Finding Community at Gonzaga

By: Kelly Alvarado, Manager of First Year Experience Programs and Erica Laucius, First Year Specialist Intern

Gonzaga University uses multiple departments and resources to get students connected in a way that is accommodating to their learning styles and preferences. First Year Experience Programs partners with the Student Involvement and Leadership student intern program to make sure that first year students have a peer they can work with to find a sense of community and belonging as a Zag. Students helping students is a philosophy we live out in action.

Erica Laucius is a Junior Business Marketing Concentration major who helped welcome our fall semester Zags as an Orientation Leader and now supports our first year students through their transition as a First Year Specialist intern. With this position, she works with both Student Leadership and Involvement (SIL) and the First Year Experience Programs on supporting our first year student’s transition through our Spark program. Here is her story of getting involved to support our first year students.

At Gonzaga, community is all around us; in classes, in residence halls, in Hemmingson and simply everywhere on campus. One of the main considerations for me when deciding to attend Gonzaga, was the aspect of community, but I had no idea how prevalent this idea really would be once I got here. Even after coming in halfway through the year as a transfer student, the emphasis on the Gonzaga “community” was more than obvious to me, and made it easy to want to find my place.  When I came to college, I knew that I wanted to, not only make new friends, but also find things to occupy my time that I felt sincerely passionate about. I wanted to make myself feel involved and important on campus. After all, I, like many other students, spend way more hours outside of the classroom than in.

There are many ways to find community at Gonzaga, but for me, the key to finding community was getting involved. In my time at Gonzaga, I have really found my community. Getting involved has allowed me to grow my network of friends and also staff members. After all, the Gonzaga community is not just limited to something that occurs within the student body. Someday, I aspire to work in Higher Education myself, specifically in Student Affairs, and being a part of the SIL Internship program has allowed me to meet other students who share this same career goal, as well as the desire to simply be a student leader of the Gonzaga community. Some of my best friends have come from getting involved on campus, and finding that place of community.

If your student is unsure how to find their community at Gonzaga, or is struggling in the process, please encourage them to connect with First Year Experience Programs at firstyearexperience@gonzaga.edu or SIL Intern at getinvolved@gonzaga.edu . The interns are all well versed with all things Gonzaga, and can help connect your student with the place that best fits them to get involved and develop that sense of belonging