2021 Award: Anthony T. Wadden and Michael B. Herzog scholarship
Major: English Literature with Secondary Teacher Certification
Minor: ELA
Hometown: San Jose, CA
Extracurricular activities: GU Women’s Club Lacrosse, Zagvisory NCHS ELL tutor, and SMILE CCE.
About the Award
The scholarship comes from a former Gonzaga University English major, Chad Bogar. He created this scholarship to support English studies, and to honor Drs. Wadden and Herzog who were his favorite professors. The scholarship rewards excellence in English studies for two students at the end of their junior year, to be used in the senior year.
More about Grace
As a student at Gonzaga University studying towards a B.A. in English and Secondary Teacher Certification in ELA, I serve my community through child education & poverty alleviation. Literature has been my lifelong love, and sharing it with students in our Spokane community is my biggest passion. I believe that every student has a right to quality and caring educators who advocate for access to education and are committed to equality. Students should also be given the opportunity to learn and develop physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially in a welcoming atmosphere.
Future plans or career aspirations:
After graduation, I plan on continuing my education through graduate school before teaching ELA and Lit. at a Highschool and University level.
How has your major contributed to your professional or personal development?
Paring my English major with the teacher certification program at Gonzaga has allowed me to gain extraordinary experience teaching in middle and high schools as an undergrad. Being a teacher candidate makes me work harder to be the student instructors want, and the teacher students need. The English and Education department fosters my ability to practice peer collaboration, effective communication, group discussion, multi-step revision, and analytical writing and reading. Teachers universally recognize the importance of models, and it is the incredible professors at GU that inspire me to be the best student and future educator I can be.
What has been your proudest or most significant accomplishment during your Gonzaga career?
To be truthful, simply getting middle schoolers and high schoolers to turn their cameras on and participate in virtual classrooms was my most considerable accomplishment during our Covid-19 pandemic. So many teachers and professors can attest to the difficulty of engaging students in their desperate attempt to salvage the year of education being taken from us. Still, the journey to normalcy is far from here, and as we transition back to in-person learning, I will continue to serve Spokane youth through my English classroom holistically.