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CANYON CORRIDOR CONNECTION
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Communi t y Highl ights
“
Ultimately it is the free
enterprise system that creates
companies and jobs that turn
a deteriorating inner city
into a once again thriving
community. The motivation
to be the catalyst that gets
this done comes from the
Christian directive to
love
our neighbors
as ourselves.
– Brian Mueller
Forty different languages are spoken in its
classrooms. The high school is led by a dynamic
new principal and committed faculty. Two and
a half years ago we started the Learning Lounge
on our campus, open weekdays 3 to 8 exclusively
to high school students.
More than 100 of our best students provide
free tutoring and mentorship to hundreds of
Alhambra students. The results have been
astounding: Two years ago Alhambra was a
D-rated school. This year it is 10 points from
being a B school. Last year it graduated 402
students. This year, 502 students.
PART 4: ENRICH LIVES
Another goal is to enrich the lives of residents in
our community. Seven months ago we entered
into a contract with Habitat for Humanity — its
largest such partnership in America. Our goal
is to renovate 700 homes in our neighborhood
in the next five years. The first 40 homes have
been completed with hundreds of Grand Canyon
University faculty, staff and students providing
the dollars and labor.
PART 5: SECURE NEIGHBORHOODS
Grand Canyon is making its surrounding
neighborhoods safer. We are in year three of a
five-year $1 million partnership with the city of
Phoenix to drive crime out of our neighborhood.
The results of the partnership are remarkable:
All major crime categories are down more than
30 percent.
“The neighborhood surrounding GCU used to
be the highest violent crime area in the city, said
Today, it is one of the lowest crime areas in the
city, and it’s primarily due to GCU’s partnership
with the police department and the local
residents,” said Kevin Robinson, commander
of the Phoenix Police Department’s Cactus
Park Precinct.
Our next project is to get our students involved
in a $2.5-million Lope Kingdom Fund. GCU
students who present business plans that
are vetted and approved by a committee will
be funded if they build the business in our
neighborhood and employee its residents.
To quote Mr. Brooks again, “In the capitalist
view, poor people are not liabilities to be
managed by the government. They are human
beings with untapped potential.”
GCU is involved in dozens of important
not-for-profit agencies in our neighborhood.
For example, we supply both financial
contributions and hundreds of volunteer hours
in outreach projects such as the Phoenix Dream
Center, Phoenix Rescue Mission, Hopefest,
Neighborhood Christian Clinic, Boys and
Girls Clubs and our own Serve the City days,
Canyon Care events and the Run to Fight
Children’s Cancer.
This is all very important work. However,
ultimately it is the free enterprise system
that creates companies and jobs that turn
a deteriorating inner city into a once again
thriving community. The motivation to be
the catalyst that gets this done comes from
the Christian directive to love our neighbors
as ourselves.
GCU Facts
• Grand Canyon University has been
around since 1949 with a growing online
presence since the early 2000s.
Tom Tingle/
The Republic
• GCU’s Christian focus, along with being a
publicly-traded company, makes the school
unique in the United States.
Tom Tingle/
The Republic
• Grand Canyon is known for its nursing and
education programs.
Michael Schennum/
The Republic
Habitat For Humanity house leader Joe Genovese,
left, helps reroof a home near near Grand Canyon
University in February 2015.
(Photo: Cheryl Evans/The Republic)