By – Hank and Alice Davis (Colorado)

As parents we anticipated our Zag’s sophomore year to be as smooth and successful as her freshman year. After all, we were following her lead—she was so happy to return to Gonzaga and begin her sophomore year and we were excited for her to keep us in the loop about her new living arrangement, new major, and new friends.

Perhaps, there was too much “new” in her life, indeed the transition to sophomore year proved to be a great challenge.  We knew this was a different year when we received tearful phone calls and text messages with sad emojis.  Our first reaction was to take away her pain by trying to fix her problems, but we quickly realized that Kellie was not asking us to rescue her. She just needed support and reassurance that she was going to be okay as she navigated through the process of gaining independence, making decisions and managing new situations as a young adult.  Unbeknown to us, there is such a thing called the “Sophomore Slump,” as parents, we too needed some advice/hand-holding and found this support through the Parent and Family Office. We learned that sophomores indeed are faced with new challenges and suggested we be patient, listen more and allow our student to work through her issues. We switched our language from telling her what to do and began to ask her to give us an overview of the problem at and what strategies she was using to overcome the problem. This empowered her to find her own voice, take more risks, learn how to manage conflict, compromise and communicate with others. We suppose this was is what you can call supplemental learning and a significant part of sophomore year.

Student Reflection 

After a freshman year high, my expectations for sophomore year were even greater. Going away to college was something I always dreamed about, and when I stepped on Gonzaga’s campus, I knew that was where I was supposed to be. Freshman year was full of new friends, new independence, basketball, meals at the beloved COG, taking a 20-hour road-trip to attend the Final Four, and so many memories I will never forget. When I left school in May, I remember being excited to go home to see my friends and family, but after a week home I was ready to go back.

At the end of the summer, my family and I road tripped from Colorado to Spokane, needless to say I was ready to get away from my parents and be an independent college student again. Little did I know the sophomore slump was about to hit me hard.

No one really tells you that the sophomore slump is a thing until it’s actually happening to you. Sophomore year threw more changes than expected, and for many students this means living in a space with 3 or more people, harder classes that are more integrated in majors, and for me, some “special challenges.”

The first week of school, I was faced with the difficulty of trying to find a house for junior year. I was not at all prepared for the stress associated with signing a lease and making some real adult decisions. This was just the beginning. Starting classes was also a new challenge for me because I changed my major and had a completely different schedule than I did from the year before. New buildings, new faculty, and new classmates to name a few.

Living in Dussault was far more luxurious than my freshman year dorm, but the walk was further from campus action and I seemed to keep myself in a comfortable bubble within my apartment. This was completely different from freshman year because there was always a friend around and activities happening right outside my dorm.  During my sophomore year, all of my friends were living in apartment-style housing all over campus grounds, so it was harder to get together because no one had a reason to leave their living space, especially during the winter months. 

Although my sophomore year had me in a slump, I learned that it’s okay to lean on people when things are tough. From this experience, I grew closer (didn’t know it was possible) with my parents and my best friends from home, and learned how to be a better communicator with the people around me. When I look back at my sophomore year, I don’t think of it as the worst year ever, rather, it was a year of learning more about myself, managing conflict, and growth. I am thankful for the challenges that came my way my sophomore year because they pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and stand on my own two feet. I’m ready to walk into my junior year with confidence and excitement.