1 2 • GCU TODAY
C
hristian
M
orales
sits in Grand Canyon University’s Starbucks
scanning a list of 63 names: This boy just got out of prison,
that girl has two children. This one moved away, that one’s on
Facebook. This one may not have known about the promise, that
one didn’t do well enough in high school to use it anyway.
But five people on the list, including Morales, did. ElizabethMacias. Ada
Ortega. Sarai Piña. Jessica Reyes. Five of “Sydney’s Kids” whose success at
GCU has produced something good from something evil 14½ years ago.
Sydney Browning would be proud.
***
On an autumn morning in 1999, two classes of second-graders held hands
to walk with their teachers fromGranada Primary School to the University,
which was celebrating its 50th anniversary. The children sang an off-key but
crowd-pleasing rendition of “Happy Birthday,” ate hot dogs and cookies, and
shyly greeted the smiling guests.
Two days later, and 1,000 miles away, a suicidal gunman stormed into
Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth and opened fire, killing seven
people, including Browning, a GCU alumna, beloved daughter, teacher, singer
and friend. Back in Phoenix, GCU was stunned by the news. The University’s
president at the time, Dr. Gil Stafford, was a Browning family friend who
wanted to do something in Sydney’s honor. The idea was simple:
Those little singers fromGranada, all 63 of them, would receive full-tuition
scholarships to GCU if they could graduate from high school and qualify for
admission. A perfect fit.
“Sydney was very representative of the kind of students who came
here,” Stafford says. “They were looking for a place where they could
find community and get a quality education and be involved and make a
difference. And her life was a reflection of that. She chose to educate those
who were underserved.”
A year after her death, Stafford met with the parents of Sydney’s Kids
to explain his plan and present each child a certificate with the promise in
writing. Over the years, GCU kept in contact with the families, sending
letters, offering tutoring and inviting the children to summer camps.
Although Stafford left the University in 2004, the promise was honored
by BrianMueller, who became CEO in 2008. Sixteen of Sydney’s Kids
started classes in the fall of 2010, and two more enrolled the next spring. Five
finished college — four of them this spring, one a year ago. All are the first in
their families to do so.
“It’s really beautiful to know that five of Sydney’s Kids were able to take
advantage of the opportunity to come to college and to graduate,” says
Stafford, now a priest at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Parish in Tempe. “It’s
exciting to see that they have such fantastic dreams.”
***
Sarai Piña grew up playing piano and soccer, assuming leadership roles in
high school, and helping at her church.
On track to become a physician assistant, Piña, 21, will graduate from
GCU with a biology degree. She has mixed feelings about benefiting from
Sydney’s death and is doing the best she can to emulate her.
“Sydney Browning is a part of my life, and I won’t ever forget her.”
Piña met Diana and Don Browning, Sydney’s parents, in her freshman
year. “They didn’t know how this would turn out, but they had true faith, and
they have been a blessing to us.”
***
Fourteen years haven’t erased the heaviness in the Brownings’ hearts, nor
have they dimmed the memories of their eldest daughter. Sydney was fiercely
independent, an ear-trained pianist with an extraordinary alto voice, a primo
During her lifetime, Sydney Browning helped thousands of
underprivilegedteenagersinTexasnavigatetheturbulentwaters
of adolescence and gave them hope for the future. Browning’s
tragic death produced a blessing for five more students in her
hometown of Phoenix, who have vowed to keep her memory —
and her passion for serving others — alive. Meet “Sydney’s Kids.”
APromise
Fulfilled
B Y J A N I E M A G R U D E R
Class of
2014
