GCU TODAY • 1 1
Kara Sutton, 18
RilynnHansen, 18
Hometown:
Charlotte, N.C.
Major:
English for secondary education
Kara Sutton didn’t move to Phoenix in
the most climate-friendly month — June
— but she couldn’t be coming to GCU at a
better time.
Suttonhas plenty of speechanddebate
experience as a teacher of younger students
andaparticipant in theNational Christian
Forensics andCommunicationsAssociation.
Members of GCU’s speechanddebate team
this springwon for the second consecutive year
national titles in individual events at theNational
ChristianCollege Forensics Invitational.
Sutton, who was homeschooled, doesn’t
know if God will lead her to teach in a public
or private high school or a university. But
she’s certain she’s been called to share her
Christian worldview through teaching.
“It may not be rewarding as far as pay
goes, but the rewarding part for me was
getting to see the students grow,” she said.
“It’s a blessing to see students who at first
dreaded giving speeches be so much more
comfortable by the end.”
The GCU factor:
Sutton wants to explore
GCU’s global mission program. Her heart
was captured by a February journey to China
to minister in a nursery for babies abandoned
because of their disabilities.
Hometown:
Grants Pass, Ore.
Major:
Communications
Rilynn Hansen was a high school freshman
in 2011 when she and her sister, Morgan,
won first place in a national Future Business
Leaders of America contest for their financial
plan on a mock business. No other Oregon
ninth grader had ever done that.
Hansen again wowed FBLA judges at the
2012 nationals, earning another blue ribbon
for a real community service project. She
and other students at Hidden Valley High
launched the Josephine County Foundation in
a region plagued by higher child poverty and
unemployment rates and lower high school
graduation and college achievement.
“We wanted to do something real. We
saw our county struggling and we wanted to
make a difference,” she said.
Hansen became proficient at grant
writing and building relationships. The
nonprofit began with community vision
clinics, where 200 pairs of used glasses
were handed out to low-income people.
Hansen’s newest FBLA national
project was Youth Education Success,
a partnership with a local television
station that made 11 grants to area
teachers. They purchased heart-
rate monitors for PE classes and
ceramic kilns for student artists and
established a life-skills garden and
dental clinic, among other services.
The GCU factor:
“Everyone seems
so friendly, and the campus looks
like a resort.”
VIDEO
Get to know some of this year’s incoming freshmen and hear about
their expectations for their first year in a video at
