2018 Award: Communication Studies Outstanding Student Award
Major: Communication Studies and Philosophy
Minor: Jazz Performance, Voice
Hometown: Seattle, WA
Extracurricular activities: Bulldog Band
About the award
Ali Rushevics shows exceptional commitment to cultivating a sophisticated understanding of communication and to nurturing a diverse, critical community. She regularly engages in long conversations with faculty members to explore connections and points of divergence between her studies in Philosophy and Communication. Her questions and insights are astute and advanced. She conducted an independent study project that produced valuable insights about the way our faculty teach COMM 100, our core curriculum class, and the project contributed meaningfully to the department's future teaching efforts. Her dedication to her larger communication studies community is commendable, as she has served as a peer support, resource, and tutor for students in different 400-level courses. We wouldn’t be surprised to see a future Professor Rushevics guiding students through the same type of advanced inquiry and discussion.
More about Ali
Future Plans:
I will be participating in the Gonzaga University Philosophy graduate degree program.
How has your major contributed to your professional or personal development?
It has given me a community of people who care about the world around them, professors who have helped me grow mentally and emotionally, and a passion for doing good in the world. I hope to continue my studies by pursuing graduate education. The Communication Studies program has been through many changes in my four years. I am proud of how far the department has come, and I hope to carry the lessons I have learned in classes and office hours throughout my life.
What has been your proudest or most significant accomplishment during your Gonzaga career?
Many experiences come to mind: Bulldog Band traveling, philosophy papers, communication courses. During all of my senior year I worked directly with my department chair in Communication Studies to restructure our Comm. 100 course to include a focus on social justice and critical theory. In this way, I got to be involved in the significant changes our department has made. Perhaps my proudest moment, though, was my senior capstone where I got to combine my love of philosophy and communication to contribute academically to the conversation of healing and national trauma.