Julia Gonzales asks questions of a ward and the staff at the Arizona Training and Evaluation Center in January.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Julia Gonzales quietly listened to the woman with mental and intellectual disabilities.

I want to spend my $10 at the Dollar Store, she said.

I want to eat chocolate cupcakes for my birthday.

I don’t want a guardian.

“Is there a reason why?” Gonzales asked her.

“Yes, because my mother passed away, and I am a lady now. I can take care of my responsibilities.”

The woman is one of 9,300 wards of the county, vulnerable adults with mental, physical or intellectual disabilities whom the Superior Court of Maricopa County has deemed incapacitated to make responsible decisions and are assigned a guardian to help make them.

Gonzales is a Grand Canyon University student who is a court visitor — another set of eyes and ears for the woman, observing her care while also checking on the guardian the court has assigned to her.

“The students really have a heart for helping people. These are amazing students,” said PJ Fair, Guardianship Review Coordinator for the Guardian Review Program, which began partnering with GCU and 10 students in 2019 and continues to grow.

The nationally recognized program has trained volunteers to conduct in-person visits in an effort to reduce the potential for neglect and abuse of vulnerable wards.

GCU’s Julia Gonzales talks with a client that the court has deemed incapacitated to make sure he is getting proper care.

Gonzales scratched down notes, describing the woman as “alert, responsive, pretty independent and appropriately dressed.” She asked the staff of the Arizona Training and Evaluation Center in Peoria if the woman was taken out for activities, got exercise and ate properly.

“We want to see that they are taken care of,” said Gonzales, a senior psychology major who will graduate in April. “What we are looking for is signs of abuse.”

Sometimes, she said, it is difficult to communicate with the wards with mental or intellectual problems, so she must adjust her approach to her questions. Other times, they don’t trust people who are with the court, so she presents herself as a friendly visitor.

“It just reminded me of when I was little, helping people,” Gonzales, a Phoenix native who has conducted reports on 32 cases in the past year, all while taking classes and helping run a nonprofit with her parents that aids ministries in North and South America.

“When I was younger, I helped veterans and went to poverty-stricken communities and passed out food,” she said. “I learned to look at someone else’s life instead of just thinking about yourself.”

Here at the day center in Peoria and in other care facilities across the county, she gets to see people face-to-face and help them.

On one trip to a care facility, an older woman told her that they took away a lift chair that helped her stand. Gonzales filed a report. The lift was returned.

“I felt like I did something to help that woman’s day,” she said.

Kevin Walling, Chair of Justice Studies, Government and History in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, contacted the Guardian Review Program to partner with students, a perfect match for those in justice and psychology studies.

“GCU students want to have a meaningful experience. They want to do work that counts,” he said. “The guardianship program offers them that opportunity by working with vulnerable members of the community; students lend them support and help voice for their needs. This is valuable and makes real differences in people’s lives.”

Fair has joined the students to train them in every place from a calm day facility to a locked psych ward at a state hospital and witnessed a combination of toughness and tenderness.

Julia Gonzales with the clipboard and confidence to work with vulnerable adults.

“One time when I took students to a locked wing, it was like ‘fly, little bird.’ But then we were outside the doors watching and seeing them with their clipboards and heads held high – that was something,” she said.

Other times, she has seen the student literally get on the floor to play blocks and interact with people who have challenges.

“They acknowledge the level that person is and meet them at that level,” Fair said. “Seeing that from such young kids — there is definitely hope for the future.”

The students who hope to one day have justice careers get an opportunity to see medical and court files and file reports that become part of official court records.

Katelyn Siltman, who graduated in December and will be working toward a master’s at GCU, wants a career in forensic psychology. The program has given her a chance to be exposed to the population she wants to assist.

Why this work?

“Mainly because growing up I was a difficult child to work with myself, and without the social worker who helped me I’d never have got to college to study psychology. I want to have the opportunity to give that to someone else,” she said.

It’s been an eye-opener for other students.

Junior Denny Li joined Fair at a house thick with cigarette smoke where transients, gang members and drugs were visible.

“You would never know these conditions exist unless you went out and talked to them,” he said.

They filed a report that would go before a judge to decide if there needed to be further investigation or changes to the guardian arrangement.

“I feel like mental illness is a big problem that requires a lot of attention,” he said. “It is sad being in a group home or hospital and they can’t take care of themselves and people don’t take care of them.”

Fair said it helps students to see if they can handle the unusual situations out in the field.

“In the beginning, all you have is people on a piece of paper with diagnosis. Then you get to go out and meet them,” she said. “You get to see their personality and character. You get out there and they have more personality than someone who is stone-cold ‘normal.’ They are giving you high fives or just blinking at you. Just the energy of not being down on their diagnosis is rewarding.”

That’s what drives Gonzales. Later that day at Aztec, she did two other interviews with wards who couldn’t communicate. But she talked to them gently and asked the staff questions.

“It’s been a big culture shock to me. People need help,” she said. “In that one case of the lift, I felt like I made a different in that person’s life. I made a difference, and it felt pretty good.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

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Kara Morrow, a 2018 Grand Canyon University graduate, works in the office of Arizona Sen. Martha McSally.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Brian Mueller entered the office of Arizona Sen. Martha McSally in Washington, D.C., and the Grand Canyon University president had a pleasant surprise.

“I made sure I was up at the front desk about 15 minutes before their scheduled meeting,” said Kara Morrow. “I immediately stood up and introduced myself.”

Kara Morrow, Grand Canyon University graduate.

Morrow, a 2018 graduate in history, walked Mueller through basement hallways to his next appointment, and the two engaged in conversation. Morrow was offered scholarships to several elite colleges but chose GCU.

Mueller’s description of the conversation:

“If you had to do it over again, would you make the same choice?” he asked Morrow.

“Yes, I would make the same choice,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because of the community that I was able to join, the community I’m still a part of.”

That stuck with Mueller, and he shared the story with the student body at the Jan. 6 Chapel as an example of the importance of community.

Morrow said it was wonderful to surprise Mueller as a GCU graduate and be able to share how GCU inspired her.

Her gig in politics not only highlights the story of GCU community that travels with graduates across the country but the growing roster of Lopes who find their way into public service in political offices and special interest groups.

Students have worked for members of Congress, the Arizona State Legislature, the Democratic and Republic parties, the ACLU and American Humane Society, among others.

“GCU faculty members of the Government Program are especially concerned with opening the doors to students for opportunities in the political arena. At any given time, dozens of students are active politically in the community,” said Kevin Walling, Chair of Justice Studies, Government and History in College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “Our job is to help them grown into thinking, responsible and caring young professional adults – not to pass judgment on their individual political interests.”

Morrow came to her job as McSally’s staff assistant after an internship in the White House.

That lofty role, shaking hands with the President, was launched in childhood dreams. Growing up in the Phoenix area, she became an early, voracious reader of history, which led to a love of government. She did well in school and had several options for college.

She visited larger schools but felt lost – not directionally, “but lost as a person.” At GCU, she said, every person made her feel as if she could succeed and find the right path.

“I wanted to go to a school that pushed me academically, and that’s when I heard about GCU and the Honors College,” she said.

Morrow jumped into numerous roles at GCU as a Resident Assistant, an Honors College student worker and president of the Alpha Chi Honors Society. But it was her senior year project that stuck with her, when she was asked to do a presentation.

“Who cares about history? No one cares about history. And that’s why we need to talk about it. So I did a presentation on why history matters and debunked the myth that history is boring,” Morrow said.

“I learned as an RA that you should not put down other people’s passions. The passions given you are just as important as those for health care or engineering. It all looks different for every person, so we should all support others’ passions.”

After graduation, she was asked what she always dreamed of doing. Working at the White House may seem like a stretch, but that was one. She applied for an internship there against thousands of other applicants – and got it.

Kara Morrow has found kindness works in Washington, D.C.

“It changed my whole perspective on government,” she said of her three-month internship. “Every small thing is important, even in a small office.”

One day she was with a group of interns looking on as President Donald Trump boarded a plane.

“He came over and shook our hands individually and thanked us for our internship,” she said. “That was something that we never expected. Getting to meet the president of the U.S., no matter who the president is, is a huge honor.”

After her internship, Morrow got sick. Real sick. A lung infection forced her back home to heal for several months, with no job prospects and feeling stuck. Looking back, she considered it a divine moment when she could reflect – and when God led her to another opportunity.

She landed an internship in McSally’s office last May, and by November she was offered a full-time job. She helps with office duties and handles constituent services, such as tours.

Morrow remembers the feelings she had while visiting Washington as a high school student: “I just picture those people in that same place. People often only come to Washington, D.C., once in their life, and a tour means so much to them. And I have the opportunity to set the impression of the senator through me. So many of these people are from my state, so it’s even more important to serve them well.”

Other times, visitors have an agenda or a complaint. That’s when she calls on her years at GCU. She said she tries to speak with them with “a level head and a kind heart, and even if they are speaking to me inappropriately, I don’t need to speak back in way to match their level. I can be kind.”

Every day, she sees important senators walking the halls, only later to see them on television that night.

“Something I have learned working in the White House and Senate is that we hold politicians to higher standards, to this nonhuman standard. We expect them to be perfect in everything they do and say,” she said. “We hold them to the idea that they can never make a mistake, and if they do they are sacrificed in the media.

“If we have more grace toward politicians, we would be a better nation. We should not hate people because they have a different opinion than you. That is what I have learned from being here.

“There are so many opportunities to show grace and kindness to each other, and that’s the impact.”

You can see why Mueller clearly remembered meeting Morrow.

And why one day she hopes to return to her home state and teach, bringing the experiences of working in government back to children – with a dose of kindness she picked up at GCU.

“GCU is one of those really special places that changed my life, through the people I met, peers and full-time staff, and this overwhelming feeling that people are trying to help others. You don’t see that in Washington, where people are vying for the next position, the next promotion, the next job. At GCU, people said they are here for you, they love you and will help you in any way.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

****

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MARCIE BURGER

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Marcie Burger

Title: Online Full Time Faculty

Years at GCU: 7.5 years as Online FTF, one year prior as adjunct online faculty.

Academic degrees: Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Boston University. Master’s degree in Counseling from University of Phoenix. I have been a licensed professional counselor in Arizona for 20 years. In addition, I am currently two classes shy of a second master’s degree from GCU in Technology Integration in the K-12 classroom. I hope to complete this by April.

Notable employment in your field: Having lived in Phoenix for almost 30 years, I have a wealth of experience and information regarding mental health treatment and local providers. I have counseled a wide range of people, including those dealing with mental illness or on probation for substance use and domestic violence. I would say my specialty areas are working with women’s issues and grief. I also worked for the county HMO, Value Options, providing triage and referrals to vulnerable populations in Maricopa County. 

What are you most passionate about in your field? My background in counseling stems from a fundamental desire to leave the world better than I found it. There are so many ills in our communities and society. My goal is always to help somebody be more balanced, self-confident and independent. Identifying areas of conflict and offering a few good tools often creates the necessary changes for a better life.   

What aspect of your teaching style is the most distinctive and/or memorable? My students often comment that I have high expectations but am fair. I aim to make the online classroom feel as much like a traditional classroom as possible. I know my online students are busy juggling many responsibilities, so each post/comment/feedback is designed for them to learn something useful and meaningful.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? I have a few hobbies. I’m an avid hiker in the Phoenix mountain preserve with my rescue pups, Gus and Lexi. I also enjoy local live music and schedule traveling to see a good concert with East Coast friends. Past trips included a concert at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville and the Broadway play “Beautiful” in New York. I also like watching and playing basketball.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? While living in Boston in the ’80s, I worked for a high-end stereo store named Tweeter, etc. They sold home and car audio, surround sound, speakers, camcorders and the first cellphone. It was a lot of fun, and I believe my desire to teach online comes from a natural affinity for technology. My claim to fame there was selling a Sony Walkman to Robert Parish of the Boston Celtics and a “boombox” to Michael J. Fox.

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Kimbel Westerson

KIMBEL WESTERSON

Humanities and Social Sciences

Title: Instructor of English and Specialist, Professional Writing

Years at GCU: 3

Academic degrees: Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside

Notable research in your field: I am working on research that investigates pre-service teachers’ sources of information regarding state and local civics. It will determine where these future educators go to stay informed about local political, economic and social issues. Capturing beliefs and attitudes about local sources of information, such as radio, television, print and so on, is the goal. We’re looking at attitudes and practices before and after a classroom intervention to measure change. It’s exciting to consider how a generation of new educators obtains the material they then will use in their classrooms.

Notable employment in your field: The Kansas City Star newspaper employed me as the managing editor of three local and regional magazines. In that role, I created an arts publication that covered the visual, performing and cinematic arts in an extended metro community of about 1.5 million people. It was my passion to promote the arts in the community and transform young patrons into long-term supporters. My career in education started when I attended graduate school and worked with Johns Hopkins University during summers teaching writing to gifted young people. It was a fascinating experience. That’s when I truly began my transition to educator.

What are you most passionate about in your field? Teaching students about the ethics of journalism and the responsibilities of journalists is vital right now. Journalists educate the public, which then makes decisions based on that information — those decisions create public opinion and determine who serves as leaders in our country. I also use essays and other materials that cross disciplines and topics. I encourage them to get curious about the world around them. Years from now, they may or may not remember what is a gerund, but I want them to have an interest in the world that makes their lives rich.

What aspect of your teaching style is the most distinctive and/or memorable? I strive to find non-typical ways to engage my students. I joke that I teach everything but English because I bring in diverse topics and ideas for my students to examine. My ultimate goal is to build critical thinking skills. I like helping students be confident in their writing. I do that through setting up a game plan before they write their essays, then providing meaningful feedback in their essays after they have been submitted. Connecting to my students in the classroom is great fun; I do this by being authentic and telling them stories about being a writer and traveling.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? Hiking is one of my favorite activities, and I treasure our too brief window of temperate climate. I also love to travel, especially in the West’s wide open spaces. Last summer I spent a month in Wyoming near the Grand Tetons.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? I’ve ice skated since I was 3 years old and take figure skating lessons.

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The February 2020 issue of GCU Magazine will be a keepsake for students, faculty, staff and alumni. The special dedication to GCU’s stunning transformation in the last 10 years includes stories, photos and videos covering every aspect of this remarkable story — academics, spiritual life, campus life, community outreach, athletics, online education and alumni — plus President Brian Mueller’s personal thoughts about what it has meant to him. Here’s the digital version.

The post Latest issue of GCU Magazine is a keeper appeared first on GCU Today.

REBECCA RICHEY

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Rebecca Richey

Title: Assistant Professor

Years at GCU: More than nine years in Online Full-Time Faculty, one year prior as adjunct online faculty

Academic degrees: Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Ed from Central Washington University. Master’s degree in Education from University of Phoenix, Master’s degree in Counseling from University of Phoenix. Completing Psy.D from University of Southern California  (dissertation phase). Licensed mental health counselor in the state of Hawaii.

Notable employment in your field: I have many experiences in the counseling and educational fields. My first experience in higher education was as a Director of Learning Support, overseeing oversaw tutoring for the college campus and assisting with accommodations for disabled students. I then went into teaching counseling and psychology coursework. Additionally, I have gained a wealth of experience in the field of mental health, working primarily with women’s issues and couples. In the past, I enjoyed volunteering at a center that conducts Equine Therapy. I am certified in this counseling modality.  I also am certified as a life purpose coach.

What are you most passionate about in your field? My foremost passion is to help people find who they are and give them the skills to navigate the world they live in. My love of Christ facilitates my hope and calling to be compassionate and kind to those in my care.

What aspect of your teaching style is the most distinctive and/or memorable? My students often say it’s the feeling of acceptance I have for them and willingness to be there to help. They are comfortable coming to me when life seems hard.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? My husband and I enjoy renovating homes and furniture, and we spend a great deal of time with our family. I also am actively involved in our church, from leadership opportunities to mentoring women.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? I was a commercial beekeeper’s daughter. Although I don’t have bees of my own, it is wonderful to share with others the benefits of beekeeping.

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The Los Abogados Hispanic Bar Association panel included, from left, Cindy Villanueva, Crystal Morales, Arturo Gonzalez and Casey Arellano (not pictured).

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Casey Arellano remembered a time when she arrived in court and someone asked her if she was the interpreter.

It’s in those moments that she thinks back to law school.

When she arrived at The George Washington University Law School as a public-school student with a scholarship, she found herself mixed in with boarding-school kids – Harvard graduates whose parents had two homes.

“As a Latina from Arizona, I spent the first two years of law school with impostor syndrome,” Arellano told Grand Canyon University students who attended Los Abogados Hispanic Bar Association’s panel discussion, “Unique Challenges and Opportunities for Hispanic Practitioners of Law,” on Tuesday night.

“I felt like I didn’t belong. Even though I was there, maybe they made some decisions based on diversity goals. It took a really long time to accept that I deserved a seat at that table. But sometimes that feeling of impostor syndrome as a Latina translated to my career. Did I deserve to be here?”

Those challenges, said the attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, don’t change when you become a lawyer.

“People will make assumptions where you should practice, or maybe you got a position because of where you are from, how you look or how you speak.”

But the panel members, brought together by the GCU Pre-Law Society and the Latino Student Union, told students who are hoping for a future in law that you shouldn’t give up. You should adjust.

Arturo Gonzalez of the Chapa Law Group said that as the son of parents who weren’t educated past sixth grade, he had never been on a golf course, a key place to network. For his first golf outing, he had to borrow some clubs from a friend.

He learned that the outing really wasn’t about golf – it was about having fun, making connections and raising money for a charity.

“We learn as we go,” he said.

Kevin Walling, Chair of Justice Studies, Government and History in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at GCU, said it was important to show that people of all backgrounds should consider law school or legal careers.

“We need diversity of all kinds in our law schools and the field of law because our nation is so diverse. Our diversity and understanding of others is not a weakness but a strength,” he said. “GCU is enriched and strengthened by that same diversity, and so are communities served by our diverse graduates in professional fields like law.”

Cindy Villanueva. left, of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP was one of four on the panel that also included Crystal Morales of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

The panel included those who work on the business side of law, such as Cindy Villanueva of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP, and others working as prosecutors with victims of crime, such as Crystal Morales of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

Like many Latinas, Villanueva said she first got interested in immigration law and took many classes in that specialty. But there are many options beyond that for Latinas, and she shifted her focus.

“Yes, you can learn on the job,” she said.

The panel gave a different perspective to students who aren’t of Latino heritage, as well.

“It’s a really good opportunity to show people the different backgrounds of people in law school, the future of law in this country, as well as the roles they play,” said Dylan Mahoney, president of the GCU Pre-Law Society.

The panel gave advice on what to expect in law school, no matter your background. You will be thrown into grading on a curve with people who are the top students at prestigious schools, while balancing internships and clinics.

“It can be intense. I always say law school is like they rounded up all the Type A people in high school and they put them in a room, like ‘Hunger Games’ style, to see if you succeed,” Arellano said. “So those competing interests, coupled with the pressure, is really tough. You are used to succeeding, but for the first time, you might fail.”

But there is a place to come for help, especially for Latino students who are in the minority of those entering law school and legal professions.

Los Abogados’ local chapters love to hear from students, panel members said. The organization also launched a program to help pay for law school entrance exams.

Yessica Monge, a GCU senior who is studying pre-law with designs on getting into law school, said the panel showed her what to expect.

“It made me aware there is going to be some difference in diversity when I go to law school. I’ve felt so welcome at GCU, but now I will see it coming,” she said. “And now I know there is someone I can rely on, to have that support. I will definitely reach out to Los Abogados after I graduate.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

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Dr. Noe Vargas (left) has helped develop a relationship between GCU and Southwest Key Programs, which helps immigrant children. With him are Southwest youth care workers Orlando Diaz (second from right) and Cesar Morales.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Two boys smiled to each other as a student zoomed past on a skateboard.

“They have never seen a place like this,” said Liliana Tequida of Southwest Key Programs, a nonprofit shelter for unaccompanied immigrant minors. “People riding on skateboards.”

Forty-five children, most from Guatemala or El Salvador who were detained at the border by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), toured Grand Canyon University on Wednesday to see what is possible in America.

The children, ages 12 to 17, are among approximately 1,500 immigrants who crossed the border unaccompanied and are housed in eight Southwest Key Programs in Arizona, where they are fed and educated, typically for 30 days, as authorities contact family members or foster care.

They toured GCU because another immigrant told them about this eye-popping campus of busy classrooms and laboratories, green grass and swimming pools, big arenas and soccer fields.

That immigrant was Dr. Noe Vargas, Assistant Dean of GCU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“I came to the U.S. at 16 from Mexico,” Vargas said.  “I was encouraged by the first person I saw entering North High School, my high school advisor, Mrs. Dora Veach. She spoke Spanish, I related to her. I still keep in touch with her. So it’s important for me to contribute as I understand what is it to be an immigrant.”

Last month, Vargas agreed to give a talk to the children at Southwest Key.

“I gave them my story — that I was able to accomplish this American dream,” he said. “They need someone to identify with.”

Often, caregivers of immigrant children are more focused on them getting a job to help support the family and less on education, he said. But he tells the children it will be tough, really tough, yet they can can earn a college education in the U.S. and achieve those dreams.

On Wednesday, a few of the children remembered Vargas.

As they walked down the Promenade, their heads swiveled to students buzzing past and tilted to the big buildings.

They all wore the same tennis shoes with Velcro straps instead of shoelaces. The children have been through such trauma that anything that can be used to harm themselves is taken from them.

They have six hours of education a day and go on two outings a week. This was one of them.

Vargas’ goal was for them to see other immigrant professionals who have been successful with higher education. It also is the beginning of a relationship with the nonprofit, which includes internships and staff positions for GCU students, who already are being hired among its 2,200 case workers, educators and staff.

Teachers of the immigrants on the tour said that even if just one young person gets the message, it’s a victory.

Most of the children have contact with family members twice a week if they can be located, Tequida said.

The group walked through GCU Arena and some of the boys asked to see the basketball court, but a team was practicing so they couldn’t. They had been enraptured with American basketball since they played a game at the shelter.

They saw a group of students wearing nursing scrubs and asked in Spanish what they studied.

“Are you nursing students?” Tequida yelled to a group of a half-dozen students.

“Yes,” the students called back with a thumbs up.

The children smiled.

Vargas had conducted therapy sessions for immigrant children during previous employment. Although being an immigrant is a touchy subject in America now, he had heard their stories and follows Jesus’ message to love and to care for people in need. “These are human beings,” he said.

The children looked across the soccer field to a group of cheerleaders walking across the way and stopped, in awe. Tequida told them that if they could arrange to come to a basketball game, they could see the cheerleaders perform.

One of the tour leaders was Frankie Ramirez, a sophomore, who conducted a rare all-Spanish-language tour.

“I came from a family of immigrants. It’s giving back,” Ramirez said. “I think it’s good to get their minds off troubles.

“They were sweet.”

When asked what their most persistent question of the day was, it was encouraging.

“How do I get here?”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

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The Teen Dating Violence Awareness Panel included (from left) Alex Kasten, Lead Peer Advocate at Bloom 365 for Sandra Day O’Connor High School; Valerie Chihuahua, New Life Center shelter advocate; Sebastian Blackwell, one-n-ten Satellite Program Manager; Donna Bartos, Founder and CEO of Bloom365; and Brett Berger, GCU College of Theology faculty.

Story by Lana Sweeten-Shults
GCU News Bureau

On the first day of Bloom365’s seven-day curriculum about teen dating violence prevention, organization founder and CEO Donna Bartos said course leaders ask: “Is teen dating abuse a big problem among your peers?”

About 30% say, “Yes.”

Then on day two, something changes.

Participants go through a check list of teen-dating-violence red flags, which includes traditional signs, such as if a gun or weapon has been used to threaten them, if there’s stalking, possessive jealousy or sexual assault.

But teens at these trainings suddenly start checking off between five and seven of those red flags.

“We tell them, only 30% of you said this is a problem among your peers, but the majority of you are checking five to seven of these off the list. What changed?” Bartos asks them.

Their answer: “We didn’t realize that humiliation and isolation and jealousy are red flags of verbal or emotional abuse. We didn’t recognize it as that.”

That unfamiliarity with those nontraditional red flags – sometimes subtle signs of what could turn into abuse – and helping teens and young adults recognize those signs were reasons Grand Canyon University’s students wanted to bring the Teen Dating Violence Panel to campus.

Marni Landry, chapter advisor for the GCU chapter of HOSA Future Health Professionals, helped facilitate the panel.

The University’s HOSA Future Health Professionals chapter became involved when Elizabeth Carnesi, a state advisor for Arizona HOSA and a representative of the New Life Center, reached out to the chapter’s advisor, Marni Landry, the K12 STEM Outreach Manager for the University’s K12 Educational Development Department.

Carnesi and the New Life Center, a nonprofit that serves as a resource for victims of violence, wanted to collaborate on an event during Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month in February.

“This event was the first to educate our members and students about teen dating violence,” said Allison Martinez, President of GCU’s HOSA chapter. “It is an event we have never hosted before. But we’re excited to have it serve as a resource for students who are victims or know of someone who is a victim of teen dating violence.”

The panel on Thursday in Howerton Hall featured representatives not only from the New Life Center and Bloom365, but GCU and one-n-ten, a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ youth and provides them with tools to improve self-esteem and self-acceptance.

The reason to focus on teen dating violence specifically is that teens are new to relationships and formulating what a relationship looks like.

Berger (right) spoke about what a healthy relationship is.

GCU panel representative Brett Berger, a College of Theology faculty member and the faculty advisor for the campus’ Sexuality and Gender Awareness Club, said, “Teens become adults, and if we can catch these things now while they’re dating, we can prevent these unhealthy behaviors from getting into marriages and toxic parenting down the road. So it’s going to be part of breaking the cycle if we can get them early on, and it’s just going to be easier to get out of an (abusive) dating relationship.”

Sebastian Blackwell, Satellite Program Manager for one-n-ten, added a few red flags of an unhealthy relationship that’s specific to the LGBTQ community: threatening to out a person to their family or schools or even using housing as a tactic for control, since he said 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQ.

Seventeen-year-old Alex Kasten, Lead Peer Advocate at Bloom365 at Sandra Day O’Connor High School, said it’s about power, control and dominance in a relationship.

“Jealousy is HUGE and social isolation,” he said. “Some things I’ve seen is, ‘My boyfriend won’t let me hang out with my friends.’ And you see that they’re not around as much. They’re not as dependable and even, for something like Snapchat, everyone knows your location now, where you’re not at your house. It’s that dominating side.”

Bartos said “what we’re finding is a lot of coercion, coercive control, not just physical abuse, but ‘Send me that picture or you don’t love me.’ Seventy-nine percent of the teens that we survey … have said they have been asked to send a nude photo. We flip that question. ‘How many of you have asked for a nude photo?’ Forty percent.”

Bailey DeRoest, CEO of the New Life Center and moderator of Thursday’s panel, said teen dating violence affects nearly 1.5 million young people in America and asked how prevalent teen violence is in the panelists’ populations.

Bartos said, based on surveys by Bloom365 of the young people they serve in partner schools, the numbers in Maricopa County are higher than the national average.

“We’re trending at about 50% of teens who go through our curriculum – about 10,000 go through it a year – say they have experienced some form of verbal, physical or emotional violence in their dating relationships, and about 20 to 30% say they have perpetrated some form of verbal, physical or emotional violence.”

If a family member is experiencing teen dating violence, panelist Valerie Chihuahua, a New Life Center shelter youth advocate, said “Always believe, always believe. And follow up with ‘This is not your fault. You didn’t deserve this.’ Provide them with the resources.”

Blackwell said it’s important not to tell someone what to do. “Our job is to put them in the driver’s seat and do everything we can to provide the right resources and information and a really good, competent referral.”

If someone suspects a family member is an abuser, Bartos said to, number one, make sure it’s safe for you to have a conversation with that person. “Letting them know you see what they’re doing without saying something is a good way. Just a look can let them know.”

She said, too, that teen perpetrators of violence need help. Have empathy for them. Ask if everything is OK.

Panelists also cautioned about asking why a victim didn’t “just leave” a relationship.

Blackwell said that question of “Why didn’t you just leave?” implies blame. “It negates the experience of what’s happening, and it places the blame and onus on the person.”

Bloom365, said Bartos, has changed the language it uses so not to imply blame, asking instead, “What are the barriers to safety? What are the barriers to healing?” and then telling victims that there’s help to remove those barriers to victimization.

So what’s the sign of a healthy relationship?

For Kasten, it’s mutual respect.

For Chihuahua, “It’s love, respect, honesty and trust.”

And for Berger, who has been married for 20 years, it’s something simple: He and his wife still like each other.

“I use the word like because it’s easy to love somebody. But liking is a different thing. I joke that the reason we have a healthy relationship is because we don’t NEED each other. I say it jokingly because it goes against every love song – ‘I can’t breathe without you,’ ‘I’ll die without you.’”

Berger sees it as a relationship with balance, without the power struggles, where one person is not draining the other person’s well and where it’s not all a one-sided take-take-take. “I’m giving to that person and she’s giving to me. We’re filling each other’s tanks.”

While February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, DeRoest said preventing such violence isn’t limited to one time of year.

“We’re glad to have a month to at least highlight it,” she said. But she added, “It’s very important to have that month – and all year long.”

Added Bartos, “This issue does not stop after February ends.”

Contact GCU senior writer Lana Sweeten-Shults at lana.sweeten-shults@gcu.edu or at 602-639-7901.

***

Resources:

At GCU: The Office of Student Care has same-day availability appointments every day on a first-come basis. Go to the Office of Student Care on the second floor of the Student Life Building (Building 26) and fill out some paperwork between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to schedule an appointment or reach out to Mickele.Kunselman@gcu.edu for further assistance.

www.Bloom365.org

www.newlifectr.org

www.onenten.org

The post Panel sheds light on teen dating violence appeared first on GCU Today.

DR. MARK SPALDING

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr. Mark Spalding

Title: Spanish Program Faculty Lead

Years at GCU:  2

Academic degrees: Master of Arts in Spanish and Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation

Notable research in your field: I have done action research, an educational experiment that investigated the effect of diversity training on student attitudes. With this intervention, I sought to increase positive attitudes (acceptance, admiration, appreciation) toward minorities and reduce negative attitudes (intolerance, pity, rejection). The intervention was successful in reducing these negative attitudes, but positive attitudes did not increase as much. I would like to do another cycle of research with an improved intervention to strengthen acceptance toward people viewed as “the other” by the dominant culture.

Notable employment in your field:

I began teaching Spanish in higher education using a methodology called “activated learning,” which promotes authentic and memorable situations for students to interact with language. There have been times in the past when students who met in my Spanish class have bonded so well through the classroom activities that they later got married!  

I also taught Spanish and ESL in secondary education, which is where I became involved with bullying prevention. I produced a weekly television broadcast that presented a bullying topic for discussion, with the goal of increasing empathy and improving campus culture. Surveys indicated that students throughout the school became more aware of what bullying is and were more willing to report it. This research led me back to higher education and a doctoral dissertation in attitude change.

What are you most passionate about in your field?

The satisfaction I get when I see my students succeed because they are willing to take the risk of speaking Spanish, overcoming their fear of making mistakes as they learn. I know this is possible because of the trusting, safe environment I have promoted in the classroom. If I make a mistake and can have a sense of humor about it, the students know that it is OK for them to make mistakes, too.

I also love learning from the students, which enhances my teaching. I feel very proud and humble at the same time when we all have a “light bulb” or “aha” moment about the students’ learning. One such moment for me was realizing that students can go to the internet and learn to use grammar beyond what our curriculum or textbook has provided at the time. Rather than say, “We haven’t gotten there yet,” at times I allow this to be an opportunity to preview and begin to use a grammar point we won’t see officially for perhaps a few weeks. This flexibility shows my students that I can meet them where they are, so they feel free to explore and use the language in the ways that interest them. It helps to make the classroom more student-centered.

What aspect of your teaching style is the most distinctive and/or memorable?

 I use “edutainment” to both educate and entertain at the same time. A sense of humor is important and is one of several approaches I use to engage my students. Another is with the use of technology, such as video feedback. Viewing and hearing themselves speaking Spanish enables students to gain a better understanding of their progress and see where they can improve their pronunciation and grammar. It’s great when former students approach me years later in a shopping mall and tell me how memorable these approaches to learning were for them.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? I like to watch all genres of movies, but prefer those that have a layer of symbolic meaning beneath the action and entertainment. I often watch movies while walking on the treadmill at the gym.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? Previously I was a professional wedding videographer. Now, because of my association with other foreign language teachers, I am learning Chinese and French. Also, I am interested in psychology and I’m a fan of Dr. Dan Siegel’s theory of Interpersonal Neurobiology. Yes, I read his books for fun — he’s a great YouTube speaker.

The post Faculty Focus: Dr. Mark Spalding appeared first on GCU Today.

Dr. Seanan Kelly, shown in his home office, is a GCU expert on online teaching tools and is helping instructors make the transition during the virus outbreak.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Stephanie Herrick Kays conducted an assessment clinic for nursing students.

To an empty room.

But using Loom video technology, GCU’s Graduate Simulation Manager ran through a simulation of a toddler with an ear infection for students to later view, then access and create a plan of action.

Welcome to instruction in the time of COVID-19, as Grand Canyon University ground students were sent home to finish the final four weeks of the semester in online courses, starting Monday.

GCU expects to be very good at it with its longtime prowess in online instruction.

“We have online full-time faculty here, which isn’t common, and we’ve been doing this for a decade,” said Colin Witherspoon, Faculty Chair of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and College of Doctoral Studies. “Nobody else is on that same playing field.

“And it’s not just a matter of using these tools of technology. We have tested the tools and researched the tools.”

GCU is quickly using its expertise in instruction of more than 80,000 online students to help faculty teach its 22,000 traditional ground students.

Kays assisted the College of Nursing’s transition with tools she has used for online students. The Loom video of the simulation allows students to make an assessment and get feedback from instructors.

“Our students are getting some of the experience in clinical, and it doesn’t put them behind,” Kays said. “I’m really impressed with the College of Nursing, how we flipped everything online in less than no time.”

Teaching online requires some adjustments. Kays noticed at first that students learning online can be “rougher around the edges” than they would be in a classroom, so she brings in the personal touch with video messages.

“I make them acknowledge my weekly announcements. I start with a prayer and tell them what is going on. Bringing in prayers puts a name to a face,” she said. “They can see you are happy for them, you prayed with them. Then they aren’t as rough around the edges.”

She learned of the use of Loom through a course with Dr. Seanan Kelly, Assistant Professor in the College of Doctoral Studies and an expert in online instruction.

Kelly shared links to his tips on online teaching with GCU faculty and has fielded questions from other colleges that are in the same boat in the past week.

“GCU has been at the forefront in its investment in technology. We are at a time when that investment allows us to function, quite literally,” he said.

He has made roughly 1,900 videos on Loom, he said. His link demonstrates for other teachers how they can provide traditional lectures – what he calls “fireside chats” – but switch screens to allow for other materials on the screen or use both at once with his face minimized while talking about the content.

Kelly also can use Loom to assess a student’s paper, for example, by easily flipping from page one to page five to make his point. It can be a learner advantage.

Dr. Seanan Kelly touts the use of Loom videos for online instruction.

“If they had read my comments on paper, in a linear fashion, they may not have fit it together in a logical way. They can follow along like the old Disney books – change the page when you hear the bell,” he said. “You can have aural and visual cues on the page.”

He acknowledges it could be difficult for some classroom teachers at first.

“Teaching, in my opinion, is sometimes theater. You have an audience and it’s one of the beautiful things about being in front of the classroom. It’s your stage, and you feel part of something bigger than yourself because there is an exchange,” he said. “But they shouldn’t feel like they have to put everything aside in their arsenal; they can bring every tool in their arsenal to this.”

The biggest challenge is adding a human element to teaching that is natural in face-to-face instruction, Witherspoon said. “Loom video is a great way to add that human voice. That is something we have tried to emphasize, and now it has a whole new purpose because of these strange times.”

The video messages allow instructors to edit content for mistakes and distill it down into smaller segments.

That’s what Trevor Dustin already has learned in adapting his English courses to online instruction. Last week, he recorded a short, weekly summation of what to expect in the coming week – with a human voice, not just a list on a page.

“I make sure my videos are under 10 minutes. It’s hard enough to get students to listen in a classroom, and now you have removed the structures that keep them engaged. So I put them in short chunks,” said Dustin, who instructs Honors College students.

It’s the same way he would communicate in class, offering subjects in blocks, only the discussion is “asynchronous,” he said.

Anyone can move a class online and just drone on with a lecture, but to do it well requires moving to an online modality, using all the tools of technology to your advantage that have long been tested at GCU. College of Education faculty report using many Web tools learned in past faculty conferences, such as Flipgrid, Zoom, Remind messaging, Edpuzzle and Loom.

“Students can read articles all day, but there’s that personal connection of someone’s voice in their house,” Dustin said. “The first thing I did was go to an article on why we canceled (in-person) classes and said, ‘Not to fear monger, but you are doing this to protect the community.’”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

The post GCU quickly makes ground-to-online transition appeared first on GCU Today.

Kathy Britton, Chair of Behavioral Health and Counseling at Grand Canyon University, says there are ways to combat trauma related to the virus outbreak.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Kathy Britton woke up feeling ill. Her husband woke up feeling as if he hadn’t slept at all.

Britton started to fear that she might have COVID-19 but had to remind herself that she is prone to spring sinus infections. She had to remind her husband that in these stressful times stress anxiety emerges, even in sleep.

Such is life in America as people face fear and anxiety while isolated at home during the pandemic.

Many are experiencing vicarious trauma, said Britton, a trauma therapist by training and Chair of Behavioral Health and Counseling in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Grand Canyon University.

“Vicarious trauma occurs when the individual is not the direct victim of a traumatic experience, but they know someone who is the immediate victim,” Britton said.

They fear they may be next, similar to the days after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001.

“There is a feeling it could happen to us,” she said on Tuesday, when Arizona residents were told to stay at home and some national experts projected at least 100,000 American deaths.

When 9/11 occurred, the majority of Americans experienced some vicarious trauma, and research shows that their sense of reality and safety was challenged on that day.

“This pandemic is a slower-acting process than 9/11, and the effects are not as direct,” Britton said. “There have been many that have been slow to accept the reality of the situation, as well. Denial is reasonable when the human brain is challenged with the unbelievable.”

Britton even acknowledged her own level of denial because Arizona faced a different reality than virus hot spots such as New York City – at least until she heard stories of the suffering there on National Public Radio.

“Everyone thinks they are immune in a weird way, but none of us are,” she said. “We know people who have lost jobs – many of my students have lost jobs – and that’s a reality. Those things add to the stress.”

Many different emotions can emerge as the pandemic progresses.

We may feel hopeless and powerless during a crisis we can’t control.

“There is so much about the virus we don’t know,” Britton said. “I wash my hands, wear a mask and don’t go out, but what about the mailman?”

We may feel anxiety or anger, consuming media sources throughout the day, constantly monitoring the rising statistics or reading about who is to blame politically.

“We may have a quick temper and get more snappy or sensitive. A person can say something benign and we take it seriously,” she said.

They all can lead to increasing anxiety levels that manifest themselves in many ways: racing thoughts, feeling exhausted, not caring about anything, stomach and digestive problems, muscle twitches, being easily startled, losing appetite, eating too much, being distracted and have problems focusing.

She noticed the latter last week. A dozen of her students didn’t understand an assignment, an abnormally high number for the task.

“In normal times it is clear, but put the brain under pressure and your cognitive resources go down,” she said. “It’s harder to pay attention. You are not going to be able to be that student who waits until 11 the night before to crank out a paper, even if you normally do that, because your cognitive resources will be challenged.”

Recognizing these responses is a good step toward employing methods to prevent anxiety during an virus outbreak.

“Schedules and traditions are important, especially if you are working at home,” Britton said. “Take a shower and dress like you are going into the office before you sit in front of your computer.”

Britton recommends budgeting your consumption of the types of media in your life: “A Disney film is much better than a movie called ‘Pandemic.’”

Also, take care of your physical self by eating healthy, drinking water, getting enough rest and exercise, and avoiding excess caffeine or alcohol.

“Don’t have the same level of expectations of your productivity,” she adds. “Take it easy on demands on yourself and teammates. And fight isolation by thinking outside the box to connect with others.”

She saw on Facebook that a group of stay-at-home mothers maintained their social group by pulling their vehicles into a parking lot to have morning coffee, together but a safe distance apart.

Britton joined an online game night of Apples to Apples to help another couple entertain their 10-year-old and maintain social connections.

“Even those reticent to partake will be forced to interact through technology and normalize that kind of sociability,” she said. “We get energy from interacting with each other. It’s almost like the food we need from our mothers. We can’t give that up.”

It’s important to know you will feel sadness, anxiety and possibly depression, which is normal during a crisis, but “have patience and grace for yourself.”

You could start your day by journaling, joining online yoga or practicing meditation and prayer with online applications Calm, Insight, Headspace and The Free Mindfulness Project.

Also look to the Christian community, she says, for our “communal psyche,” which reminds us that fear and divisions aren’t important.

“What’s important is that we live through this and keep people alive,” she said.

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

The post GCU expert offers ways to combat pandemic trauma appeared first on GCU Today.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Kimbel Westerson was starting her technical writing class via Zoom a couple weeks ago when a student jumped on board, right on schedule. Westerson, an instructor in Grand Canyon University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences, was surprised to learn that the student was in her car.

Students find all sorts of ways to connect to the online classroom — even if they’re in their car.

She had pulled over to attend class on the way home to Florida.

Talk about motivation.

During this time of crisis, staying motivated and resilient while attending or teaching classes online can present challenges — ground faculty and students are also taking different roads to the destination.

“It can be hard to maintain that same motivation that we have in person, especially with the increased anxiety and psychological distress during the COVID-19 crisis,” said Dr. Liesl Hecht, Online Full Time Faculty in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.

Instructors may have students with family responsibilities at home who are worried about money, lost jobs or catching the virus, which she said can all factor into lowering motivation and resilience.

As CHSS instructors, Hecht and Dr. Kendra Stewart-Nelson, Online Full Time Faculty, have expertise in behavioral health that shed light on ways to counter that problem through crisis.

Dr. Kendra Stewart-Nelson advocates communication and compassion, especially during tough times.

“We want students to get through this moment, so we put on a different hat, use a different set of skills, and enhance those skills we already displayed in the classroom — because there is an extra layer of stress with this,” Stewart-Nelson said.

Hecht’s research has shown that a motivated student is one who is conscientious, believes in himself or herself (self-efficacy) and has task value, meaning that “students believe what they are learning really matters.”

She keeps them motivated by engaging students in discussion forums that, for example, share ways they stay organized at home (conscientious), or share ways their degree might apply in the real world (task value).

Hecht also says videos that walk students through assignments can help them learn and stay connected.

Stewart-Nelson’s research has shown that instructors can spot resilience in students who display optimism, a sense of purpose and have problem-solving abilities.

“You are really helping them tap into that inner energy. They do know how to adapt and keep moving forward,” she said.

Dr. Liesl Hecht says teachers can stay resilient by rewarding themselves each day.

It’s all about meaningful communication, as she recently described in GCU podcast “Teaching Tips,” making sure that even though they are working remotely, students are comfortable and know she values their feelings.

She often includes a welcome video, posts positive affirmation quotes and prays with students who are going through tough times.

“It really helps them maintain resilience,” she said. “When we are talking about resilience, we are talking about persevering through tribulation. Just establish what they need that is supportive to move forward — so that prayer forum touches on that.”

Stewart-Nelson said that while working in the mental health field she has dealt with a lot of brokenness in people who have had to persevere, “so when they are working through the trenches, I have to put on my hat to be supportive.”

That can mean being flexible with assignments, especially during uncertain, changing times such as this.

“I know this is a crisis and it’s overwhelming and people are stressed about it and could easily give up right now with everything going on,” she said. “It’s evident our students need grace and compassion because how could you not be affected by what is going on?”

The online ways of interacting may be different than ground classrooms, but Hecht also said communication is still key. It’s helpful to do a weekly check-in to discuss the challenges they face while studying or working from home.

“It’s helping them realize they can still stay motivated and they can get their work done. We will work with them as instructors,” she said.

Instructors need the same awareness of maintaining their motivation and resilience.

“We need to take care of ourselves, plan out our days and weeks. It seems so simple, just staying organized, but it can be harder to focus in times like this with many more distractions,” Hecht said.

Be mindful of your time on the job while at home, take breaks because you may be more distracted and give yourself something to look forward to every day. Hecht likes to utilize aromatherapy to relax at day’s end and get in a calm state.

This can be a rough transition, so don’t be too hard on yourself.

“This may be a bit fluffy, but one thing can be helpful: When you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, make eye contact and smile at yourself to just acknowledge you are present in today and to get grounded in today,” she said.

This is a new normal, but we need to keep elements of the old normal to maintain that healthy balance, added Stewart-Nelson. Get up at the same time, take a warm shower and get coffee, if that’s your regular routine. You may even set up your work station with pictures or desk art from the office.

And find ways to make the day meaningful, which could be trying something new.

Stewart-Nelson pulled out a sewing machine she had never used and was learning to sew, while her daughter pulled out an old Christmas gift – a karaoke machine. “We are going to create a new life because we have time to,” she said.

An instructor or student who is refreshed and motivated – by sewing or song — can stay resilient in the sprint to the end of a very unusual semester.

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

****

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The post How students, faculty are steering online learning appeared first on GCU Today.

Graduating from GCU was a challenge for Students Inspiring Students scholarship recipients (from left) Sara Rojas, Santiago Nunez, Jazmine Miguel and Blanca Santillan, but they have made their families proud.

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

Story by Mike Kilen
Photos by Ralph Freso
GCU Magazine

They carried a heavy weight of expectations, but they did it. The first full class of Students Inspiring Students scholarship recipients is set to graduate from Grand Canyon University, a remarkable moment for 50 neighborhood families.

“My dad was a homeless kid at age 9 and never set foot in a school. My mom only went to sixth grade,” said Blanca Santillan, who will graduate with a degree in Justice Studies. “It will be emotional for all of us and will be a huge change for my family since we are first-generation Americans.”

They were groundbreakers, ushering in GCU’s initiative to build up the neighborhood by helping its children. SIS grants a four-year, full-tuition scholarship to inner-city students who have at least a 3.5 grade point average, met financial-needs requirements and received at least 100 hours of assistance at GCU’s Learning Lounge, an after-school tutoring program.

GCU is celebrating the graduation of (from left) Rojas, Nunez, Santillan and Miguel as well as the other members of the first four-year Students Inspiring Students graduating class.

“My mom was a single mom for a really long time, and she knew she wanted me to do better than she did. She was always pushing me,” said Sara Rojas. “I’d be doing a project late at night and crying and she would stay up and help me.”

Her mom, Diana Dugger, jumped for joy the day of the announcement. Her daughter was introverted and stuck by her side as a child, but in the four years that followed she has watched Sara’s transformation.

“It was refreshing to see the change in her eyes,” Dugger said. “She is coming out of her shell.”

But something this life-changing was not without challenges.

“No one in my family had gone to college. It was good but there was pressure. I have to be perfect there or otherwise it’s a big waste,” Rojas said.

On the first day of college, she realized she needed a personal computer. She sat at an empty desk. On the second day, she brought her mom’s old, huge laptop and strained her back carrying it. She said she passed other students with nice clothes and felt as if she didn’t fit in.

She was not alone.

“I was new with technology and overwhelmed with how to use the laptop; I didn’t know where to click. And I went to the wrong class,” said Jazmine Miguel. “I went to the Student Union and cried. I didn’t want to go home because I didn’t want my parents to see me cry. They are very proud of me and think I have everything figured out.”

They found their way, eventually, with the help of others at GCU.

Miguel found the Honors College and the Latino Student Union and made connections. Santillan found the Students Inspiring Students Club, where she became president of an organization that helps commuting SIS students discover campus life.

They worked with high school students in the Learning Lounge, fulfilling their 100 hours of giving back, which also led to a sense of community where they once felt out of place.

“Because I came here in high school, I get to walk around and see little ‘mini-me’s’ that were in my spot four years ago. I was wondering what they are wondering now,” Rojas said.

Santiago Nunez first sat in the back of the class, eyes ahead and not talking, until he connected with others in the same boat.

“I talk to high school students who come here and I tell them I don’t feel lost here,” he said. “It reminds me of a place I came from. People aren’t that different from me.”

It wasn’t easy. Nothing worth it is.

Santillan’s grades fell, and for a time she hid them. “I was devastated. I thought I would lose my scholarship,” she said, until she told her parents and they encouraged taking summer classes. “But I’m still here. I survived.”

The students have beaten the odds, said Dr. Joe Veres, GCU’s Vice President of Student Success. College wasn’t even on the radar for many of them before they took to the campus with determination.

“This is a program that isn’t all talk. It’s working,” he said of the more than 250 scholarships awarded thus far. “The amount of work ethic they have is amazing.”

GCU isn’t just there to teach them through math or English. The University’s role in lifting the community also means helping the program’s graduates land a job.

“Now they are not only the first to have a college education but the first to have a professional career,” Veres said. “These families are trusting GCU to educate their child. Now they get a job back in the community and help support their family. What happens is you get a true middle class, if not higher, and you have an educated community.”

For the past four years, Rojas’ family members bragged about her work at GCU, “and now everyone is compared to you,” she said. “I’m nervous they are going to hold me on this pedestal to be like president or something.”

Facing that pressure, they have laid out an example for others. Nunez shares a room at home with his little brother, who often rolled over at 3 a.m. and saw his brother still studying. “Now that I’ve been doing it, he has to try to go above it,” Nunez said.

Along the way, people were there to help at GCU.

Miguel once was told by a mentor that when a student earns a college degree, the journey has just begun. “That calms me down. I used to feel anxious but now I feel amazing,” she said.

She was told by a life coach at a business fair on campus that she should talk with her parents about her fear of disappointing them.

“That same night I did, and they were supportive of everything. It felt amazing. I am starting my own business. I am going to be broke, but money has never been an issue for my family. We have always been poor, and we have always survived.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

****

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The post They’re graduating, and that truly says it all appeared first on GCU Today.

Vincent Clapper and his parents celebrated his graduation from GCU with a dinner via social distancing in the empty parking lot near Texas Roadhouse in Sioux Falls, S.D. He anticipates starting his job with Oracle in Austin, Texas, in June.

By Lana Sweeten-Shults
GCU News Bureau

Vincent Clapper wasn’t about to let his graduation day go by without fanfare.

So he and his mom, Cathi, concocted this idea.

Vince, who graduated this weekend from Grand Canyon University with his bachelor’s degree in Marketing, landed a job with Oracle in Austin, Texas (the Honors College student sharpened his business chops previously as a Red Bull student brand manager).

So he and Cathi thought they would do a sort-of tribute-to-Texas-themed graduation celebration.

They loaded up a table, chairs and white tablecloth into the family minivan – it took some doing – hit the road to Texas Roadhouse in their hometown of Sioux Falls, S.D., and ordered some food for pickup (the thing to do in the COVID-19 era). They then drove to the empty parking lot next door and unloaded the table, chairs and white tablecloth to partake of the feast al fresco, with Texas Roadhouse as a backdrop and tribute to his future.

Vince dressed in his sister’s old cap and gown – and donned a purple GCU pennant for good measure. His dad, Jeff, an attorney, also joined them for his graduation dinner.

It made for the perfect social media photograph: social distancing, family togetherness, coronavirus graduate. A nod to the future.

A picture truly does say a thousand words.

“People who were in their cars next door were saying, ‘Congratulations!’ I got a free dessert. People who were driving by honked,” said Vince, still amazed by how his family – and community — celebrated him, even during a pandemic that forced the postponement of commencement ceremonies around the world, including GCU’s.

Not to be outdone, the staff at Texas Roadhouse wheeled out their “birthday saddle,” on which birthday guests are invited to sit while the staff sings enthusiastically to them. Social distancing was observed, of course.

Despite all the effort to move practically an entire dining room outside, Vince said, “it was worth the effort.”

Vince and his parents weren’t the only ones to find a unique way to celebrate graduation from a distance.

One woman wrote on her Instagram how her family was celebrating their graduate with a parade. Family and friends parked along the street to cheer for the graduate, who was driven, in cap and gown, past the spectators. He waved through the sunroof.

Other family members placed their graduates’ regalia on the front lawn or put out yard signs congratulating their seniors on completing their degrees.

Congratulations to our GCU graduate Caleb!!
Covid Graduations at Home just might be the BEST!!@gcu @GCULopeNation @chab_smitty pic.twitter.com/jObV2fYwEn

— Wendy A Smith (@Wabsmith) April 25, 2020

Then there’s GCU Christian ministries graduate Caleb Smith, who’s sheltering at home in Mesa. His mom, Wendy, posted a hilarious video of their family’s COVID-19, do-it-yourself graduation a la quarantine from home.

Caleb is pictured in cap and gown stepping over the threshold (through the front door) and into the house, where his mom hugs him, and his dad, Brian, and his brother’s dog shake his hand before he is greeting “dignitaries” who are wearing throw blankets as capes. One holds a sign that says #AboutTime2020. The other, with a pillow balanced on his head like a graduation cap mortar board, shakes his hand and sprays him down with disinfectant.

“Caleb and his wife had a plan of doing a Zoom party, so we decorated our front yard and were just planning on having a dinner and getting on a Zoom call. So everyone was kind of like, ‘Did you ever get your cap and gown?’ He dug out his high school cap and gown, then everyone just kind of improvised, ‘Oh, let’s do a ceremony,'” said Wendy. “His younger brother filmed it, his brother’s dog got involved. It just so happened the Lysol can was purple.”

While the family was sad NOT to embrace their graduate with a big pomp-and-circumstance ceremony, “Caleb said, ‘I wouldn’t want this any other way.’ Being with family is the best. We didn’t have trouble with parking or getting graduation tickets or anything like that. … And it’s something he can tell his kids — I graduated when COVID came and disrupted everything.”

The Honors College has honored its students with a video address from Associate Dean Breanna Naegeli, a senior spotlight campaign and a gift in their email — a virtual photo booth experience so graduates could take animated graduation pictures with a GCU Honors College backdrop.

Adrienne Crawford celebrated her environmental science graduates with a virtual Zoom ceremony.

GCU’s Adrienne Crawford, who teaches biology, ecology and environmental science in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, has grown close to many of the seniors in the programs she teaches during their three or four years at the University.

“The thought of them NOT having a ceremony broke my heart,” she said of her senior students, who had purchased all their regalia and were disappointed they wouldn’t be able to walk across the stage at GCU Arena as planned (though a fall Commencement is in the works).

Almost as soon as it was announced that classes were no longer going to be face-to-face and were moving online, Crawford started formulating an idea of how she would honor her graduating seniors: She would host a distance graduation on virtual meeting platform Zoom.

She sent invitations, pulled up old Commencement ceremony footage that showed a processional and even arranged for a keynote speaker, Dr. Randhir Deo, faculty lead of GCU’s Environmental Science Program. He spoke to the graduates about being responsible with their degree and using their knowledge to benefit mankind.

He conveyed to students the importance of the journey over the destination and the importance of looking back. We don’t always know how the dots are connected in life, but they are, he said, and you can’t know how they’re connected by looking forward, only by looking back.

He also asked them to express their gratitude to those who have helped them along the way. “There are a lot of individuals that liked you and that are behind you and that want you to be successful.”

One of the graduates, Tatiana Sarracino, did indeed show her gratitude during the Zoom graduation: “It takes an army (to make a person),” she said. “It’s not just my grandparents and my mom, it’s not just my parents, it’s an army.”

Seven seniors in the small but burgeoning Environmental Science Program were able to attend, and more than 30 others logged into the online meeting, including the students’ family and friends.

“They worked so hard for this one special moment,” Crawford said.

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When you end up having a virtual graduation Share with a graduate!! 🥳 #Quarantine #StayHome #StaySafe #BestFriends #Classof2020 #CollegeGraduates #GCU #UCI #UCR #GCC #MVHS #VirtualGraduation #TagAGraduate

A post shared by J A Z Z E L L E (@jazzelledrums) on Mar 31, 2020 at 10:34pm PDT

Jazzelle Ramirez, who received her Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, wrote on her Instagram (@jazelledrums) that although she was sad her senior year ended so abruptly, she was happy to have attended her “dream college.”

“We were supposed to be united today, graduating together and experiencing a memorable moment in life,” she said of what was supposed to be Commencement on Friday. “We’ve worked extremely hard and invested so much money these last couple of years, but it’s definitely paid off.

“I’m here to remind you that the Lord is still faithful and worthy of everything. I’m so proud to be a witness by seeing you make a great impact in a way that goes a lot further than a semester ended early. Now, use your degree and all the knowledge you’ve received to unlock doors for others humbly, by serving at a different level. May you continue being a blessing unto others and be led by the Spirit, purposely guiding you for such a time like this.”

The celebrations will continue, of course.

GCU’s Commencement for traditional, on-ground students on Friday was to be followed by two days of ceremonies April 30 and May 1 for nontraditional students. So those students, too, will find their own ways to celebrate.

GCU’s social media team on Wednesday launched a more-than-weeklong celebration of the University’s graduates with video addresses by students, Pastor and Dean of Students Dr. Tim Griffin and Provost Dr. Hank Radda. Along with the video team, they are compiling submissions for a video that will highlight how students celebrated.

Until then, here are some other ways students commemorated their graduation day, seen by their posts on social media:

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We graduated!!! Officially Grand Canyon University Alumni. Class of 2020, we did it. Cheers to what’s nextLOPES OUT Who’s in the video: @long_live_dante @oneanonly_tayah @kirby.laing @mp_identity Song: Graduate by Jonathan McReynolds ft. the Hamiltones @jonmcreynolds

A post shared by ＤＡＮＩＥＬＬＡ (@iamdanih) on Apr 24, 2020 at 1:43pm PDT

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Class of 2020 be like: #coronaclass #lopesout

A post shared by Hey, You Look Great Today (@gideanleigh) on Apr 25, 2020 at 9:56am PDT

Congratulations to everyone in the class of 2020! We had a blast celebrating our @GCU_Lopes grad @Dennis_Flowerss yesterday #Classof2020 pic.twitter.com/QPPxp7lBC5

— Lauren Flowers (@_FlowersFam_) April 26, 2020

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Graduation season is here! We got to celebrate two special GCU graduates this weekend! Congratulations, Sarah & Delaney! Lopes up! #gcu #lopesup #grandcanyonuniversity #graduation #youdidit #cardmyyardnwphx

A post shared by Cardmyyard PhoenixNW (@cardmyyard_phoenixnw) on Apr 25, 2020 at 5:57pm PDT

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Congratulations to my sweet Annie for graduating from GCU!!! #golopes #2020graduate

A post shared by Billy Waters (@billyhwaters) on Apr 25, 2020 at 3:50pm PDT

Very thankful for technology like @zoom_us that has allowed me to celebrate my graduation from @gcu with friends and family! pic.twitter.com/BsiBx8l22w

— Dennis Flowers (@Dennis_Flowerss) April 26, 2020

Had a great #VirtualGraduation for @Dennis_Flowerss finishing from @gcu! Super proud of this guy and where he’s going!! #LopesUp #SiblingPic pic.twitter.com/i8s8RErfSf

— Steven Flowers (@coachsteveflow) April 25, 2020

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Congrats to all whose graduating from High School or College! No matter what's happening right now, you made it!🥳 #GCU #Grad #arizona

A post shared by Lesley Estrada (DessertsbyLes) (@dessertsbyles) on Apr 25, 2020 at 3:52pm PDT

When shelter in place means you don’t have quick access to art supplies…you use a trash bag! Congrats to @CrestCoyotes alum Lauren Komp for graduating from @gcu with her Nursing Degree! @CajonValleyUSD We’re so proud of you! pic.twitter.com/VUrK1Mm2Cp

— Emeri Keffer (@MissKeffer) April 24, 2020

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Congratulations Erin! #gcugraduation #graduation #graduate #grandcanyonuniversity #donuts #like4like # #decorateddonut #donutarts #instadonut #donutofinstagram #instaeat #instapic #picoftheday #instalike #instafollow #localgerown #dinubaca #dinuba #cityofdinuba #bakery #donutshop #instagood #instalove #donutlover #love #photooftheday

A post shared by Date's Donuts (@datesdonuts) on Apr 25, 2020 at 9:00am PDT

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Well I suppose I graduated today. Blessed by GCU, Phoenix and all my people

A post shared by Tessa (@tessa__ann) on Apr 24, 2020 at 11:50pm PDT

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When graduation gets cancelled, you get creative! So thankful for all of our family members who helped make our quarantine graduation special! Video by @joffrey_hammit . . . . #GCUClassOf2020 #ClassOf2020 #ClassOfCoronavirus #ClassOfCOVID19 #GCUAlumni #GCUGrad . . . Song Remix: Pomp and Circumstance (Hip Hop Remix) · Blue Claw Philharmonic

A post shared by Jess (@jessiii_michelle) on Apr 25, 2020 at 9:00pm PDT

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Today was a bitter sweet day! It breaks my heart that you were unable to walk the stage to get your diploma, but I’m so very proud of you baby sister! Words cannot express how proud and happy I am for you! All the years of hard work, dedication and sacrifice. I love you very much to the moon and back plus infinity and beyond ! This exact day 6 years ago I graduated with my Bachelors just like you! It’s incredible how Great our God is! You are an official GCU Alumni #LopesUp #BachelorsOfScienceInBiologywithanEmphasisPrePhysiclaTherapy #Classof2020 I want to give a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for everyone who was a part of today’s special milestone !

A post shared by ʝꪖꪀꫀડડꫀ Ꭱᥙᖯเꪮ (@simply_classy93) on Apr 24, 2020 at 7:28pm PDT

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Grad video for @jaredfortini filmed and edited by meee

A post shared by Logan Alexandra Myers (@loganalexedits) on Mar 19, 2020 at 1:41pm PDT

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*sound on* for the feel good moment of your weekend- congrats on graduating from GCU Kalani Inez! #gcu2020

A post shared by Jason Nordgren (@jasonnordgren) on Apr 25, 2020 at 9:50am PDT

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Today I and my fellow 2020 GCU graduates were supposed to walk at our graduation ceremony. It has been a long four year journey through school. Even though GCU was not my first choice, I do not regret my time spent here at all. Thank you to all the friends I made a long the way and to my family for all the support through the years, it has truly meant a lot to me. Thank you all and lopes up! #gcu #gculopes #gcu2020 #graduation #imadeit #thankyou #blessed

A post shared by Cameron Bryant (@camcambryant24) on Apr 24, 2020 at 4:58pm PDT

The post From town to town, Lopes donned cap and gown appeared first on GCU Today.

GCU student Samantha Gomez was a mentor to English students using a gaming program for remote classes.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Dr. Jen Santos turned to her Grand Canyon University English class when faced with the news that her courses would go online because of the pandemic.

“How will this work best for you?” she asked them.

That’s when students hatched a unique idea – using a digital platform designed for video gaming communities to communicate in classes remotely.

It doesn’t hurt when your professor is a former gamer. She was game.

“It was really creative thinking and we did it together. If I was to do it myself, I wouldn’t have come up with this idea, so I give them a lot of credit,” said Santos, Associate Professor of English, who used the platform Discord to conduct her English 105 and 106 classes.

It’s one example of how College of Humanities and Social Sciences faculty and students used their ingenuity and resilient spirit to transition classes online and finish the semester amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Some of Santos’ students expressed concern over possible internet connectivity and other technical barriers or home distractions, such as taking care of siblings.

GCU student Bronson Bodlak supplied technical help to get his English class running on a gaming platform.

Santos, student Bronson Bodlak and others teamed up to execute the Discord plan. Bodlak became the information technology expert on the project, creating time slots on Discord for each of three English courses and adding students to each.

It became a virtual classroom with audio, video and messaging capabilities.

“Discord has been the best for the students because everyone is interacting with the professor and it made the classroom a friendly environment,” said Bodlak, who ended up doing his final essay on the effort. “This was especially effective in that everyone was able to contact each other with simple name commands that got the attention of users with a specific tag.”

Discord also allowed for a classroom of interactions without having to appear on screen during a Zoom session.

“The result is I had people attending class or ask questions while they were at work or caring for siblings, and they didn’t have to be on camera,” Santos said. “One student came to class while fixing a plumbing issue.”

While she sent them recorded Loom videos to review before discussion, the Discord sessions became “a neat exercise in community,” she said.

Student Samantha Gomez, who served as a mentor in the class, said it was easier than other platforms to jump online quickly, and “screen sharing in Discord allowed students to share their documents without face-to-face video calling.”

Santos provided thoughts on the screen shares via audio while students reacted in chat form.

“It was almost like a whiteboard, but they were the ones using it,” Santos said.

“We tried to keep in fun,” she said. “One rule on Discord was to say goodbye before you leave. We understand some can’t stay the whole time. So one of my classes turned that into saying goodbye via a GIF, like SpongeBob waving or a little cat or dog.

Screenshot of a Discord “class” where GCU English students gathered.

“No one wanted to leave because they wanted to see what everyone would post for a GIF that day.”

As Santos spoke on a early afternoon last week, she said there were three students still on the platform interacting from their 9 a.m. class.

“Cracks me up,” she said.

It was a prime example of using many online tools to stay connected.

“We have learned an enormous amount about the pedagogical creativity of our professors,” CHSS Dean Dr. Sherman Elliott said. “Because of their talents and fast-moving adjustments to their classes, the transition for our learners has been smooth and continued to allow learning to take place.”

Other instructors faced a daunting prospect in courses where classroom discussion is a major factor.

“My (statistics) students need me a little more. It’s a class that students have some pretty high anxiety about because the curriculum is tough. They have a lot of questions about it,” said Dr. Julie Nelson, Associate Professor in Psychology.

Plus, some students were going to home environments with economic stress because of the crisis or crowded with both parents and siblings living and working there.

A vital tool for her was Remind, a private mobile messaging platform that allows teachers to communicate with an entire class.

Dr. Julie Nelson

“I really tried to be aware that everyone is under duress, so I always started my communication with hoping that everyone was safe and well,” she said.

“There are ways you can communicate at the beginning of every class to convey your personality and interest in them and really establish relationships. It’s harder to do online, but it’s necessary.”

If students really believe that you care about them and you can go to the extra effort to convey that, they will respond, she said. With the non-verbals of face-to-face communication impossible, the friendly emoji became one of her biggest friends.

Nelson could send text messages for Remind that students could access on browsers or their phones to notify them of future Zoom sessions, to watch a Loom recording or to communicate one on one.

“I can track them down in ways I couldn’t before,” she said. “I think it is important that your messages are upbeat and informational. The cool thing is that nearly every day I am getting messages expressing gratitude.”

Wherever she goes throughout the day, she said, her students’ messages are carried with her on her phone.

While she was talking, she pulled up one of them: “I really appreciate all the hard work you put into ensuring our success. Thanks for this semester and have a great summer.”

Make no mistake, faculty logged extra time on moving classes to a remote environment.

“Admittedly, it was a lot of extra work, but the payoff is big as well,” said Dr. Makisha Gunty, an instructor in Sociology and Social Work.

Dr. Makisha Gunty

She made sure that each student could have a private forum to check in with her if need be during weekly remote “office hours.”

And because group work is vital in sociology courses, she set up breakout sessions during Zoom classes.

“It really was lemonade out of lemons,” she said. “It wasn’t magic bullets. I think it’s fair to share that it wasn’t perfect all around, but I think it did help students in the transition.”

Flexibility was key. For example, she offered students the option of recording their presentations or doing them live via Zoom.

“I had a student turn in her video presentation, and she had a dog walk across, she had brothers who came in and out, she had a toddler who tried to hit the computer,” she said. “I could be really strict and say, ‘No, you need to get in a private area and conduct it professionally.’ The reality is she said there were just so many people living in her house, there is not a quiet place. I’m not going to dock her for that. She is making the best of the situation she had.”

The pandemic was a key area of discussion in sociology and social work classes, addressing coping methods, child development, government strategies to social problems, the challenges of poverty and race, and other subjects.

“While I would never ask for a pandemic, it was an opportunity for those learning lessons,” she said.

In her first semester of teaching at GCU, she came away impressed with students’ resilience. They didn’t make excuses.

“Several lost jobs – one student was on the wait staff and had to get a job at a supermarket for minimum wage,” she said. “I was impressed they that took responsibility. They didn’t come at me entitled. That warms the cockles of my heart.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

The post Creativity key to remote learning for Humanities team appeared first on GCU Today.

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Graduation would have been today at the GCU Arena. Still celebrating even though it is at home!

A post shared by Dr. Eric Peterson (@godscoffee) on Apr 30, 2020 at 3:26pm PDT

By Ashlee Larrison
GCU News Bureau

It was a surreal moment for Dr. Eric Peterson as he watched Dr. Michael Berger, Dean of the College of Doctoral Studies, sign off on his dissertation in front of an audience last December.

Peterson has worked in higher education since 2003, helping other students pursue their doctorates. It had planted the seed in his mind – one day he was going to be Dr. Peterson.

And even though he couldn’t be hooded this spring because the pandemic forced Commencement to be postponed, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences professor still had earned a Doctor of General Psychology degree with an Emphasis in Integrating Technology, Learning and Psychology from Grand Canyon University. 

But what stands out about Peterson’s seven-year doctoral journey is the way it ended, which he refers to as his “God moment.” 

Eric Peterson dedicated his dissertation to his family — wife Beth (center) and daughters Cherish (left) and Grace.

It happened the day before he was scheduled to defend his dissertation. He was picking up his GCU men’s basketball season tickets for his family, but when he dropped off his parents’ tickets his father, Richard, had bad news: Peterson’s mother, Sharon, was very ill. 

“She couldn’t even get out of bed,” Peterson said. “She was pale as a sheet … so I prayed with her, prayed over her.”

His family knew how important defending his dissertation was, so his older sister Erin stepped in to help.

“She said, ‘We’re going to take care of Mom. Dad will get her to the hospital. You have your defense tomorrow — go do what you need to do. We’ve got this,” he recalled.

He agreed, but only under the condition that they would keep him posted if her condition worsened. The next morning, he mapped out his day. He would review materials and prepare for his defense before its scheduled 3 p.m. start.

Then his sister called him while he was eating breakfast.

“Mom’s in the ER, Dad’s been there since 4 a.m. with her. I would go help relieve him and get him some coffee because he’s exhausted, but I’ve got to go open up my shop,’” she told Peterson.

Peterson was on it. He has been roasting coffee for years, working with some of the highest volume coffeehouses in the nation, and knew that he could make something that could help his father. He ended up spending all morning with his parents, and during that time his mother’s condition improved. She has since recovered.

He got home with only 30 minutes of preparation time instead of the seven to eight hours he had originally planned. Turns out, that was all he needed.

“God knew what I needed,” he said. “I didn’t need to obsess about it all day long. I was ready. I was more than ready.”

Peterson dedicated his dissertation to his family, specifically his parents. He said it was through the glory of God that he was able to work toward his degree while keeping up with his duties at GCU, volunteering at his church and trying to be a good husband to his wife, Beth, and father to his daughters Cherish (22) and Grace (17).

Having to wait for his Commencement ceremony is disappointing, but Peterson said his heart is with the ground students who were due to graduate this spring.

“Obviously, it was something that I’m like, ‘Aw, I was so looking forward to that,’ but everything else just pales in comparison,” he said. “I’m at peace with it. I trust that the life that we lead won’t look like this for the next 12 months — it won’t be like this forever.”

For now, Peterson is holding onto the thought of how great it will feel when he finally gets hooded.

Contact Ashlee Larrison at (602) 639-8488 or ashlee.larrison@gcu.edu

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The post COVID-19 can’t rain on this doctoral grad’s parade appeared first on GCU Today.

Karisa Neels overcame a tough childhood to excel at GCU and earn a full scholarship from law school.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Karisa Neels lived in a small town in South Dakota with her mom who works in a cardboard-box factory and gave advice to her daughter.

“’Don’t do what society says you should do. Stay strong in who you are.’ That really got me where I am today,” said Neels, a Grand Canyon University senior who recently received a full scholarship to New England Law in the Justice Sandra Day O’Connor Honors Program.

Her mom, Monica Neels, cried during the good-news call.

“I was over-the-top excited,” Monica Neel said. “She is just a very strong young lady. She is going to make things happen.”

They didn’t have much money and had been through a lot of family strife. Yet her daughter  accomplished what Kevin Walling says is a rare feat — a full scholarship to law school, where tuition averages between $130,000 and $160,000.

Neels is the second GCU student in the past year to earn a full scholarship, which the Chair of Justice Studies, Government and History said is partially the result of supportive faculty, courses that are applicable to law school, skilled advisors on law school entrance exams and internship opportunities.

Neels’ triumph was also borne of personal tragedy.

“I grew up poor,” she said. “My dad was around when I was little but was super abusive, and he left and is in prison now. After that, it was just me and my mom.”

She dove into school work and stayed close with her mom.

“I’m glad I escaped through education and not drugs and alcohol like some other kids who had that upbringing,” Neels said.

When she visited GCU, it was tough to tell her mom that she wanted to go so far away, “but when I landed in Phoenix it was 75 degrees, and there was a blizzard in South Dakota.

Karisa Neels (left) and her mom, Monica, were overjoyed by the scholarship after overcoming tough times.

“She was super supportive: ‘You do you. Spread your wings. Fly. You’ll do fine.’ “

Her mother said, “She’s had her own mind since she was a little bitty girl. I told people the only way she learns is if she does it herself.”

Neels entered GCU with a desire to start a medical career but quickly switched to Government with an Emphasis in Legal Studies after a professor in her international relations class brought so much life to the course it didn’t feel like a mere slog through a textbook, she said.

And she recalled her skills in deciding on legal studies.

“I’m a really good arguer. I argued with my mom, with my teacher, with my friends. I argued with basically everyone,” she said. “Even if I was wrong, I would argue a little bit longer because I enjoyed it.”

Neels did more than argue. She helped pay her way with jobs as a hostess, server, bartender and nanny while taking classes and heeding the advice of professors to bulk up her resume with internships. She interned with the Republican Party of Arizona and Superior Court in Maricopa County and lobbied for The Humane Society of the U.S. at the Arizona State Capitol, among others.

“These types of opportunities can help whet student ambitions and give them a vision of the kind of success they could have at law school and beyond,” Walling said.

Neels graduated from GCU in April and said she fielded four scholarship offers to law schools but chose New England Law in Boston because of its strong tax attorney program. Her reasoning came from the head and the heart.

“A lot of times tax attorneys are the more wealthy attorneys because it is such a dry part of law,” she said. “I want to be able to be successful enough as a tax attorney that I will have money to work pro bono for domestic-violence issues.

“Dad was abusive – bad. (My mom) never felt like she could do anything about it because we had no money and nobody to listen to her.

“It’s another reason I argued a lot, too. I would argue not only with her, but for her.

“When she did look into a way to get out of the situation we were in, she realized it’s not cheap to get attorneys. I want to be that voice for people who don’t think their voice is strong enough or they can’t afford a voice.

“I want to do it for free for those that need the help.”

Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at mike.kilen@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6764.

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The post From tragedy to triumph of law school scholarship appeared first on GCU Today.

GCU students have access to several steps that can lead to a good job:
WORK-INSPIRED CURRICULUM: Includes career focus within courses, Purpose Plan, Career Connections and exams for field of story/certification/licensure
NETWORKING: Includes job fairs, professional clubs, faculty career advisors, ACE Centers, workshops
REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE: Includes project-based classwork, research experience, relevant work experience, internships/practicums, capstones
EMPLOYER/GRAD SCHOOL: Includes employer profiles, industry partners, advisory boards, company tours, job board

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

By Rick Vacek
GCU Magazine

Not even the historic shutdown of global life could deter Grand Canyon University’s commitment to making sure its students find good jobs when they graduate – preferably before they graduate.

As students returned home for spring break and finished the semester in an online learning environment because of the COVID-19 outbreak, GCU faculty and staff came together again to take the 1,035 on-campus employer visits in 2019-20 and transform them into digital connections.

As soon as they get to GCU, students are introduced to the culture — which includes a strong focus on careers.

Even in the face of such a daunting upheaval, it was Job 1.

“GCU is set up, with our online platforms, to continue the dialogue without having to do the face-to-face,” said Colangelo College of Business instructor Mark Jacobson, among the most active faculty members in connecting students to employers.

“We’re going to have all kinds of virtual meetings. We’re going to have them talk to recruiters online and through phone calls and conference calls and Skype and Zoom calls. We’re challenging ourselves to get creative to connect with these students and not lose what we’ve gained.”

As if students needed another example of GCU’s commitment to turning degrees into careers.

It is evident right from the start, when they see the forward-looking, employer-driven career focus of the curriculum. That’s step 1.

They are constantly confronted by on-campus networking opportunities – career fairs, clubs, advisors and more. Step 2.

Those opportunities are designed to lead to step 3 – relevant experience in research or in industry.

And it all is enveloped by the University’s liaisons with industry leaders through advisory boards and its ability to connect students to employer profiles, job boards and company tours. Step 4.

It’s all there for students. All they have to do is be willing to take the first step. This story will explain how it works and what some students have done to find their purpose – their hire purpose.

Job fairs are the No. 1 way to get face time with employers on campus.

UNITED FRONT: Sharing the same purpose

“Find your purpose” is much more than GCU’s often repeated slogan. It is central to everything the University does for its students – and just as central to understanding why it became even more intentional about this mission two years ago.

GCU already had plenty of job fairs, resume workshops, mock interviews and other tools to give students a spot at the front of the line in the job market. But University leaders concluded that it all needed to be coordinated under one initiative that maximizes efforts of faculty, counselors and career advisors.

“More of a united approach,” said Haley Fagerlie, Executive Director of Strategic Employer Initiatives and Internships (SEI). The changes were put into place in the fall of 2018 with SEI taking the lead coordination role, working in close harmony with the individual colleges. The highlights:

• The curriculum was enhanced or, in some cases, dramatically altered to make it even more job-focused.
• The First-Year Experience (see chart) was created. It’s designed to make sure freshmen get enough academic and career counseling assistance – from administrators, faculty, ACE advisors, Life Leaders and Learning Advocates (LEADs).
• The Academic & Career Excellence Center, an academic-assistance center that became a GCU staple soon after it opened in 2013, was expanded to 15 outlets across campus.
• The Career Connections platform was created, and each student’s Purpose Plan, part of the welcome-to-GCU UNV-103 class, was automated and built into the site.
• The Academic and Career Journey Lifecycle was created to further explain how this all works.

Dr. Hank Radda

The changes reflected the passion that GCU’s Provost, Dr. Hank Radda, has for what he calls “a comprehensive list of offering for students to customize their pathway to a career.”

He added: “It’s a very intentional process from freshman to senior to start to think about and develop yourself for the job you want to do. It’s an esprit de corps of the people here. There’s no faculty or counselor that’s not willing to go the extra mile to connect the student with an opportunity or experience that can move them ahead.”

Students are eager to help other students, too. Part of the LEADs’ concierge-like service is to help freshmen whenever they can – even if that means walking with them and striking up a conversation when the newcomer needs to find a building.

The give-and-take between SEI and the colleges, between ACE and students, and between colleges and students is just as service-oriented. Through the Career Connections platform, students have access to more than 6,000 employer contacts.

“We’re part of the colleges,” Fagerlie said. “We support them, help them understand and align to different things we understand from employers and industries. We’re also supporting their efforts and making sure their students are getting access to the differen opportunities that we have available – job postings, events, workshops, all these things.

“The students have a sense that there is connectedness.”

Marquis Scott

It is not unlike what has happened in the business and sports worlds, where data analytics are driving everything from personnel decisions to new initiatives to game management. But at GCU, the analytics are in the hands of the students as well as the faculty and staff.

“Part of it was about giving students access,” said Marquis Scott, Director of Employer Engagement and Internships. “It’s unified the campus. Everybody is connected to what’s going on, information is flowing freely and we’re finding ourselves collaborating across the University about more than just the career opportunities – we share best practices.”

It has made a difference for the individual colleges, too.

“It’s made it a lot easier,” said Dr. Sherman Elliott, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS). “In the past, a lot of those relationships would have to be maintained by the college.

“My job as dean is to constantly look to the external world for connections to help our students, but I don’t have the bandwidth to nurture the relationship. That’s where I appreciate the whole concept – SEI does a really good job of nurturing and maintaining the relationship.”

But to make all this jell, the colleges – from the conference room to the classroom – had to be on board with it. And they are. It’s their job to care about whether students get a job.

Employers say that the biggest differentiator in GCU students is the hands-on experience they get. It starts in the curriculum.

Dr. Sherman Elliott

ACADEMICS: Lists of graduates’ jobs must make the grade

Every spring, GCU deans review their eligible graduates in their college and their pathway toward a career. The most important outcome is their attainment of graduate school or a job.

In essence, the colleges are not being graded just by how well they taught. If the students don’t have jobs, does it matter how good the teaching was? And that’s what sets GCU apart.

“When we hired faculty 10 years ago, it was based on research,” Elliott said. “Then it shifted to pedagogy – people who could teach. Now a third of the conversation when I interview faculty is about careers.

A big crowd turned out for the Meet the Agencies career fair last fall in the Colangelo College of Business Building courtyard.

“That’s something that really hasn’t happened in higher ed. That’s something that’s been done over in the career services office When you read the Chronicle of Higher Ed about universities that are expanding their budget to move more money into careers, that money is not directed to colleges and faculty. It’s directed to a siloed career services office.”

Not at GCU. Not even close. Talk to administrators, talk to faculty, and one topic keeps coming up: How can they better collaborate to connect students with potential employers? How can we help develop them into highly recruitable employees?

“It’s the passion to serve our students that our faculty and staff have,” Radda said, “which makes them willing to dive in, shepherd and advise students toward their ultimate career goal. That could mean connecting a student with a current senator, attending a conference, joining a key research project or serving the community in Habitat for Humanity. It’s all for their development.”

It’s people like Mark Jacobson.

“I’ve always felt,” he said, “that there needs to be a strong connection with industry, with companies. Going to college is all about launching your career. I maintained, as I came to GCU, this passion to connect companies to students.

“I mentor, I coach, I advise – whatever I can do to help students get going.”

That giving spirit is reciprocated, too. Kathy Britton, Program Chair for Behavioral Health and Counseling for CHSS, helped TaylorRae Schnepp get a job at Red Mountain Behavioral Health when she graduated. Schnepp and her supervisor then came to campus to speak with groups of students.

Dr. Mark Wooden

Dr. Mark Wooden, Dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology, was thrilled last spring when 90% of the first-time graduates in his burgeoning engineering program were hired before or within four months of graduating.

“We do a lot of career mentoring,” he said. “We don’t let students leave until we talk to them about where they are in their academic pathway and their career pathway. We want to make sure they have the support they need.”

The effort goes beyond jobs. It extends to preparation for further studies, such as medical school or law school.

One dean tells the story of a faculty member who went on medical leave. During that time, it is standard practice for the employee’s emails to be forwarded to the supervisor. Within the space of a few days, 10 of those emails were from students thanking the faculty member profusely for helping them reach their goals.

The dean found himself overcome with emotion as he kept coming across new ones.

“I’m getting moved over and over again,” he said.

Elliott’s college has been affected by the job focus as much as any. Three years ago, CHSS revamped its curriculum to create career-friendly degrees in tune with today’s world. Providing meaningful, relatable academic instruction has long been his passion. But now he’s seeing it in his faculty.

“I’m pretty giddy because, now, faculty are using career language with me instead of vice versa,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this great idea for getting kids jobs over at the corrections office,’ or ‘I have this great idea for students getting jobs in professional writing.’ Before, that was language that administrators used, not academics.”

Even the employers are on board. In fact, the shape of the curriculum often is molded by their recommendations. Next, we’ll show how.

A wall in the Colangelo College of Business Building demonstrates the vast number of companies that have hired GCU graduates — such as iHeart Media and President Linda Little, also a member of the CCOB advisory board.

EMPLOYERS: They’re part of the team

Dr. Randy Gibb, Dean of the Colangelo College of Business (CCOB), is sketching out a diagram of an example that epitomizes how GCU’s job commitment works. The more he sketches, the more excited he gets about how it draws from all four steps in the continuum – curriculum, networking, experience and industry involvement.

It is the summary of CCOB’s liaison with Charles Schwab (see diagram), and it’s right on the money in the finance curriculum.

“Because Schwab is on campus,” Gibb said, “they’re now the cool company that people want to work for.”

Dr. Randy Gibb

But to the employers, working with GCU – and hiring GCU students – is pretty cool, too. The number of on-site employer visits this academic year was up more than 30% (and would have climbed even more if not for the coronavirus). They serve on GCU’s 18 advisory boards, which include more than 400 members, because they want to help shape those students … and then hire them.

“Without exception, GCU students we have hired have come prepared to work, prepared to learn, prepared to contribute,” said Beau Lane, Executive Chairman of independent marketing agency LaneTerralever and a member of the CCOB advisory board. “We’ve never had a recruit from GCU who wasn’t a strong hire. They share our value system.”

Said Steven Sheets, a GCU graduate who is CEO of Southwest Behavioral and Health Services, “There’s an approach that I think GCU fosters of expecting more. We get students who are eager to learn, eager to serve and ready to impact the community.”

That’s the sort of thing you hear at every job fair. The recruiters – many of them GCU grads who were on the other side of the recruiting table a few years earlier – want to hire them full time, they want to hire them as interns. They just want to hire them.

Brian Mueller 

“Every GCU intern that we have hired for the summer or during school has hit the ground running,” said Peter Hushek, President of Phoenix Heat Treating. “They are adding value after a very short time on the job.”

The goal, GCU President Brian Mueller said, is to add that value across all vocations and disciplines. For years, Christian universities focused on developing pastors and teachers, but the world is a different place now and Mueller wants GCU to move right along with it.

“What we want to tell kids is, they’re all being called into sacred vocations, and if they feel called to biology or chemistry or mechanical engineering, we want them to pursue that because we want there to be Christian influence in those very important marketplaces,” he said.

Conversely, the industry influence on the GCU curriculum also is important.

“Because we are who we are, we can pivot to what industry needs,” Gibb said. “That’s where the advisory boards flat-out tell us, ‘Hey, here’s what you guys are doing, but here’s what we’re seeing and here’s where things are moving. Let’s develop a program that can do that.’”

Like the Schwab model, it just flows. So now it’s time to hear from the most important people of all – the students. They’re the cleanup hitters in this lineup, and they’d like to give GCU some high-fives.

Dr. Joe Veres

STUDENTS: Grads firmly express their gratitude

The folks who put in all this effort for students never quite know what will resonate. One student, for example, made it a point to say thank you for teaching her how to give a proper handshake (an important skill before the social-distancing era).

As you read these vignettes, keep in mind those four steps and see where each student falls – but don’t expect any of them to have scaled all four.

“I do not expect anyone to be able to say, ‘I did every one of these things out of these four steps,’” Radda said. “That’s not real, and that’s not the goal. The goal is, ‘Here are the things we seed for people.’ We want to educate them about what’s possible.”

Dr. Joe Veres, Vice President for Student Success, said, “From the parents’ perspective, I want them to know that we’re intentional. This is a University-wide initiative. These steps, no matter who you speak to, they fit somewhere in here. You have the entire University that’s embedded into the culture.”

And while every story on the next two pages is different, you also will pick up on some patterns in their search for their purpose.

Elizabeth Kluever

ELIZABETH KLUEVER

Psychology

Hank Radda worked directly with Kluever as she worked her way toward a bachelor’s in psychology and a master’s in clinical psychology. Now she’s in her first year at Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology, working toward a Psy.D. degree in Clinical Psychology.

“I asked a lot about his career, how he became provost of the University,” she said. “We talked a lot about the difference between going for the Ph.D. and the Psy.D.

“He was very helpful in answering any questions I had about the degree and about the profession as a whole.”

He also wrote a letter of recommendation for her grad school application. Her takeaway from Radda’s input:

“He was very interested in what I was doing and how he could assist me in that endeavor – not just talking about his experiences but helping me plan for my own.”

Jordan Montgomery

JORDAN MONTGOMERY

Electrical Engineering

The first GCU student to be accepted into the Nuclear Propulsion Offic Candidate (NUPOC) Program wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity without the help of the GCU Honors College and Aysha Bell, GCU’s Strategic Employer Initiatives and Internships Program Manager.

When Montgomery was a sophomore, Bell sent her a list of engineering jobs. “I wouldn’t have found it without Aysha,” Montgomery said.

But there was other help: A former professor, Andrea Strock, conducted mock interviews. Honors College Associate Dean Breanna Naegeli helped her with her background check. Even when the opportunity called for Montgomery to miss five days of class, her teachers were quick to find an alternative method of completing her participation points.

Montgomery believes this could open new doors for future nuclear engineers from GCU. “I don’t think anyone really knew about my school,” she said, “but I think they do now.”

Ruquiayah Muhammad

RUQUIAYAH MUHAMMAD

Sociology

There can’t be a greater advocate for Career Connections than Muhammad, who calls herself “the type who likes to plan ahead.”

Not only did the website help her land a job while she was a junior; she has been working full time as a behavioral health technician for Arizona Youth and Family Services for one full year – and has been promised a promotion to case manager when she graduates in April.

It happened, she said, because Career Connections links students to jobs that match their degrees. Now she has turned into a mentor – a friend built up her profile on the website and got a job for this summer, and Muhammad wants more students to hear her message.

“It resonates more when it’s coming from a student,” she said.

Darby OLeary

DARBY O’LEARY

Sports Business

O’Leary is the classic example of what Dr. Mark Clifford, CCOB Assistant Dean and Director of Sports Business, constantly preaches – get as much on the- job experience as possible while at GCU.

Her resume includes two spring trainings with the Oakland Athletics, a summer as a mascot handler for a minor league baseball team and stints for Position Sports, the Miami Hoophall basketball tournament and the Colangelo Classic in Phoenix.

The result: She’s a premium service coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals, a tangible result of the relationship Clifford has built with the NFL team. And she’s thankful to him.

“He’s awesome,” she said. “He definitely helped me throughout the process.”

Andrew Wagenknecht

ANDREW WAGENKNECHT

Justice Studies

When Justice 212 instructor Kevin Walling said he was seeking volunteers for an internship with the Guardianship Review Program out of the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County, Wagenknecht was all in.

The sophomore’s job: Visit wards and contact their guardians to make sure the current living situation is going well. It is not for the faint of heart. One of his visits was to an 85-year-old woman who has pulled a gun on people on numerous occasions, and yet he said, “It was a good experience.”

Wagenknecht has a ways to go before graduation and the search for a full-time job (he’s leaning toward becoming a police officer, for starters). But he already has seen what GCU does.

“They care about the students and they provide tons of opportunities,” he said. “If someone isn’t involved in those opportunities, it’s because they don’t want to be.”

Austin Byrom

AUSTIN BYROM

Pre-law

Kevin Walling and another CHSS mentor, Val Martinez, are two of the biggest reasons Byrom is working toward a law degree at Baylor University.

Martinez, Byrom said, “helped me learn how to write memos, mediate and arbitrate and prepared me to do well in law school.” Walling’s two-hour “So You Want To Go to Law School” seminar “was very helpful and convinced me that law school would work for me.”

Byrom also was a Resident Advisor and a Life Leader at GCU. “GCU definitely set me up to do well here,” he said.

Anthony Arevalo

ANTHONY AREVALO

Mechanical Engineering

The 2019 grad didn’t forget his capstone partner, Haydon Hinson, when a job opened at his company, International Polymer Engineering. His recommendation helped Hinson get the job.

“I felt like Haydon deserved a job more than I did,” Arevalo said.

But having another Lope in the house brought back good memories.

“The experience you get at GCU is very collaborative,” Arevalo said. “I miss working with other GCU students to get things done.” Career Connections also helped him get things done – and get a job. He was told the position was listed on the website, got an interview and was hired the next day.

Marisa Becker

MARISA BECKER

Hospitality

Becker had an important student worker job at GCU: She managed the social media platforms for GCU Hotel and Canyon 49 Grill. But it was something in her professors who inspired her the most.

“The passion and drive that all of my professors had in life gave me a lot of encouragement that I could choose one thing now and God could take you so many differen places,” she said. “A lot of my professors still worked on the side and truly had joy in everything they were doing and loved their job because of what it entailed and the people they got to work with.”

So when she graduated last year, Becker went off and did something she never expected to do. Instead of going into corporate event planning, which still is her eventual goal, she took a social media job at a nonprofit camp for disadvantaged children on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Her takeaway from GCU: “They support you a lot in pursuing what God is putting on your heart and being a self-starter.”

Monique Karraa

MONIQUE KARRAA

Business Administration

It’s not as if GCU just discovered the importance of turning degrees into jobs. Karraa, a 2014 graduate, is proof that the University has been at it for a long time.

“I didn’t go into school thinking sports could be a job,” she said. “They did that.”

Heeding the advice she was given, she worked a variety of sports jobs. Now she’s a group sales account executive for the Arizona Coyotes.

Her favorite GCU memory? That’s easy: She got to work with Jerry Colangelo, the business college’s namesake, when he came to campus to give a speech.

“Jerry Colangelo is still one of my favorite people that I can say I’ve met and talked to,” she said.

Johnna Landry

JOHNNA LANDRY

Elementary Education

Landry credited GCU for helping her get a full-time job at her childhood school, Sunburst Elementary in Phoenix, before she graduated.

She said instructors at GCU were personable and quick to reach out to her and give advice from their own experience as educators, and her stint as a resident advisor aided her leadership skills.

“Without that, I wouldn’t be ready,” she said. “The other thing was the use of technology. They walked you through cool things to do in class that I’ve used so much – for example, how to implement video but not too much, and new note-taking technology.”

Joseph Perez

JOSEPH PEREZ

Psychology

Perez had a job lined up before he graduated in April 2019. GCU psychology instructors helped guide him to a paid internship at Southwest Behavioral Health Crisis Recovery Unit in Phoenix, and the behavioral technician’s training kicked in.

“We meet with people in crisis, usually in a locked-down facility. We monitor behaviors of clients, who are a danger to themselves or are not medication compliant,” he said. “We make sure everything is OK on the unit.”

He was assured of a job after graduation and credits GCU’s preparation.

“In this field, you have to be ethical, and they fall in line with GCU’s ethics – just having a good grasp of knowing what is right and wrong,” Perez said. “It is something that GCU teaches greatly.”

Carly Smith

CARLY SMITH

Business Administration

The April 2019 grad was worried as she stood in line at a job fair. Commencement was only a month away, and she didn’t have a job.

Suddenly, a GCU employee who had heard her speak at a campus event got her out of that line, took her over to meet the representative from InnovaQuartz and told the recruiter, “One of our students … very impressive.”

The medical device manufacturer was looking for an accountant but indeed was so impressed, Smith still got the project coordinator job. She had invested heavily in steps 1 and 2 and had heeded Mark Jacobson’s advice to get as much experience as possible, and it paid off.

“Absolutely a God thing – all the glory to Him,” she said. “I had a job before I graduated, and GCU was absolutely central to that.”

Mike Kilen and Ashlee Larrison contributed to the student profiles.

Contact Rick Vacek at (602) 639-8203 or rick.vacek@gcu.edu.

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Tony Barrera liked to write in his journal while hanging out on Lopes Way during his time on campus. (Photo by Ralph Freso)

Editor’s note: This story is reprinted from the April issue of GCU Magazine. To read the digital version of the magazine, click here. My LopeLife is a feature in which GCU students, staff and alumni share enlightening experiences. To be considered for My LopeLife, please submit a short synopsis of your suggested topic to GCUToday@gcu.edu with “My LopeLife” in the subject field.

By Tony Barrera
Special to GCU Magazine

The search for identity is central to our lives. Playing sports, joining a choir, making short films with your friends or even choosing a college are all choices that look for an answer to a simple question: “Who am I?”

My search for identity began when I was 6. Even though I was raised in America, my life began in a different world. At home, my family spoke Spanish, listened to music in Spanish, ate Hispanic food and even read bedtime stories in Spanish. My English language skills mostly were developed by watching “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Starting school was a culture shock. I was thrown into an unfamiliar culture that I did not quite understand, but I was expected to fit in.

I did not feel as if I belonged. I felt alone and unseen. The insecurities knocked on the door of my mind with thumps that grew louder and louder every day. The sideways glances, distasteful comments and awkward questions confirmed my fears.

As time passed, however, the culture around me started to feel like my own. I had a good group of friends, I watched Nickelodeon every day, I had all the “Magic Tree House” books, I loved Pop-Tarts and I even had my own MP3 player filled with American music.

I was in.

There still was a problem, though: Now my birth culture felt strange to me. The more I found myself in the American culture, the more I felt as if I had to resist and avoid my Latino heritage. I told myself I was in America, so I had to be American to fit in. Embracing my roots felt wrong and even shameful.

So I stopped listening to music in Spanish and watching classic Mexican films with my dad. As time passed, I even started to forget my Spanish vocabulary.

But then, when I was 10, my parents decided to move our family back to Mexico. It was 2008, during the depths of the economic recession, and they thought it would be best if we returned to their home country.

Of course, it was not home to me or my siblings. It almost felt foreign to us, but we still were hopeful and even a bit excited. The idea of moving to the country of my heritage sounded fun. Or so I thought.

I discovered that living in a Latino household is not the same as living in a Latino country, especially one I barely knew. Everything was different. I went from living an urban life in Phoenix to living in a small, rural Mexican pueblo where the economy depended greatly on the crops surrounding the neighborhoods.

The first week was fun. Everything was brand new and exciting. But by week two, I felt like an outsider again. I told myself I did not belong because I was too American. This was clear to me wherever I went: school, church, even family gatherings.

I questioned the Lord about why we had to move away. I was upset with Him and wanted answers. I felt alone. Once again, I believed I had to disconnect from my American identity to connect with my Mexican culture. It was like unplugging from one outlet to plug into another.

After six years in Mexico, which included surviving middle school, starting high school, moving to a larger city and making a few good friends, I finally felt comfortable with my cultural identity.

But then, guess what? My parents decided we should move back to the U.S. They wanted me to receive a college education in America.

“What? Not a chance!” was the first thought that darted through my mind. I knew how hard it would be to return to the U.S., and I did not feel ready for it even though I knew deep down that they were right. My dream was to be a writer, after all. To this day, I am grateful they made that decision.

At first, I was terrified to be back in America. I was scared of rejection and loneliness and feared I would lose myself again. I did not want to bury the Latino identity I finally had adopted.

I had to relearn a lot of the English vocabulary I had lost during my time in Mexico. I had to readapt to the American culture and learn the ways of the American high school. But all in all, it felt good to be back.

There was another challenge, however: I started switching back and forth between my cultural identities. It was like pushing a button within myself that activated a personality type. I acted in different ways and talked about different things depending on who was around me. I was not being faithful to my true self.

That all changed when I came to GCU. From the beginning, I could see there was something different about this place. The atmosphere created by the community was not like anything I had experienced. People who were different from me welcomed me, and they were interested to know about my life and my Latino heritage. The friends I made genuinely cared for me.

I also started growing in my relationship with the Lord, and the more I got to know Him, the more I understood His love for me.

I recall one time at The Gathering, the student-led worship on Tuesday nights, when the Lord showed me how much He cared for me. I called out to Him, and He showed me that throughout my life He had been with me, even during the times I thought He was absent.

That broke me.

I cried, realizing I had never been alone. On that special night, the Lord opened His arms and comforted me for the years of rejection and confusion I had endured.

So, with caution at first, I combined my two worlds and fused my cultural identities into one. I invited my GCU friends to my home for dinner with my family. I showed them some of the Spanish songs I liked. I even started speaking Spanish to them.

The “Who am I?” question is hard to answer, and I thank the Lord for helping me find an answer through GCU. I won’t say it is not a struggle anymore, because there still are times when l feel like an outsider.

But now I know I don’t have to change who I am. The Lord has shown me that we all belong to Him.

ABOUT TONY BARRERA

Tony Barrera is a senior majoring in Professional Writing and minoring in Psychology. He has had a passion for storytelling ever since he learned how to read. Tony also loves to camp, watch movies, discover new music and go on road trips with his friends. On his free days, you are likely to find him at a coffee shop in downtown Phoenix.

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