Gonzaga Listed in the Top 20 of Three Categories

(SPOKANE, Wash.)—Gonzaga University is among the 368 best colleges in America for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review, a New York City-based educational services company that includes Gonzaga in its 2009 edition of “The Best 368 Colleges.” The company, known for its test-prep courses, features Gonzaga in the annual book just published by Random House/Princeton Review ($21.95). Gonzaga is in good company as the book includes only the top 15 percent of America’s approximately 2,500 four-year colleges, plus two Canadian schools. The book includes a profile of Gonzaga on pages 250-251, and student survey-based ranking lists of top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories. Gonzaga is ranked in the top 20 in three categories this year. The Princeton Review also posts the book’s ranking lists on its Web site at www.PrincetonReview.com. Gonzaga is ranked No. 10 nationally by The Princeton Review in the category “Everyone Plays Intramural Sports,” No. 15 in the category “Students Pack the Stadiums,” and No. 17 for “Best Athletic Facilities.” Other ranking categories report on campus politics, race/class relations and sports. In its profile on Gonzaga, The Princeton Review quotes extensively from GU students surveyed for the book. Among their candid comments about Gonzaga are the following: “One big family comprised of Catholics and non-Catholics alike” who “all work together in achieving success. We embrace the Jesuit traditions of service, spirituality, social justice, and leadership.” The Jesuit influence is indeed pervasive. It can be seen in the effort to “educate the entire person” through a broad liberal arts curriculum. Gonzaga requires four semesters of philosophy and three of religious studies. “They are classes that open your eyes to many harsh realities out in the world and ways that we can contribute with our careers to change these,” one undergrad observed. It is also seen in Gonzaga’s commitment to social service; “Almost everyone here is involved in some kind of community service, whether as a class requirement or just for fun,” one student said, adding “GU also requires a social justice class as part of the core curriculum [in the College of Arts and Sciences].” Gonzaga is “big enough to have good programs, small enough that you feel cared about”; academic standouts here include engineering, nursing and business. The school also “has great support programs. There are endless offices where people can get help that include great counselors’ offices and homework help.” Those same services are “also very good about really helping you figure out what you really want to do with your life.” Regarding campus life, Gonzaga students noted they “love to go to basketball games,” even though “it takes a lot of time out of your week between waiting in line on Sundays to get tickets and waiting in line on game days to get seats. However, when you are in the stands among all those red Kennel Club T-shirts, it is totally worth it.” Beyond basketball, GU’s campus “is extremely active, which results in a lot of fun, active ways to entertain oneself,” including “extremely popular” intramural and club sports and extracurricular clubs (“everyone is involved in a few”). Every other week, the Gonzaga University Theater Sports (GUTS) club puts on an improv comedy show which is hilarious without fail. There are also outdoor programs and trips, a myriad of clubs, and service-learning opportunities.” Students also take “a very active role in the surrounding community. Gonzaga puts on and sponsors a lot of after-school programs for the kids of the local elementary schools and junior highs.” Spokane, where Gonzaga is located, “has a lot to offer if you know where to look,” including “concert venues, cafes, great food, movie theaters showing both mainstream and independent films, and shopping.” The ratings in “The Best 368 Colleges” are numerical scores based largely on school-reported data collected during the 2007-08 academic year. Gonzaga received the following scores—on a scale of 60 to 99: Admissions Selectivity, 89; Financial Aid, 83; Fire Safety, 89; Academic Rating, 82; and Quality of Life Rating, 84. A section titled “The Inside Word” notes that Gonzaga “is a great example of how a high profile athletic program can transform a competitive school into a highly competitive one. Over the past decade, Gonzaga’s admit rate has decreased substantially while class rank, standardized test scores, and high school GPA have all increased measurably.” Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s vice president for publishing, said Gonzaga and the other schools represented in the book were chosen primarily for their outstanding academics. “We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them, and our visits to schools over the years,” Franek said. “We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students, and parents we hear from yearlong. Finally, we work to have a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.” The ranking in “The Best 368 Colleges” are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 120,000 students (approximately 325 per campus) attending the 368 colleges in the book. A college’s appearance on these lists is attributable to a high consensus among its surveyed students about the subject. The 80-question survey asked students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them. Ranking lists report the top 20 schools in categories that range from best professors, administration, and campus food to lists based on student body political leanings, race/class relations, sports interest, and other aspects of campus life. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book 1 to 368 in any category, nor do the rankings reflect The Princeton Review’s opinion of the schools. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University.

Nine Spokane-area students will be eligible for scholarships covering 100 percent of their financial need to attend Gonzaga or Whitworth universities beginning in fall 2009 through an expansion of the successful Act Six Leadership and Scholarship Initiative.

Launched by the Tacoma-based Northwest Leadership Foundation in partnership with Whitworth in 2002, Act Six seeks to develop urban leaders to be agents of change on campus and in their home communities. The program initially targeted first-generation, college-bound students from urban Tacoma but has since expanded to Seattle, Portland, Memphis, Tenn., and now Spokane. Gonzaga is the latest university affiliate, joining Crichton College, George Fox University, Northwest University, Pacific Lutheran University Trinity Lutheran University and Whitworth.

Raymond Reyes, Gonzaga’s associate mission vice president for intercultural relations, says Act Six is an ideal fit for the university’s mission.

“Through its collaborative association with the Act Six Program, Gonzaga University animates the currency of its Jesuit roots and creates a highly effective way to manifest its institutional mission,” says Reyes. “For many years to come, all members of our learning community, such as the Act Six scholars, the entire GU student body, and our faculty and staff will benefit from this initiative that uniquely braids the promise and practice of cultural diversity, leadership development and academic rigor in service to the common good. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, is smiling right now at this beautiful articulation of faith in the promotion of justice.”

This fall, the sixth multicultural cadre of 10 Act Six scholars will enroll at Whitworth and, by December, 20 of the 21 scholars in the first two cadres will have graduated. Overall, 57 of 67 scholars originally selected for the program have graduated or are still enrolled at Whitworth – reflecting graduation and retention rates that far exceed national averages. Act Six scholars have been elected student-body presidents two of the past three years at Whitworth and have been involved in numerous other leadership roles on and off campus.

“Our scholars are having a profound impact through their leadership on campus, and, as they begin to graduate, they are making a powerful and positive impact in the community,” says Tim Herron, founder and national director of Act Six. “This is what we envisioned when we launched Act Six and what we hope can be replicated in Spokane.”

Act Six in Spokane will be coordinated by Rodney McAuley, longtime civic leader and local director for the Northwest Leadership Foundation, a faith-based non-profit organization that seeks to encourage, strengthen and develop leadership for the spiritual and social renewal of the city. McAuley sees Act Six as a natural reflection of his Christian faith commitment to love one’s neighbor across racial, ethnic, religious and socio-economic lines. But he also sees the program as a strategic investment in the economic and social well-being of the Spokane community.

“Even in this supposedly remote corner of the world, the demographics are shifting; 25 percent of the Spokane Public Schools’ population are students of color compared with 8 percent in the overall population of the city,” McAuley says. “Developing leaders who are practiced in the art of communicating across cultures and building bridges will strengthen Spokane’s ability to compete in a world that is rapidly becoming more diverse and more globally connected.”

Herron, formerly a math teacher at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School, developed Act Six after seeing many of his most promising students fail to complete college. He modeled the program after a similar initiative developed nearly 20 years ago by the Posse Foundation to train and send students in groups to elite colleges.

Act Six develops leaders through a simple, but powerful, four-step strategy:

• Recruit and select diverse, multicultural cadres of Spokane’s most promising emerging urban leaders.
• Train and prepare these groups of students in the year prior to college, equipping them to support each other, succeed academically, and grow as service-minded leaders and agents of transformation.
• Send and fund the teams together to select faith-based colleges on four year, full-tuition, full-need scholarships.
• Support and inspire by providing strong campus support and ongoing leadership development to nurture these young people as they find their vocation and grow into the next generation of community leaders.

The rigorous selection process seeks to identify student leaders who are passionate about learning, eager to foster intercultural relationships, willing to step out of their comfort zones, committed to serving those around them, and ready to make a difference on campus and at home. The selection process also places high value on applicants’ teamwork, critical thinking, communication skills, and academic potential.

Act Six, which is open to students from any Spokane-area high school, will provide five scholarships to attend Whitworth and four to attend Gonzaga. Applicants must be high school seniors planning to graduate in 2009 or must have previously graduated from high school in 2007 or 2008. While ethnicity and family income are factors in selecting an intentionally diverse group of scholars, there are no income restrictions, and students from all ethnic backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

The deadline to apply is Nov. 1. A committee of community representatives led by McAuley will select a group of semifinalists for each college based on candidates’ written applications and their participation in a half-day community workshop in the fall. Semifinalists then visit one of the colleges in January for a four-part evaluation process after which the nine scholarship recipients will be chosen. Students and parents can learn more about Act Six and download an application online.

Contacts:

• Raymond Reyes, associate vice president for intercultural relations at Gonzaga University, (509) 313-3667 or via e-mail.
• Rodney McAuley, Spokane director for the Northwest Leadership Foundation and Act Six, (509) 953-8003 or via e-mail.
• Tim Herron, national director for Act Six, (253) 272-0771×15 or via e-mail.
• dsoden@whitworth.edu, executive assistant to the president of Whitworth University, (509) 777-4433 via e-mail.