2 8 • GCU TODAY
GCU
Alumni
executive at Riverside Regional
Medical Center in Newport
News, Va.
Anthony Perez,
M.Ed. in Elementary
Education (IR), ’11,
was selected by the
Museumof Science
in Boston to attend its Engineering
is Elementary program, developed
by its National Center for
Technological Literacy. He is one
of 100 teachers nationwide
awarded the scholarship.
JamesWieland,
B.S. inMarketing,
’11,
wrote a
guidebook, “Chains
of Change,” that
focuses on helping felons who
have been incarcerated by
showing themhow to find housing
and employment and become
contributingmembers of society.
Don Bendell, MSL,
’11,
is owner and
operator of
Strongheart Ranch
in southern
Colorado and has 28 books in
print. He and his wife, Shirley, are
the only couple in history inducted
into the International Karate and
Kickboxing Hall of Fame.
Nicole Thomas, M.
Ed. in Elementary
Education (Non-IR),
’12,
was named
Douglas County
public guardian (Minden, Nev.).
Thomas was promoted from
caseworker for Nevada
Department of Behavioral Health.
Charlee Harris
Hamilton, B.A. in
English Literature,
’13,
was featured in
Women of
Distinction Magazine as a new
author. After 15 years in the
consumer finance industry,
Harris Hamilton is a full-time
author and has published two
books, with a third scheduled to
be released this summer.
Melissa Evans, B.S.
in Justice Studies,
’13 andM.S. in
Psychology with an
Emphasis in
General Psychology,
’15,
is a
corporal for the Windham County
Sheriff’s Office in Vermont. Evans
previously served as a patrol
officer in Putney, Vt.
Christine Ragay-
Cathers, B.S. in
Biology, ’13,
is a
family medicine
physician at Dignity
Health Medical Group in Phoenix.
Ragay-Cathers previously served
in the Air Force, providing health
care to military men and women
and their families.
Greg Brown, B.A.
in History, ’13,
gave
apresentationon
Project Gemini,
America’s second
manned space program, at the
AllenCountyMuseum in Lima, Ohio.
Brown’s 12 years in themilitarywere
split among theNational Guard,
Army andAir Force, where hewas a
missile security specialist. He also
is a tour guide at the Armstrong Air
and SpaceMuseum in
Wapakoneta, Ohio.
AndrewMeyers,
B.S. in Athletic
Training, ’13,
is a
personal trainer at
Youfit Health Club in
Gilbert, Ariz., and writes
athletic-performance articles for
STACK Magazine. Meyers was a
four-year member of the GCU
men’s cross country team.
Connor Dougherty,
B.S. in Psychology,
’13,
and M.S. in
Psychology with an
Emphasis in General
Psychology, ’15, realized his
dream of playing professional
volleyball. The four-year member
of the GCU men’s team played in
Greece and Thailand.
Sonny Reel, B.S. in
Elementary
Education and
Special Education,
’13,
has been the
clerk of court in Edgefield, S.C.,
since February 2015. He oversees
the daily operations of the Family,
Common Pleas and General
Sessions courts.
SPOTLIGHT ON
Juan Mendoza, ’99
Although JuanMendoza’s original purpose
to come to Grand Canyon University was to
become a physician's assistant, he discovered
something bigger during his time on campus:
God’s grace and humor.
As a 30-year-old father of two (and
eventually three), Mendoza had bigger demands
on him than his classmates did—hewas
working full-time in the Navy reserve, doing
constructionwork and going to school full-time to support his family.
“Time was limited,” he recalls.
And after serving as a combat medic in the Middle East, including
frontline duty in the Gulf War, Mendoza lost his urge to go into the
health sciences and instead chose to enter the field of life science,
majoring in biology when he arrived at GCU in 1995.
Mendoza chose GCU because it posed a homelike atmosphere
with smaller classrooms and a genuine interest in student academics,
he said. But outside the classroom, he became involved in Chapel
services on campus.
“It was rewarding to know that GCUhad this (Christian) atmosphere
—you could see it and hear it everywhere on campus,” Mendoza said.
After graduating fromGCU in 1999, Mendoza worked as an
operations and trainingmanager for Urgent Care clinics in the Valley.
He currently is a private investigator for the Bureau of Diplomatic
Security in the U.S. Department of State.
According toMendoza, in the classroomGCU prepared him
to think critically, and outside it the University showed him the
camaraderie between teachers and students. But the most important
life lesson he got here was God’s presence in his life.
“I’ve had the privilege, being stationed in Iraq, to go to Babylon
and seeing Nebuchadnezzar’s Palace, the ruins of Babylon, the
Tigris-Euphrates River, going to places that you read about in
Sunday school — it’s humbling,” he said. “Although my career
trajectory definitely did not go in the direction I had originally
planned, I did leave with the same goals.”
—JEANNETTE CRUZ
