What a joy it is to welcome you to our wonderful home of Gonzaga University!
I already feel so fond of you. For one, it is because I remember being in your shoes. And secondly, you will also come to find, as I did, that Gonzaga not only breeds a certain type of student, but it also attracts certain species. For example, many of us Zags already share a deep passion for service and leadership and the beautiful intersections of the two!
In high school, I participated in my fair share of clubs, leadership opportunities, and service projects. I also started a few with various friends. With so many cherished successes in my hometown of Federal Way, Washington, I had reservations about leaving. I was apprehensive to depart from the greater Seattle area to start from scratch in the discovery, involvement, and eventually leadership process. I wondered how and what I would be a part of.
So from one engaged/active/busy/hyper-productive person to the next…
Take a moment to unwind and make yourself at home. As a new addition to our family, it is TOTALLY REASONABLE to take some time to take note of all the incredible things that go on. So pause to gauge what happens at GU before jumping in- just as someone joining an already ongoing a conversation- and give yourself the grace (e.g. time and patience) to be a newcomer again.
As an outgoing high school ASB President, I was eager to be involved in GU in some integral way. And I was during my first year at GU- just not in the same way. Instead of student government, I joined the Center for Community Action and Service Learning (CCASL) as a work study. I was not facilitating; I was assisting.
We Zags are invited to support and serve the vision of the leaders whom precede us. I realized that as a former team and program leader, I had insights about what other leaders might need, and took the initiative to be the follower that I always wanted (i.e. ‘the change I wanted to see”). There is no need to feel like a successful first year means picking up wherever you left off in high school with all the positions, to-do lists, and recognitions. Recognize that you have been invited to contribute to Gonzaga with your presence, attention, experience, insights, passion, and action; and you can offer these from innumerous positions- including the nameless ones! Your contribution is less about your place and more about what you do wherever you find yourself. Be careful not force yourself into anything. Simply be your best self wherever you have the opportunity.
Now, I was intentional about learning and supporting, but I was also antsy to feel like I was contributing as much as I felt like I did in high school. (Note: that tension is normal and healthy!) At first it was really hard to imagine what I could possibly offer to the community that offered more than I could have imagined. But eventually through a process of learning, I came to know what Gonzaga could gain from my engagement. I have two examples:
One contribution I have been a part of is called We Scare Hunger, a door-to-door food drive for students to trick-or-treat for cans and non-perishables on October 31st. I have organized Halloween food drives of the sort since 2010, but had trouble coordinating it for the high schools in Spokane during my first year (2013) as I did in Federal Way prior. A dim door for engaging high schools highlighted the opportunity to reimagine and redevelop it for college students, so I brought it to the Gonzaga Student Body Association (GSBA) in 2014 as Gonzaga Scares Hunger through the Gonzaga Activities Board (GAB). And I was by no means alone in it. Though few had ever participated in anything of the sort, our shared values informed the community’s enthusiasm about collecting non-perishable food for those in our neighborhoods who are food insecure. With the help of more than a dozen clubs, organizations, offices, and departments, we rallied a force of 300+ Zags who raised more than 2,100 pounds of food on Halloween.
Another opportunity for me to contribute to GU sparked that same Halloween weekend: Courageous Conversations. In the fall, many students were disturbed by culturally inappropriate costumes, but did not feel like there was an adequately constructive space to address experiences of invalidation and exclusion for various aspects of identity. To reconcile this need, we launched a monthly lunch series to dialogue about what it means to be a Zag through the current event based contexts of religious diversity, gender identity and expression, race, and racialized newsmedia.
Both of these initiatives and more can be understood in this simple philosophy for leadership: “see a need, meet a need.” We saw hunger in the community and passion for charity on campus, so we developed a food drive to satisfy each through the other. We witnessed marginalization amidst longings for authenticity and solidarity, so we linked them through conversations that self-care for those within our community as a transformational process for us Zags to develop as citizens for and with an interconnected, global society. Thus if you see a need, meet it! You may be surprised to discover that Gonzaga has the mission, values, and resources to sustain it.
As you unpack, imagine, and uncover who you are to Gonzaga, you will not only impress our community but you also have the opportunity to impress yourself. I did not realize that I had the potential (or even desire!) to coordinate the inaugural Gonzaga Scares Hunger or facilitate our monthly Courageous Conversations, but I did have more than enough! We Zags have all the potential, desire, and resources that are needed, particularly through the blessing of like-minded students and professionally trained staff and faculty who are wholeheartedly committed to what Gonzaga can be.
You will impress yourself just as I have impressed myself as we become the Zags we were always meant to be. Embrace the process with all the trials, tests, and time that passes. You will be all the better for it!
“For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” (Habukkuk 2:3, ESV)
As always… GO ZAGS,
Caleb Dawson
Class of 2017