If you asked me why I made the decision to come to Gonzaga nearly four years ago, the last thing I would have said is because of its Mission Statement. If you were to ask me why I stayed at Gonzaga, the Mission Statement would be at the top of the list.
As I’ve grown through my three years at GU, I’ve come to realize that Gonzaga has a sincere dedication to fostering an environment that allows for discourse to thrive. Gonzaga’s Mission Statement outlines this responsibility by saying, “The Gonzaga experience fosters a mature commitment to dignity of the human person, social justice, diversity, intercultural competence, global engagement, solidarity with the poor and vulnerable, and care for the planet.” This commitment holds all aspects of university life accountable. From the residence halls, into the classroom, and across all extracurricular activities, the mission makes GU incredibly unique. Gonzaga isn’t perfect, but no university or college is. What separates Gonzaga from the rest is that it’s dedication to the Mission Statement allows for all students to take part in bettering the community.
Here is a bit of my story: As I was applying to colleges, I knew I was going to be different from my peers. This , made the idea of going to college terrifying for me. I’m a first-generation college student who was raised by two immigrants that came to the United States with the vision of giving their children a better life than the one they had. I can’t imagine the enormous struggle it was for my parents to leave their families and come to the U.S alone without any guarantee of financial success. For this reason, I knew I had swallow my fears and go to college to make their struggles worth it. Attending a private four-year university is unheard of for people like me. When I received my acceptance letter to Gonzaga, I began my journey of defying the odds.
I cannot say my experience being a first-generation college student at Gonzaga has been perfect, especially since I had another identity I feared confronting. I decided that in college, I was going to come out and accept my identity as an openly gay man. During my first few weeks of my freshman year, I constantly doubted my decision to even come to Gonzaga. It was an emotional roller-coaster. I. Things changed when I had the realization that I wasn’t alone. I began to get involved with social justice programming at GU because I was inspired by older students who shared my identities. They were organizing events and inviting me to attend.
I remember taking part of my first protest when students organized a “die-in” in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The Gonzaga Bulletin snapped a photo of me and put me on the cover of the newspaper. Initially, I had mixed feelings about seeing my face all over campus.
I was worried that the exposure would make me the target of scrutiny, but I also felt excited by the fact that the action was actually getting university wide attention. Ultimately, this experience made me realize that my existence at GU mattered.
Immediately afterwards, I started to get involved in advocating for social justice issues. I joined the Gonzaga Student Body Association (GSBA) as the multicultural awareness coordinator the next year. Through this position, I took over the role of being an older student inviting others to participate in social justice programming. Discussing issues of inclusion, identity development, microaggressions, and bias have challenged the university to think more critically about issues. However, I have been shocked by the positive response of the student, staff, and faculty community. My work has started to make a difference on campus.
This experience has led me to where I am today. Yes, my presence on campus is a little out of the ordinary, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to continue developing our campus by running for student body president. When my running-mate and I heard our names read out during election night, I knew that this victory was a testimony to all students—no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you stand for, as long as there exists a commitment to solidarity, anything is possible.
Carlo Juntilla is a Junior majoring in International Relations and will serve as the Gonzaga Student Body Association (GSBA) President for the 2017-2018 academic school year.