Opening Doors with Shorelight

Since 2020, Gonzaga has bolstered the Center for Global Engagement through an alliance with Shorelight, an international firm specializing in recruiting students around the world. Shorelight, branded as Gonzaga Global, approaches its work as a long-term collaboration for long-term results.

Tim Smetana, managing director, had been living in Prague with his wife and two young children when the opportunity arose to work at Gonzaga alongside two other Shorelight employees and CGE staff. They arrived in Spokane last April, in time to see the city bloom and blossom.

“We loved every minute of the seven years we spent in Prague,” Smetana says. “My wife, Jennifer, and I always knew that wherever we moved to would have big shoes to fill, so we were pleasantly surprised when we saw all that Spokane has to offer.”

“As both of us are from the East Coast, we are really taken aback with how kind everyone is here,” he adds.

Smetana says after just six months at Gonzaga, he can already see what an incredibly tight-knit and caring community GU has. “It seems to me people come to Gonzaga because they believe in its mission and focus on working together to realize that mission."

That is important for the job Smetana has, working with Shorelight to connect with high school counselors around the globe to understand what students and families seek. In the fall issue of Gonzaga Magazine, Smetana shared Jesuit higher education is highly respected in many countries: “The Jesuit approach to academic excellence, and the way it integrates leadership and service, is a distinguishing feature that sets it apart from other models – and it resonates with students and families.”

And while foreign students and families give strong consideration to rankings (like being listed among the top 100 universities in the U.S.), “The highly residential and high-touch nature of GU is a draw for both undergraduate and graduate international students, because it offers the opportunity to live together and form community and friendships that can last a lifetime,” Smetana said in the article.

It seems that is valued by Smetana in a personal way as well.

“I really enjoy being part of a community that is so warm, open and strong in its identity,” Smetana says.

He recalls going on a campus tour and hearing a student say that – beyond our basketball program – GU is most known for holding doors open.

Smetana says, “That stuck with me, and every day I can see the many ways that GU students, staff, faculty and leadership open doors for each other.”