Welcome to the College of Arts & Sciences at Gonzaga University!
I am delighted to serve as the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The College is truly a special place. What makes it special?
It begins with the people.
True to the Jesuit mission, Gonzaga cares for the whole person. Since joining the Gonzaga community in summer 2020, I have felt a deep sense of consolation from the welcoming atmosphere here. It is especially strong now that I’ve been able to meet more people in person! I feel blessed to have joined a community in which we are all engaged in our collective mission to be people for others.
The College of Arts and Sciences faculty and staff engage in this work through dedicated, creative, and skillful student-centered instruction and mentoring, whether it is offered in the classroom, lab, art studio, or recital hall. Students of the College are invited to actively engage in class and advising sessions, conduct independent research with faculty mentors, undertake internships and service-learning opportunities to develop content knowledge and marketable skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, reasoning, communication, relationship building, socially just practices, and cultural humility. Graduates of our College can be found in serving and working all over the world in a variety of industries and non-profit organizations to support the common good.
I feel very much at home at Gonzaga because our institutional values are aligned with my own. My parents, one of whom immigrated from Spain and the other from Puerto Rico, cultivated in me a life-long love of learning. Only one of them graduated from high school and so I was also raised to embrace education as the means to economic independence and prosperity. At Gonzaga, students are engaged in learning about diverse topics that support whole life success. The very same skillsets that make Arts and Sciences graduates so marketable also support our very human desire to live a good life and to be of service to others.
As humans, we need to see and create beauty in the world, appreciate goodness in all its forms, and seek and share truth. The College of Arts and Sciences houses a breadth of disciplines that foster this search for truth, beauty, and goodness including, the fine and performing arts, humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and math and the natural sciences. Faculty and staff in every single program and department in the college are committed to this work that is central to the Catholic, Jesuit, humanistic mission of engaging in a well-lived life.
If this mission intrigues you, I invite you to get to know us better by following social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube), signing up for our newsletter, following my blog, learning about our efforts to create a more inclusive community.
In the meantime, welcome to the College of Arts & Sciences and please know that there are many people—students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends—who welcome you into this community too. We are fortunate to have you with us!
Annmarie Caño, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts & Sciences