Mentoring

BRIDGE - Building Relationships In Diverse Gonzaga Environments

For more information, contact us at UMEC@gonzaga.edu . 

Pre-Orientation Program: Social Justice and Leadership Institute

BRIDGE (NASPA Latinx/a/o Knowledge Community 2019 Outstanding New Program Award Winner) is a Social Justice and Leadership Institute designed for students who identify as first-generation, low income, students of color, and/or LGBTQ+. This Pre-Orientation Program introduces underrepresented students early on to specific faculty, staff, student leaders, and other campus resources that can facilitate a smoother transition to campus and community life. 

In alignment with Gonzaga’s Jesuit mission, BRIDGE activities and workshops focus on identity development, cultural fluency, resilience theory, and the social change model of leadership. BRIDGE also covers such relevant topics as imposter syndrome, stereotype threat, and allyship in an effort to proactively address the “culture shock” that many underrepresented students experience during their first semester at a Predominately White Institution (PWI).

First-Year Mentoring

All participants are assigned two BRIDGE mentors, fellow students who then become their peer mentors throughout their first year in college.  During the academic year, BRIDGE students are provided with specialized programming that includes STEM cohorts, monthly socials, study sessions with peer tutors, and college success workshops. 

BRIDGE Benefits

• Personalized, year-long mentorship from underrepresented upper class students with experience in navigating Gonzaga
• A head start in learning about different campus and community resources
• Special access to a $500 textbook scholarship and textbook lending library
• A customized tour of Spokane and the surrounding areas
• Additional support from UMEC staff during the academic year 

Student Testimonies

Act Six

Act Six is a leadership and scholarship program that connects local faith-based community affiliates with faith- and social justice-based colleges to equip emerging urban and community leaders to engage the college campus and their communities at home through a simple but powerful four-part strategy:

• Recruit and Select - Locally recruit and select diverse, multicultural cadres of a region’s most promising urban and community student leaders.
• Train and Prepare - Intensively train 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 - Send the teams together to select faith- and social justice-based colleges, providing full-tuition, full-need scholarships.
• Support and Inspire - Provide strong campus support, ongoing leadership development, and vocational connections to inspire scholars to serve their home communities.

On campus, Act Six scholars are making a profound impact as they demonstrate their leadership in a wide variety of contexts.  Creating award winning programs in the residence halls, founding and leading clubs, and even serving as student government president, scholars are making a difference on campus.  And the impact doesn't end at graduation. Act Six alumni are putting their passion and education to work back in their home communities and in other communities around the country and the world.

Gonzaga University has graduated eight cadres of Act Six scholars and currently hosts four cadres with 30 Act Six scholars.