When applying to colleges, Gonzaga didn’t even make the top of Dana Mannino’s list. Dana grew up just a few blocks from campus, so Gonzaga’s location was not nearly the ‘exotic’ location she wanted for her college experience. However, when the financial aid packet arrived in her mailbox, Gonzaga offered her more than any other school. So she went. And, she found she absolutely loved it. “I had really exceptional professors who took an interest not just in my academic growth, but my growth as a person,” Dana explains. In fact, four years later, Dana is still dropping in on her former professors.
As a student, Dana can remember scrambling every year to make sure she had enough funding from Gonzaga, the government, outside scholarships and her work study jobs. “It was a headache,” Dana recalls, “but in my senior year, I was awarded an alumni scholarship, funded entirely by alumni donors.” The Alumni Association Scholarship allowed Dana to pay off all her education loans and graduate as Magna Cum Laude from Gonzaga, debt-free.
During her time at Gonzaga, Dana took opportunities to grow holistically and in step with Gonzaga’s mission by volunteering to work with incarcerated youth, homeless children and recent immigrants. “I am Catholic so it was important to me that my faith-life grew in college. Religion isn’t something you do just for emotional health. I believe that it is supposed to engage your mind as well. I left Gonzaga a more intellectually satisfied Catholic knowing that nothing is more reasonable than faith.”
As a recent alum, Dana is saving to attend graduate school, yet continues to give to the Gonzaga Scholars Program each year. “I want to give some other student the chance to start their adult life without an onerous burden of debt.”
That’s why Dana Mannino gives to Gonzaga, and now Dana tags YOU!
Zag, you’re it!