Gonzaga Witness

Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: Faith

Freshman year is such a whirlwind of new friends, roommates, rowdy dorms, meals at the COG, study sessions in Foley, and coffee dates in Crosby, and while all of these new experiences were happening it was so easy for me to forget about the most important relationship in my life. Luckily, God came to me through my new peers and adults that I had met at Gonzaga. I was encouraged to sign up for Freshmen Retreat, so I signed up on Orientation weekend, and I am so glad that I did. Freshmen Retreat was one of the greatest experiences of my freshmen year. I met so many great people that had similar values as I did. As the year went on, I volunteered more and more for University Ministry, and I came to find myself excited about my relationship with God. Instead of remaining on the backburner, He became front and center in my life. My freshman year was a true test of how passionate I wanted to be about my relationship with God. Getting involved in University Ministry, a student-run bible study, and having personal prayer time helped me to get excited and more intimate with Him despite all the wonderful distractions that freshman year offers.
Elizabeth Slamkowski is a Sophomore at Gonzaga.

My experience as a freshman at Gonzaga last year was a pretty amazing one. I moved the summer before my junior year of high school across the country after living in the same place pretty much my whole life. So when I left for college, I was somewhat anxious but very excited about beginning a new life on my own. After the first week of classes I felt right at home on campus at Gonzaga. I bonded right away with the other people in my dorm, and before I knew it, we were calling each other our college "family." The whole community is one big "family" because everyone at Gonzaga is so friendly. You always see people you know walking around campus, which is neat, and people hold the door for you everywhere you go. I was lucky because I had two people I knew here already: my cousin and a friend from back home. It was so nice to have familiar faces on campus and know that they were there whenever I needed anything. One of the many reasons I chose to attend Gonzaga was because I knew that there would be many opportunities for me to get involved in things that would enhance my spiritual life. I was fairly active in my youth group throughout high school, and I knew that it was something I wanted to continue in college. With the already close-knit community at Gonzaga, it made it just that much easier to be able to do things that would deepen my faith. THIRST was one of those opportunities. It is a nice time to stop and take a break and reflect on your week while singing praise and worship music. Of course, the student Masses are also wonderful for doing this. I also went on the first Freshman Retreat, which I highly recommend signing up for. The retreat is a wonderful place to meet other students that you might not already know. It is a great time to get off campus for a weekend, have fun and reflect on all the recent changes in your life and your college experience so far. I am hoping to be a leader on a retreat this year. For one of my classes, I had a service learning requirement, which meant that I had to do about 20 hours of some type of community service. I signed up for S.M.I.L.E., a mentoring program through CCASL. We went to an elementary school once a week and played games and did activities and crafts with the kids. This turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my year. I did it for the whole year, and by the end of it, I realized that part of being a student at Gonzaga means giving back to the community and caring for others. I wish you the best for your Freshman year!

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