Gonzaga Junior Tyler Zangaglia Named a Top Young Innovator

SPOKANE, Wash. — Tyler Zangaglia, a junior in the Gonzaga University School of Business Administration and the founder and CEO of the Hope Festival, is one of the young innovators named to 425 Business magazine’s “30 Under 30 Class of 2020.”

As a high school freshman, Zangaglia, from Sammamish, Washington, volunteered at a community-service event that opened his eyes to the homeless crisis in downtown Seattle. In 2015, he launched the Hope Festival, a youth-led nonprofit that provides more than 1,000 in-need individuals in the Seattle area with free groceries, clothes, hygiene items, and books, along with no-cost services including haircuts, massages, dental care, vaccinations, health screenings, and more.

Zangaglia, who is earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and international business, said he was humbled by the honor.

“I am so honored,” Zangaglia said. “I couldn’t have done it without my incredible friends by my side. I’ve always been motivated by the idea that age and status don’t define our lives, and that we don’t have to follow the typical path that we think we have to follow. I believe that young people aren’t just the future — we are the present. We each have a job to be the change we wish to see and to use our passions to make the world a better place, and our job to do so starts today.”

Zangaglia, who is also earning a minor in Gonzaga’s Hogan Entrepreneurial Leadership Program, told 425 Business that his father gave him tremendous professional advice.

“My dad told me to figure out what my one true passion was, and then to do that one thing better than anyone else,” Zangaglia said. Asked by the publication what he would like to do before age 40, Zangaglia responded: “Create and launch something that has a profound impact on the world.”