Lynette Collins, an instructor for GCU, was honored nationally by a teachers’ organization and appeared on a Netflix series.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Few are better suited than Lynette Collins to help a student through a national trauma.

The instructor for Grand Canyon University is a specialist in it as a teacher in a correctional facility for juvenile girls and, tragically, in her personal life — her 45-year-old younger brother, who was developmentally disabled, was murdered last year. More recently, she worked with a GCU student whose brother died from COVID-19.

Collins has used her real-world experience to connect with students at both GCU, where she teaches online courses for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and College of Education, and students at the LaPorte Juvenile Correction Facility in Indiana, counseling and teaching girls ages 13 to 18 in history, government, economics and sociology.

“It’s so critical to tap into not what you teach but how you teach, the relationships you make with people,” she said. “These kids, and students in general, need connection. If they can get one good person that cares about them and doesn’t have to, it makes a difference in their lives.”

The girls in the juvenile facility range from adjudicated minors to offenders convicted of serious crimes, such as robbery and even murder. Her connection with them is evident. The girls nominated her to be the teacher featured in April on the website of Honored, a nonprofit whose mission is to inspire a new generation of teachers nationwide.

“She has the innate ability to relate to the students here,” LaPorte Principal Travis Anderson told Honored. “You don’t see that very often. Some of our students come from troubled backgrounds, and it is hard to relate to them.”

But he added that Collins succeeds by building a trusting relationship with them, which makes a difference in their lives both academically and personally.

That has been evident to viewers across the world who have tuned into season 2 of the Netflix series “Girls Incarcerated.” Collins appears in episodes 3, 5 and 7.

She is a calming influence. For example, during one episode a girl approached her, saying, “I’m getting so angry, I’m going to start punching.” Collins quietly tells her that she understands: “You are going to sit here a few minutes, calm down and go back to class.”

The series allows people to see what correctional staff do every day to help children, Collins said.

“I love what I do at my Department of Corrections job, but I also enjoy what I do at GCU,” she said of her 10 years with the University. “It is a different type of environment. Do we still have students with issues and problems? Yes, but you kind of roll with it. This whole COVID-19 has turned everything kind of topsy-turvy crazy. But I couldn’t be more blessed to use what I’ve learned in both jobs.”

Facing up to challenges

Collins started her career with a degree in criminal justice but then earned a master’s degree in education from Indiana University and was hired by a charter school.

“Then we moved to the middle of a cornfield where there wasn’t a lot there but correctional facilities, so I got a job in substance-abuse counseling,” she said.

She later joined the LaPorte facility, first teaching boys, and when it transitioned to a girls’ facility in 2017, she taught social sciences. The six teachers there teach in four classrooms, and the money the facility got from the Netflix series allowed them to build a recreation center.

“It’s really like a one-room schoolhouse, and every single one of the girls is in a different level of class,” she said.

During her first week on the job, she got punched.

“A couple of the girls got in a fight and I’m not one to back down,” Collins said. “You have to intervene, so I jumped in the middle of it and she wasn’t ready to be done. I got a little taste of it. But recently we have been running smooth. From what I hear from different teachers, we are safer and have more accountability than a lot of public schools. But we do have pepper spray.”

The teaching challenges are often similar, she added.

“Honestly, kids are kids, especially this age group. Kids in general are crazy because they are kids. They have hormones, family issues. But we are fortunate that we have small class sizes and are able to do a lot of one on one.

“One of the most important things we can do for them is have an educational foundation for the future. In their heads it’s not that big of a deal to have a diploma, but when they realize that (it’s important) they work extra hard on getting their credits.”

In addition to regular courses, cognitive behavioral therapy is part of her day, “using a lot of metaphors to get to their root problems and what got them where they are now and how to jump over those hurdles,” she said.

Big challenges, bigger rewards

The biggest key is getting students to understand that they can do it. She tries to build their self-worth and help them understand the importance of making better choices.

“They have a tendency to kind jump off a cliff when one bad thing goes bad in their week: ‘Screw it, I’m going to fail anyway.’ But we try to get them to understand that even if they mess up once you can get yourself back on track,” she said.

The rewards can be much different than working at other schools.

They frequently lost boys to crime or death after release, but the girls have done well other than a few who re-entered human trafficking.

“When they get out and don’t go back on the streets, it makes you feel good,” Collins said.

Some released students see her while working at McDonald’s, and she feels good that they are on their way. One student who spotted her in Walmart literally ran down the aisle to see her.

“We’ve had girls that got out and went to college, something they never thought they could do because they had been told they would never amount to anything,” she said.

The experience at LaPorte not only influences her teaching at GCU, but vice versa.

“It just allowed me to have a different perspective, working for a Christian university and having the different support systems,” she said. “It’s an organization that sticks behind its students and faculty. They are not an institution that is just talking, they are doing.”

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

The post On TV and job, instructor rates because she relates appeared first on GCU Today.

GCU students performed well this spring despite unexpectedly having to finish the semester in an online learning environment. In fact, ground students’ completion success rate — the percentage of students who passed their classes — increased this spring compared to the same time last year.

By Lana Sweeten-Shults
GCU News Bureau

Sophomore Alison Kovach took advantage of her professors’ virtual office hours.

At any other time, Grand Canyon University Business Marketing and Advertising major Alison Kovach would have tackled a flight of stairs, turned down a hallway or two, then sat outside her professor’s office, waiting to talk to her about an assignment she didn’t quite understand.

But this is unlike any other time.

When Kovach struggled with an assignment just a few weeks ago as she sheltered in place at her Scottsdale home because of COVID-19, she still was able to get help from her professor (and an A in the course). Although she didn’t see that professor in person, she connected with her through her virtual office hours.

“My connection with my professors was still there. They never lost touch (with me). I knew we were still in school. It was just online, so there was nothing different,” said the freshman-turned-sophomore.

That strong connection between students and faculty didn’t wane despite the coronavirus.

It could be why students thought so highly of their professors, giving them high marks in recent end-of-course surveys. In fact, more students gave their professors high marks this year than at the same time last year – 86.1% this year compared to 85.5% last year.

Professors said it was important to be consistent during online learning as far as maintaining class schedules. But being flexible with assignment deadlines was vital, too.

Not only that, but ground students’ completion success rate – the percentage of students who passed their classes – increased from 88.9% last year to 89.8% this year. What makes that latter number so impressive is that GCU decided to keep its grading system in place rather than go to a pass/fail system, which means students didn’t lose their stellar grades when applying for graduate school.

Albany, Ore., resident Erica Rietmann, who will be a hospitality management sophomore at GCU in the fall, mentioned how one of her professors gave her class an extension on one of their papers — just one of the many accommodations her instructors made during distance learning. They gave more detailed explanations, too, and put “even more effort into building a relationship with us students,” she said.

But, “I have to say the best thing about moving online was that GCU was already 90% there. The only change was meeting with professors over Zoom.”

Creating a distance-learning plan

That move from on-ground to online didn’t just happen organically.

Campus leadership asked for faculty members to volunteer to work on the transition over spring break. They had a big job – to plan what distance learning at GCU would look like during an unprecedented pandemic.

“More than half the faculty volunteered,” Provost Dr. Hank Radda said. “A lot of the faculty worked through spring break to make any modifications they needed to go from a fully face-to-face class to an online class.”

Once those plans were in place, “we did A LOT of communication with students and the faculty about what the expectation would be, how the faculty was going to create the Zoom calls, synchronous experiences and virtual office hours to make sure we had the same kind of support virtually,” Radda said.

Adam Eklund, CHSS Director for College Assessment and Program Operations, said it was critical for faculty to share what students could expect as they transitioned to online classes.

Said Adam Eklund, Director for College Assessment and Program Operations for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS),  “When students came back from their breaks, they had announcements. They had information in their classroom about what to expect the remaining four weeks of class. Of course, they still had questions, but it definitely helped set the pace for the rest of the semester.”

One of the boons for the University was that it already had a learning management system in place, LoudCloud, that was modified for online learning. And since GCU’s spring semester ends earlier than most universities – sometime in April rather than in May – online learning was shorter than at other colleges. Ten of the 14 weeks of instruction already were completed at GCU by the time students had to leave campus unexpectedly.

Consistency and flexibility

Once those students left campus, CHSS Dean Dr. Sherman Elliott said it was important for the faculty to maintain a sense of consistency during distance learning so that students still felt as invested in their schooling as they did before the coronavirus disrupted everything.

“Consistency is crucial,” said Dr. Sherman Elliott, CHSS Dean.

“Consistency is crucial,” he said. “We had to provide them with that structure and balance.”

That meant maintaining the students’ schedule “so there was a sense of normalcy for them,” said Heidi Boldway, Director of Faculty and College Operations for CHSS.

If a student’s class normally started at 8 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays on campus, that student would meet with his or her professors and classmates online at 8 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“They were still able to see their classmates, who they had already developed relationships with over the past 11 or 12 weeks,” Boldway said.

Not that the faculty didn’t emphasize flexibility, too.

“You don’t want to be flexible with the schedule – then your house is chaos,” Elliott said. “But you want to be flexible with due dates. You want to be flexible with the number of references you need or what have you. But all human beings need a structured environment, and that was what the faculty maintained.”

The University was flexible with technology problems, too, providing some students with devices that turned cellphone signals into hotspots or sending student workers home with laptops so they could complete their schoolwork.

“Whatever it took,” Radda said. “We really worked with our academic LEADs (learning advocates) out of the ACE Centers (Academic and Career Excellence Centers), the colleges and the faculty to support continuous learning.”

There was a big effort, too, to connect not just with students but fellow faculty. Some instructors, for example, were not as comfortable using technology as others.

“We had weekly faculty meetings over Zoom,” said Kathleen Downey, CHSS Director of Social Work. “Faculty shared lots of ideas. They shared technologies. They shared how-to’s. It really was helpful, especially for adjunct faculty, to remain engaged in the course but also add to their pedagogy.”

Strength in technology

What also made the campus-to-home educational experience successful is that GCU already is well versed in online education and the kind of technology that makes online learning possible, considering its 85,000-plus online students.

Boldway noted how instructors in some of the campus’ math classes, for example, used writing tablets that plug into their computers so they could work out problems in real time. Students could see that thinking process live, “which is very important with math,” she said.

Other faculty members used Zoom teams to split their classes into groups so there could be discussions in the classroom that happened synchronously, just as professors do with their classes on campus.

Heidi Boldway, Director of Faculty and College Operations for CHSS, said establishing a sense of normalcy was important, too.

“It was a way to get them involved in the class and not just sit and listen,” Boldway said. “I think that’s where GCU excels (in technology and online learning).”

Downey added how professors did whatever they could to connect the pandemic to the content to make the lesson more relevant and applicable to students’ lives.

Outside of the classroom, University leaders met regularly to get feedback from faculty and monitor the online learning plan GCU put into place. Focus groups reported back how engaged students were and how well they were doing.

Faculty also participated in early alerts so that if a student wasn’t performing well, faculty would alert student success counselors and academic LEADS, who then contacted those students to see what the University could do to help.

Then there was the simple act of caring that Elliott also believes led to those high marks that students gave their professors.

He said he has asked his faculty to live by two things: cura personalis, a Latin term that means “care of the whole person,” and by the words of Socrates, who said to teach learners where they are at.

“If we’re in the middle of a pandemic and students’ parents are worried about losing their jobs, we had to first and foremost reach out and care for them, and then realize we have to teach them where they’re at, whether they had anxiety or they had stress or were scared,” Elliott said. “That’s where the faculty did amazing things to keep them alive and keep them moving.”

Those amazing end-of-year numbers that showed increases in students’ completion success rate and in their satisfaction with their instructors “was sort of the final measure of that (all the coronavirus distance-learning efforts),” Radda said. “It’s sort of the piece at the end of the story, about everything we did all those weeks ago when we began the transition to online.”

They were numbers that surprised Radda, who thought the University might see a slight drop in grades or teacher satisfaction. He was happy he was wrong.

“They (the faculty) really went above and beyond in helping us through the last few weeks,” Rietmann said. “They made it an experience that was enjoyable rather than miserable.”

GCU senior writer Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at lana.sweeten-shults@gcu.edu or at 602-639-6901.

***

Related content:

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The post Students, professors made grade despite pandemic appeared first on GCU Today.

Miranda Diaz got a job two days before her GCU graduation in the growing behavioral health field.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

It was a worrisome time for Miranda Diaz. She returned home to Texas in March when the pandemic hit, leaving behind her life at Grand Canyon University and a part-time job. Her graduation loomed in five weeks, and she wondered if she could get a job in troubling times.

Then the phone rang — just two days before her graduation in late April. She was offered a job, “which was really fun to say” at the celebration, Diaz said.

The groundwork for the job was laid earlier in the year via GCU’s effort to link students with employers in behavioral health agencies.

Dr. Noé Vargas

Her worries were over.

“To have this opportunity despite the pandemic is amazing,” said Diaz, who started work as a case manager at Copa Health in Phoenix the second week of May. “I know so many people working from home or out of work, so it was a huge blessing and big surprise how easy it was for me.”

The new relationship with Copa is one of a growing number between GCU and behavioral health agencies.

Dr. Noé Vargas, Assistant Dean in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said job opportunities are numerous because of a shortage of behavioral health professionals to serve increasing mental health issues of stress and anxiety in tumultuous times.

Vargas, who worked for 10 years in behavioral health in the Phoenix area, has tapped into his industry contacts who are eager to hire entry-level employees after they graduate.

“You really have to have a heart to help. It’s more than a job, it’s really a calling to support people in their toughest times,” Vargas said.

GCU students are dedicated to helping and are well-trained in up-to-date information on mental health from faculty that not only teach it but often work in the field, he said. “(Students) learn the theory but also the actual practice.”

Diaz quickly learned the value of those GCU-employer relationships. In her last capstone course before leaving campus in the spring, a representative from Copa was invited to class to talk to students about jobs.

“Out of the four classes I talked to, we hired two students, which is a good start,” said Karen Vargas, a Copa recruiter and niece of Dr. Vargas.

Copa provides therapeutic, rehabilitative and social services for people with developmental, physical and behavioral health challenges. She said GCU students were targeted because they are well prepared.

“They have to learn the documenting process, which is unique,” she said. “In case management there is a lot of documentation, a way to write notes and follow up, and they have a good grasp of what that entails.”

Diaz found that her class in case management prepared her well in the practical applications of her job, as she begins to work with clients on a deeper, more personal level.

“It is such a reward to have clients come to Copa and say, ‘I need you and trust you can help me.’ They have the strength to come in and say they need help, and to help them get services is a huge reward,” she said.

In recent months, the network of behavioral health employers working with GCU has expanded with more job and internship opportunities for graduates with a bachelor’s degree in the field, said Haley Fagerlie, Executive Director for GCU’s Strategic Employer Initiatives & Internships.

Thirty-six agencies attended the Psychology and Social Services Practicum Fair in October. Numerous agencies also came to classrooms before the pandemic and will continue to recruit remotely. Copa Health is holding a virtual information session for GCU students on June 24. (Email copacareers@copahealth.org for more information.)

“They find our students have a heart for the individual and have a heart for the community,” said Marquis Scott, program manager in Career Services.

Educational partnerships also are growing between GCU and behavioral health agencies, whose employees can return to college for more education with GCU and also link with GCU students as future employees.

“It’s really full service. We are providing solutions for employers who want to grow their companies,” said Joe Cuttone, University Development Manager.

Steven Sheets

When the employers come to campus to speak with students, it isn’t just career-day fluff. It can mean a job after graduation. TaylorRae Schnepp got a job with Red Mountain Behavioral Health Services after they visited her class, as detailed in the April GCU Magazine story on the University’s efforts to help students find jobs.

Southwest Behavioral Health & Services has been a big employer of GCU students, and CEO Steven Sheets is an alumnus.

“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,” Sheets told the magazine.

Aylin Estrada landed a job as a case manager before she graduated from GCU.

Aylin Estrada, a psychology student, got a job even before she graduated in April. She came across information on Southwest Network through GCU’s Academic and Career Excellence Center (ACE) and learned of a job fair, where she talked with officials from the company in October and applied for a job in March.

A week later, she was hired by Southwest Network as a case manager for children with behavioral health issues.

“The relief it brings to a child who has been struggling for a while is rewarding in itself. It’s difficult but it’s a small triumph,” she said.

“I feel like GCU provided excellent academic standards to make sure we were here not only learning but making sure we had a job after we 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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The post GCU students fill growing behavioral health jobs appeared first on GCU Today.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Dr. Kimberly Grigg’s counseling practicum students faced a dilemma. They were assigned to schools  for their graduate-level field experience hours that soon closed after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring.

Graduate student Angelica Corona (right) found meaning filling bags of food for students and families when her practicum was affected by the pandemic.

What happened next goes to the heart of Grand Canyon University student’s sense of community and giving back.

“They got proactive and creative by serving the needs of the school community in any way that was needed,” said Grigg, GCU’s Program Co-Chair in School Counseling, College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

One of those practicum students is Angelica Corona. A week into her practicum working alongside the school psychologist at Sun Valley Elementary School in Peoria, she said goodbye to many of the students she also teaches in third grade.

“I wanted to find a way to help my community, these kids I see every day. I know the struggles they deal with,” said Corona, who is studying for a master’s degree in School Counseling. “A lot of our students are on free-and-reduced lunch, and they really depend on it.”

Corona joined an effort to hand out lunches four days at week at a drive-through site for families. Each vehicle would be handed a meal pack for each child that included breakfast and lunch for the day. They also served adult meals for $3.

Hundreds of meals were loaded into bags each morning to help families endure the pandemic.

The mornings were spent assembling up to 200 packs a day with cafeteria staff.

“I wanted to make a rough time better for them and for them to see a familiar face,” Corona said. “The kids would always be so happy to see their teachers, just seeing the people normal to them in everyday life.

“It reflects GCU’s mission, which is to help the best way we can. GCU includes quotes from Scripture that really encouraged me to help others the best I can.”

Throughout the program, Grigg learned that many others had similar ideas in their schools.

Channa Griham, who is working toward a master’s in School Counseling while teaching at Eleanor S. Rice Elementary in Greenwood, S.C., struggled without routine and structure and seeing her students.

“Knowing their home situations and the environments in which they lived in caused many sleepless nights and many worrying thoughts,” she said. “I knew I had to find a way to support them and their families during these uncertain times.”

She decided to serve meals four days a week at the local middle school. The smiles on their faces eased her mind.

She also volunteered to deliver meals to at-risk neighborhoods, which were full of unrest as both the pandemic and racial tensions were flaring.

“It allowed a sense of humbleness and calmness to take over me,” said Griham, who also earned a master’s in Educational Leadership at GCU in 2018. “Being a child who struggled financially and being homeless in fifth grade, I knew volunteering was a way to pay back the community in which I serve.”

Others lifted the spirits in their schools.

Kristie Tacadina found a way to honor seniors while doing her practicum at a school in Nevada.

Kristie Tacadina, a middle school special education teacher in Elko, Nev., who is studying for her master’s in School Counseling, found a way to honor seniors who couldn’t partake in the normal rites of passage this year because of the pandemic.

She was part of an effort to honor graduating seniors. All football field lights were turned on as seniors and their families formed a parade of cars past the football field fence that she helped decorate as a tribute. Participants honked and cheered and accepted gifts that Tacadina made for them.

“It will never replace their senior year, but it is the least we could do under these circumstances,” Tacadina said.

As reports of these and other efforts from practicum students came in to Grigg, she marveled at how they weren’t just trying to get through the dilemma to earn credit. She instead heard how meaningful the semester had become for them, even in a pandemic.

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

The post How GCU practicums became missions of goodwill appeared first on GCU Today.

Integrating faith with counseling was the subject of a Grand Canyon University webinar on June 25.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Historically, tension separates psychology and religion. But today there is more understanding of the value of integrating faith in mental health counseling, said Dr. Laurie Tone.

“Now it’s encouraged, the blending of this for the enhancement of the whole person. We cannot separate the physical, emotional and spiritual. Each part affects the other,” said Tone, an adjunct counseling instructor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Grand Canyon University.

Spirituality is included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders cultural formations section.

“Grand Canyon University has been a leader in helping this integrating,” she said, while leading a webinar, “The Integration of Faith in Clinical Counseling Practice,” on June 25.

Studies have shown that faith is important to clients for coping with many problems. But it is often tiptoed around in secular settings. Yet noting spiritual symptoms can be as important as physical and mental, such as a loss of hope or, in religious references, “the dark night of the soul,” Tone said.

Treatment can be helped with Christianity’s focus on the eternal, knowing that “this too shall pass.”

“It can help us through some tough times,” she said.

Dr. Laurie Tone

Many are in those tough times. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused fear, anxiety and isolation.

“Therapists are struggling, and their clients are struggling. We are all in this together,” she said. “But Jesus was a good example. He prayed in solitude. Trust God through this. Even though the world is changing, God does not change.”

She said Jesus was a role model for counselors, more so in relationships than religion. He sat with the oppressed and suffering. He didn’t bring in his own agenda but had grace and compassion and “met people where they were at. … He made things understandable. He didn’t use big, fancy words.”

He asked, “What would you like me to do for you?” and “How can I help?”

“Those are powerful counseling words,” Tone said. “How can we help those who feel like everything feels dead and bring them life?”

That hit Jacqueline Webster, Program Manager in CHSS.

“… Listen as Christ did to help guide clients through their reality,” she said. “Both clients and mental health professionals are dealing with the realities of COVID-19, and Dr. Tone did a great job with her discussion of addressing the related fear, anxiety and uncertainty that people are experiencing.”

Counselors can bring their innate beliefs and prayer to sessions and not keep them in the waiting room. But to address faith openly with clients takes an understanding of different religious beliefs and an intake assessment of whether clients are comfortable with religion in their therapy.

Some clients may welcome a discussion of spirituality but it’s not suitable for their therapy because a toxic faith experience can cause them fear, guilt or anxiety, Tone said.

Ethical standards apply here, but the medical credo of “Do no harm,” is instead for Christians “First do good,” she said.

It’s important for therapists not to impose their beliefs on others, but if they are open to it, the hope in the story of restoration and eternity can be part of the larger picture of healing mind, body and spirit.

“All of us desire to have someone understand us,” Tone said, and counselors have the important job of humbly sitting with a client to offer them “the blessing of being heard. I believe God allows us to use that gift and also use all the science we need.”

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

The post The gift of counseling with faith appeared first on GCU Today.

                                                                                                                                                                               Getty Images

By Dr. David Dean
Assistant Professor of History
Grand Canyon University

American Independence Day on July 4 celebrates the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

However, July 4, 1776, was not the day the Continental Congress declared independence; it did that on July 2. It also is not the day the American Revolution started; that had happened in April 1775.  Neither is July 4 the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776), nor the date it was delivered to England (November 1776).  July 4 is not even the day colonial leaders signed the Declaration. The Continental Congress did that Aug. 2, 1776.

Dr. David Dean

So why do we celebrate American independence on July 4?

When the American Revolution started in the spring of 1775, most colonists were not looking for total separation from England; rather, they sought better representation in Parliament and the right to continue their habit of self-governing local affairs, as they had since establishing English colonies in North America.  The protest over “taxation without representation” soon grew into a list of 27 grievances that questioned England’s administration over the colonists’ affairs. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense,” published in January 1776, convinced many that America should be given complete independence from Britain.

Twice before, colonial leaders met to articulate their grievances with the Crown and Parliament, each building important keystones of colonial unity. The Stamp Act Congress and the First Continental Congress composed letters and petitions sent to the king. As England’s policies grew more burdensome, their concerns grew more vocal.

So, the Second Continental Congress gathered again in June 1776 at the Pennsylvania State House (later named Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. Virginia congressman Richard Henry Lee was the first to call for independence by means of a declaration. He was one of the most vocal advocates of this response to England’s policies. Lee proposed “that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.”

While Congress debated whether they should go ahead and do so, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman were appointed to a committee to draft a resolution that would carry such a declaration of independence. Thomas Jefferson penned most of the words.

A few weeks later, on July 2, 1776, the committee returned with a draft of the declaration, which the Continental Congress voted nearly unanimously in favor of adopting.  For several days, delegates worked on edits and changes until they all finally agreed on the wording, approving the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

Although John Adams considered July 2 independence day, July 4 is universally celebrated as the day America officially became an independent country. Despite the colonies becoming free in 1776, the war with Britain continued until 1781, officially ending in 1783. John Adams wrote his wife, Abigail, that independence day was to be celebrated “by succeeding generations” and suggested “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations” throughout the United States. However, the term “Independence Day” was not used until 1791.

In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on Sept. 17 of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the actual Declaration of Independence document and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.).  It is also the date printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration circulated throughout the new nation.

Right after the adoption of the declaration, Americans all over celebrated with bonfires, parades and concerts, along with firing muskets and cannons. Public readings also began soon after. The first was on July 8, 1776, in Philadelphia. The following year, the anniversary of the adoption was commemorated for the first time in Philadelphia as the war still went on.

When a Dunlap Broadside was read by George Washington in New York City on July 9, 1776, the words so inspired the people listening that they started a riot. Later that day, they tore down a statue of King George III and later melted it into musket balls for the American army. In 1778, George Washington again celebrated the day by giving his men double rations of meat. Three years later, Massachusetts was the first state to make the Fourth of July an official holiday.

For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, Independence Day wasn’t celebrated on any particular date. The country was too new and had too much else happening.

By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. The Federalists thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, inconsistent with their current policies. By 1817, even John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. After the War of 1812, the Federalists were coming apart, and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration circulated again, all with July 4, 1776, listed at the top.

Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on, and in 1870, almost 100 years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.

In 1826, former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. President John Quincy Adams called their passing “visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor.”

Other notable events in American history that took place on July 4:

• 1831: “America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee)” is first sung in Boston.
• 1863: General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from Gettysburg.  Meanwhile Vicksburg, Mississippi, surrenders to Union forces under the command of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, marking a turning point in the American Civil War.
• 1876: News of General George Armstrong Custer’s defeat at Little Big Horn reaches Washington D.C., putting a pall on the national celebration.
• 1884: Statue of Liberty presented to U.S. in Paris as a gift from the French people to America and to commemorate the abolition of slavery. The Statue of Liberty, or fully titled, Liberty Enlightening the World, depicts Liberty striding forward with a torch raised in her right hand, her left holding a tabula ansata with the date of the declaration of independence. Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” composed to raise money for the statue, was inscribed inside the pedestal in 1903 with its famous lines “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
• 1888: The oldest rodeo competition held in Prescott, Ariz., was organized by local business professionals, providing an opportunity for local cowboys and ranchers to demonstrate their skills to the public.
• 1905: Baseball Hall of Fame pitchers Rube Waddell (A’s) and Cy Young (Boston) match up in a 20-inning classic; Philadelphia wins 4-2.
• 1997: U.S. space probe Pathfinder lands on Ares Vallis Mars.

Born on the Fourth of July:

• Calvin Coolidge is the only U.S. president who was born on the Fourth of July. Born on July 4, 1872, in tiny Plymouth Notch, Vermont, Coolidge took office when President Warren G. Harding died suddenly on Aug. 3, 1923.
• Two other famous contributors to American culture also were born on July 4. Stephen Foster, known as the “father of American music,” was born on July 4, 1826, the same day that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died. Foster is famous for American folk classics such as “Oh! Susanna” and “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River).” “The Scarlet Letter” author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts, where his great-great-grandfather played a role in the town’s infamous witch trials.
• More recently, Malia Obama was born on July 4, 1998.

What the Declaration of Independence did that was worth celebrating:

On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted a proclamation that declared to all Americans, Great Britain and the world, that these 13 colonies were and ought to be free and independent from Great Britain. It explained the reasons or justifications for their freedom, and it was used as foreign policy to establish a just cause so foreign governments would help the new nation. More importantly, the declaration also was employed as a tool to enlist undecided colonists into the rebellion and unite members of the Continental Congress around the common cause of victory in the American Revolution.

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Cornel Stemley’s Justice Studies class at GCU gave students the chance to create plans that could help police departments avoid the racial issues they face today.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

The national unrest over policing and race this summer hit close to home for some Grand Canyon University Criminal Justice students.

Last spring, they produced strategic plans to combat the problems that can lead to tragedies such as the death of George Floyd and the subsequent murder charges of a Minneapolis police officer.

“The key to really helping the people understand what the police do and vice versa is community engagement,” said Wilton Mercy, a senior in Criminal Justice who produced a plan for the Chicago Police Department and a segment of the city that is predominately Latino as part of a Community Based Strategic Planning class.

He found that police departments that learn more about the population and adapt to their standards create more trust and prevent people from working against officers.

GCU student Wilton Mercy created a strategic plan for the Chicago Police Department.

His project relied on research that examined the history of relationships between the community and police, adverse events that occurred and what caused them.

“The patterns I noticed were the same things going on today. It was behavior of police officers and the people, a history between them that started with small racial blockades,” he said.

His suggestions for change included increasing police standards, having supervisors who held them accountable, hiring more police from the backgrounds of the population in the area and planning consistent engagement with the community.

“I don’t think a lot of police departments train officers on the cultures they are policing,” he said.

The Community Based Strategic Planning Class, typically taken in the last year of the Justice Studies program, was launched four years ago after instructor Cornel Stemley conducted research with police departments and found many were embracing evidence-based strategic planning but lacked time, funding and qualified personnel to conduct the scientific research that expands on community policing models introduced in the late 1980s.

Scientific studies and data collected from specific populations, such as conducting focus groups, surveys, or interviews, are used for an objective approach to community problems, he said.

“The job opportunities for students to help develop those plans are wide open,” he said. “Agencies don’t have people that can do that because it’s time consuming. And police departments don’t embrace that unless its indoctrinated in the culture, which takes a long time.”

He teamed students with GCU librarians to do intense research on the demographics of several cities that were flagged by the Department of Justice for violating Constitutional rights. They examined demographics and the DOJ reports and provided solutions. Some reports were to be submitted to the police departments and discussed before COVID-19 sidelined that effort.

The project provides students with critical thinking, teamwork and data analysis skills that will help them advance within departments.

Strategic plans are like making a diet plan for the week, he said. You don’t randomly eat on a whim each day but develop a plan with goals and objectives.

The plan forms by interacting with the community, not by telling people what they need but learning what they need.

“When people commit criminal acts, they are not doing it just to be doing it. It’s because they have a certain need, a certain problem,” Stemley said.

Students learn of community groups that can help meet those needs and match them with people. But from personal experience working in police departments, Stemley found a good plan needs “to put love into it.”

It engages the heart as well as the mind, bringing together community members who want to see the plan through because they live there.

Police officers soon tire of arresting people over and over, he said, and should ask, “What’s going on?”

“It is all about respect, treating people like they are human. No one is exempt. Someone can always fall on bad times, fall into drug addiction, lose their jobs which causes them to drink, get a DUI and get arrested. So we take care of those issues and supply support and interact with them before they get in trouble.”

Another student, Victoria Sakakibara, found in her project that the ties between the community members and police were vital.

Victoria Sakakibara’s research on Ferguson, Mo., provided solutions to racial tensions.

It wasn’t happening in Ferguson, Mo., the subject of her research. The city was well-known after the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014 by a white police officer and the resulting protests that resembled what is happening today.

Police there were not following protocols and didn’t have strong community ties in the minority communities of the city, she learned in her research.

“Police should receive training on culture and ethnicity. They need to empathize with everybody,” she said.

She recommended community programs that allow the police and population to know each other, mental health programs for officers to decrease stress and increased training to better the quality of policing.

“The George Floyd situation was heartbreaking. Even though I’d done the research, part of me was still surprised,” she said.

Sakakibara graduated in April and is working as an assistant at a law firm while considering law school. Her mom always encouraged her to be a person that goes out and changes the world.

“The project really helped me see that we do have problems in the world. We do have police departments that need help to establish better programs and ties within the community. I hope to see those changes in the world.

“Everyone deserves to feel safe. If we don’t have that it creates chaos.”

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

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Related content:

GCU Today: Justice Studies students prepare for life behind the badge

GCU Today: Justice, not punishment, is focus of GCU program

GCU Today: CHSS offers new degrees plus new curriculum twists

The post Students create plans for police-community relations appeared first on GCU Today.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Part of Grand Canyon University’s mission is to prepare students to become global citizens. In the same way, it’s vital for students in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, School Counseling and related programs to be trained as global counselors, says Dr. Anna Edgeston.

In these difficult times, as the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic and a nation is torn by racial issues, it’s important to establish best practices centered around cultural humility and mentor students on being aware of their unique background and experiences, she said.

Edgeston, GCU’s Program Chair of Clinical Mental Health Counseling and School Counseling in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, joined Kapil Nayar, an instructor in courses on substance abuse disorders, counseling and psychopharmacology, to talk with GCU Today. Edgeston’s parents were missionaries and one was born in Kenya, while Nayar’s parents emigrated from India.

How difficult is to be a counselor in these times?

Kapil Nayar

Nayar: Substance abuse and mental health practitioners are not often talked about in media but to my mind are included in the group of first responders as the pandemic unfolds. The overall fear, stress and anxiety of COVID-19 and the unfortunate grief and loss that we all have faced throughout this time interval is unique. On a day-to-day basis we are facing clients who are anxious about becoming sick themselves or their family members or loved ones, along with the aftermath of those who have lost people close to them. Substance use is more prevalent and overdose rates are on the rise. It’s relentless and emotionally exhausting.

Truth be told, the counseling profession is very difficult. It’s hard work overall, but with the added stressors of COVID-19 and social injustice affecting our clients, it’s a tough field to be in right now — and more so, extremely difficult to stay positive throughout. I tell our students this time and time again: It’s a grueling profession but always reflect, “If not me, who?”  This piggybacks off Mahatma Gandhi’s comment: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Students have found this exchange to be helpful and motivational.

So, what is a global counselor?

Edgeston: A counselor who is able to work with diverse individuals. The uniqueness of the United States is we have individuals from across the world, so you don’t even need to cross the waters to be a global counselor.

Why is it important to be a global counselor?

Dr. Anna Edgeston

Edgeston: The concept that all counseling is cross cultural in nature is really powerful to me. It really is saying that whoever comes into the counselor’s office is going to have some sort of difference that exists between them and the counselor. It’s important to train your students to be prepared for that. With everything going on within our nation and with the focus on diversity and change and understanding the other person, it’s perfect timing in terms of my vision for the program of training global counselors to be prepared to listen to another human being and be able to understand them in order to help them. If we don’t prepare our students, I think we are hindering what they can do in the helping profession.

Nayar: It is vital that we comprehend our role in our clients’ lives and in society as a whole. We must stay determined to be a better ally and advocate for social justice. Counselors are the glue for a large portion of society that press on and fight the good fight. Maintaining this mindset and relaying it to our clients reinforces ownership in their destiny.

Continuous dialogues with people from different backgrounds have helped learn about all aspects of life. It helps clarify where we find meaning and to see shared purpose and connectedness. Part of the beauty of this profession is being able to deliver this in session and when the moments come, pay that forward.

How does being an advocate for social justice help clients and community?

Nayar: I think being able to model that throughout these troubling times, modeling maintaining a positive outlook, reframing some of the negatives and pressing forward, allowing our clients, our students and our peers to witness our behaviors — it’s a trickle-up effect. Hopefully they all interact with and model the same behaviors in their nuclear universe to keep the movement going for themselves, their family and greater society.

How does a student become a global counselor?

Edgeston: One of the key things is self-awareness, which means you learn about yourself, your culture and world view, and your values and really have a good understanding of them. I noticed that myself. The more I became in tune with my culture and who I was, the more open I became about learning about others. That is the next step in a counselor’s growth. You have to understand your client’s culture and world view and how they see things and their values. As counselors, you learn skills to be able to navigate between the two.

That’s why I love the quote that really communicates that idea of self-awareness, knowledge and skills like empathy and compassion: “To care for someone, I must know who I am. To care for someone, I must know who the other is. To care for someone, I must be able to bridge the gap between myself and the other.” (Jean Watson).

It’s knowing that each individual is so unique and important and thus we must understand each other – and how do we do that? I think to gain that knowledge means being quiet and listening and learning about other individuals. That listening part within itself is an example of a skill that is so important to bridge those factors together. For example, I can’t walk into a counseling session and dismiss who I am. A big part of who I am is why I’m here. I value working with and helping individuals. So I have to bring myself in but I also have to pay attention to that individual and who they are. It’s like bringing my world view and their world view together.

That can be tough when people have such different views, right?

Edgeston: We are creating a safe space. A lot of times what stops us is fear — I’m afraid to offend someone. That stops people. I would rather offend, but then we have a conversation with them and build a relationship. Tell me about yourself. It’s the same thing in counseling. How do we do that there and outside the room? Fear stops us from crossing that bridge.

Optimistically, these times may propel us to finally cross the bridge and listen with what you describe as our “humanitarian ideologies.” What does that term mean?

Nayar: I link this with the interconnectedness of mankind at this stage. Our world is becoming smaller. We need to look at our life, our world and our profession in this context as well – stressing an empathetic, unconditional positive regard and a humanitarian perspective as we engage with our clients, our students, our peers and transitively the world is vital.

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

The post Training global counselors in troubled times appeared first on GCU Today.

Working at home can be an added stressor during the pandemic.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

You might not be out of work, emotionally charged at a protest or checked into intensive care, but these past few months still can be lousy with stress. Day after day, it adds up.

Now imagine being the person who hears about everyone else’s stress.

“While some things can be shut down or pulled back because of the pandemic, mental health is not one of those things. Realistically, we are always on the job,” said Dr. Chris McBride, licensed clinical psychologist and full-time faculty in Grand Canyon University’s Behavioral Health Sciences program. “A lot of people helping others in the community with stress might not be able to attend to their own stressors.”

To help counselors, McBride assembled a Loom presentation for Southwest Network, the first training exercise in GCU’s partnership with the organization that provides mental health services in Maricopa County and internships and job opportunities for students.

“It’s easy to forget that they have a burden because they carry everyone else’s burden. That is the problem with being a first responder or a mental health professional or an essential worker; they have to bear the weight for everybody else right now,” McBride said.

In his presentation, he showed a drawing of a big, heavy truck crossing a bridge. It’s not the one load that put the pressure on the bridge structure, it’s all the many cars that crossed, putting constant stress on the structure that could cause it to collapse.

Dr. Chris McBride

“People see the big things as being ultra-stressful but seem to ignore the fact that we have additional stresses on us that seem so mundane, like not getting a break from people because they are in your house all the time,” he said in an interview.

If working at home, there isn’t commute time to decompress or a change of scenery.

You may not have lost a job but worry about a lack of savings if things get worse. Or you lost out on a promotion because of slumping business or postponed special birthday celebrations for your children, like McBride did with his daughter.

“It may not be a real, true death but the death of potential that we do grieve. It’s harder to see so therefore it’s harder to recognize,” he said.

On average, Americans report more stress this year — 7 of 10, according to surveys. The pandemic combined with social upheaval regarding race relations is wearing on people.

“A lot of what we are seeing, if you watch the news, is people responding to intense amounts of frustration. That’s why people weren’t behaving this way before the pandemic started,” he said.

Stress can be good, creating an arousal that helps us get things done. But prolonged stress can lead to exhaustion. Therapists are no different.

That’s why Southwest Network worked with Dr. Noé Vargas, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Assistant Dean, to launch the voluntary online training for its staff. Vargas told her that GCU is “blessed to have faculty that are willing to help out the community in times of need.”

“We are balancing what is happening in the community and the world with the work we do,” said Holly Dedmon, Vice President of Operations at Southwest Network. “The work we do is challenging, so how do you apply this information personally and professionally? Chris nailed it.”

She said staff connected with his thoughts on how many people today are not “working at home but living at work.”

McBride suggested setting more boundaries between work and home life by working in different spaces, wearing work clothes even at home or removing work materials from sight to create clear separations from work and home life.

The amount of stress one experiences can depend on your own appraisals of it and the resources to deal with it, he described.

In stress theory, a primary appraisal asks, “Does this affect me?” A secondary appraisal asks, “Do I have the physical, emotional or social resources to handle this?”

At the beginning of the pandemic, for example, the stores may have been out of toilet paper so it did affect you. But if you had spare rolls at home there was no need to worry. If you were out of toilet paper and a job, it’s a different story.

People deal with stress differently, as well.

While one person may be problem-focused, devising actions that can eliminate the stress, others may be emotion-focused and just need someone to hear them out. The problem is relying on one technique all the time.

“In a time of COVID, there are coping techniques that are absolutely effective: We are making sure we are staying home when we are sick; we are staying away from people; we are making sure we mask up in public spaces and listen to our health experts. Those are all problem-focused things,” he said.

“But my daughters and I are just getting over a cold and now it’s, ‘Is this COVID? Am I going to have to go to the hospital to get tested?’ It’s stuff we can’t change, so now we have to work on them with emotionally-focused coping.”

When people get stressed, their brain’s frontal lobe doesn’t work effectively, so working on techniques to stay calm or focus on activities you enjoy is helpful, he said. “OK, let’s plan a trip when this whole thing is over.”

Some of his other tips to limit stress include: help others; take breaks from the news; take care of your body by getting outside; make time to unwind; connect with others in ways that are safe.

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

The post Counselors face their own pandemic stress appeared first on GCU Today.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Teachers have been doing their homework over the summer.

A series of trainings to help Grand Canyon University ground faculty execute a strategic plan for using different methods of teaching took on added significance because of the fall term’s remote start and subsequent blended learning models.

Dr. Daniel Kaufmann is helping GCU faculty prepare for blended learning.

Ten on-demand workshops from the Faculty Resource Center are available to faculty, and the Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching (CIRT) also has added numerous other resources and trainings.

Without question, GCU is fighting off the curveballs from the pandemic with its online education expertise. Last spring, traditional faculty shifted online in an emergency. Now, they’ve had the summer to prepare for classes, which begin online Sept. 8.

“It is very important for teachers to develop a comfort level for this style of teaching – that everything they know how to do already from years of experience still works, it just works in a different way,” said Dr. Daniel Kaufmann, Online Full-time Faculty. “We have to be open to the challenge of finding different solutions.” 

Kaufmann, along with College of Humanities and Social Sciences instructor Makisha Gunty, produced one of the on-demand workshops, “Innovations in Remote and Blended Classrooms.”

Makisha Gunty

“We know the content,” he said, “but the question is, really: How do we get that knowledge and that love of our topic area to our students, who will continue to grow with it in their own assignments and readings?”

Gunty added, “While the changes in environment can provide challenges, it’s our hope through the use of these tools that educators can still provide a classroom experience rich with effective pedagogies.”

Faculty should determine what part of class to do synchronously (“live” at the same time) or asynchronously, then pick methods and applications for each.

Kaufmann’s solutions partly arise from his background as a game streamer outside his role in education and as a mental health professional who in recent years needed to shift his clients in Florida, where he then was licensed, to a telemedicine format.

“Everything I was doing was all about, ‘How do I take my skills I have in a room with people and use that ability without losing the experience?” he said.

Kaufmann said he was asked to put together a training on his methods of “teaching online in a way that feels like a classroom.”

For example, the workshop showcases the use of Microsoft Whiteboard. Instructors still can lecture while writing on the board as students watch live, like a classroom experience, or they can record it in an embedded video to be watched separately. They might expand on a textbook chapter on Freud and use the class time to discuss it.

The applications available today are numerous.

“The key is believing that what you are doing is not different. The execution is different,” Kaufmann said. “Everything you did in classroom, the technology is there to do it in front of your computer while the students are in front of theirs. You can share a video and watch it together, you can share quiz questions and do trivia contests. You can have group activities and break the class into small groups.” 

An example is the use of Zoom. In the classroom, he likes to break students into groups and roam the room to listen in and spark discussion. That can happen online with Zoom’s functions for breakout rooms, which he can pop in on to listen and comment.

Makisha Gunty, lower left, shows how to download on YouTube.

Trivia contests can create fun competition on the subject by using Kahoot!, while YouTube is a familiar app to many students that can be the vehicle for videos on subject matter. Even communication with students is helped with apps such as Bitmoji to depict sentiments from the author in fun and uplifting ways.

“It gives the students more kinds of opportunities than sitting in front of a computer, which is what they are doing, but the goal is to make them feel like they are at school,” he said.

GCU is a leader in online education, so its resources on the subject are vast.

Monte McKay, Executive Director of Faculty Operations Training and Development, said the workshops were pulled together to help faculty with impending blended learning models. They include everything from creating a sense of community to technical resources available to faculty to implementing blended learning models with LoudCloud, the learning management system.

CIRT publishes two journals about online learning, Journal of Educators Online and Journal of Instructional Research, and has numerous resources on best practices, pedagogy and “flipped classrooms.”

The latter has been a buzzword in education in recent years. Lectures are prerecorded and students view it outside of a class time, which is then used for activities and group work.

“As we enter the fall semester with the pandemic lingering over us, faculty have the opportunity to be a bit more strategic as they develop flexible teaching plans that capitalize on best practices in online and blended learning,” said Dr. Jean Mandernach, Executive Director of CIRT.

The workshops will help faculty keep from feeling overwhelmed by the new class norm.

“There are the things teachers might say, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” Kaufmann said. “Yes, you can. Let’s go make it happen.”

It may have benefits well past the pandemic.

“With us relying on technology, when we go back to learning in the same room together, we might find that there are really brilliant and creative ways to make the classroom more rich, more interactive,” he said. “Just as I’m saying the skills we have in the classroom won’t evaporate, it stands to reason the skills we are developing now won’t evaporate once we are blessed with the opportunity to return to the classroom.”

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

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Counselors must “know how to positively and constructively advocate for and with their clientele who may be experiencing discrimination, oppression and racial injustice,” GCU adjunct instructor Ron Friesen said.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Given the events of the past few months, many people need an advocate in their corner.

To Ron Friesen, that is a counselor. He said that advocacy and social justice are such key parts of the profession that the American Counseling Association recently re-formulated its guide to their application.

“In today’s climate of racial tensions, it is important for professionals such as teachers, nurses, counselors and social workers to know how to positively and constructively advocate for and with their clientele who may be experiencing discrimination, oppression and racial injustice,” said Friesen, an adjunct instructor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Grand Canyon University.

Ron Friesen

Friesen gave an example Friday during his Zoom workshop, “The Role of the Counselor in Advocacy and Social Justice.”

School counselors had learned that underage students were buying alcohol at drive-up liquor outlets nearby. Counselors identified the issue and decided it went beyond individual advocacy to a deeper problem in low-income neighborhoods, where more of those outlets were located than in wealthier areas.

For counselors, advocating involved conducting further research on the problem, contacting police and holding community forums.

“What are the social, political, economic and cultural issues affecting your client?” he asked the group of local mental health professionals and educators who participated in the workshop. “Of course, we know the George Floyd episode has certainly raised all these issues. That is an area where we need to have the big picture.”

A counselor should recognize their own background in relation to the client and their community and ask important questions.

“I’m a white male. To what extent am I aware of my privilege and to what extent am I aware of how the rest of the community might look upon my friends or my group?” he asked. “To what extent can our own understanding of power and privilege create a blind spot in view of our client in helping them? This is so critical.”

An example, from his 22 years working as a licensed professional counselor in mental health centers, prisons and nonprofits: An African-American client was polite and compliant during sessions yet had not made progress toward solving his issues. Then Friesen asked him to come up with his own goals – to act as his own advocate. He opened up and improved.

“He clearly had been expressing internalized oppression — how he experienced white men like me. And that silence was actually a sign of that internalized oppression,” he said. “So think about that when you and I work with our clients.”

Other times, a counselor can assist the wider community, such as helping the elderly get the city to extend their bus lines or to attain minority representation on a school board, two issues he also advocated for in Phoenix.

The free workshop was part of GCU’s efforts to support professionals in the community with development opportunities and earn Continuing Educational Units, said Dr. Noé Vargas, Assistant Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS).

“I appreciate all of the guest speakers who partner with us and volunteer their knowledge and time to make this happen,” he said. “CHSS clinical programs are invested in our communities, and this is just another example of that commitment.”

Advocacy can be as basic as “not remaining silent when someone speaks negatively of other people,” Friesen said, adding that it’s important to remember that means advocating for everyone.

“That view is important to a Christian view of social justice,” he said. “We are advocating for each other and seeking social justice for each other because we see each other made in the image of God.

“We are to be advocates for everyone. There is no division between Jew and Gentile, between Christian or non-Christian.”

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

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GCU Today: Instructor embraces the gift of counseling with faith

GCU Today: Counselors face their own pandemic stress

GCU Today: Training global counselors in troubled times

The post Advocacy and counseling go hand in hand appeared first on GCU Today.

GCU Resident Directors show signs of their excitement about students returning to campus this fall.

Editor’s note: Reprinted from the August 2020 issue of GCU Magazine. To read the digital version, click here.

By Rick Vacek
Contributing: Lana Sweeten-Shults, Mike Kilen, Ashlee Larrison
GCU Magazine  

“We’re trying to be part of the solution.”

When Grand Canyon University President Brian Mueller uttered those words in yet another of the twice-a-week task force meetings that were in their fourth month, University leaders had just made a pivotal decision in the face of a dangerous spike of the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona.

GCU President Brian Mueller said, “We never based decisions on what was financially best for the University. It was always based on the best possible experience for students and the safest possible experience.”

Even though it was mid-July, even though it would require major last-minute adjustments to the fall semester schedule, they would delay the start of ground classes until Sept. 8 and then conduct them online for three weeks before bringing students onto campus.

Mueller’s message was clear:

You pivot for safety.

Safety means sacrifice.

It’s the only way for a Christian university.

“Every person and every organization has to say, ‘Are we going to be part of the problem or part of the solution?’” he said later. “And if we can get everybody saying, ‘We’re going to part of the solution and are willing to make the sacrifices to do that,’ we’re going to end this thing sooner rather than later and minimize its impact.

“As a Christian community, we had to especially take into account our role in being part of the solution.”

Even when the solution costs money. Not only did GCU pro-rate housing costs for students arriving after Sept. 20, it plans on using the entire $22.3 million it was allotted in CARES Act funds to benefit students and to help absorb costs related to the disruption of campus operations caused by COVID-19.

It also expects to spend in excess of $7 million more in the fall semester by hiring additional faculty and instructional assistants, adding more mental health counselors and nurses at the Health and Wellness Clinic, investing in testing procedures and sanitization supplies, and converting GCU Hotel into a facility that can isolate or quarantine individuals in order to provide care and food for them.

“We never based decisions on what was financially best for the University. It was always based on the best possible experience for students and the safest possible experience,” Mueller said.

Not long before the 11th-hour decision, the plan was for students to return to campus in August, as usual. Everyone knew that predicting this pandemic is like planning for the unplannable, but the sudden uptick in positive tests still was unnerving.

“Arizona literally went from one of the safest places in the world to being one of the most dangerous places in the world in a period of 30 to 40 days,” Mueller said. “Nobody in the world faced as dramatic an adjustment as we did.”

But if there is one thing he has learned in his 12 years at GCU, it’s that he has a team that can adjust on the fly. From the faculty to the operational staff, no one quaked in reacting to this seismic shift.

“Almost every group was impacted,” he said. “It was the total cooperation and willingness of people to work together to get behind this plan.” It was all about solutions – safe solutions – and not just for students. The health of faculty and staff was a critical factor, too.

“Safety is first and foremost in every discussion that we have about this,” said Claude Pensis, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Production (COFAP), “and I think that says a lot about the institution and about the leadership at the institution.”

Here’s how that leadership worked tirelessly across the spring and summer, averaging at least 25 to 30 Zoom meetings a week in many cases, to make some of the most difficult decisions of their careers. It’s a story as dramatic as the virus itself, and it focuses on one central theme:

They care. Boy, do they care. And they’re betting on the campus community to focus its culture of caring on battling the virus. It’s the GCU way.

Anatomy of a crisis

Dr. Crystal McCabe, Associate Professor in the College of Education, will never forget the moment everything changed.

Danielle Rinnier

She was speaking at a conference for a Christian high school in South Dakota in the second week of March. In preparation the night before, “for no rhyme or reason, I just threw in” information on virtual strategies that educators could use, such as Zoom, Loom and Flipgrid.

During the presentation the next day, the school’s principal was called out of the room to announce that students and staff would be going home because of the pandemic.

“These teachers had no experience (in remote learning). So all the strategies we added that night became real strategies they needed,” McCabe said. “It was a God thing.”

The scene at the Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament in Las Vegas was even more chilling. As the game involving the GCU women’s team was about to start, fans were told to evacuate the arena because of concerns about the virus.

Danielle Rinnier, Assistant Dean of Students, had just driven there to watch the Lopes play. Now she was heading right back home to uncertainty and, undoubtedly, a lot of meetings.

Dr. Tim Griffin

“It feels like from that moment, there was going to be a significant change in culture and response that needed to happen because of the gravity of the situation,” she said.

She recalls an overriding theme of those early meetings:

“We’ve never done this before. How do we serve students, keep staff safe and respond appropriately?”

Like most people back then, Dr. Tim Griffin didn’t know what to make of COVID-19. Sure, it was going to be unlike anything our 21st-century world has ever known, but how long would it last?

“There was great optimism then, especially in Arizona, that we’d get a handle on this pretty quick,” GCU’s Pastor and Dean of Students said. “Then New York blew up. In Arizona, there was a real delayed effect.”

But some of Griffin’s family members are in nursing, and they told him of studies indicating that the virus wouldn’t peak in Arizona until mid-July.

“Through all those months, that was in the back of my mind,” he said. “I didn’t get overly optimistic.”

Meetings ramped up

When students were sent home for spring break and told to remain there for the remainder of the spring semester, campus leaders already were deep into COVID-19 planning.

Dr. Lisa Smith

A task force was formed with more than 100 individuals representing every department at GCU. Soon, that army of thinkers would break into 11 subcommittees – from an academic committee to an events committee to a fine arts and athletics committee – all of which were dedicated to one thing: safety.

“We realized early on that one size doesn’t fit all; we needed the expertise and recommendations of each subcommittee,” said Dr. Lisa Smith, Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions.

Mueller also sought input from parents and students and shared those feelings with the task force.

“He realizes everyone has a different lens,” Smith said, and he wants to see through all those lenses.

Connie Colbert

Mueller leaned heavily on Connie Colbert, Director of the Canyon Health and Wellness Clinic, Marcus Castle, GCU’s Emergency Preparedness Manager, and Smith to provide their health and safety expertise to the task force.

“Marcus, Connie and I spent a lot of time together – a lot of time,” Smith said. “We would meet and talk through that week’s discussion, and then we would take that discussion to the larger group and say, ‘Here’s what we talked about, what do you all think as a group?’ There were days where we would be calling or Zooming multiple times a day just because of how things were rapidly changing.”

The trio would prove crucial in helping campus leaders understand the virus and strategize their response to it.

“Those three are phenomenal,” said Dr. Randy Gibb, Dean of the Colangelo College of Business. “That’s my biggest takeaway – we have an amazing team of subject-matter experts who are passionate and articulate in sharing their thoughts, their concerns and then coming up with an action plan to make it happen.”

Prepared for turbulence

Gibb is a 26-year veteran of operational U.S. Air Force leadership and academic administration, so he knows a thing or two about flying difficult missions. When asked what the last few months have been like, he thought back to something he used to teach fighter pilots: Plan the flight, fly the plan.

Dr. Randy Gibb

“We tried to plan the flight,” he said. “Well, guess what? When you’re airborne, things change. You’ve got to adapt. In a sense, that’s what happened. We had a plan and then we had to change.

“The other famous saying in the Air Force is, ‘Flexibility is the key to airpower.’ That’s what I lived and breathed for 26 years. That’s what we’re having to do in our society, let alone higher education.”

Even as more than 90% of GCU and Grand Canyon Education employees worked from home while they planned the flight that is the mission to slow the spread of COVID, they continued to come together – for students, for each other, for the community.

Canyon Promotions launched an initiative to make cloth face masks from unused T-shirts. The College of Science, Engineering and Technology used its 3D printers to make face shields, many of which were donated to first responders. Employees from COFAP, Public Safety and University Event Services jumped in to help.

Dr. Sherman Elliott

When employees were asked to contribute to a fundraiser in support of those efforts, online donors nearly doubled the goal and raised almost $60,000 in just two weeks. Additional donations from GCU and Grand Canyon Education brought the total to more than $150,000.

Caring. It all comes down to caring. For Dr. Sherman Elliott, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, it all comes down to the Latin phrase cura personalis, or “care for the whole person,” and it’s the foundation of his meetings with administrators in his college.

“No matter what, no matter how stressed I am, no matter how much we have to hurry to meet a deadline, the first 10 minutes of that call is always, ‘How are you doing? How is your family doing?’” he said. “I look at it from a ministerial perspective. It’s my job to minister to them.”

Dr. Hank Radda

And it’s GCU’s job to minister to students in the most thoughtful of ways, which is why the on-campus experience has to be different this fall. The most important change for students will be in the classroom, where blended learning – a mix of in person and online instruction – will be the norm.

What is blended learning? For starters, it’s something GCU has been doing for six years.

“It’s maximizing active learning strategies where it’s not a ‘sage on a stage,’” said Dr. Hank Radda, the University Provost. “It’s really getting students to engage in their learning. That happens in the classroom face to face, but it also happens in the interaction with the materials in the learning management system, the reading, the writing, the discussion.

“It’s really maximizing the best of both worlds in a very thoughtful way to get to the learning outcome. It’s a very powerful model, and we have significant experience with it with thousands of students over the past six years. It’s not something we just dreamt up today.”

Parent Council is on board

Plans for blended learning this fall already were in place when Arizona suddenly became a COVID hotspot. At Mueller’s spring meeting with the GCU Parent Council, the nationwide 15-member unit was unanimous in its desire to have students return to campus on time. But after the daily coronavirus numbers became more gruesome, the tone at the next meeting was more cautious.

“There’s a concern for the health of your children, but at the Parent Council level there also was a concern for the health of faculty and staff, said Jason Damkoehler of Bloomington, Ill., who’s on the council along with his wife, Nancy.

Parent Council members Jason and Nancy Damkoehler with their son Clay.

The council was relieved to learn of the new plan to start late and online. But Jason Damkoehler, who has been a pastor for two decades, saw the spiritual side of GCU’s process, too.

“There are a lot of universities out there making business-centric decisions, but this felt like a very Spirit-centric decision,” he said. “It was wisdom-based, not fear-based. It wasn’t, ‘How can we make sure the University can get its money?’ It was, ‘How can we ensure that our students and faculty and staff are protected and yet still fulfill our mandate to educate in the very best way possible?’

“I believe Nancy and I can speak for the entire Parent Council saying that really was the predominant feeling that we had.”

Nancy had another reason for being happy: She has been having so much fun with her children – including son Clay, an engineering major at GCU – during these months of stay-at-home-and-stay-safe.

“I don’t know if I’m different, but I really, really like my young adult children,” she said. “I don’t just love them, I like them. We have a blast together.”

The feeling is similar on the Parent Council. Jason and Nancy both talked of how its members become close right away during their two-year stints. “I think the Parent Council is a microcosm of the GCU community at large,” Jason said. Now that he has seen that community in action in the face of a major challenge, he’s that much more impressed.

“One of the things that attracted me to Grand Canyon University,” he said, “is the partnership with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, ‘Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.’ I think that applies to people and I think that applies to churches and I think that applies to any Christian organization.

“GCU is an incredible institution, and I believe it’s because they humble themselves and say, ‘Jesus, what do you want us to do next?’ And then they actually listen.”

All in for the fall

So what will happen this fall? Universities across the country are expected to reopen, and it’s only natural for everyone to hold their breath and hope that physical distancing becomes natural, too.

GCU has a major advantage: The warm Arizona weather will allow students to stay outside – where the virus is less likely to spread – through November and beyond, and extra shading will be constructed all over campus to encourage them to eat outside, play outside, even go to class outside.

ASGCU President Dylan Mahoney

“It’s going to be on the students to own keeping distance between people they don’t live with or aren’t familiar with out of respect for their health,” Griffin said. “It is going to be a culture-building piece.”

Dylan Mahoney, President of the Associated Students of GCU, is charged with helping build that culture: “We need to be somebody that supports the student body and listens because this is a new frontier we are going into. We have never had such a large-scale issue that ASGCU had to deal with. It’s going to be scary and exciting.”

That sense of excitement and discovery has been a constant through all the COVID-related conversations, which continued unabated through the summer – no breaks. Some of the changes this fall, such as a later start to the academic year, might be adopted permanently if they work well.

But there’s one thing that won’t change at GCU: the Christian spirit. It keeps coming up in all those meetings.

“It’s the Christian foundation, loving God with all your heart, soul and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself, which is the most difficult thing in life to do,” Mueller said. “We’re not wired that way. But the Christian communities have been transformed and given the power to operate that way.”

It all starts there. And for University decision makers, it all starts with Mueller.

“With Brian’s leadership, we’re able to tackle things that we never thought we would have to tackle,” Radda said. “We’re learning things about ourselves as an organization, our faculty, our systems that we wouldn’t have thought of before. We’ve really dug deeper into what is our human capacity, what’s our technological capacity and how much we could change.”

And, above all else, how much they care.

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

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GCU’s quick and successful transition to an online format was made possible by its strong history in virtual learning.

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

By Ashlee Larrison
GCU Magazine

One week. Just one week. That’s all the time Grand Canyon University faculty had to enact a major academic shift when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Ground students had been sent home for spring break and told that the final four weeks of the semester would be completed online. While they relaxed for a few days, faculty members feverishly made the necessary changes to nearly all in-person classes, a testament to GCU’s strong history in online education and its learning management system (LMS), LoudCloud.

“We weren’t really going into uncharted territory,” said Erin Maden, Director of the Office of Academic Records. “We had the online platform, technological infrastructures and team already in place.

“I feel very fortunate that we were so much more prepared than other institutions and companies that I have spoken to because it made the transition a lot easier.”

In fact, the transition happened six years ago when GCU required all ground students to start using LoudCloud.

“I think that part really helped,” said Kirk Dykman, Vice President of Student Operations and Student Records Management for Grand Canyon Education. “Everybody’s familiar with the online LMS system, so they just kept attending like they were there, and then we enhanced it with Zoom or other digital mediums to meet synchronously with the instructors.”

Another GCU-specific resource, LopesCloud, played a role in the transition as well. Created by the Technology Department in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET), LopesCloud is a web application that connects students to cloud-based environments that they can access from anywhere, much like how Google Docs operates.

One technology that made the transition from ground to online so seamless was LopesCloud, said Cloud Support Coordinator/Specialist Leo Quintero.

“It allows students to interact with whichever virtual environment an assignment requires, whether it is Windows, Linux or other operating systems,” said Leo Quintero, Cloud Support Coordinator/Specialist for CSET.

Those technologies made the transition so smooth, students gave their instructors even higher marks than the previous spring in end-of-semester surveys.

“It was a lot more easily done than I had expected because we had been trained for online courses at GCU,” said Rachel Schumacher, who completed her bachelor’s degree in Theatre and Drama in the spring.

Even administrators were surprised by how smooth it was.

COFAP Dean Claude Pensis said one of the reasons for last semester’s successful finish was that everybody pitched in.

“I still marvel at how we were able to, with a week, basically get things into a position where we could have a very successful finish, which is in fact what we did, and I think that every dean would echo that,” said Claude Pensis, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Production. “One of the reasons it worked is that everybody pitched in.”

Dr. Sherman Elliott, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said, “I expected a lot of complaints about grades. I expected learners to say, ‘Hey, I had an A going in my psychology class and now I have a D,’ but that just didn’t happen. I got very, very few complaints, in fact maybe even less than one gets typically at the end of the semester.”

LoudCloud also allowed deans to keep track and offer assistance to not only students who needed help with the online format, but faculty as well.

Dr. Sherman Elliott, Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said LoudCloud helped deans keep track and offer assistance to students and faculty.

“As an administrator, it gave me access to see who was able to do the job and who wasn’t, and for those who didn’t, I was able to give them mentors or coaches to help them,” Elliott said.

That helping spirit is central to GCU’s academic rigors. In addition to the Academic and Career Excellence (ACE) Centers, where students can receive academic assistance seven days a week, instructors are required to maintain regular office hours. Also, each student is assigned a Student Services counselor who stays in touch regularly.

That didn’t change when ground classes went online. Students still could communicate with professors during virtual office hours, and they still could call or email their counselors.

“I think the part of the strategy that has really helped us continue to grow and be successful is that you’re going to have someone there by your side that calls you if you’re out of class or if you’re struggling,” Dykman said. “It’s expensive to have people doing that, but it’s made a difference for our students, it’s made a difference for the University.”

The spring success is a key reason why University leaders are so confident they can help ground students, both returning and incoming, thrive in the online environment for the first three weeks of the fall semester.

And administrators are equally sure that students will take just as easily to blended learning, which will be the norm in most classes when students move onto campus. Dykman and Maden have been working with their teams on adjustments to LoudCloud to assist students and faculty with scheduling who will be physically in class and who will be online each day.

The way they have attacked the challenge typifies the attitude of faculty and administrators. This has been a learning experience for them, too — one they have relished.

“The pandemic has impacted all of us,” Maden said, “but we’ve made lemonade out of lemons as we’ve worked together effectively to find solutions. I think we have become stronger because of it.”

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

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A diverse group of faculty was assembled for the new Master of Social Work program.

Seventh in a nine-part series spotlighting each GCU college as the fall semester begins.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences has assembled a diverse group of social work educators, and the timing is right.

Grand Canyon University’s new Master of Social Work launched last February, just before the pandemic sent the country into a tailspin.

“What we are doing is building a dream team, really,” said Dr. Kathleen Downey, Director of Social Work. “Each person we add has a little different look to their career path. We are building our team to be diverse in terms of experience, expertise and knowledge.”

Downey, who has 30 years of experience in social work practice and has been at GCU for five years, has helped bring to GCU a team of full-time faculty that includes Warren Terry, Makisha Gunty and Dr. Carlton Huff over the past year. A fifth full-time faculty member is expected to be added in October.

“What we are going through right now, social work is more important than ever,” said Huff, who was hired this summer. “We are faced with things beyond our control, and some of us don’t have the capacity to deal with it. Social workers come into the game, help people understand what they may be going through and help foster understanding so they can deal with what is going on around us.

Dr. Carlton Huff

“It’s not just educating the people who are struggling, it’s educating the public so they can understand why people are struggling.”

GCU launched the MSW to address a growing statewide and national need for licensed social workers.

“Particularly during this time of national crisis, many people are overwhelmed with personal emotional and economic struggles brought on by the pandemic,” said CHSS Dean Dr. Sherman Elliott.  “Social workers are change agents that support people through their time of crisis.  Our program offers a specific skill set that truly can lend a hand in changing people’s directions.”

Huff comes to GCU from Allentown, Pa., and has nearly 25 years of experience as an educator, researcher and social worker for all ages of clients in hospitals, clinics and other therapeutic settings, at times working three jobs.

“I’ve done that intentionally so I would be able to teach,” he said. “When it comes to getting the most experience, you don’t want to put yourself where you are just working with one population your whole career. We are more generalists.”

The MSW program specializes in an advanced generalist degree, so graduates will be able to work in numerous areas.

“What we teach them translates from setting to setting, population to population to expand our social work into as many settings as possible,” Downey said.

It employs a systems approach.

“It’s not just, a kid is having trouble at school so you only look at the school. It’s asking what was going on at home, at church, in their friend group and what is happening in the community,” she said. “There are all kinds of pieces connected, and the advanced generalist social worker connects to all those different systems and all levels of practice, from individuals to families, groups, organizations and communities.”

The team includes Terry, Field Education Coordinator, who has 13 years of experience in child welfare and seven years in hospital case management.

Makisha Gunty

Gunty arrived in January as an adjunct professor and was hired full-time in March. She has extensive background in integrative care — treating the whole person instead of  one aspect, such as only physical or mental. She also has more than 20 years of experience in child welfare, social work administration and behavioral health.

The program’s Christian worldview and generalist specialty were big selling points.

“We all have specializations in different areas, so our skills sets are very complementary to each other,” Gunty said. “There is a really a focus on preparing the graduate for the professional environment they will encounter.”

The program’s versatility drew Iyamide May to GCU as part of the program’s first cohort of students. She knew little of the field, having attained a bachelor’s degree in fashion merchandising. But after struggling to make a living in New York City and switching to a job helping clients attain services after Hurricane Sandy, she realized “I was more a therapist than making sure the funds were allocated, and after that I wanted to directly help people.”

While later working in the office of the Arizona Attorney General, she interviewed others to find out what field would best help her work with people.

Iyamide May

“I had a different perception of what social work was; I didn’t know it was so versatile,” she said. “You have all these different avenues, like public policy or becoming a therapist. I didn’t know they could do that by being a licensed clinical social worker.”

GCU was a perfect fit.

“I love the intention behind the program. Every teacher we’ve had are in a different field of social work,” she said. “I get to see it with each teacher, learning different things and how it applies.”

The program’s growth comes at a time when there is a nationwide surge in college enrollment for social work programs and a projected growth in the number of jobs in the field. GCU’s undergraduate enrollment in social work grew seven-fold in three years, detailed in a GCU Today story last year.

It also comes at a time of social upheaval.

“Social justice has always been an issue, but right now it’s in the forefront,” Downey said. “It gives us the opportunity as social workers to educate communities and not just people who are struggling, but everyone, on what social justice is and how we go about trying to attain social justice for people who are vulnerable.

Dr. Kathleen Downey

“As a social worker we don’t take over. Our goal is to teach people to advocate for themselves.”

Huff was drawn by the master’s program, which goes beyond theory to prepare students to hit the field running.

“I’ve always taught this way and trained this way. I want them to be able to use the skills now,” he said. “We want that to happen in the classroom.”

With a background of launching new initiatives, including a ground-breaking program in New York City to allow substance abusers access to services even if they are using, he said GCU is like a “second breath” because it is open to new ideas.

Those new ideas will come in handy in these troubled times.

“I’ve always told my students that we all need support in one way or another,” Huff said. “This world is not set up for us to be a bunch of individuals poking around doing what we think is best. I think there has to be some collaborative ideology on how we perform as human beings, how we perform as neighbors.”

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

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Also in the series:

GCU Today: GCU pledges its allegiance with teachers

GCU Today: Fine Arts goes all out to improvise for students

GCU Today: New degree boosts GCU’s Public Health program

GCU Today: Like good businesses, CCOB is learning, thriving

GCU Today: CSET programs earn prestigious accreditation

GCU Today: Initiative writes new chapter for doctoral learners

GCU Today: Honors College expands Student Advisory Board

GCU Today: New Theology website proves uncommonly valuable

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Heather Davenport, a Communications and Marketing major, used her skills over the summer by creating a campaign for homebound seniors that ended up on a billboard.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

Heather Davenport never dreamed that such a challenging summer could be so meaningful.

The Grand Canyon University junior had traveled home to Bend, Ore., in the spring to finish a class group project, inspired by grandparents there whom she often joined on their volunteer Meals on Wheels route. The program delivers food to people, many of them elderly who lack mobility.

When she showed up with food at their doors, they would joyfully welcome her in to show her their gardens, pets or photographs of their grandchildren.

“I realized how much impact I had on these people,” she said. “I realized their social isolation and that it was a problem that most people don’t see because it’s out of sight, out of mind: These seniors became immobile and are stuck at home.”

Their plight stayed with her, so the Communications major led an effort by a group of six GCU students in her Communications Campaign course to create a mock marketing campaign highlighting the need to help with their isolation. She discovered during her research that isolation negatively affects them mentally and physically.

“I thought it was an opportunity to make people understand what is going on,” she said.

Davenport showed grandparents Jean and Don Nachtwey her Instagram graphic for the project. They liked it so much that they took it to the Council on Aging of Central Oregon, which runs the Meals on Wheels program.

It hit home instantly. Amid a pandemic, Davenport had connected the dots to highlight the everyday plight of the elderly:

Imagine social distancing.

All. The. Time.

“That is a quite impactful small set of words that makes people stop and think,” said Denise LaBuda, Director of Communications at the Council on Aging. “It is difficult to engage people on aging in our country, so the isolation angle is helpful because it’s something that more people are able to relate to because of COVID.”

The agency asked if they could post the message, with its photograph of a senior citizen in black and white, on their Facebook page. It became the most popular post in a year for its number of likes and comments, LaBuda said, which led to placing it on a billboard that has also created community engagement.

Heather Davenport

“It’s really cool that it came full circle,” Davenport said. “This mock campaign became a real campaign.

“I was so happy I could have this opportunity to make a difference. Most people can’t relate to isolation because they are usually out and about. But during this time of pandemic they learned how miserable isolation can be.”

Davenport and five other GCU students in Dr. Reka Nagy’s course executed the idea: They identified the problem, researched who it affected, defined the goal of the message and its target audience for different platforms.

Davenport’s platform was Instagram, and the graphic she created drove it home, Nagy said. She carefully chose the right photograph with the right facial expression and colors and words and punctuation to relate the isolation.

“It appeals to the audience: How come we have never thought about this?” Nagy said. “It triggers feelings and emotions. More than ever, it resonates with them now. We do care for our parents and grandparents, call them, visit them time to time, but we then go back to our daily routine. We rarely think about how they feel in the situation they are in. This whole situation caused by COVID had us step in their shoes.”

Davenport said her GCU class became “totally relatable to the real world” and joined the agency as a volunteer to see the campaign through. It’s now on their agency home page.

It became a powerful reminder of the impact of intergenerational contact, said LaBuda, who also entered the field after volunteering with family members as a youngster. She was so impressed with Davenport that she offered her a digital marketing job.

Davenport declined the offer because she wanted to continue her studies at GCU. But it may have changed the course of her career. She decided to double major, adding Marketing to the mix.

“I like the creativity of it, coming up with ideas on how to engage people and pay attention to your brand or cause,” she said. “I would like to get into nonprofits because what you are doing really helps people.”

She could stand below her billboard in Bend and know that she is helping spread a vital message: Reach out to homebound folks who may need company.

“It only takes a coffee date, a phone call, a knock on the door, or reaching out in any form to improve the health and life of a senior,” Davenport wrote in her campaign’s plea to act when it’s again safe. “We wouldn’t want to social distance for the rest of our lives. And seniors shouldn’t have to.”

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

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GCU News Bureau

Thursday is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, which commemorates the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787, and efforts by many to become U.S. citizens.

GCU students take it seriously. Last spring, just before the pandemic, students launched the GCU Civics Club, which will initiate projects in the coming weeks at local libraries and schools.

“GCU students know and appreciate the importance of our Constitution and what it means to our republic and democracy,” said Kevin Walling, Chair of Justice Studies, Government and History in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

“The GCU Civics Club engages with the community to teach basic civic lessons to students in the K-12 system, with a focus on teaching from non-partisan perspectives about such subjects as free speech, equal protection and right to privacy.”

The post Students commemorate Constitution/Citizenship Day appeared first on GCU Today.

Jacqueline Carter (center) is joined at her graduation celebration by Mike Faust (left), Director of the Arizona Department of Child Safety, and Noah Wolfe, GCU’s Director of Alumni Relations.  

By Ashlee Larrison
GCU News Bureau

Jacqueline Carter has experienced firsthand the effect substance addiction can have on a family. Several of her loved ones have struggled with it, forcing her to enter the foster care system at age 17.

She made the move just one week before she was scheduled to start attending Grand Canyon University. A concerned bystander saw her living situation and arranged to have her live on campus.

Fast forward to today. Carter, 21, has her bachelor’s degree in Counseling with an Emphasis in Addiction, Chemical Dependency and Substance Abuse and is enrolled to start working on a master’s early next year. She wants to help people like her family members recover and strive for successful lives.

Carter was celebrated with cupcakes, a plaque and a check for $1,500.

Carter was a part of an incentive program created by the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) that encourages young adults in foster care to pursue higher education and vocational training.

Friday afternoon, DCS celebrated Carter’s accomplishment with cupcakes, a plaque and a check for $1,500. Mike Faust, Director of DCS, presented her with the plaque and check while also expressing the department’s pride in her.

“Where she may not see herself as an inspiration to others, she should know that we’re celebrating her because not only is she an inspiration to her peers, she’s also an inspiration to us who do this work,” he said. “When we’re able to see this level of success and positivity, to me that’s awesome.”

Several friendly faces from GCU surprised Carter at the event, including her favorite professor, Denise Krupp. Carter was asked to close her eyes before Krupp snuck into the room. When she opened her eyes, Carter broke into tears.

Carter’s favorite professor from GCU, Denise Krupp,  surprised her at her celebration.

“I’m so proud of you,” Krupp said. “I’m glad that even when it got tough you never gave up and that you kept the focus on your dream, which is to go out there and help other people that are struggling and may have walked through some of the things that you did.”

Carter said she will never forget her experience at GCU, starting with her sudden entry into the foster care system. 

“My world turned upside down that day,” she said. “I stayed in a home for a week until I moved into GCU and then I met all these people, and they’re like, ‘You don’t have to do this by yourself. We’re going to help you.’”

The sense of community helped Carter feel more at home on campus. So did GCU traditions such as basketball games, Lip Sync and Mr. GCU. 

“I just kept my eye on the prize and just took it one day at a time,” Carter said.

Young adults who grew up in foster care don’t always have the means to afford higher education. Faust’s organization hopes to change that  through its incentive program.

Carter’s advice to those who will follow in her footsteps: 

“You will make it. Don’t give up just because of one circumstance, don’t give up because of 10 circumstances, just don’t give up. Not matter what happens, don’t give up and stay focused on your education and stay focused on your goals.

“If you stay focused on your goals, then it’s going to happen because that’s where your focus is.”

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

****

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The post From foster care to GCU grad: Carter defied the odds appeared first on GCU Today.

GCU student Christian Simmons heads into one of the summer’s raging wildfires.

By Mike Kilen
GCU News Bureau

The Bush Fire was raging in June across the Tonto National Forest south of Payson, Ariz. It was a big one that eventually would cover nearly 200,000 acres. The contract firefighting crew that Christian Simmons had joined was called in, and he saw hotshots from Flagstaff lighting up a fire barrier by a road.

The junior student at Grand Canyon University was firmly in the moment amid a historically scorching hot summer during one of the worst seasons for wildfires in the West.

“The fire came up over the hill. Ten-foot flames,” he said. “We were holding this line, and it was so smoky it teared up your eyes, but we had to make sure it didn’t jump into houses.”

A commander ran to a home to get residents out. Simmons scrambled to help the Timber Ridge Engine 118 team unroll two hose lines.

“You couldn’t see or breathe. It was instinct. If you don’t stop this, it will hit this house.”

****

Simmons loves surveying the landscape God has created.

Some students spent their summer in quarantine because of the pandemic. Simmons was facing a different killer.

The 2018 Students Inspiring Students (SIS) scholarship recipient at GCU can share a thing or two about finding purpose.

He always thought he’d join the military because he wanted to serve. But when he was accepted into the Franklin Police and Fire Academy, part of the Phoenix Union High School District in Phoenix, he saw another path.

“I loved being outdoors and pushing my body to the limit,” he said. “And the science of how fire works caught my attention. I looked forward to going to school.”

He trained in wildland fire — working a chainsaw, digging lines and taking physical tests that require carrying a 45-pound pack, plus water that makes it 100 pounds, in 100-degree heat.

He learned that you are always trying to take away what a fire needs — a heat source, oxygen and fuel — by digging barriers, fighting fire with fire or reading the wind.

“Fire is a living thing,” he said.

****

Simmons fills many roles in firefighting.

Forty minutes into fighting the Bush Fire, the flames jumped toward the house.

Five times he had been called out to fires over the summer, but this one was intense. You never know when you’ll get the call, Simmons said. You grab your gear, which takes you away from your home for up to two weeks as your parents pray for you, and hit the ground running.

“When you roll up to a fire, sometimes they shoot you to the line right away,” he said.

Jeff Todd, his engine boss, said Simmons brings enthusiasm and hunger: “He’s a true professional and is a very skilled firefighter who is eager to learn.”

At age 20, Simmons is often among the young guys digging up the ground for barriers, fast and furious.

But when the flames are leaping, you rotate in to take the hose, as he did that day.

“You can fight it for a minute and then you can’t breathe,” he said.

****

Timber Ridge Engine 118 is contracted through the U.S. Forest Service and has been out fighting fires for 100 days this season.

The SIS scholarship in 2018 didn’t take him away from the fires but continued to lead him to service by seeking a degree in Government with an Emphasis in State and Local Public Policy.

“I thank God every day I got it; it gave me an opportunity to go to college,” he said.

He wants to join a fire department one day, and the major will help him rise the ranks because he’ll know about public policy from his courses, he said.

When you get a job in the public service field, it’s on merit, said Evelyn Racette, one of his GCU instructors in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “It’s not a who knows who. He’s got to be good to get the job, and he is good,” she said.

As an administrator in a department, she said you also must walk a “political tightrope” because at times elected officials will be looking over your shoulder on policy decisions.

“Christian will succeed there. He has seen it happen in the real world,” he said. “And I think he’s got a heart for people.”

Saving people, saving structures. That’s what Simmons said his purpose was this summer.

****

At times, Simmons finds it hard to breath in the smoke.

The beauty and tragedy of the mountain forest was on display that day.

“I love being out there. You get to see the beautiful country that God has made,” he said.

But it’s also like sports, pushing yourself to the limit, facing the obstacles with a group of firefighters who become like brothers.

“When the fire jumps your line, it brings you down, but you have to re-engage,” he said.

You never know what a fire is going to do. It has helped him mature – to always be ready for sudden changes, to not procrastinate, to learn how to deal with different personalities.

That day in the Tonto, the flames were beaten back short of the home.

“We held it off just in time,” he said.

“You wipe away the soot from your eyes, and you get right back to work, doing mop-up, digging and making sure nothing will relight,” he said. “You work into the night. I think we were there 20 hours that day.

“You don’t think about it until the next day that you could have been hurt in the process, but it’s definitely an adrenaline rush. You’re like, ‘I’m ready for the next one.’”

He’ll be back at school Monday, but he thinks about “his guys” out in California, still battling the wildfires, and part of him wants to be there with them.

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

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GCU Today: Students create plans for police-community relations

The post GCU student fights wildfires with his own inner fire appeared first on GCU Today.

DR. DANIEL KAUFMANN

College of Humanities and Social Sciences 

Dr. Daniel Kaufmann

Title: Online Full-Time Faculty 

Years at GCU: 3

Academic degrees:

• Ph.D. – Counselor Education & Supervision with Specialization in Family and Couples Counseling from Barry University
• M.A. – Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Asbury Theological Seminary
• B.S. – Psychology from Florida Southern College

What is your most notable accomplishment in your field, and why was it important?

Multiple contributions to educating counselors on understanding internet gaming and video game disorders via publication, presentation and supervision. My favorite published work so far (besides my dissertation) is “The Use of the Hero’s Journey as a Framework for Understanding Counselor Development.”

What are you most passionate about in your field and why?

Finding ways to apply pedagogy via technological resources to help our online students experience what occurs in the classroom.

What is a memorable moment you had in class, and what does that reveal about your teaching style?

I had my theories students do a final-week role play where they formed small groups and conceptualized a fictional character using one of the 17 counseling theories learned in the course. Then two members of each group role played the fictional character seeing a clinician from that style. It was amazing to see Ariel (“Little Mermaid”) and Tony Stark (Iron Man after “Infinity War”) go through a counseling session. My students were creative geniuses for that activity.

Another moment: I was sharing about a book I once read, “The Dharma of Star Wars,” which does a great job of relating mindfulness concepts similar to Acceptance Commitment Therapy to the Force and other spiritual elements from this fictional galaxy.

I lent it to a friend to read before my time relocating to Phoenix to teach at GCU. When I moved here, I left my book with my friend. I then mentioned that my copy didn’t make the move with me in one of the cohort courses where I was teaching Addiction in Counseling.

The final week of class, we returned from dinner break and the book was sitting on the podium — all of the students had written on the inside cover the things they appreciated about my passion for the course. I thanked them and could not hold back the tears. That book sits on my desk, and I regard them giving me that book as one of my greatest accomplishments to this day as an educator.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time?

I have a game-streaming channel on Twitch where I play games as Dr. Gameology. I actually connect this into my teaching persona.

When a storytelling point or character moment treads on the concepts I teach, I create videos called “Mental Health Moments,” which academically break down the action in the game. I use these as class resources to encourage my students to see the insights from our coursework throughout all of life and not just when we plan to sit inside a counseling office.

This has caused some of the most vibrant interactions in my forums since I started blending my entire person into my teaching efforts. Also, the game community of my viewers know me as an academic, since many of them knew me before I finished my doctorate, so it helps them to enjoy all of what I offer as a person experiencing the games they enjoy to watch. It is a win-win.

Dr. Gameology (which is me) also is the host of a podcast called “The Gaming Persona,” where my cohost and I explore “who we become when we play games.” The intended audience is people who enjoy games or clinicians who may need an entry point into understanding the appeal of playing games focusing in virtual environments.

This is an extension of the supervision efforts I provide for counselors in the field pursuing the International Gaming Disorder Certification. I just enjoy sharing what I have learned en route to becoming what I am as a counselor professional.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know?

I am the owner of a private counseling practice that operates entirely through telehealth. Area of Effect Counseling connects to a type of spell used in video games to heal or destroy.

I use this because I see the benefits of counseling in various ways. If you receive healing, you will be more capable of inspiring those around you through your wellness. Also, if you are struggling, it will be more possible to spread your frustrations to the surrounding area.

I hope I inspire people to pursue the path of healing so they may have that positive impact on those surrounding them. That concept comes from the world of video games, but it reflects my philosophy of why mental health matters on every level. That is my passion for being a counselor and a counselor educator.

The post Faculty Focus: Dr. Daniel Kaufmann appeared first on GCU Today.

Saruta Tantisirikulchorn and Daniel Castillo take part in a physics class.

Staff report
Photos by David Kadlubowski
GCU News Bureau

Dr. Jen Santos wasn’t sure what to expect from her English 105 students bright and 7 a.m. early Tuesday. She thought they probably were used to sleeping in after not having in-person classes for six months.

But when she walked into West Lecture Hall, she saw bright-eyed students.

With proper social distancing, students take a quiz in the Technology Building.

“Normally, they might think of ways not to come to class,” she said. “But they were THERE. ‘I’m in a classroom! Yeah!’”

They raised their hands to talk. They got excited about the material.

“I like the energy of being in class,” Santos said. “It’s exciting to see the students again rather than seeing them in a box on Zoom.”

It took awhile to feel as if students were coming together in remote work the first three weeks of the semester. When they got together in person, she said, “it felt like a community again.”

That scene has unfolded again and again this week as most in-person classes at Grand Canyon University resumed for the first time since March.

It was hard to tell who was happier to be back in the classroom – returning students or freshmen. Call it a tie.

For returnees, it’s the first step toward erasing the memory of having to go home at spring break because of the pandemic and finishing the 2019-20 academic year with four weeks of online classes. University officials then had to delay the start of the fall semester and begin it on the online platform when COVID-19 numbers spiked in Arizona during the summer.

Instructor Ben Trey teaches a physics class.

For newcomers, it was an opportunity to finally and fully experience life at GCU – with in-person classes in addition to all the campus activities – after looking forward to it for so long.

GCU’s status as a leader in online education made it easier to deal with “attending” class on Zoom, and that expertise will continue to be important this fall with most classes being conducted in a blended learning environment.

Here’s how it works: Half the class meets in person on one day while the other half works with assistants online. Then they switch on the other day. It’s designed to limit the number of students in one room and keep them physically distanced as much as possible to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

The GCU Today staff toured campus this week to get a snapshot of how the new setup was going. The pictures painted by instructors and students had one thing in common – lots of smiles.

****

The early bird gets a shot in the arm in the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions, where the first day of in-person class really wasn’t the first day of in-person class.

“We came back sooner than the rest of the student body,” said immersive simulation facilitator Denise Matus of the college’s early start in August. Unlike other programs, nursing runs year-round, so the schedule looks a little different.

Maria Sanchez finds a quiet place to study.

Still, with the chatter in the hallways and on the Promenade a little louder the past couple of days, the fall of footsteps more urgent and a general electricity in the air, it was a boon to be joined by the rest of the student body.

“The students are glad to be back. They’ve been just overjoyed. They’re like, ‘We don’t care what we’ve got to put on to be back, we just want to be back.’ We missed them and they missed us,” said Matus, who spent the past few months helming classes online, where students completed virtual simulations rather than interact with actors who bring medical scenarios to life in the third-floor Nursing Simulation Lab.

“There are some good things about it (virtual labs), but it doesn’t replace that face-to-face that you need for nursing,” she said.

Besides submitting to a temperature scan before entering the lab each morning and attesting to a statement that they don’t have COVID-19 symptoms, one thing that’s different for nursing students in their coronavirus-altered classrooms is they can’t be 6 feet apart. They’re up close when they’re trying to diagnose a patient, even a simulated one.

“We have to wear masks, face shields and gloves,” Matus said, which makes it difficult to see if students are understanding certain concepts or if they might be confused. “It does feel like it’s a little bit of a barrier.”

There’s plenty of room for students in a biochemistry class in the Technology Building.

Matus and fellow immersive simulation facilitator Stacy Overton have compensated by doing Loom videos without their masks so students can at least see their faces.

Matus said what has warmed her heart is that, through all the threats of COVID-19, her students have seemed more resilient and dedicated to nursing than ever.

“We have asked students, ‘Has all of this changed your thoughts about nursing?’ … Nurses, we don’t get the opportunity to turn and run,” Matus said. “Overwhelmingly, the students have said, ‘No, it makes my desire even greater to be a nurse now.’ It’s a calling. It really is.”

****

Engineering instructor Emmy Tomforde teaches how to get from liquid to vapor and vapor to liquid and illuminates the finer points of boiling points in her thermodynamics and lab class (STG 330).

But learning those concepts has less of a big-group dynamic in the COVID-19 world.

Amiyah Gaines works in a lab.

Lab tables in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology have gone from four seats per table to just two to allow for social distancing. And at Tuesday’s lab, where students observed a water boiler to see pressure and temperature changes, “instead of a normal lab where I would have everybody go at once, I had two at a time come up and look at the gauges.”

Then there’s the blended learning model.

Some of Tomforde’s students were in the classroom on Tuesday while the other half of the class logged in online from their residence halls (the two groups will trade places on Thursday).

The students who attended online, “logged on with their phones and did exactly the same thing we did here in class,” Tomforde said.

One of her students, mechanical engineering major Sandra Morales, was ecstatic to be back in class despite having to wear a mask, sanitize her hands and see fewer students around since some opted to continue distance learning.

Students work in the Engineering Building.

It was strange in the spring semester, she said, to suddenly go from in-person learning to distance learning. The transition this time around, going from online to in-person, was much easier.

“I prefer in person,” she said, simply.

Tomforde agrees. She said that over Zoom students are more reluctant to ask questions. She also doesn’t get the same kind of feedback she does by seeing students face to face.

“I find it much more energizing to be here,” she said. “In a classroom.”

****

The first day back to class offered College of Fine Arts and Production students and professors alike some much needed in-person engagement time.

The seniors in Sheila Schumacher’s Digital Design class eagerly took full advantage of the benefits they had come to appreciate from physically being in class.

“This group is kind of trepidatiously moving toward ‘I have to adult now,’” Schumacher said. “Emotionally, everyone was excited to be back. For creative students, they like creating with a crowd better than creating alone, so our work in the Zoom world was going fine but I saw much more student-to-student collaboration.”

They also have a new sense of both the value of working alone and a value of working together, she said.

****

A student works after class in one of the Technology Building’s study rooms.

Coming from a different perspective was COFAP freshman Bryan Weide, who began his GCU journey in the COVID era after graduating from Sunnyslope High School in the spring. His first experience as a GCU student would take place through a screen, so finally getting to explore the campus that he had looked forward to attend makes him feel more at home.

“It’s completely different being here as a student. It’s a big, amazing school, and there’s a completely different atmosphere than most colleges,” he said.

Weide said he had struggled to feel connected to his classmates and professors over Zoom calls, so attending his first in-person class was an exciting opportunity to finally meet the names he had seen on his Zoom screen. Because he is a commuter student, it was important to start building bonds with people on campus.

“Meeting them was nice, and just getting to see everybody in person is completely different,” he said.

****

Another commuter student, senior Deanna Diaz, was thrilled to be in the Colangelo College of Business Building again even though it means she comes to campus all the way from Buckeye, at least a 45-minute drive with no traffic.

It was good to see lists of classes all across campus again.

“I would do it every day just to be back on campus,” the business management major said.

Asked how this compared to last spring, when she had to learn online for the first time in her life, the senior had a quick response: “This was a lot easier because we had been told about it and had lots of emails to prepare us. Last spring was abrupt.”

Over in the CCOB offices, Dr. Mark Clifford had an interesting observation after sitting in on two classes Tuesday.

“The excitement of being back on campus translates to the classroom,” said the CCOB Assistant Dean and Director of Sports Business.

****

Senior Joseph Vaught praised the work of his Worship Arts instructors as they navigated the online environment.

“All of my professors have done a really good job of making class not feel like I’m stuck on my laptop in my bedroom,” he said.

The community feeling is even more important to Worship Arts students, who gather daily in the GCU Recording Studio. “It’s been nice seeing people,” said Vaught, a Worship Arts with an Emphasis in Ministry major.

Dr. Randall Downs, Worship Arts Coordinator for the College of Theology, noticed that seven students stayed after class to talk about local churches. “Everyone was so excited to learn,” he said. “You could tell that they had been champing at the bit to get there.”

****

Students also have been eager to have more one-on-one time with their instructors. College of Education Assistant Professor Stephanie Nilsen noted that before her first class, which is Wednesday, she did 18 private forums with students, a one-day record for her.

The campus again is filled with students walking to class.

They felt the need for those sessions because classes had been online. “It was all the stuff they normally ask in class,” Nilsen said.

There’s no getting around it: Being in a classroom feels so much better.

Freshman Dawson Moulsong said it felt strange to walk into a classroom for the first time since students were sent home from his senior year of high school in Chandler last spring. But once he entered his psychology class Tuesday morning, he realized what was strange was trying to share thoughts in class in front of a screen.

“It’s really awkward,” said the biology major. “Once you’re in person, it feels normal again.”

Mike Kilen, Ashlee Larrison, Lana Sweeten-Shults and Rick Vacek contributed to this report.

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