Erika Eiffel, nÃ©e LaBrie, is a US citizen of Italian descent. She has also lived in Japan during the early stages of her career in world-class archery, and trained as an offiâ¦cer in the US military until her career was cut short by a serious sexual assault when she famously defended herself with a Japanese training sword.
First universities in the Western Hemisphere. The first universities in the Western Hemisphere were established by the Spaniards: the University of Santo Domingo (1538) in what is now the Dominican Republic and the University of MichoacÃ¡n (1539) in Mexico.
In 1949, the Baptist General Convention of Arizona founded Grand Canyon University. It was the state's first private university, and opened with 93 students on its first campus in Prescott, Arizona. In 1951, GCU relocated to the present campus in Phoenix, Arizona. A group of the university's founders relocated to the new campus and continued to grow its programs in education, English, religion, music, mathematics, history, and athletics.