In Solidarity with Our Surroundings
Environmental flourishing involves connecting with, serving, and being a leader in the community, as well as having an interest in and concern for the communities we belong to, including our environment and planet. This includes having and caring for safe, healthy, and supportive spaces (micro- and macro-environments) that form our “common home.
At Gonzaga University, we believe that environmental flourishing is dependent not only on caring for and investing in our personal environment, but to extend that care to our surrounding community as well. This approach is driven by Gonzaga’s mission-based commitments to honoring the dignity of every person, solidarity with the poor and vulnerable, and care for the planet.
Solidarity means caring for, being attentive to, and showing compassion and respect for the people and spaces we encounter. At Gonzaga, this looks like engaging students in volunteer work, community service, and leadership development. These experiences help students develop life skills, social responsibility, and a culture of care, balancing their academic, professional, and community roles. When we go beyond just existing in our local community to actively leading, participating in, and contributing to its development, we move toward mutual flourishing.
Resources for Students
The Payne Center for Leadership Development (PCLD) helps students make meaning of their leadership experiences and translate that learning into lifelong skills. The PCLD offers workshops, guest speakers and a monthly Identity & Leadership series. Students also benefit from real-time coaching, mentoring and guided reflection.
The PCLD is home to the Experiential Leadership Institute, a yearlong program for sophomore and junior students, and partners with Learns to Lead, a living-learning community for first-year students.
The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) coordinates community and public service programs, including community engaged learning courses, community-based volunteer and outreach programs, and external volunteer projects. CCE offers a variety of opportunities to support causes that matter to each student, develop valuable leadership skills, and carry out Gonzaga’s Jesuit mission of working in and with communities.
The Center for Global Engagement (CGE) fosters intercultural engagement in Spokane, in Florence, and abroad by initiating, developing, and supporting projects that cross programs and support strategic initiatives within the broader university community. CGE advances Gonzaga’s commitment to comprehensive internationalization, a framework that integrates international perspectives across the university. This includes international student and scholar services, education abroad and exchange programs, intensive English programs, international partnerships, faculty engagement, curriculum internationalization, global compliance and duty of care, and strategic international enrollment efforts.
In keeping with our mission, Gonzaga University takes seriously our solemn responsibility to safeguard the integrity of our natural world for present and future generations and is committed to being a leader in responsible environmental stewardship. The Office of Sustainability provides opportunities for our students to learn about and engage in sustainable action through on-campus opportunities and partnerships at the regional and national level.
Originally founded in 2021 as the Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment, the Gonzaga Institute for Climate, Water, and the Environment provides resources and opportunities to students, faculty, community members, and leaders in the inland northwest to meet the unprecedented challenges facing humanity and the wider natural environment in the 21st century.
All student and employee ZagCards function as unlimited Spokane Transit Authority bus passes. Most bus routes that serve GU connect to the Plaza, Spokane's downtown hub for public transportation. From there, you can connect to routes taking you anywhere else in Spokane.
