SEPTEMBER 2013 Volume 3 – Issue 3 THE MOVE INTO MESA University plans to open satellite location in 2015 STORY TIME at CHAPEL Arts preview P3 Fall’s speakers to reflect on Coming to Mesa P4-7 personal integration Service supreme P8-10 Introducing CISET P11 of God’s plan Campus for fall P12-13 Fab freshmen P14-15 – by Cooper Nelson Safety first P16-17 Miss Arizona P18 Alumni P19-23 Weekly Chapel services in GCU Arena bring music and message to one place for GCU’s students, faculty and staff. Photo by Darryl Webb Volume 3 – Issue 3 his year’s Chapel will encourage students to seek my own ideas that I had tested and wrestled through. I GCU TODAY MAGAZINE is a God’s purpose for their life through the theme of love to play a small role in this for the students at GCU.” quarterly publication of the Office of “His Story, Your Story.” Communications and Public Affairs at T Dr. Jason Hiles, new dean of the College of Theology, Grand Canyon University. Chapel speakers scheduled for the fall semester will be will join President/CEO Brian Mueller and Griffin as the asked to tell the story of an influential biblical figure and only GCU-affiliated speakers this fall. Hiles comes to the Written and Edited by to highlight how God weaved His plan and purpose into University from Louisiana College, where he served as DOUG CARROLL Communications Director their lives. They will share how God seeds His plan into associate dean of that institution’s divinity school. 602.639.8011 their personal “stories.” [email protected] Griffin sees the growth of campus as an opportunity MICHAEL FERRARESI Dean of Students Pastor Tim Griffin said he wanted this for speakers’ stories to resonate with a larger crowd of Senior Writer year’s Chapel services to challenge students to examine students and spread God’s Word. 602.639.7030 how God’s plan is integrated into their lives. [email protected] “Obviously we have a whole new crop of students coming JANIE MAGRUDER Griffin hopes the personal stories will enhance GCU in that will help grow the Christian community,” Griffin said. Communications Manager students’ relationship with God. “Hopefully Chapel will continue their Christian formation.” 602.639.8018 ■ [email protected] “I think everybody likes to hear other people’s stories BOB ROMANTIC (about their faith), and Chapel is a wonderful opportunity Media Relations Manager to meet people and learn their stories,” said Griffin, Fall Chapel SpeaKers 602.639.7611 [email protected] who will lead services three times in the first semester. COOPER NELSON “Hopefully, this allows them to better understand God and Junior Writer learn about people’s loves and hopes and dreams.” AUG 26: Tim Griffin 602.639.7511 [email protected] Students and staff will hear from GCU-affiliated speakers, SEPT 9: Brian Mueller influential pastors, authors, and other national Christian SEPT 16: Jeremy Jernigan, Central Christian Design by Church of the East Valley speakers. Services are at 11:15 a.m. Mondays in GCU Arena. DEANNA FUSCO SEPT 23: Mark Martin, Calvary Community Church SoHo Southwest The list of non-GCU speakers includes best-selling SEPT 30: Dr. Jason Hiles Photography by Christian writer Lee Strobel, who is the author of a OCT 7: Jon Demeter, Athletes in Action DARRYL WEBB number of textbooks used in GCU classrooms and OCT 14: Tim Griffin University Staff Photographer the father of College of Theology faculty member 602.639.6375 OCT 21: Lee Strobel, author of “The Case for Faith” [email protected] Kyle Strobel. Students will hear from returning OCT 28: Agnes Umuligirwa, international speaker speakers Jon Demeter, campus director for Athletes for refugee women Office of Communications and Public Affairs in Action, and Jeremy Jernigan, executive pastor of NOV 4: Dustin Tappan, youth pastor, Christ’s Central Christian Church of the East Valley. Church of the Valley Bill Jenkins NOV 18: Sean Cooper of The Traveling Team, an Vice President “I love seeing the energy of the students and their organization that addresses college Grand Canyon University eagerness to grow in truth and community,” said Jernigan, 3300 W. Camelback Road students across the country Phoenix, AZ 85017 who will speak at Chapel for a third consecutive year. DEC 2: Brian Mueller “In my own life, college was such a pivotal time for me to DEC 9: Tim Griffin challenge all I’d been taught as a kid and to emerge with P2 September 2013 TheCOME ArtsOF AGE Fourth-year GCU program has developed depth, variety Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” presented last February, was one of the – by Doug Carroll highlights of the Ethington Theatre Series for 2012-13. Photo by Darryl Webb efore the arts program was Here’s a preview of what the coming year will bring: New this year: GCU’s community chorus, the Choral Union, has been renamed the Canyon Choral Society. reinstated at Grand Canyon THEATRE Three concerts will involve the Canyon Symphony BUniversity three years ago, The Ethington Theatre Series opens with Orchestra, the new name given to the nearly four in the summer of 2010, even the Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” followed by Eugene dozen professional musicians who have accompanied O’Neill’s “Ah, Wilderness!” and the Mozart comic GCU’s choirs in the past. Ethington Theatre workshop was opera “Cosi Fan Tutte.” In the spring are C.S. Lewis’ INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC bereft of tools. Talk about your “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and blank canvas. Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” Also, there The Thundering Heard, GCU’s high-energy pep will be at least three student-directed plays during band directed by Koch, debuted last basketball the year, along with performances by a student season with 55 members and expects to have more Dean Claude Pensis had 100 theatre, choral, dance improvisational comedy troupe. And “Arts Under than 90 this year. and film majors – most of them freshmen – and the the Stars,” a community outreach event, will be back only resource in large supply was their enthusiasm. New this year: The concert and jazz bands, which for a second year. And yet, from the opening night of “The Pirates of performed last spring to rave reviews, will present Penzance” through eight months of productions and The Class of 2014 “will be our first big wave of their own fall and spring concerts, on Nov. 5 and concerts, it became clear: The College of Fine Arts graduates, and it will be interesting to see what April 8. and Production was no ordinary start-up. GCU’s our students move on to,” says Symington, noting students and instructors were abundantly talented, a recent increase in the number of internship DIGITAL FILM and their extraordinary dedication carried them opportunities for GCU theatre students. Current The annual 48 Hour Interschool Challenge, a through the year’s challenges. partnerships include Arizona Opera, Valley Youth competition hosted the first weekend in November Theatre, Childsplay and Phoenix Theatre. Those pioneering freshmen are now seniors ready by GCU, has grown dramatically in entries and to deliver a spectacular 2013-14 arts season for New this year: LED lighting in Ethington and a 30-foot quality. Under Elder, GCU film students have landed the college, which has grown to nearly 600 majors revolving stage piece that will be used for the first internships recently with CNN, the Arizona Cardinals, and added instrumental music and graphic design time in “Ah, Wilderness!” the Milwaukee Brewers, the History Channel and the programs in the past year. An unprecedented Discovery Channel. VOCAL MUSIC number of arts events – many of them free to DANCE students and the community – will take place on Highlights include a Beethoven choral program on campus and at nearby First Southern Baptist Church, Oct. 8, as well as a third year of Handel’s “Messiah” The department will stage its annual winter (Dec. 11 which continues to serve as a concert hall until the with the Phoenix Symphony (Dec. 5), the annual and 12) and spring (April 23 and 24) concerts, and University has its own. Christmas concert (Dec. 10) and Brahms’ “Requiem” Sarah “Anindo” Marshall of the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles is scheduled as an “I’m pleased that we’ve become so embedded in the (March 11). The New Life Singers, coming off a year artist in residence in November. University and the community this quickly,” says Pensis, of 100-plus performances, will release their first CD in the fall and plan to enter an international whose stellar faculty includes Bill Symington and GRAPHIC DESIGN Michael Kary (theatre); Dr. Juan Hernandez, Dr. collegiate competition. GCU’s program, which includes Web and animation Sheila Corley and Gabe Salazar (vocal music); Paul “We’re every bit as good as a large university design, will be involved in various aspects of Phoenix Koch (instrumental music); Gregg Elder (digital film); program in quality and quantity (of performances),” Design Week (Oct. 18-25) and also in message- Susannah Keita (dance); and Sheila Schumacher Hernandez says. GCU has three times as many music board communication on campus. (graphic design). majors (120) as it did three years ago. ■ September 2013 P3 A CAMPUS IS COMING GCU’s satellite location in Mesa should have a community feel right away – by Doug Carroll & Janie Magruder Renderings courtesy of DMB Associates and provide only an approximation of land use rand Canyon University, becoming known throughout Gthe West for bringing a sleepy campus to life, is poised to do the same thing with a dirt patch of land formerly inhabited by jackrabbits, tumbleweeds and Corvettes.