with and support each other.”

Musician, tutor, cheerleader, skydiver, chess player, pre-Med major. GCU senior Chris Mellon is what you might consider a social butterfly. He is a fixture around campus, with two years of tutoring sciences, statistics and writing in the Center for Learning and Advancement. He is a regular performer at Java Jam. He jumped head first into the Canyon Kids ministry, meeting with local children on Saturday mornings. “The biggest part of college isn’t what you learn,” he says. “It is the person you become. My time at GCU has established who I am as a person and how I connect with people.” In his last year at GCU, Mellon has his mind set on med school and recently completed the MCAT.

For GCU sophomore Elizabeth Pabst, the theatre has always called to her. “Ever since I was little, I’ve loved it,” she says. “I used to gather all my friends and we’d put on plays from an early age. Even now, I get my nieces and nephews together for performances.” Her true venture onto the stage, though, came in high school. She always had played sports but didn’t have the time to do both. So she hung up her soccer cleats and threw herself wholeheartedly into theatre, and she hasn’t looked back.

It’s not easy for sports fans to understand what it’s like to be an athlete. Fans are able to understand the joy of a win or the sting of a loss. But how does it feel to be sidelined by an injury, forced to watch the season go by without making an impact? GCU men’s soccer star Kyle Ciliento has experienced that feeling — twice.

Traveling the country in a van for GCU isn’t a bad way to spend the summer, as Spencer Fehrenbacher and Trevor Roberts are discovering while hitting some of the biggest festivals in Christian music. They’re at the halfway point, and this weekend they’ll be in Rapid City, S.D.

Although Brooklyn-born Deborah Lynn Lovell has Multiple Sclerosis (MS), it took her years to admit it. Her mission in life now is to help people avoid making the same mistakes. She is now following another dream — earning a college degree. She enrolled in the Communications program at Grand Canyon University.

For many, Memorial Day is just another holiday. A day to barbecue, hang out at the pool and enjoy not having to be at work. But for those who have served in the armed forces, the day means something else.
GCU has a variety of active and veteran military students taking classes on campus and online. For two online master’s students, husband and wife Chris and Janice Voeller of Kansas, Memorial Day has a special meaning that only those who have put their lives on the line could possibly understand.

One of the neat things about convocation and graduation week is the opportunity to meet and talk with our graduates from all over the country, in a setting that allows a free exchange of thoughts and ideas. One such exchange occurred for me in one of the COE building classrooms during the open house we held on May 5.

Online learning is a unique experience. Online students do not have the chance to hang out in the hallway before class. They do not get lunch in the cafeteria. They do not get to play volleyball on the sand courts by the pool. A group of online students wanted a deeper connection with Grand Canyon University despite never setting foot on its campus. How have they done it? Facebook, of course.

Although senior psychology major Tim Jones graduated on Friday, he won’t be leaving Grand Canyon University just yet. Jones, a campus finance counselor known for his carefree manner and sense of humor, will be starting a master’s program with the goal of becoming a sports psychologist.