Gonzaga University Speciality : Management
programme: Culture, Organization, and Management

As a child of an alumnus and employee, Gonzaga University was a home to me my whole life, and I still chose it for my undergraduate education and my master’s studies. I trusted the leaders, principles and values, professors, resources, qualifications, setting, inquiry, content, experience, options, challenges, and results. My undergraduate years opened with an epic Gonzaga Outdoors experience in the Salmo-Priest River backpacking trip that built bonds with friendships that endured. I fell in love with professors who engaged me with lectures that lasted an hour and a green board but went by in a blink. I played intramural sports to keep active and continued to enjoy the recreation of the PNW. Having a degree and teaching certification from the School of Education at this reputable institution helped me get a job in one of the highest-paying and best-resourced school districts in Washington state at the time. And then the world turned, and my professional needs demanded growth, pushing me to return to investing in my studies. The Organizational Leadership program provided me the mentors, peers, conversations, texts, weekend intensives, group projects, self-exploration, and growth that was exactly what I needed. I was able to start as a student on campus and then transition online as our family’s situation moved us out of Spokane. While Gonzaga equipped me and provided me with the experiences and training to be a positive, contributing member of the global community, unfortunately, the cost of that education is something that the teaching profession has not compensated me enough to be able to reimburse. I am a highly qualified and incredibly effective professional who weighs heavy with student loans and am told in the professions that I pursue that I am too expensive.