Zag For a Day
March is a great time of year on Gonzaga’s campus. It’s warm – spring is starting to peek out from its winter rest and campus is full of energy (especially when rooting on the Zags!). It’s also a time of year when seeds are being planted. This past March on campus, a different type of seed was beginning its journey.
Each spring, Gonzaga’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE) hosts local middle and high school students on campus for an event called Zag for A Day. It’s a fun day for students to learn about Gonzaga University, what it takes to be a Zag, and what makes our campus so special. Fourteen youth from Northeast Spokane schools heard from a panel of professors, admissions staff, and representatives from the Disabled Student Union on campus life. They visited Unity Multicultural Education Center and the Lincoln LGBT+ Center to learn the ways these centers support and advocate for students. They asked questions about how being in the military and going to Gonzaga is possible from the Transfer, Veteran and Returning Adult Services Center. They discovered the variety of student-led groups on campus and learned a dance from the Black Student Union, all while engaging with their Gonzaga mentors and CCE staff.
Some may ask why events like these are important. Or why it’s relevant for middle and high school students to experience campus-life when they are not sure if college or post-secondary education is right for them. The impacts are easy to find if you are paying attention.
After engaging in the station from the Black Student Union, one student told his fellow students: “I want to come here now. This made me want to come here.” Through this interaction, he began to see himself on a college campus, Gonzaga’s campus.
This kind of future orientation and planting of seeds is what Zag for A Day is all about. These programs help students get a glimpse of what a day in the life of a Zag could be - no matter where they come from or how they identify. Gonzaga has a place for them, and we are waiting with open arms.