BRIDGE Celebrates Its 14th Year Welcoming Gonzaga Students to Campus

Over the last couple of years, Gonzaga has reached many milestones, from its first appearance at the NCAA championship to partnering with the University of Washington School of Medicine to establish a medical school facility. Equally as exciting to us, this summer marks the fourteenth year that Gonzaga welcomes its new group of BRIDGE students. The BRIDGE (Building Relationships in Diverse Gonzaga Environments) program was originally created to help students of color smoothly transition into Gonzaga. Over the years, BRIDGE has expanded to welcome students who are the first in their family to attend college (First Generation) to not only help them transition into Gonzaga, but also allow students to create a network with upperclassmen, faculty, and staff from various departments on campus. BRIDGE has many perks, including being able to move into one’s residence hall early and lots of fun social activities, but after speaking with this year’s BRIDGE coordinators (BCORE), we learned that the program is much more than that. BRIDGE is designed with the awareness that students who hold marginalized identities sometimes face bigger barriers in finding comfort in college environments for a variety of reasons. The BRIDGE program is dedicated to helping students find their niche and obtain the tools they need to be successful students during their time at Gonzaga.

During the course of five days, students go through a variety of activities and sessions that are led by BCORE, staff, faculty, and student counselors! Before summer begins, the counselors that serve as leaders for the students go through a highly selective interview process to earn a spot on the BRIDGE team. BCORE is very intentional about who they select to serve as the 17 leaders for the group, because they know how meaningful and important the program is for its alumni and how meaningful it will be for the new BRIDGERS to come. During the week of BRIDGE, students explore campus, establish a network of support from different offices, and create social relationships with other new incoming students and upperclassmen. The BCORE team spends the summer diligently planning the training for their counselors to ensure that a safe community and space is created during students’ time at BRIDGE. BCORE hopes that this allows students to truly take the most from the activities and sessions that range from academic support, study habits, team building, and identity development and exploration. 

This year both BRIDGE coordinators (BCORE) are alumni of BRIDGE, and are incoming juniors this fall. At the beginning of this summer, BCORE created a mission statement that speaks to the heart of the BRIDGE program and its foundation. The mission states: “BRIDGE is designed for students of color and First Generation students to enter a space that both explores and embraces all identities in support of one another. In partnership with the University mission BRIDGE allows students to develop and grow into holistic versions of themselves, while creating their own community”. The mission was carefully constructed to reflect the core of what the program strives to accomplish for its students. Now, how does one ensure that the program will successfully live out its mission? When we sat down with BCORE and asked them how they planned on doing this, they said “Taking into consideration that the BRIDGE program is going into its fourteenth year, we are aware that every year BRIDGE continues to serve a new era of students, that are distinct from previous years. BRIDGE is a program that is driven by its mission, therefore one needs to evaluate what students need, not only to transition into college, but even the transition after college into the professional world- we keep the students in mind in every activity and session that is planned so that they can be successful students during their time at Gonzaga and after.”

Ariel Bermudez, one of our BCORE team members, studies biology and has minors in both leadership studies and social justice & solidarity. As a freshman in high school Ariel was certain that Gonzaga would be his number one choice for higher education, but as his senior year ended he began to feel many of the pre-college emotions new students face. He was excited, anxious, and nervous about what the college transition would be like for him. During that summer, he received a call from previous BRIDGE alumni who informed him of the program and convinced him to sign up. When asked about his first thoughts of signing up for BRIDGE Ariel said, “I did not like the idea of leaving home a week early, however after I thought of it more, I figured this would be a great opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone and become more familiar with the resources Gonzaga had to offer me.” Ariel finished our discussion by saying “As a first-generation college student you are very unaware of what to expect or get out of college, let alone a pre-orientation program. I do not regret leaving home early to attend BRIDGE, because it allowed me to not only make friends and connections, but find spaces and opportunities on campus that make me feel comfortable, challenged, and further develop myself as a student, leader, and professional.”

Nodia Rogers, our Marketing BCORE team member, is a sociology major here at Gonzaga University. She transferred here after completing her first year at Trinity Lutheran College, an institution that unfortunately closed in May of 2016. Looking for a new school to transfer to was a process that wasn’t easy, it meant finding a school that was the right fit as well as one that was up to par with her previous institution. Transferring from Trinity meant leaving behind 80% diversity amongst the student population, a strong support system, and a focus on advocacy and vocation. It was important for Nodia to find a school that was not only challenging academically but socially and cognitively as well. When Nodia got her acceptance to Gonzaga, she was hesitant. Gonzaga was her first choice right of high school, and it seemed that something was pulling her there. However, it meant losing a diverse student body, and it meant losing a focus on vocation embedded in the curriculum. As the semester ended and Nodia became focused on ending her time at Trinity it was easy to fall into a deficit mindset. She thought a lot about what she was losing by coming to Gonzaga and not at all about what she was gaining by coming to Gonzaga. As a requirement for one of Nodia’s scholarships she was enrolled into the BRIDGE program. Again, Nodia felt this was something that she was losing. Two weeks of her summer being stripped away to move onto campus early. However, BRIDGE was not a loss. It was a gain. BRIDGE gave Nodia all of the things she assumed she was giving up. She was given a support system, introduced to a diverse community of leaders and organizers, as well as given a home away from home. BRIDGE was the beginning to all that she would gain at Gonzaga. It was the beginning to a journey and an opportunity she would not have dreamed of having in a million years. BRIDGE was and is the community that continues to support, and challenge Nodia and it’s a community she couldn’t wait to give back to.

The BRIDGE program is now entering its fourteenth year as a program. Every year BRIDGE continues to grow and change into something better than the year before, and Nodia and Ariel cannot wait to be a part of it this summer. In the words of past BRIDGE coordinators “BRIDGE is more than just a Pre-Orientation program, more than just arriving a week early on campus, and more than just a community”. BRIDGE is the place where questions are asked and answered, the place where identities are discovered, claimed, and expanded, and the community that quickly becomes a family.