By Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau

Grand Canyon University has been tapped to receive an award for a cutting-edge cybersecurity awareness campaign with a new twist.

The GCU IT Security department initiative — “A New Take on an Old Problem- GCU’s Cybersecurity Awareness Program” — makes a difference because it relies on positive, instead of negative, reinforcement, said Andrew Roberts, IT Security director.

Andrew Roberts

The program garnered an award for GCU, which has been named an honoree of a 2017 CSO50 (Cybersecurity Officer) award from IDG (International Data Group).

“This prestigious honor is bestowed upon a select group of organizations that have demonstrated that their security projects/initiatives have created outstanding business value and thought leadership for their companies,” CSO said in a statement. The awards ceremony is in May.

Roberts said the initiative rewards employees who forward suspicious emails to his department. Traditional programs routinely provide negative reinforcement for unknowingly clicking on sham links.

Warnings from GCU’s “cyber-smart” employees allow Roberts’ four-member team to proactively protect systems before something bad happens.

Even a 15-minute head start gives the team time to mount a strong counterattack, allowing it to block email users and malicious links at the firewall and to contact email recipients. It has led to preventing malware incidents several times a week, Roberts said.

“The whole team has worked really hard to put this together,” Roberts said. “We don’t have a lot of the problems that other companies have. There’s usually a big wall between IT and everybody else. But we are getting a lot of engagement here. That is why we are ahead of the game.”

Since reporting suspicious emails is the desired activity, Roberts said, “every item reported to IT Security was answered promptly and courteously with an explanation of why (or why not) we should be concerned.”

The IT Security program includes weekly “IT Security Presents” emails, employee orientation training and an annual GCU Phishing Derby that awards prizes for sniffing out smelly emails.

The derby, which Roberts described as the “capstone” of the  program, was timed to coincide with National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. It started with three weeks of tips and ended with a chance for employees to win prizes for reporting phishing emails.

The well-crafted factoids — which also were included in GCU Today’s daily employee news digest — imparted such pearls of wisdom as Phishing Clue #8:

“Just Smells Phishy — Sometimes you can’t put your finger on it, but an email just doesn’t feel legitimate. When that happens, trust your instincts. If you think an email is a fraud or scam, you are probably right.

“Lucky for you, GCU has a team of highly trained professionals that can sniff out a phishing email in no time. Just forward that email to ITSecurity@gcu.edu and they will tell you if it’s safe.”

The first clue during the fun Phishing Derby

Even luckier, employees read and understood the clues and began forwarding questionable emails to IT Security at an increased rate, Roberts said.

Weekly “IT Security Presents” newsletters contain often humorous stories with varied topics and characters that make repeated cameo performances, Roberts said.

“Employees now regularly reach out on a variety of topics, not just phishing, for guidance and clarification of all things cyber,” Roberts said.

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

The post GCU wins cybersecurity-awareness campaign award appeared first on GCU Today.

A plaque commemorating the first Honors College graduates will be displayed in Building 33. (Photo by Darryl Webb)

By Jeannette Cruz
GCU News Bureau

Grand Canyon University leaders, faculty and students gathered Saturday for the Honors College Launch, a celebration of the growing program and the academic excellence of its students.

The Honors College presented President Brian Mueller with an award for impact and innovation.

“This is a big night for us,” President Brian Mueller told the student body, faculty and staff. “When I think about the nine colleges that we have now and the 220 academic programs, it’s overwhelming how we have been blessed and what God has done. But the most overwhelming thing for me is the students that have come here.”

Mueller recalled how the idea for an Honors College, which has nearly 1,200 students, double its size from when the program began in 2013, grew out of the “unbelievable talent and brainpower” of students who were arriving on campus. He also acknowledged that while students play an impact in their surrounding community, the mission is to prepare the next generation of worldwide leaders.

“If you’re going into business, or finance, engineering, computer science, or biology, your goals are all the same – to identify real problems in the world that create poverty and create partnerships, programs and real measurable results that eradicate poverty,” Mueller told the hundreds of students. “What people are going to find out is that as a result of what you’re doing here, the Christian worldview makes a difference.”

Dr. Antoinette Farmer, dean and vice president of institutional effectiveness. (Photo by Darryl Webb)

Dr. Antoinette Farmer, dean and vice president of institutional effectiveness, introduced its new advisory board and team. Brittany Holen, a recent graduate and former GCU women’s golfer, spoke warmly about her experience as a member of the Honors College.

“Throughout my time as a student, I had the honor and privilege of meeting many of the Honors students. And for those who haven’t met them, I tell you, they really do have a spark that sets them apart, and I have no doubt that they are on their way to accomplishing great feats,” she said.

At the end of the ceremony, Assistant Dean Breanna Naegeli presented the members of the inaugural class with a plaque (to be placed inside Building 33) recognizing the 44 graduates who started and finished in the Honors College program. Mueller was also presented with an award to recognize his impact and innovation in helping start the college.

Brittany Holen , a recent graduate, shared her perspective about the Honors College. (Photo by Darryl Webb)

“If it weren’t for these 50 students who blindly walked into an Honors experience of courses that were freshly developed, with faculty that were hired for this program and new extracurricular programming, the Honors College would not be what it is today,” Naegeli said. “Any student who walks into our office now knows who these individuals are.”

So why wait until now to formally introduce the Honors College?

“Since we’re now large and have students graduating and entering the world and the workforce, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate where we’ve come and where we’re going,” Naegeli said.

After the festivities, Honors College students Vincent Delcato and Dylan Murphy expressed their appreciation.

Delcato said the recognition was a great commemoration of all that he and his peers had accomplished. For Murphy, the moment was a reminder of walking into his first Honors class.

“There’s this photograph of us all meeting for the first time at a networking event, and I don’t think that we ever expected the program to grow to 1,200 students and then get awarded for it,” he said before joining his peers for another photograph in front of the silver plaque — this time to mark the end of their journey.

‘Power couples’ talk at Honors Dean Speaker Series 

Karl and Carla Gentles, managing partners of the Goode Wright Gentles Agency, were invited to share their perspective on healthy relationships and careers.

The promise of relationship advice also drew students to the “Gamma Mu’s Power Couples” Dean Speaker Series event in Antelope Gym, in which the the Honors College hosted two couples who revealed their journey to a successful career and marriage.

The hourlong event was moderated by Zachariah Mikutowicz, Honors College program manager, who led the conversation with questions prepared by students. The panel shared the stories of how they met, how their career aspirations dictated the kind of person they were looking to marry and how they negotiated their relationship with their career schedules.

Karl and Carla Gentles, managing partners of the Goode Wright Gentles Agency, a public relations, event production and brand strategy agency, said students need to evaluate whom they select as a romantic partner. In some cases, if we are paying attention, God sends us people who fit with our business mode and lifestyle, Karl said.

The couple met at a business reception in 2008. Karl had just left the firm he worked for to pursue his own agency, and Carla was an experienced event planner.

“I knew that as an event planner I liked to create experiences for other people, and so I knew I needed someone that was OK with living life out loud because of my personality and my chosen field,” Carla said.

Commander Kevin Robinson, a 35-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, and Michele Hayard, interim dean of the Mayo Medical School at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, shared the story of how they met and how they appreciate their differences.

Karl said, “Carla was charismatic and she was outgoing – two necessary traits in public relations – and I knew that she could hold her own in any situation.”

When Commander Kevin Robinson, a 35-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, and Michele Hayard, interim dean of the Mayo Medical School at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, were asked how they met, it was immediately clear that the story would be a good one.

Exchanging laughs, Hayard said, “He tells it best.”

Robinson explained how Hayard walked into his life at a time when he had reached the conclusion that he would never marry. Then, when he learned what she did for a living, he thought he stood no chance.

“I thought – a doctor is going to want to put up with a goofy cop for five, maybe six minutes,” Robinson said.

Meanwhile, Hayard, a single mother of three at the time, found that in between her hectic life and work schedule, Robinson was exactly what she needed.

“I always say that I am the gas and he is the brakes,” she said.

Robinson said he appreciated the numerous trips to medical conferences with Hayard.

“I get to tag along with her, and everyone always asks me what kind of medicine I practice,” he said, adding, “I’m still trying to convince Michelle to let me borrow a stethoscope just so I can say I’m a surgeon or something.”

As Robinson approaches his retirement from Phoenix PD and Hayard continues her research in the treatment of breast cancer, Robinson is proud to admit one thing: “This sophisticated physician and this goofy cop? We blend.”

Contact Jeannette Cruz at jeannette.cruz@gcu.edu or (602) 639-6631.

The post GCU celebrates growth, excellence of Honors College appeared first on GCU Today.

GCU News Bureau Staff

Graduating from a university is all about preparation and perseverance, and doing it in less than four years makes it even more difficult.

Streamers were shot from the stage at the end of commencement. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

The biggest crowd ever for a Grand Canyon University graduation ceremony got to witness that first-hand Friday afternoon as 798 graduates — many of whom arrived at GCU just 3½ years ago — celebrated their achievements during winter commencement.

Kaylee Caudill, the student speaker, put it best when she noted all the hard work she and her classmates had done and said, “These last few years have taught us how to persevere, even in the face of adversity.”

At the end of the ceremony, GCU President Brian Mueller made it a point to articulate the devotion of the graduates to Chapel and The Gathering and also to helping neighborhood children.

This graduate will take Thunder with her as she leaves GCU. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

“What I will remember most,” Mueller said, “is how you served not just each other, but that you served God and this neighborhood.”

The stories of the grads kept coming back to the preparation and perseverance theme.

Yamini Koyee, who graduated Friday a bachelor of science in biology with an emphasis in pre-medicine, said her education at GCU has been “amazing” and has prepared her to apply for medical school.

“They have the best teachers here,” said Koyee, who intends to apply to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Midwestern University in Glendale.

She said her favorite professor is Dr. Mark Wireman because he gave so much of himself to help his students.

Mom certainly deserves a kiss for all she has done. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

For example, he videotaped and posted videos after anatomy sessions to reinforce what the students had done in class that day and give them every opportunity to learn, Koyee said.

“I used to go to his office hours, and he spent so much time explaining everything to me,” Koyee said. “He even took us hiking.”

That, she said, was part of understanding the biology of exercise and the brain.

Brenda Torres, who also graduated with a degree in biology with an emphasis in pre-medicine, said the professors at GCU provide direction and support.

A group of nursing grads celebrate graduation together. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

“I like how they pushed us,” Torres said.

Steven Meythaler, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, said the program prepared him for his next step: a master’s degree in Counseling with an Emphasis on Childhood and Adolescent Disorders.

His career goal is to help kids who experience traumatic events.

“I want to give them the outlet to discuss it and help them grow strong,” he said.

Jordan Bader and Valerie Morales, who graduated with degrees from the College of Education, are preparing for their new jobs. Bader will teach geometry at the Sequoia Pathway Academy charter school in Maricopa, and Morales will teach first grade near GCU at Alhambra Traditional School.

They said the college provided the education they needed to go into their preferred field.

“I’m excited for the opportunity,” Morales said.

Brandon Lee, an Elementary Education major, admits that deciding his field of study was a journey. Initially, he hoped to become an FBI agent, only to learn that crime fighting wasn’t his passion.

Brandon Lee’s mortarboard said it all.

Instead, he felt called to renew society through education. Finally, it was during his coursework that he found a passion for teaching special education.

“I feel very comfortable with my decision,” Lee said. “My journey was challenging at times, but, ultimately, when it comes to teaching, it’s about doing your best every day.”

The Buckeye native proudly displayed his colorfully decorated mortarboard that read, “See the abilities, not the disabilities.”

Lee recently was hired to work as a teacher at Verrado High School, where he also plans on coaching the women’s basketball team.

GCU President Brian Mueller (left) and Dr. Tim Griffin, GCU’s pastor and dean of students, lead the procession into commencement. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

For Lee, one of the best parts of his journey at GCU, was meeting his fiancee, Bristol Bailey, after an intramural basketball game. Their wedding date is Feb. 25.

Lee said he intends to return to GCU for his master’s in Business Administration.

Allyanna Panganiban needed five years to graduate, but she deserves extra credit for persevering through her journey. She said the one thing she has learned is to always confide in God, even in tough times.

The 24-year-old, who graduated with her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, spent time searching for her passion and changed her major once. Then, last summer, she lost her boyfriend of five years, Ben Gayongala, in a car accident.

“It’s a part of my testimony, and I use that to tell people that hard times in your life are OK — with God you can get through it,” said Panganiban.

Although it took her a little longer than most students and a lot of her strength, Panganiban said she is proud to have finished, adding that Ben would have been, too.

“He wanted me to graduate, so this is for him,” she said.

Arantxa Moreno, a major in business in administration, enthusiastically showed off her yellow, blue and red mortarboard, representing her home country, Venezuela.

Arantxa Moreno shows off her mortarboard.

“It has been very different, but with the support of my family I am able to say that I am graduating from college today,” said, Moreno, who came to America eight years ago and discovered a genuine passion for business.

“Although my goal is to be a lawyer, I am eager to use my degree to gain more knowledge about how the world works,” she added.

She described her experience at GCU as “a blessing and the best choice” she could have ever made. In addition to her studies, Moreno was involved in numerous clubs and organizations including Student Engagement, Student Leadership and the Associated Students of GCU. She even traveled to Spain.

“I have a huge passion for people and for culture, and I was able to have that incredible experience here,” Moreno said. “I just hope that when people remember me they can say that I helped GCU continue to be a campus that is diversity aware.”

● Click here for the story of one woman who wasn’t able to graduate Friday because of cancer but has recovered and is ready to return to GCU.

Jeannette Cruz, Laurie Merrill and Rick Vacek contributed to this story.

The post They prepared, they persevered … they prevailed appeared first on GCU Today.

The L-shaped engineering building at the Grand Canyon University campus entrance on Camelback Road opens in January. (Photo by Darryl Webb)

Editor’s note: This story is reprinted from the December issue of GCU Magazine. To view the digital version of the magazine, click here.

By Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau

Sprawled out in chairs in Grand Canyon University’s newly expanded Lopes Lab, a group of students jotted ideas on a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard with red and blue markers as they brainstormed intently.

Across the lab, Brock Nelson, a senior Entrepreneurial Studies major, peered table-level at his skateboard as he carefully fitted it with Legos, pipe cleaners and clay. His goal, he said, is to build a model for a skateboard lock.

“If he attaches the (wheel assembly) truck and the board together, they can’t be taken apart,” said Ben Encinas, engineering lab coordinator.

Though at different stages of the creative process, Nelson and the brainstorming bunch were taking steps toward a similar goal: making products that solve problems and can be engineered on campus.

With the much anticipated opening of GCU’s new engineering wing, models like Nelson’s can be transformed into larger-scale prototypes in engineering machine shops and labs.

After years of planning and construction, the College of Science, Engineering and Technology is prepared to officially unveil the engineering wing of Building 1, adding an important piece to the academic environment of the campus. The east-west section of the enormous L-shaped building will welcome students in January for the start of spring semester.

“We are championing a very intensive, hands-on experience with new shops and labs that correspond to our teaching technique,” said CSET Associate Dean Dr. Michael Sheller, the head of GCU’s two-year-old engineering program.

He is also on the team of faculty, staff, industry, architect and laboratory consultants who helped develop and nurture the new engineering building from concept to reality.

The four-story, 170,000-square-foot structure is a giant, not only in sheer size but also in the cutting-edge nature of the sophisticated shops and labs in which engineering majors and others can apply their learning and create products as massive and complex as they can imagine.

The engineering building is integral to GCU’s goal to rise as an Arizona mecca for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), a University whose top-notch faculty prepare highly trained students to help fill a void in STEM jobs and attract more top-tier businesses to the state.

“It will be exciting to see the labs and the machine shops come alive,” CSET Dean Mark Wooden said. “It’s also exciting that our engineering students are at the phase that they are taking lab courses.”

Thriving Lopes Lab

Formerly part of the Colangelo College of Business (CCOB), the Lopes Lab has been integrated into the engineering department while maintaining its entrepreneurial core. It’s a place where students collaborate, tinker with ideas and create concept models.

It’s bigger and better and in a new location on the first floor of Building 1’s north-south wing. Designed by and for GCU students, the “makerspace lab,” as it is called, has projectors and a large Makerbot 3-D printer as well as CNC/Laser cutting and etching, programming, and electronic component creation.

“It’s given us freedom to expand our capabilities,” said Christian Clifton, a Lopes Lab student worker who spends hours in the lab and whose enthusiasm is contagious.

He spoke glowingly of the Team Innovation Experience, co-taught by engineering and CCOB. Students create concept models and prototypes in labs while learning about business in lectures, he said.

The engineering shops — one of the highlights of the shiny new space — will be finished before January. They are located on the natural-light bathed first floor, which has soaring ceilings and hallway windows that allow passersby to peek inside.

Wooden welcomes the wing’s spaciousness. It will add 33 more offices and meeting places, which will come in handy for the 15 additional CSET faculty and staff that were hired this year to accommodate the college’s increasing popularity.

Seven of the new employees were hired for the engineering program, including Cheryl Kooijmans, who came aboard in April to fill the newly created position of engineering program manager.

One of Sheller’s favorite features is a fourth-floor gallery/student hangout created in collaboration with the College of Fine Arts and Production. Large monitors will display student art and design work, mobiles will hang from the ceiling and paintings on the walls. Add to this lounge furniture and piped-in music.

How innovative are the new facilities? Compared with engineering programs at other teaching universities, Sheller believes that GCU’s stands out, and the new wing is one reason why. “It will put us in the top tier,” he said.

It’s bigger and better and in a new location on the first floor of Building 1’s north-south wing. Designed by and for GCU students, the “makerspace lab,” as it is called, has projectors and a large Makerbot 3-D printer as well as CNC/Laser cutting and etching, programming, and electronic component creation.

“It’s given us freedom to expand our capabilities,” said Christian Clifton, a Lopes Lab student worker who spends hours in the lab and whose enthusiasm is contagious.

He spoke glowingly of the Team Innovation Experience, co-taught by engineering and CCOB. Students create concept models and prototypes in labs while learning about business in lectures, he said.

The engineering shops — one of the highlights of the shiny new space — will be finished before January. They are located on the natural-light bathed first floor, which has soaring ceilings and hallway windows that allow passersby to peek inside.

Wooden welcomes the wing’s spaciousness. It will add 33 more offices and meeting places, which will come in handy for the 15 additional CSET faculty and staff that were hired this year to accommodate the college’s increasing popularity.

Seven of the new employees were hired for the engineering program, including Cheryl Kooijmans, who came aboard in April to fill the newly created position of engineering program manager.

One of Sheller’s favorite features is a fourth-floor gallery/student hangout created in collaboration with the College of Fine Arts and Production. Large monitors will display student art and design work, mobiles will hang from the ceiling and paintings on the walls. Add to this lounge furniture and piped-in music.

How innovative are the new facilities? Compared with engineering programs at other teaching universities, Sheller believes that GCU’s stands out, and the new wing is one reason why. “It will put us in the top tier,” he said.

Lopes Lab highlights:

• An engineering materials lab on the second floor is equipped with an atomic force microscope, which can chart the surface of a silicon wafer.
• An engineering power lab will allow students to experiment with generating and distributing electricity to GCU. As part of this, solar panels will be connected and installed on the lawn outside, Sheller said.
• A physics electromagnetic lab will feature an antenna and involve transmitting signals with waves containing magnetic fields.

Engineering shop highlights:

• Sheet metal working, with a machining center, milling machine, lathe, plasma cutter and 3D printer.
• Woodworking shop, with saws, drills and hand tools.
• Finishing shop, with paint booth, sand blaster and hand tools.

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639- 6511 or  laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

The post New engineering building is ready for students appeared first on GCU Today.

CSET instructor Jamie Cooner (right) with some of the students in her Capstone in Forensic Science course.

Story and photos by Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau

The seniors in Jamie Cooner’s Capstone in Forensic Science course last semester were not your typical group of students who happened to be taking a class together.

They bonded to form a unified front, a small band of future scientists with a two-fold message they want to share with the Grand Canyon University community:

• Don’t believe everything you see on the crime-sleuthing television shows.
• Despite the glamour with which it is depicted, forensic science is a rigorous, demanding major with science requirements similar to those in GCU’s pre-med program.

Call it, “the CSI effect,” said senior Cyprianna Smith, a Forensic Science major. “People watch TV and think they know how to do our job.”

Forensic Science majors Jerusalem Kebede (left) and Cyprianna Smith.

To set the record straight on the effectiveness of forensic science, each student contributed to an end-of-semester report on the topic and invited a GCU Today writer to hear their views.

“We decided as a whole to write and educate people about the depth of difficulty of forensic science,” said senior Ariel Johnson, a Forensic Science major.

In the report, students said that shows such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Dexter” and “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” don’t reflect the grim reality that forensic science is far from ideal.

“All shows have illustrated perfection in the forensic science field,” the report says. “Forensic science appears infallible and perfect, but forensic science is far from perfect.”

They discovered through research that faulty forensic science investigations can lead to imprisoning the innocent.

“Many people are ripped away from their lives and families to serve a prison sentence for a crime they did not commit,” the report said. This is “shocking … to say the least, from a discipline that has so many people believing its flawlessness.”

Just finding DNA at a scene, for example, doesn’t magically lead police to the culprit no matter what the crime is, said senior Joshua Lewis, also a Forensic Science major.

DNA processing is time consuming and expensive and can be nullified by equipment failure, human error and inadequate samples, Lewis said. It is not a smoking gun.

Each state, crime lab and jurisdiction has the potential to have its own set of procedures — there is no national standard  — and evidence is tested on equipment as infallible as the human beings who build and use it.

“People need to understand the science behind it, why certain evidence is processed, why certain evidence is abandoned,” Lewis said. “Human error can lead to the wrong result.”

There is much more to processing evidence than meets the eye, said Cooner, a College of Science, Engineering and Technology adjunct faculty member who teaches classes and labs in crime scene processing and physical evidence.

“Any trained monkey can go collect evidence and lift fingerprints,” Cooner said. “But the science is not common knowledge. It takes rigorous advanced study.

“GCU’s forensic science program is very, very difficult. All of these students are exceptionally smart.”

The science classes that GCU requires for the major include chemistry, human anatomy and physiology, crime scene processing, organic chemistry, pathophysiology, principals of biochemistry, genetics, physical evidence, physics, toxicology and body fluid and DNA analysis.

The expertise the students gain leads to high paying jobs in such fields as crime labs, hospitals and clinical labs, said senior Jerusalem Kebede. Students also go on to medical school.

“The degree plan at this institution is phenomenal,” Kebede said.

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

The post Think forensic science is easy? They’ll clue you in appeared first on GCU Today.

Editor’s note: This story is reprinted from the December issue of GCU Magazine. To view the digital version of the magazine, click here.

By Jeannette Cruz
GCU Magazine

Brandon Juarez first walked the grounds of Grand Canyon University 15 years ago as an out-of-state student. Today, he walks through celebrating his first year as a full-time assistant professor.

“It all is really special,” Juarez said, sitting behind his desk with a shy grin. “Within three years of having attended GCU, my life had been filled with meaningful connections, and who was to say it would have such a great impact on my life?”

To bring things full circle, Juarez, who teaches in the College of Education, now sits across the hall from the professor who helped him decide GCU was the right place for him at a time when he was overwhelmed and scared.

Juarez had just received his associate’s degree in liberal arts from Fullerton (Calif.) College. He had never lived anywhere other than Fullerton, his hometown, but that changed during the process of looking for an elite four-year university, which eventually led him to GCU.

“During my experience at the community college, I was well-immersed into connecting with my faculty and my counselors, and I had people who poured into my success,” Juarez said. “Going forward, I felt I still needed that, but growing up in California, I found universities to be saturated with students.”

Juarez signed up for a tour of GCU, but after his visit, he found he was still on the fence. Then his tour guide caught him by surprise when he scheduled him to sit down with a professor, William Kuehl.

The one-hour meeting was climactic, Juarez recalled.

He shared his educational experiences and future plans, and in exchange Kuehl handed Juarez a tentative schedule and glimpse into his future at GCU. Then everything clicked.

Fast forward 15 years, and Juarez still marvels at how it all evolved.

“That’s the nugget really worth noting. I’m still working on my emotions, to be honest, but I knew then that I could own my education at GCU and seek support when I needed it,” he said.

Kuehl, a professor and director of exercise science in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, has experienced GCU at the forefront of change. He began his career in 1983 as an adjunct professor for the University’s first Care and Prevention of Athletic Injuries course.

“I’ve taught a total of 28 classes here, I’ll be 65 next summer and I have no indication yet that I’m called to go somewhere else,” he said with a good-humored grin. “Plus, the students think I’m good.”

He added that, while teaching now includes different approaches and methods than when he was getting started, GCU’s mission and well-known slogan — “Find Your Purpose” — always have fit with his focus. As someone for whom a high school coach helped him unlock his full potential, Kuehl is passionate about bringing that philosophy to light.

Kuehl didn’t set out to be a teacher, but when he was a 13-year-old benchwarmer on his high school baseball and basketball teams, a coach encouraged him to look into athletic training. After his first course, Kuehl never looked back. By age 17, he was working as a conditioning and rehabilitation trainer for the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (then the California Angels).

Looking back on how far he’s come, Kuehl said he learned the true meaning of education.

“I knew I was good at what I did at a very young age, and it was because I had studied all of it,” he said.

Over the years, Kuehl has strived to help his students through their college degree.

“It’s a God-given thing to realize your full potential, and I can’t think of another way to do my job,” he said. “I’m good at taking care of injuries, but my calling and gift is to be able to help when students have no clue what to do — that was Brandon’s situation. He was in crisis, so I gave him direction.”

Juarez and Kuehl never completely left each other’s lives after that initial meeting. As a student, Juarez frequently stopped by Kuehl’s office. As a professional, he found himself transferring Kuehl’s teaching philosophies into his classroom.

Juarez considers himself an introvert, and Kuehl challenged him to invest outside of himself.

“You can be reserved, but then you really are missing out on one of your callings in the teaching world, which is to serve the students in your classroom,” Juarez said. “The way Bill taught made me feel at home. He didn’t sound like a teacher giving his students a lecture — there was much more of an interaction. He’s got that constant smile on his face and a genuine desire to wish people well.

“I’ve yet to find what he taught me in any textbook.”

Contact Jeannette Cruz at (602) 639-6631 or jeannette.cruz@gcu.edu.

The post The circle of GCU life — from student to colleague appeared first on GCU Today.

Enterprise hired 12 GCU grads into management training positions last year and also brought on five former interns from the University.

By Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

The proof is in the hires.

Between dozens of job fairs, networking and etiquette events, résumé reviews, mock interviews, Career IMPACT Center online tools website and more, Grand Canyon University students and alumni aren’t lacking free career resources.

GCU’s Career IMPACT Center job fairs bring together large numbers of companies and students.

More than 200 companies are expected on campus during the annual spring career fairs in February and March. Another 5,000 organizations are part of GCU’s Career Connections database, and nearly a dozen programs or events are scheduled for spring semester, an increasing number of which are college-specific.

This creates an obvious advantage for GCU by helping students and alumni contact, network and ultimately land jobs. Once inside, however, the success of GCU graduates and alumni has created pipelines between the school and dozens of companies around the Valley and beyond, including, Vanguard, ADP, The Hartford Group, Enterprise and REDW.

“(Companies) want to get into classrooms and meet students before even seeing a résumé,” said Jacqueline Smith, executive director of the Career IMPACT Center. “They want to partner with us and get to know students. They want to be involved in more ways than just job fairs.”

Northwestern Mutual is one of the many top-notch companies that recruit on campus.

Vanguard has 47 GCU alumni in its Scottsdale workforce, including 13 who have been hired in the last two years, according to Danielle McCormick, Vanguard’s university relations specialist. Although it’s known as a financial and investment services organization, Vanguard employees have accounting, marketing, business, entrepreneurism and other degrees that seamlessly fit among its 10 divisions that extend beyond finance.

Even better, Vanguard trains employees in any relevant financial and customer service knowledge.

Shane Keith earned his Business Management degree from GCU in 2013 and worked his way up within Vanguard as an operations supervisor in the Scottsdale office. He said the company culture was a huge draw for him, and he’s had the opportunity to cross-train with three different departments during his tenure.

Community involvement and its mission and values statements also attracted Kate Mears, who worked at Vanguard for several years before she went back to school and earned her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from GCU in 2015.

“A lot of our values align with GCU’s and its students,” McCormick said. “I always tell people that the phrase ‘Find Your Purpose’ is the words you live by and the mindset to do your best for the communities and beyond.

“We look for people who are good communicators, which is a big need in the customer service industry. Strategic thinking is important for companies that are growing fast and doing things differently, beyond the box.”

Enterprise, which operates transportation rental agencies and services, hired 12 GCU graduates into its management training program in 2016 along with five former interns for full-time positions.

Katie Berry, Enterprise’s HR talent acquisition specialist, noted that two recent grads – Belen Avila and Matthew Craft – received “milestone promotions” within two months of being hired. Andree Reid was hired to join the management training program after he graduated with a criminal justice degree.

Berry also said student-athletes are popular choices for employment by Enterprise and other service-oriented organizations. The list includes former GCU basketball players Isaiah Hamlin, Toby Okafor and Uros Ljeskovic.

Companies that attend GCU career fairs widely considered it advantageous for them because of the timing: The fair before commencement in April allows both the companies and soon-to-be-graduates to get a leg up on possible competitors who graduate in May or even June.

“When someone attends or graduates from GCU, they have a higher standard,” Berry said. “There’s character they showcase in choosing to go to GCU. It’s the standards of the University, the ideals and curriculum. The quality of education and candidates we find through GCU goes back to their decision to attend there in the first place. We keep track of them.”

The REDW accounting and tax firm located near the Biltmore area employs two GCU alumni among its more than 50 Phoenix office employees: Christine Brunke (Class of 2010) is a senior audit associate, and recent graduate Christy Kiser is a tax accountant.

The company also has hired two GCU seniors for a tax program internship beginning in January, and, according to Jodi Kellerhals in REDW’s human resources department, it has “current GCU students in the pipeline for future full-time audit positions.”

“We find that Grand Canyon University graduates fit wonderfully within our culture, vision and commitment to serve the community, our clientele and one another,” said Sandy Abalos, a principal in charge at REDW. “GCU is on the right track.”

So, too, are the increasingly symbiotic relationships between school and employer.

“We know our students are really prepared,” Smith said. “From large to small, the lists of events and successful alumni keep growing.”

CAREER IMPACT CENTER EVENTS

Companies on Campus (11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Student Union)

Jan. 9:  Pacific Office Automation

Jan. 10: Circle K

Jan. 11: AZ Department of Environmental Quality

Jan. 17: The Hartford

Jan. 18: Prescott Pines Camp

Jan. 23: Human Resources, Inc.

Jan. 24: Yelp

Jan. 25: Infinity Hospice Care

Jan. 30: U-Haul International

Jan. 31: Amazon

Feb. 7: Great Hearts

Feb. 13: Vanguard

Feb. 15: Liberty Mutual Insurance

Other notable dates:

Jan. 11-17: Student-Worker Appreciation Week

Feb. 24:  GCU Pre-Health Grad School Fair (11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Student Union Promenade)

Feb. 28-March 8:  Career Week

Feb. 28: Mocktail Reception and Etiquette Dinner (5-8 p.m.; RSVP required)

March 1: Resume Review and Mock Interviews (10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Saguaro Hall; RSVP required)

March 2: Job/Internship Fair (11 a.m.-1 p.m., Main Promenade)

March 8: GCU Wants to Hire You (11 a.m.-1 p.m., Saguaro Hall)

For more information, visit the Career IMPACT Center website or call (602) 639-6606.

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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Erasmo Rodriguez (left), Graham Guske and Kaitlyn Raney loop string though pulleys in a new engineering class at Grand Canyon University.

Story and photos by Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau

If concentration level is equal to noise level in a College of Science, Engineering and Technology classroom at Grand Canyon University, what is the net outcome?

While that obviously is not a real engineering question, the students in CSET professor Dina Higgins’ class spoke animatedly as they collaborated during a recent lab on “vector addition and resultant forces.”

And if they were to answer the question, they likely would say the new education style equals better understanding.

“I love it,” sophomore Vi Tran said. “This is the best way to learn.”

Tran and other fourth-semester engineering students are the first in GCU’s two-year-old engineering program to enroll in an ESG-360 Statics and Dynamics & Lab.

Guske and Raney get help from instructor Dina Higgins in Statics and Dynamics & Lab.

It is one of the first classes to be held in the east-west wing of Building 1, GCU’s state-of-the-art engineering structure that opened earlier this month. And like other engineering classes under development, it is taught in a style that stresses hands-on experiments and de-emphasizes the long-lecture format.

“Hands-on learning is the best way to learn concepts in engineering,” said Greg Bullock, an instructional assistant. “It ensures that they understand the ideas.”

During the first minutes of class, instructors introduce a concept, principle or fact. During the next 10-15 minutes, students apply it in a “mini-lab.” This is repeated throughout the class.

Higgins designed what she calls the “& Lab” portion of the curriculum, about 40 activities that each meet the objective of a specific topic.

“There is something every day, for the most part,” she said. “I will find out whether it works or not, especially when it comes to the timing.”

The first day was a success, she said, and Day 2 went well, too.

Student teams of two and three converged around statics boards on elevated tables. They used spring scales, force wheels, pulleys and strings to determine the “resultant force” and the “rectangular components, both magnitude and direction of a resultant force.”

What does that mean?

Engineering students use statics boards, pulleys and cables to solve problems in a GCU class that emphasizes lab work.

“We are practicing vector addition using different techniques,” said sophomore Kaitlyn Raney, partnered with Graham Guske, also a sophomore, as they were looping string through pulleys.

Vectors are mathematical constructs that represent physical forces, velocities and displacements. For example, a vector can represent the speed and direction of a moving car — but it is not the velocity of the car.

To make it even clearer, Higgins said such engineering know-how can be used, for example, to stabilize cell towers with cables.

“We need to know what the forces are on each cable to know whether it can withstand a wind,” Higgins said.

The information also is helpful in assessing what size cable is needed in a crane to pick up objects of varying weights, Bullock said.

“You have to size the cables appropriately so they don’t fail,” he said.

As the first team successfully created a static system with vectors exactly opposite each other, Raney and Guske were backtracking and retying string. They were enjoying every hands-on minute.

“I learn better from labs than from lectures,” Guske said. “It makes more sense when you physically see and touch what you are learning.”

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

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Kathryn Scott, Today’s Learn executive director, talks with attendees at GCU’s STEM Innovation breakfast. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

By Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau

In rapid succession, speakers from groups ranging from the Phoenix Zoo to the Southwest Maker Fair pitched their programs to an audience of educators Tuesday at Grand Canyon University Arena.

The 1 1/2-minute spiels highlighted how each could help K-12 students, teachers and administrators from across Arizona in the area of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

It was the GCU Strategic Educational Alliances’ (SEA) version of speed dating, with the goal of matching organizations that have STEM resources with educators who need them.

“Schools are recognizing that they need to change the way they teach to meet the changing demands of the workforce,” said Amanda Hughens, GCU’s K-12 STEM outreach manager.

GCU’s STEM Innovation breakfast doubled in size this year. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

The workforce is demanding highly trained job candidates in such areas as computer science, information technology and medicine and electrical, biomedical and mechanical engineering.

To help meet the demand, GCU recently has constructed two cutting-edge buildings with a combined 300,000 square feet to accommodate the University’s rapidly expanding list of STEM programs.

In his remarks, GCU President Brian Mueller stressed the importance of stepping up K-12 STEM education to better prepare students for the rigorous upper-level courses of study.

“That has to start in kindergarten,” Mueller said. “We have to make a commitment to study in those areas … and we can’t do that unless we work with you early.”

The “STEM Innovation: Reinforcing the Pipeline from Pre-K through Business” breakfast attracted more than 200 participants, double the number from last year, said Kathryn Scott, executive director for the Today’s Learn program at GCU.

The organizations offered a variety of resources, including expert speakers, field trips, professional development, curriculum, mentorship, sponsorship, classes and training.

They ran the gamut, from the Arizona Science Teachers Association and Arizona Science Center to STEMteachersPHX, LeadLocal and The STEMAZing Project.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department uses biology, physics and other sciences to protect animals and their habitat, and it offers courses that use wildlife as a context for teaching inquiry, literacy and social studies.

“STEM is important in what we do,” said Eric Proctor, the department’s wildlife education coordinator. “Situations like how to get an elk out of the road are problems that incorporate all aspects of STEM.”

Classes include the roles of GPS and geographic information systems in wildlife biology and the use of solar and wind energy in wildlife sustainability.

Delsey Olds, Agua Fria High School District science content specialist, said she loved GCU’s STEM Innovation breakfast. (Photo by Laurie Merrill)

The Arizona Humane Society offers education in veterinary medicine, hands-on learning and field trips that include live animal interactions. Programs are free to Title I schools in Maricopa County.

Arizona’s after-school MESA (math, engineering, science achievement) program also is free for Title I middle and high schools and serves 69 schools and 11,000 students, said Bill Pike, MESA coordinator.

USA Great Skate and Skateland Mesa/Chandler and Great Skate Glendale offer field trips in the physics of roller skating, acoustics, sound system design, Pythagorean Theorem, center of mass, projectile motion and more.

The breakfast, in its second year, had a streamlined structure that limited speeches to 1 1/2 minutes.

Sue Paschal, principal of the Sequoia Pathfinder Academy in the East Valley, said the event helped her to identify resources for enhancing the charter school’s program by giving it a STEM emphasis.

The new format suited Delsey Olds, Agua Fria High School District science content specialist. Agua Fria is opening a fifth high school in the West Valley that will be STEM-based, Olds said.

“I get to hear everyone’s little spiel and then go and connect with them,” Olds said. “I love it.”

The Strategic Education Alliance is hosting a series of STEM community events, including:

• MESA Regional Competition, 8 a.m.-3 p.m, Feb. 18, Building 57
• 3D Printing Showcase, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., March 4, Antelope Gym
• Google Summit, March 23-24, various classrooms
• FIRST Robotics, April 6-8, GCU Arena

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

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Michael Kary (left) and Dr. Wayne Schmidt give their talk on “Christian Love” during the “Lunch and Learn” speaker series Friday. (Photo by Mark Heller)

By Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

Dr. Wayne Schmidt, faculty chair for the College of Doctoral Studies, and Michael Kary, an instructor in the College of Fine Arts and Production, discussed the ways love is a discipline, a command and a gift when they presented at the latest “Lunch and Learn” speaker series event Friday at Howerton Hall.

“Christian Love” was an exploration of secular and biblical interpretations of love and the transcendence of love beyond basic human instincts or shallow pursuits. The discussion was the fourth installment of the theme, “Things That Really Matter,” in the Integration of Faith, Learning and Work (IFLW) program for Grand Canyon University faculty.

They said “love” is a choice we all make, whether it’s food, a sports team or family and friends. But it’s also a commandment from God and taught by example through Jesus.

“These are all little miracles,” Kary said. “These are God acting in so many ways in our daily world.”

Love’s effect on both our own individual being and in any interactions with others sounds intuitive, but it can manifest itself in so many ways that might not seem obvious.

Schmidt spoke of love in the context of “humility, compassion and forgiveness,” the latter of which was an eye-opening concept College of Theology Dean Dr. Jason Hiles later used to explain some less obvious and demanding ways we should love each other – namely, “Loving our Enemies” or those who have done us some harm.

Hiles referenced Luke 6:27-36 along with the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi, three powerful examples of people who attempted to love and engage with everyone, even in the face of violence, death or destruction. Loving enemies and forgiving those actions is requisite to experiencing true love, no matter whether it’s reciprocated by people who may or may not be likable.

Loving everyone and doing so without expecting any “reward” in return – Hiles noted that “sinners also have those whom they love” – is true kindness and compassion.

“Loving like Jesus did is possible because in part because we are disciples of God and Jesus,” Hiles said.

Doing so leads to unconditional love for each other and a truly beneficial existence.

“Everything we’re called to do is given to us through God and Jesus,” Hiles said. “(Love) is not just pithy sayings but something that requires provisions and the power of God at every point.”

Mark Heller can be reached at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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By Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

Variety is both the spice of life and an important dynamic on the Grand Canyon University campus. Coincidentally, it was a major factor in choosing TEDx finalists.

After more than 30 four-minute presentations, many of them highly personal, were delivered in the X-Trials auditions in late January, the 20 finalists were announced this week for the March 2 event at GCU Arena. Tickets went on sale this week.

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a nonprofit that spreads concepts using short, powerful talks on a wide swath of topics, including science, business, sociology and global issues. In 2009, TED launched TEDx with the goal of bringing the TED experience to local communities, cities and universities.

Finalists for GCU’s “Being a part of something great” theme for TEDx were based on input from both TEDx audition audience surveys and a more complicated points system used by the creators and organizers of the event.

Marketing and advertising campaigns are underway, and co-creators Jedidiah Woods and Austin Mosher are hoping to draw an audience of at least 4,000 for the full-day event at the Arena. A banner will be hung on Prescott Hall. The billboard at I-17 and Camelback Road will be utilized, and TV, radio and email campaigns are coming.

“It’ll be crazy the next couple weeks,” Woods said.

Advised by CCOB instructor Paul Waterman, this student-driven TEDx event features men and women from all walks of life: GCU President and CEO Brian Mueller; sophomore education student Stephen Parisi; former Navy Seal Jeff Nichols; Dr. Steven Hansen, president and CEO of the Arizona Humane Society; and former Insight creator Tim Crown.

Woods said students are helping these 19 professionals and one student tailor and refine their speeches in preparation for March 2.

“These are ideas the students wanted,” he said of the finalists. “We wanted ideas that are worth spreading, ideas that both use and revolve around emotional or personal messages.”

TEDx Speakers

• Greg Tonkinson: Doubt
• Ron Blake: Overcoming depression through strangers
• Inseong Kim: Cultural identity
• Romeo Farinacci: Cybersecurity
• Stephen Parisi: A new approach to final exams
• Nicole Clifton: “Both-and” vs. “Either-or” statements
• Jeff Nichols: Purpose training from a Navy Seal
• Alison Johnson: Come as you are
• Danielle Stringer: In support of vaccinations
• David Schneider: Perspective can change everything
• Ileana Hester: Psychology behind languages
• Steven Hansen: Planned obsolescence of animal shelters
• Shawn Bawulski: Hell
• Brian Mueller: Impact of education institutions on surrounding communities
• Suzana Flores: Marriage and long-lasting relationships
• John DenBoer: Dementia
• Tim Crown: Corporate culture
• Adam Goodman: Conscious capitalism
• Max Stossel: How millennials receive news and information
• Andrew Collins: Motivating unmotivated students

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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Sheila Schumacher, an assistant professor and director of digital design in the College of Fine Arts and Production shares a story about forging identities as people and through Jesus.

By Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

The core matters most. Whether it’s the sun in our solar system, a couch in the living room or even the frosting inside an Oreo.

Within ourselves as human beings, it’s often Jesus. But even these centers of our own universes (large or small) can be taken for granted.

It’s why Sheila Schumacher, an assistant professor and director of digital design in the College of Fine Arts and Production, addressed the challenges of centering and prioritizing Jesus not only in our daily lives, but with students.

The “Jesus at the Center” discussion during Friday’s “Lunch and Learn” speaker series in Howerton Hall was the fifth installment of the 2016-17 theme, “Things That Really Matter.” The final installment for this school year, “Following Jesus,” is scheduled for March 17.

Schumacher cited Eugene H. Peterson’s writings from the early 1980s (long before smartphones and the digital age): “There is a great market for religious experience. There is little enthusiasm for patience and virtue.” Schumacher said exploring and solidifying a relationship with Jesus provides clarity, wisdom and joy.

After a particularly difficult day teaching, Schumacher told of a late night in her office, emotionally frayed and downtrodden by the day’s events.

The next morning she returned to her office and found a poster made by her daughter (a GCU student) with Psalm 94:19: “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.”

“It was a pull like gravity back into what’s important,” she said. “…an indication God was at the center of life.”

The reinforcement of Schumacher’s identity as a person and educator was expanded upon by College of Theology Dean Dr. Jason Hiles. He referenced Luke 8:27-30 in which Jesus asks, ‘Who do people say I am?’

Shortly thereafter Jesus again questions: “Who do you think I am?”

Hiles associated these existential questions with being a teenager, middle aged and retirement, “reference points” of life in which we focus on who we are and what we want, “and try to have everything we want but can’t quite achieve it.

“It’s impossible to answer ‘Who am I?’ without a reference point,” he said.

Speaking of reference points, GCU Speech and Debate Team coach Barry Regan had his wisdom teeth removed last week, but he pre-recorded an eight-minute Q and A video that covered a variety of concepts and ways he incorporates faith and biblical concepts into speech and debate discourse.

Regan told the story of a debate team member who was supposed to argue the “pros” of pornography, something which went against his own personal beliefs. But Regan said the member argued that being forced to detach from his own personal views and do a counter-argument for something he was morally against was harmful to himself and his Christian faith. His arguments ultimately helped him win the debate.

“It was a pretty cool moment because oftentimes Christian schools are afraid to engage in those types of Christian-based arguments,” Regan said. “We tell our students that if you feel this forces you to disassociate yourself from your Christian faith, don’t do it. Argue against it and talk about why.”

Regan also noted that competitiveness and desire for successful results can overshadow the concept of serving others, or what Jesus described as “washing others’ feet.”

“We try to empower (members) and use faith in our discourse,” he said.

Doing so sometimes requires a winding journey and regular reflection so the center of our lives remains sweet and savory.

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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The Thunderbots Team, aka the Robotics Club, entered a Lego-mobile in the Derby Kart race during homecoming weekend. 

By Laurie Merrill
GCU News Bureau

Spectators at the Derby Kart races during Grand Canyon University homecoming last weekend couldn’t miss the Lego-mobile.

Not only did the red, yellow and blue vehicle mark the arrival of a kart so unusual that it won the derby’s “Most Creative” award. It also served to announce the emergence of one of GCU’s six new engineering clubs.

That the Robotics Club could build a kart — a winning one, no less — just weeks after earning official club status is a testament to its members’ enthusiasm and dedication.

“I’m so excited to see STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) flourishing here at GCU,” said freshman Makayla Jewell, the new club’s president.

The Associated Students of GCU (ASGCU) reached out to the club about three weeks ago to ask it to compete in the derby, Jewell said.

“Since we were short on time and low on manpower to get it done, we came up with a thing that is a well-known material in engineering: Legos,” Jewell said.

Makayla Jewell, president of the Robotics Club/Thunderbots Team, pushes the team’s Lego kart while freshman Hannah Baptista sits inside.

The “Thunderbots Team” came up with a design and used the new Fabrication Lab in the new engineering building.

“We learned how to use the band saw, the table saw and other pieces,” Jewell said. “Through it we gained some knowledge.”

They also gained some advertising value.

“We had a lot of people come up to us after the race and say they had never heard of us,” said Jewell, a Biomedical Engineering major.

The 15-member club already has built a robot named FR (for “First Robot”). “He” is 6 inches wide and 10 inches tall and drives back and forth and left to right, Jewell said.

Five other engineering clubs became official in January. The list, with their initial projects:  

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers: designing and building a trebuchet (a type of engine used in the Middle Ages).
• Biomedical Engineering Society: developing biomechanics labs and reverse engineering biomedical devices.
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: developing a device to help handicapped children be more mobile during physical therapy.
• Society of Automotive Engineers: building go karts and focusing on motors and axles
• Society of Women Engineers: training in woodworking shops.

Jewell said she was excited to participate in forming the Robotics Club because there weren’t many engineering clubs on campus.

“I felt it was really important for some of the STEM departments to have their own clubs,” she said.

Ed Koeneman, a College of Science, Engineering and Technology instructor, is the adviser. Jewell said the purpose is to work on a team, build robots, compete and reach out to high schools.

“We are just now trying to grow ourselves and become a larger team,” she said.

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

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Story by Mark Heller
Photos by Slaven Gujic
GCU News Bureau

Alyssa Fernandez admitted she missed her Thursday afternoon classes, but the Grand Canyon University junior still got an education.

Fernandez was one of approximately 1,000 attendees inside GCU Arena for the University’s inaugural TEDx speaker showcase: 18 speakers and five videos culminating in eight hours of thought-provoking, emotional and poignant speeches on a wide variety of subjects and ideas.

TEDx attendees were greeted by message boards and other thought-provoking items in the foyer of GCU Arena, and they got a lot more to think about once they got inside and listened to the talks.

Fernandez watched a couple of TED talks in class. But the chance to watch in person and hear about topics she found intriguing was worth much more than the price of admission.

“This is great,” she said during an intermission. “These talks are pretty powerful, and there’s so much you can take away from this. It’s educational and inspirational stuff that challenges your thoughts.

“It was worth it. I’ll go back to class (Friday).”

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a nonprofit that spreads concepts using short, powerful talks on a wide swath of topics, including science, business, sociology and global issues. In 2009, TED launched TEDx with the goal of bringing the TED experience to local communities, cities and universities.

The brainchild of GCU students Jedidiah Woods and Austin Mosher, TEDx at Grand Canyon University was fostered through the Paul Waterman-led Project Management Club. With help from CCOB Dean Dr. Randy Gibb, assistant professor Tim Kelley and a slew of GCU faculty, an exhaustive nine months of planning, hiring, organizing (with help from 10 company sponsorships) and event management culminated in this student-led production that Woods and Mosher expect to return for 2018 and beyond.

Kelley and Waterman co-MC’d the TEDx event. Woods said all of Thursday’s TEDx talks (which were filmed) will be edited and sent to TED headquarters in New York City within the next two weeks.

Stephen Parisi

The “Be a Part of Something Great” theme featured men and women from all walks of life personally and professionally who were chosen following auditions in late January. That tryout group included GCU President Brian Mueller and other faculty and staff; CEOs of local organizations such as the Arizona Humane Society and Insight.com; a former Navy Seal, Jeff Nichols; and several community members with inspirational life stories.

One of the highlights of Thursday’s talks was the one by Stephen Parisi, a GCU sophomore majoring in Education who challenged the value of bubble-sheet memorization tests and essays that often constitute American educational systems’ final exams. He countered that projects and presentations can provide better evaluation of students’ abilities, learning methods and critical-thinking skills necessary in the real world.

The day’s talks cut through a wide swath of subjects meant to provide a different perspective, including a discussion about perspective by David Schneider, a lifelong quadriplegic who shared how an ordeal attempting to open a pizza box at age 7 changed his self-image and worldview.

GCU’s director of IT and cybersecurity, Dr. Romeo Farinacci, donned the stage in a shiny, all-purple suit. The substance of his speech, however, matched his style as he reinforced the importance of family and personal protection in this digital age and closed by questioning whether such protection and safeguards influenced the presidential election.

In addition to Mueller’s energetic and statistic-driven talk about GCU’s effect on the local community, two of the most emotional and well-received speeches were from campus.

Allison Johnson

Allison Johnson is a GCU resident director who shared her battles growing up with a form of dyslexia. Her speech, “Seeing vs. Looking,” grew out of being tested for learning disabilities in third grade. All but one on the “expert” panel recommended she be put in special education classes.

The lone dissenter: her third-grade teacher.

“She gave me the freedom to be me,” Johnson said. “She saw that putting me in special education classes would have killed me.”

A random meeting with a student who share her similar learning disability two days before the TEDx auditions reshaped Johnson’s presentation, which focused on the differences between “seeing” someone (deeper being of a person) and “looking” (surface level).

“Looking is easier and safer at arm’s length,” she said. “… I sometimes struggle with ‘Am I enough?’ Yet I love who I am.”

A few speakers later, fellow GCU resident director Nicole Clifton took the stage and delivered a charged presentation about our self-identity titled, “Both/And, not Either/Or.”

Inspired by her resident director in college, she urged the crowd to forgo the typical “brain or heart” thought process, in which we define ourselves as being either one or the other.

Instead, she believes human beings should use both brain and heart in making decisions. It’s what helped her decide to (finally) get a tattoo on her left shoulder, a series of “and” statements inspired from books she’s read as a reminder that “we are both or many of these things:”

Tim Kelley, assistant professor in the Colangelo College of Business, was the emcee for the TEDx event.

Wounded Healer

Hope Carrier

Love Warrior

“Identity is complex, but our culture often refutes them or insists we label ourselves and each other one way or another,” she said. “I’m a realist.”

From the comedic to poignant, cognitive to emotional, global to hyperlocal, business or personal, the day was about sharing: thoughts, ideas, feelings, concepts energy and more on a global stage.

They were a part of something great.

“It’s a whole process that we didn’t know what we were getting into,” Woods said. “Every year we want to make this better and better.”

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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Forensic science tools include footprint identification, as a high school student learns at GCU’s annual Forensic Science Day.

Story by Laurie Merrill
Photos by Slaven Gujic
GCU News Bureau

Allie Lott and Gabby Sequeira, both from Gilbert and both home-schooled, were all smiles Tuesday at Grand Canyon University as they milled about with nearly 1,500 other students on Forensic Science Day.

And that was before they found out that their two-person team was one of the three winners in the Crime Scene Challenge, the annual contest of wits for junior sleuths attempting to crack a complex “murder” scene set up for their benefit.

“We won!” Lott said with a joyous grin mirrored by her teammate. They came in second but had beaten out much bigger teams from among the 83 public and Christian high schools who participated in one of GCU’s most popular annual events.

Hundreds of high school students tried to solve a crime set up behind police tape.

Crowds of visitors toured DNA and cadaver labs, watched a police dog demonstration and listened to an impressive roster of forensic experts, such as members of the Phoenix and Scottsdale police departments and crime laboratory investigators. Among the many topics were forensic dentistry, forensic art, forensic firearm examination and forensic biology screening.

“I do like the variety that is going on,” said Mitchell Mangiapane, a forensic science, human anatomy and physiology teacher at Desert Edge High School in Goodyear. “They can see the end of the road ─ and the path for them to get there.”

Fellow teacher Cami Gardin concurred. “I think it’s awesome that the kids get to see what GCU has to offer,” she said. “It reinforces what we’ve been teaching them all year.”

It’s a tradition for GCU’s forensic science majors to run a gauntlet of hands-on booths in such areas as tire track, footprint, blood spatter and fingerprint analysis. The exhibits drew students intrigued by the multistep process of making a positive identification that police can use as evidence.

A high school visitor dusts powder over a tire print.

At GCU senior Matt Brown’s tire tread exhibit, students spread Vaseline onto tires, rolled the tires onto paper and shook dark gray dust on the marks to create a tire pattern.

If a tire impression is left at the scene of the crime, forensic scientists can compare it to a suspect’s car. Brown said that thousands of variables go into tire tread identification, but each tire has a unique pattern because of how and where the individual car is driven, Brown said.

“It takes a lot of practice,” he said.  

Erin Hickson, a firearms analyst and forensic artist who works in the Phoenix police crime lab, fascinated a packed classroom with composite drawings she created based on witness interviews.

Hickson shows witnesses books containing pictures of various ears, eyes, noses and foreheads and asks them to pick out the closest matches. Then she draws the face based on their choices.

“For my drawings, so far, I’ve got a 40 percent hit ratio,” Hickson said.

Erin Hickson from the Phoenix Police crime lab displayed her remarkably accurate composite suspect drawings.

She exhibited several composite sketches and the mug shots after arrests were made. Her drawings were remarkably similar.

The largest crowd every year surrounds the Crime Scene Challenge. Teams of students investigate the scene, decide what evidence is important, determine what happened and write it down an contest entry sheet.  

This year’s scene featured a female “corpse” with a white noose around her neck, bruising around her throat and a gunshot to her head. She was seated at a table that held two glasses, one on its side and the other partly filled, a roll of tape, a bullet, a bullet casing and plenty of cash.

The bills also spilled out of the corpse’s pocket and onto the ground near a gun that rested by the table.

Wesley Loveall, a junior from Camp Verde High School, said it was obvious to him what happened: “It’s a murder made to look like a suicide,” he said.

One of the Forensic Science Day highlights is a police dog demonstration.

Brandon Ruiz, a sophomore from the same school, said the murderer “was in shock. In a struggle for the gun, he shot her and was shocked.” That’s why all the money was left.

Mangiapane suggested the bullet was fired from far away because there was no powder on the corpse’s shirt, which rules out suicide.

Ana Kelly, a GCU forensic science senior, whispered the solution: It was in fact a homicide made to look like a suicide.

“The murderer used a gun, you can see the gunshot wound to her head and the gun on the other side, and then set it up to look like she killed herself,” Kelly said.  

It’s a high point of the event to see who wins. Melissa Beddow, director of GCU’s Forensic Science program, announced the winners as follows: 

1. First place: a West-MEC Central Campus team
2. Second place: Lott and Sequeira’s team
3. Third place: a team from Mountain View High School

Even before having such a successful day, Lott knew where she was going to college in the fall. She is already enrolled at GCU.

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

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Story and photos by Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

If only it was as easy as “following” someone on Facebook or Twitter.

Ken Hein

Real relationships are much more challenging to maintain, but the ones worth having sometimes require pain, sacrifice and much more.

Three Grand Canyon University faculty members spoke Friday inside a crowded Howerton Hall auditorium about their background and evolving relationship with Jesus but also the importance of teaching and sharing real-world dynamics with their students. They said life’s hardships help maintain our pivotal connection with the Lord.

Friday’s “Following Jesus” topic and an exploration of Luke 9:25 was the final discussion of the 2016-17 Integration of Faith, Learning and Work “Lunch and Learn” series for faculty, titled “Things That Really Matter.”

Colangelo College of Business instructor Ken Hein spoke of the juxtaposition between Jesus’ “follow me” messages (both in Luke and beyond) and his own military experiences during the Vietnam War, where “your job is to be out in front.”

Dr. Cynthia Foote

Hein admitted a “cost” he wasn’t interested in incurring earlier in life that led to a lost relationship with Jesus. But he rediscovered himself and rekindled that relationship 30 years ago this Memorial Day when he turned to sobriety at age 40.

“It takes courage to stand up and sacrifice what might be everything in order to have a permanent relationship with our Savior,” he said.

With backgrounds in anatomy, biology and medicine, Dr. Cynthia Foote and Dr. Ryan Melillo from the College of Science, Engineering and Technology both used medical and research malpractices as analogies to the difficulty and pressures of prioritizing what’s important.

It is, however, important to periodically question and challenge yourself, and that requires “persistent effort,” said Foote, who also noted that asking “why” is as important to our own peace of mind as it is in the scientific communities.

Melillo cited Colossians 3:23 along with recent medical malpractice cases in the news to reinforce the struggle between human nature (money, fame, praise, pride, etc.) and serving Jesus.

Dr. Ryan Melillo

These struggles are not often obvious, black-and-white choices. But, similar to life, hardships occur regularly and are supposed to be challenging.

“Do you have the ability to stand up and not do these things in the face of being a provider for yourself or your family and their needs?” he said.

Dr. Jason Hiles, dean of the College of Theology, wrapped up the discussion — and this year’s speaker series — through Chapter 9 of Luke and three things required to maintain faithfulness and virtue in Jesus’ eyes:

• Remove ourselves from the center.
• Take up a cross and sacrifice.
• Obey what Jesus taught and emulate His lifestyle.

“We have to get this right, and humanly speaking it’s not always possible,” Hiles said. “It’s up to God.”

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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GCU senior guard DeWayne Russell will compete in the 3-Point shooting portion of Thursday’s event at GCU Arena and is playing in the NABC All-Star game Friday afternoon at University of Phoenix Stadium.

By Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

All eyes zoom in on Phoenix this week for the NCAA Division I men’s basketball Final Four. Five days’ worth of festivities, events and concerts throughout downtown Phoenix and University of Phoenix Stadium are sandwiched around three basketball games.

Grand Canyon University is getting the weekend started.

The men’s semifinals Saturday (Gonzaga vs. South Carolina followed by North Carolina vs. Oregon) and Monday night’s championship are the headliners, but GCU Arena will host the College Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships Thursday night. The 29th annual event is not sponsored by the NCAA but will feature several of Division I college basketball’s best dunkers and long-range shooters (men and women) who aren’t playing in their respective Final Fours.

“We are anticipating a full house,” said GCU Arena Marketing Manager Christina Wagner.

Eight men’s players will compete in the dunk contest before a three-person panel (GCU men’s basketball coach Dan Majerle along with Arizona Cardinals players Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu).

Eight men and eight women will compete in the 3-point shootout, including GCU senior guard DeWayne Russell. Russell is also playing with the West squad in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-Star game with his Division I peers at 3:30 p.m. Friday at University of Phoenix Stadium. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

The Havocs will be prominent during these events, and several GCU students are volunteers after employees from the event’s sponsor, Intersport, spoke with Colangelo College of Business students.

There also will be a pregame tailgate, starting at 4:30 p.m. Pizza, kettle corn and cotton candy will be available for purchase, and there will be rides and face painting for children.

In addition, dozens of students are volunteering throughout the weekend’s events at the stadium, Fan Fest at the Phoenix Convention Center (Friday through Monday), the March Madness Music Festival at Margaret T. Hance Park (Friday night through Sunday night) and during Final Four Friday leading up to the games.

Last weekend, the NCAA provided more than a dozen GCU students a chance to tour University of Phoenix Stadium for a behind-the-scenes tour of what it takes to put on the Final Four.

Dr. Brian Smith, Colangelo College of Business assistant dean and director of the sports business programs, said students participated in a walking tour of the stadium and had Q&A opportunities with staff from the NCAA, CBS and the stadium.

Students learned about the planning period for major events (up to 18 months ahead of tipoff), turning a football stadium into a basketball venue, the roles of contractors and consultants, and what it takes for CBS to put the games on TV.

Smith said six GCU students are helping with the Basketball Hall of Fame live show Saturday morning on ESPN.

“We strongly encourage students to get in the trenches of the sports business industry by developing relationships and by gaining real-world, practical, resume-building experience,” Smith said.

The Thundering Heard pep band will be the “house band” for the Final Four Friday events, including the Division I men’s basketball All-Star game at 3:30 p.m. at University of Phoenix Stadium.

A smaller, 29-piece GCU band ensemble will play during Final Four Friday, similar to what will happen during any road games beginning next year in GCU’s first year of postseason eligibility in Division I athletics.

“We look forward to representing Grand Canyon University well and look forward to demonstrating our talented pep band,” said Paul Koch, GCU director of bands. 

A complete list of weekend events can be found here.

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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Students from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers show a mobility board they engineered.

Story by Laurie Merrill 
Photos by Slaven Gujic

Self-applied emergency devices for wound care, reducing hypertension through targeted exercise, a new app to improve student-wide communication.

These were among 10 projects that 42 Grand Canyon University students presented at Friday’s Research Symposium in Antelope Gym.

The projects are significant not only because they represent students applying specialized knowledge to create solutions for today’s problems.

Dr. Antoinette Farmer-Thompson, vice president of  GCU’s Center for Institutional Effectiveness

They are also significant because the researchers toiling together at GCU, a private Christian university, have a shared goal: To improve the lives of others.

“The presence of Jesus in the classroom and on the campus is making a difference,” GCU President Brian Mueller said at the symposium held Friday in Antelope Gym.

The quality of the work also impressed GCU Provost Dr. Hank Radda.

“Students, you are doing tremendous things,” Radda said.  “It’s so heartening.”

Organized by Dr. Antoinette Farmer-Thompson, vice president of the Center for Institutional Effectiveness, and  Charisse Spence, program manager, the symposium allowed students from a number of colleges and clubs to showcase their projects.

The projects included:

Antimicrobial Screening of Sonoran Plant Compounds

• College of Science, Engineering and Technology/Honors College

• The aim of the research is to evaluate and characterize antimicrobial properties from Arizona’s Sonoran Desert plants to address the need for agents to work against drug-resistant bacteria and fungi.

S.M.U.R.F. (Smart Urban Fabrics) 

Two of 10 students who presented research projects at GCU’s symposium.

• CSET

• Students are researching factors that affect the quality of life and environment at GCU. Information is collected via sensors, organized in a database, statistically analyzed and visualized in simulations. Researchers plan to experiment with electromagnetic propulsion and more advanced virtual reality.

Servant Leadership Development Center 

• Colangelo College of Business/Honors College

• Students are developing a proposal to launch the center and develop a program, curriculum and unmatched experience for students to develop their leadership skills.

Motorized Platform to help Ruby Saunders

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/CSET

• Club members have designed and constructed a platform to help Ruby’s mobility. Ruby is an adopted child from Africa who has cerebral palsy and multiloculated hydrocephalus.

Purpose Plan Initiative

GCU’s research initiatives riveted the symposium audience.

• Honors College

• Working with the traditional PDF version of the “Purpose Plan” document, students have created an interactive phone app intended to increase student-wide communication of various opportunities, and thereby improve student retention.

Self-Applied Emergency Device for Initial Wound Care

• CSET/Honors

• Students have purchased and built a 3D printer and created to-scale human skull replicas. They are expanding to create the wound devices, which they believe will help Third World populations.

Impact of Daily Exercise Compared to Exercise on Alternating Days on Post-Exercise Hypotension

• CSET

• Studies show that roughly 1 billion people worldwide suffer from hypertension and an average of 7.1 million die from it yearly. The goal of the research  is to explore and create a superior exercise prescription to reduce the global issue.

The College of Fine Arts and Production’s Digital Design Club, CSET’s Forensic Science Society and the College of Nursing and Healthcare Professions’ Sports Medicine Club also presented recent accomplishments and future pans. 

“Each year it gets better and better,” said Stan Meyer, GCU Chief Operating Officer. “The future is bright for GCU.”

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

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By Mark Heller
GCU News Bureau

Justin Hamman’s mission is deeply personal.

Three years ago, his mother was diagnosed with a mild to moderate form of Alzheimer’s. Even though he was just 17, he had to leave the University of Arizona, where he was a computer science student, and move back home to the Valley to be a full-time caretaker.

Justin Hamman

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, and the “take a pill” solution to seemingly everything barely worked. So Justin and his older brother, Jacob, have turned to technology to help their ailing mother (temporarily) remember, recognize and rekindle her memory and brainpower.

Zenjoi is the brainchild of Justin and Jacob inspired by their mother’s suffering. It’s one of five finalists in this week’s Canyon Challenge, where entrepreneurial ideas created by Grand Canyon University students are rooted in both filling gaps in the marketplace and closing them through helping others.

“We’re hoping it can be a kind of light at the end of dark tunnels,” said Justin, a junior commuter student in computer programming at GCU.

All five business concepts — the others are Storage Together, Secured Together, Outbound Explorer and Coloot — have a chance to move closer to “open for business” as they vie for a portion of $15,000 in total prize money toward their respective causes Thursday afternoon at GCU Arena.

Each company will present its business proposal for approximately five minutes, followed by a Q-and-A period. A five-person panel of judges will award the prizes immediately following the presentations (approximately 6 p.m.).

Tim Kelley, who helps the IDEA Club manage the Canyon Challenge, speaks at the 2016 competition in GCU Arena.

“Each is a platform for people to collude together,” said Tim Kelley, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and economics in the Colangelo College of Business (CCOB) and a faculty sponsor of GCU’s IDEA Club (Innovation, Development & Entrepreneurship Association), which sponsors the annual Canyon Challenge. “It really was about which seemed to be most impactful because each of these is a mission-driven enterprise.”

Storage Together is a finalist for a second consecutive year because it didn’t win money in 2016. It did, however, win the Phoenix Smart City Hack Competition last October, then won an international competition in Barcelona in November.

The concept connects those in need of storage space for their possessions with those who have space to rent or share. After the Storage Together team tweaked its business plan and model the last several months, Kelley said it’s planning a summer rollout as its first test in the marketplace.

One of Storage Together’s creators, Jedidiah Woods, is also spearheading Secured Together, an app that connects anyone on or around a college campus with public safety and selected university personnel (police, university staff, student leaders, etc.). The idea is to report and pin (on an interactive map) any potential safety concerns within and around a college campus in real time. The app also features a 911 button for anyone to use.

Woods said they’ve consulted with GCU’s public safety, student affairs and cybersecurity departments for guidance and ideas. The app is being beta tested.

“Verified users will be people like student leaders, faculty and staff, facilities, people who are held accountable to the school and who see a far greater amount of campus,” he said. “We are only allowing verified users to report dangers and hazards because we do not want people to abuse it, but the people who will have the power will be held accountable to the university. But anyone can use the app and see any dangers and be alerted.”

Austin Johnson, a passionate outdoors and “action” sports enthusiast, created Outbound Explorer to help anyone interested in activities such as skateboarding, surfing, hiking, kayaking, cliff jumping or skiing to share their experiences and suggestions on where to go using a crowd-based interactive map.

The concept has been a couple of years in the making and hopes to capitalize on so-called “fringe” sports that have continued to gain popularity through the X Games. A few (surfing, skateboarding, etc.) will be Olympic competitions during the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

Coloot is the project of Brady Harrison and Ricky Morse and aims to help crowd source and crowd fund others’ entrepreneurial ideas and business plans.

Kelley said another finalist, Lectric Longboards, withdrew from contention because it no longer needs help with capital after earning nearly $1 million in sales and re-investing those earnings back into the business.

He also noted that each of these business concepts align nicely with the “Conscious Capitalism” and “entrepreneurial spirit” philosophies of both GCU and CCOB.

That includes Zenjoi. The Hammans bought an iPad and added photos, videos, audio and other forms of memory retention and re-ignition to help their mother — and Justin.

“She loves it and talks about it a lot,” Justin said.

Jacob Hamman was an architect living in Los Angeles when his mother was diagnosed. He recently finished graduate school at Harvard and returned to Arizona to be with his mother and work on building Zenjoi with Justin.

They’ve had discussions with Banner Health’s neurological sector about Zenjoi’s concept and also about finding clinical trials or studies to help validate technology as a positive and potentially personalized force in this fight. But apart from a lot of Internet searching and a Netflix documentary, “Alive Inside,” Justin found precious little information about ways to help those in the here-and-now without using pills.

An Alzheimer’s “cure” appears to still be years away. In the meantime, Zenjoi wants to put “life” back into sufferers’ daily lives.

“We’ve always been entrepreneurial and interested in new technologies,” Justin said of himself and his brother. “It’s one thing we can use as hope.”

2017 Canyon Challenge

When: 4:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: GCU Arena

Admission: Free

Watch: YouTube.com/gcu

Prizes:  $6,000 (first place); $3,000 (second place); $1,000 (third place); $3,000 (first place in online voting); $1,000 (second place in online voting); $500 (two “lobby vote” prizes)

Presentation schedule 

4:45 p.m.: Storage Together (Luke Amargo, Josh McGuire)

5 p.m.: Zenjoi (Justin Hamman)

5:20 p.m.: Secured Together (Jedidiah Woods)

5:35 p.m.: Outbound Explorer (Austin Johnson)

5:50 p.m.: Coloot (Brady Harrison, Ricky Morse)

6:05 p.m.: (alternate) Drone Initiative demonstration (tentative) (Morgan Melton)

Contact Mark Heller at (602) 639-7516 or mark.heller@gcu.edu

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Ronav Chauhan (center), his mother, Divya (left), and his father, Vineet, had a magical day Friday at the FIRST Robotics event in GCU Arena. (Photo by Laurie Merrill) 

By Laurie Merrill 
GCU News Bureau

For most of his life, 5-year-old Ronav Chauhan of Tempe has had a passion for building things and learning how they work. He wants to grow up to be an engineer, like his parents.  

He recently built a vacuum cleaner — and it actually works.

But for most of Ronav’s life, his parents, Divya and Vineet, have yearned for something else: that their boy survives childhood cancer.

Ronav Chauhan, 5, of Tempe, had a day he’ll never forget at the FIRST Robotics competition at GCU. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

Friday at Grand Canyon University, Ronav got to realize part of his dream thanks to Make-A-Wish Foundation Arizona. Ronav got to be a VIP guest at the FIRST Robotics Competition 2017 Arizona Regional.

For a few precious hours in GCU Arena, the boy who wants to grow up be an engineer was front and center at an event that is all about engineering.

He got to watch robot-versus-robot battles, meet some high school whiz kids who built them and try his hand at building mini-bots and playing with a circuit board.

He got to see high-spirited teams of students clad in T-shirts of every color and to hear incredibly loud cheers from teammates who energetically urged on their colleagues.

“This is his wish, to be an engineer,” said Jennifer Rosvall, Make-A-Wish Foundation Arizona manager. “His wish is coming true.”

Ronav has spent most of his life battling acute very high risk  lymphoblastic leukemia, his mother said. He received treatments for 3½ years at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Even though he had his last treatment in November, he doesn’t know the difference because he still goes in for monthly testing, she added. 

Make-A-Wish Foundation Arizona granted Ronav Chauhan’s wish to be an engineer at the Robotics contest. (Photo by Slaven Gujic)

Several months ago, Ronav and his parents learned about a robotics team from Chandler called Degrees of Freedom — one of 42 teams in the competition.

“He was so excited when he heard about it,” Divya said.

Degrees of Freedom and Binary Bots, also from Chandler, are sponsored by the nonprofit Si Se Puede Foundation, which supports under-funded schools.

Make-A-Wish Foundation contacted Si Se Puede, and they set the plan in motion for Ronav to connect with Degrees of Freedom team members at the competition — and to have one of the best days of his life.

Ronav’s parents met at the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute in India and are software engineers for American Airlines.

Amanda Hughens (left), GCU’s K-12 STEM outreach manager, set up electronics components in a quiet alcove for Ronav. (Photo by Laurie Merrill)

From an early age, Ronav, who attends preschool in the Summit School in Ahwatukee, has been fascinated by motors and bursting with questions, such as why blenders blend, Divya said. He was obsessed with vacuum cleaners, she said, and one day built his own.

In a quiet alcove in the arena, Amanda Hughens, GCU’s K-12 STEM outreach manager, a chief organizer of an event that drew more than 3,000 people to GCU, set up electronics components for Ronav to play with.  

One of Hughens’ roles is to spread love of STEM to students of all ages. It was a thrill for her to see so many high school students who excel at math and science get so much attention from their friends. 

“They’re being cheered on like athletes,” Hughens said.  

Ronav, with a little help from his father, successfully put together a circuit board that featured a spinning red device. He smiled with pleasure as he held it up for Hughens to see.

“It’s such an honor,” Hughens said, “to see such joy in a little boy who loves engineering more than anything else.”

For a slideshow of the event, click here. 

Contact Laurie Merrill at (602) 639-6511 or laurie.merrill@gcu.edu.

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