Students at California Baptist University crowded into the Van Dyne Gymnasium Jan. 18 to kick off the spring semester in high spirits with a basketball-themed Campus Night.
“Campus night is this time where we’re inviting the whole campus to come together and experience a really fun time together,” said Christina McDonald, Community Life intern and senior business administration and leadership studies double major. “We just want them to feel a sense of community.”
The night was a collaboration between the offices of Spiritual Life and Community Life. The Spiritual Life team was responsible for booking the guests and planning the entertainment while Community Life provided snacks and couches for the students to relax on.
Brian Zunigha, director of discipleship ministries, was responsible for booking the night’s guest speaker, Grayson Boucher — The Professor.
“I saw a video of [The Professor] over the summer and of him sharing his testimony like he did tonight and thought it was a good story of someone who didn’t follow Jesus and then turned to Jesus in a hard time in his life,” Zunigha said. “We just want students to see what Jesus can do in anyone’s life.”
Boucher was a basketball player and an actor who found Christ during the middle of his career back in 2011.
“My whole thing at the core is Christ,” Boucher said. “It rerouted everything with business and life. I try to glorify Christ in my daily life in my behavior on the court and compassion for other people and I have Christians on my staff to hold me accountable.”
Boucher has done several events in the past for CBU, including events overseas. However, the events held on campus are easier for him because he only lives a couple of hours away.
“Doing something like this is like a home run,” Boucher said. “They’re asking me to play ball for a couple of hours, which I do when I’m working out anyways, so to come up here and glorify Christ in the process and have fun is great.”
CBU students got to play basketball against Boucher and members of the event staff, which added a more personal touch to the night.
“Tonight they went big. They had music blasting the whole time and we heard good insight from The Professor on what his daily walk with Christ looked like and it encouraged me to be consistent in mine as well,” said Mark Tervest, junior accounting major. “I knew about him before, but man that was exciting.”
