Scholarships are awarded to real, live, living and breathing people. In our case, the people are Gonzaga students, and the scholarships come from an array of benefactors all invested in the kind of transformation a Gonzaga education provides to said students.
In a recent letter to the Martino family, an update was given on the 2009-2010 receipients of the Martino-Skillingstad Leadership Scholar Award. Read on to see how the scholarship becomes living and breathing, too.
Bobby Van Cleve ’09
Bobby graduated in May with a Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting with Magna Cum Laude distinction. This past year he served as the Treasurer of the undergraduate student government association and helped lead twenty officers though a successful year. He also found time to serve with organizations like the Union Gospel Mission and continue his work with the Zambia Gold Honey Project.
This summer he will be interning with the accounting firm KPMG in Portland, Oregon before returning to Gonzaga in the fall to pursue a Masters degree in accounting. While earning this degree he will be working in both the Graduate School of Business and the Office of Student Life as a graduate assistant. This time next year he hopes to be returning to Zambia to serve the Zambezi community before beginning a full time career with KPMG.
Katie Infantine ’10
Katie was a two year recipient of a Martino-Skillingstad Scholarship. She was the Editor-in-Chief of the Gonzaga Witness publication and was responsible for revamping the entire magazine and the club itself. Due to her leadership there was a dramatic increase in club member participation and the magazine looks wonderful. Katie was one of the Comprehensive Leadership Program interns which involved quite a few extra hours, but was a great leadership experience for her. She finished her 49 page thesis Divine Logos: Christ as the Bridge Between Mythology and History which was an accomplishment in itself, having turned in her last paper, at, in her own words “…at 1:30 a.m. the day of graduation.”
In terms of awards and accomplishments Katie was named one of 40 Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) Honors Fellows of 2009-2010 last summer and she attended a total of 4 conferences with ISI throughout the year focused on ideals of America’s founding principles – limited government, individual liberty, the rule of law, a free market economy, personal responsibility, and moral standards. And to top it all off she graduated Magna Cum Laude as a member from the Honors Program and a CLP grad with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, a minor in Classical Civilizations and a concentration in Catholic Studies.
Katie shared a bit about what the future holds in store for her: “Next year I will be leaving in September with a Catholic international non-profit mission organization called Heart’s Home, which has been officially recognized by the Vatican to serve some of the poorest people, especially children, in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My mission is 14 months. I will be living in community with about 5 other missionaries from France, Peru, and Columbia, and we will spend our days in prayer and service to our community.
As far as the future goes after that, I plan attempting the best I can to transition back to life in the States while holding on to the charism of Heart’s Home and attending grad school in hopes of attaining a PhD, probably in Philosophy, perhaps with a concentration in Political Philosophy, and I hope one day to be a very happy wife and mother.”
Now that is how a Gonzaga education, accessed for students through scholarships, goes from educational to transformational. Thank you for your support.