Formerly named the Students Inspiring Students Scholarship, the new Canyon Rising Scholarship has tripled in size and widened its scope, with 305 full-tuition scholarships being awarded to high-achieving, low-income high school seniors in Arizona for the 2024-25 academic year. In addition, 100 of those scholarships now include on-campus housing and meal plans along with the cost of tuition and fees.
“As GCU continues to grow, it is important to the university that the community surrounding it grows along with it,” said GCU President Brian Mueller. “Historically, education is the great equalizer in society, providing equality of opportunity for all socioeconomic classes. Since this program’s inception, the overwhelming majority of scholarship recipients have been first-generation college students and students of color because that is the demographic of the community in which we reside.”
The scholarship program, which began in 2016 as a partnership with nearby Alhambra High School and then expanded to more than 20 high schools in GCU’s inner-city neighborhood, now reaches schools across Arizona. The 305 full-tuition scholarships for 2024-25 is three times higher than the amount in any previous year and brings the total number of full-tuition scholarships offered to more than 1,000 since 2016.
Scholarship recipients for 2024-25 and their families were honored at a ceremony at the start of the school year at GCU’s Global Credit Union Arena, with each recipient walking across the stage to receive a certificate in front of not only family and friends, but also financial donors to the program who got to see the potential in young people hoping to change their family’s trajectory.
Mueller congratulated them and said it was an important night but reminded them that “the most important time you are going to walk across this stage is when you receive your diploma and graduate.”
To that end, GCU is expanding its career counseling efforts to help Canyon Rising students prepare for jobs when they graduate.
“We are supporting students to and through graduation,” said Jennifer Mitchell, director of GCU K12 and Collegiate Advancement. “Our program leaders will work to connect scholars with real-life work experience in their neighborhood, which means a greater likelihood they’ll stay and be part of the transformation of their community.”
Kharlo Ramirez Aleman, one of this year’s scholarship recipients, was grateful for the faith that others have placed in his future.
“You only get university one time,” Aleman said after the scholarship ceremony. “It’s about making connections. In this room right here we might have the next generation of doctors, engineers, lawyers and business leaders. You never know who you will run into, so I want to make the best of it.”
