By Staff Reporter |
Phoenix residents may have noticed some younger faces traveling around their neighborhoods this past weekend with buckets of paint and landscaping equipment.
Students at the Grand Canyon University (GCU), a private Christian university based in Phoenix, volunteered on Saturday morning to spruce up local neighborhoods.
The GCU students partnered with Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona to provide nine families with exterior painting and landscaping. The university and the local chapter of the nonprofit organization have entered into a partnership to engage in neighborhood revitalization.
The home renovation service on Saturday was the latest effort of that partnership. So far, GCU and Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona have reported contributing 630 home renovations and more than 1,500 home repairs across nearly 40,000 volunteer hours over the past decade together.
That averages out to around 75 to 80 hours of community service per week — essentially, the same number of hours it would take two individuals to work full time in a regular workweek.
GCU stated in a press release that this volunteer opportunity represented their students putting “faith into action” in order to “make a difference” for the neighbors of their campus.
In addition to charitable work, the university has recently made headlines and earned federal recognition for its efforts to impact workforce shortages in key sectors.
The Arizona Supreme Court recently granted GCU a unique, unanimous approval to launch its law school prior to receiving American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation. The court clarified that it issued its approval to address the nationwide shortage of attorneys.
GCU’s College of Law is scheduled to open by the fall of 2027; its graduates will be eligible for bar admission even without ABA accreditation.
The court advised in its announcement of the approval that it wouldn’t approve similar requests from non-ABA-accredited law schools during GCU’s evaluation period.
“Arizona faces a significant shortage of attorneys, and we are optimistic that GCU will provide an excellent legal education and help meet the need for more lawyers in communities throughout our state,” said Chief Justice Ann Timmer. “We look forward to getting to know the school’s faculty and students and watching the GCU College of Law grow and thrive.”
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visited the GCU campus last month alongside Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh (AZ-08) to observe the university’s other workforce development efforts in person. Among the main exhibitions of that campus visit were Canyon Ventures, a startup networking and resource center, and Lux Precision Manufacturing, a manufacturing training facility for students.
McMahon called GCU “an incredibly marvelous institution” that stood out as an example of excellence among the schools across the 47 states she had visited.
“I’ve been to many universities and schools. You get a feel pretty quickly from the general vibe and culture of campus, and this is A-1, A-plus,” said McMahon. “Thank you very, very much for being an example for other universities throughout the country and throughout the world.”
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
