Ryan Bart is using his Gonzaga education to do magical things in the world.
Since he graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, Bart has given a powerful TEDx talk, traveled to Colombia to teach magic, and enrolled in medical school at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California.
As a Gonzaga student in the pre-med track, Bart volunteered at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, where he discovered that magic could help patients find emotional release through entertainment and wonder.
“My time at Sacred Heart really showed me the power of magic, and I believe it has immense healing power,” he says. “Laughing and smiling releases endorphins physiologically, but magic is also a vessel to connect with human beings.”
Bart was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship his senior year. With the help of his mentors in Gonzaga’s Comprehensive Leadership Program, he connected with Magicians Without Borders, an organization that seeks to bring magic to all parts of the world. Using their resources and guidance, he got on a plane to Colombia and began to teach magic to children in impoverished neighborhoods.
“I wanted to integrate magic with my career goals of becoming a doctor, and the pieces just fell into place,” he explains.
Carlos, a young boy from Bogotá, was among Bart’s first students. Today, long after Bart has left, Carlos is teaching magic himself. “Right now, he’s in Costa Rica, helping to start a school,” Bart says. “It’s become a sustainable and absolutely life-changing thing for these kids, and I am so happy. It’s really taken off. We’ve already started schools in India and El Salvador.”
Many of Bart’s former students are currently being hired by local media organizations for magic shows, and some have gone on to attend a prestigious regional magic school. “Our mission,” he says, “is to entertain, but more important than that, it’s to empower children of the world.”
When asked how he was able to do such amazing work, his answer is simple. “It really comes down to Gonzaga, and I can’t say that enough,” Bart says. “Gonzaga instills the fight for social justice. I didn’t know what that looked like until I came here.”
His story is one of determination, fighting for good, and never giving up. “It seems crazy,” he laughs. “To try to solve child gang violence with magic. But it’s working! My best advice would be to aim for the stars. My opportunities have all come from not being afraid to try. And none of it would have been possible without Gonzaga’s focus on social justice and working for others. I mean that.”