Thousands turn out for GCU student fair
Nov 2, 2012, 5:52 PM | Updated: 5:52 pm
Over 3,300 high school and junior college students from around Arizona checked out Grand Canyon University on Friday.
It was the school’s 27th annual Health Sciences and Nursing Day.
“We give them the opportunity to explore and understand more about health care careers and science careers,” said Mark Wooden, the Dean of GCU’s College of Arts and Sciences. “We also get a lot of instructors that teach anatomy labs and science courses in high schools. f they have students that are thinking strongly about going into a science career, they’ll bring them here and give them the opportunity to see some things that they can’t expose them to in a high school setting.”
One of those things is GCU’s cadaver lab. Coronado High School senior Bashir Cofner said that was unusual.
“Looking at the open bodies and stuff like that; it was kind of creepy, but it was interesting,” he said.
Several of the school’s clubs had booths for the students to visit and the students were invited to stay for a concert at GCU arena.
Coronado sophomore Brianne Giddings was pretty impressed with the school.
“I actually wasn’t quite sure about how great it was, but I got first hand knowledge today, so it was very informative,” she said.
Cofner and Giddings are both considering healthcare careers.
The Nursing Day has exploded in popularity in recent years. Attendance at the event as grown since 2005, when just 600 students attended.
