Skip Navigation

ZagOn: Gonzaga's COVID-19 Response

Information on booster and testing requirements for the start of the Spring semester. Plus FAQs, dashboard, and more. Visit gonzaga.edu/ZagOn

  • University Navigation University Navigation
  • Search Button
Search Button
s
Close Menu

Gonzaga Home

  • About
  • Academics
  • Admission
  • Student Life
  • Athletics
  • myGU

College & Schools

  • Online Graduate Programs
  • College of Arts & Sciences
  • School of Business Administration
  • School of Education
  • School of Engineering & Applied Science
  • School of Law
  • School of Leadership Studies
  • School of Nursing & Human Physiology

Info For

  • Future Students
  • Current Students
  • Military & Veterans
  • Parents & Families
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Our Community
  • Basketball Fans
Visit
Apply
Give
Close Menu
Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University
  • Search Button
  • Toggle Menu
News, Events & Stories Menu
  • News
  • Events
  • Stories
  • Publications
  • Galleries
News

News

Close Menu
Events

Events

Close Menu
Stories

Stories

Close Menu
Publications

Publications

Close Menu
Galleries

Galleries

Close Menu
  • Home
  • News, Events & Stories
  • Stories
  • Gonzaga Students Enjoy QandA Session with Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Thomas Friedman

Students Enjoy Q-and-A with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist


September 12, 2012

By Peter Tormey

SPOKANE, Wash. — Some of Gonzaga's best and brightest students had the rare opportunity to engage in dialogue with three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Thomas L. Friedman on Sept. 4, prior to his Gonzaga Presidential Lecture Series address that evening at the McCarthey Athletic Center. The lecture was part of Gonzaga's yearlong 125th Anniversary Celebration. Friedman graciously fielded questions from a panel of selected students for more than an hour.

A staunch advocate of education, Friedman emphasized in his evening lecture the crucial responsibility education plays in helping our nation become more competitive globally. The lecture was titled, "That Used to Be Us: A Crucial Time for America and the Role Education Must Play."

In his Q-and-A session with students, the Oxford University-educated writer discussed the challenge of raising education standards in delivering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) without sacrificing creativity. This is a challenge for teachers, schools and school districts that face increasingly strong pressure to improve educational outcomes.

Friedman said the topic reminded him of an interview he did with Bill Gates, a founder of Microsoft.

"He (Gates) said to me, which always really struck me, 'We don't have any software engineers at Microsoft who are not great at math and physics and calculus.' So, before you can be creative — especially if you're talking about STEM issues, whether it's biology, chemistry physics or what not — you really do have to have a good grounding in fundamentals. We should never lose sight of that."

Providing a rigorous foundation in STEM-related curricula and honoring creativity should not be viewed as mutually exclusive objectives, Friedman said, adding these twin objectives are being pursued at some of the nation's best schools — whether they be primary or secondary schools or universities. Higher education can achieve these objectives primarily in two ways, he said:

"One is to simply say, 'It's great that you want to major in math or science, computing or software-writing but it's really important that you take courses in music and art on theatre and literature," he said. "If you think about the greatest, Leonardo da Vinci, he was a painter, he was a mathematician, he was a writer. And he wasn't in a single silo; he was all those things, and each one actually nourished the other."

The liberal arts are crucial to a well-rounded education, he said.

"I've always been a big believer in the liberal arts," Friedman said. "Where does creativity come from? It's always an interesting question. I know, for me, I feel like I'm at my most creative, actually, when I'm taking my interest in globalization and applying it to the Arab-Israeli conflict. In other words, I'm taking two different specialties and mashing them up. Actually, what is the iPod? It's actually an MP3 player mashed up with an online music store, mashed up with a website. Actually, it's just a giant mash-up."

While STEM education is vital, an excellent education is the byproduct of a rigorous foundation complemented by the liberal arts. Gonzaga's core curriculum aims to achieve that very objective.

"You never want to diminish the importance of fundamentals but you always want to see: Can we build those fundamentals in ways that will strengthen other muscles," Friedman said.

Pioneering primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall will deliver the next Presidential Speaker Series presentation on April 9 (2013).

Share Story
Related Stories
  • Students Enjoy Q-and-A with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist
  • Birmingham Wins Marshall Scholarship
  • N.Y. Times Journalist Nicholas Kristof Discusses Threats to Free Press
  • Kendra Andrews Lands Washington Post Internship

Categories

Subscribe

Subscribe to Messages from Gonzaga University


First Name
Last Name
Email Address *

Get the latest news sent to you as soon as it is published. While the frequency of these emails varies, you’ll typically receive between two and five emails per week, depending on the time of year.

A monthly newsletter sent from August through June that highlights some of our best news, stories and events.


Back to Top
Visit
Apply
Give
Quick Links
  • Maps & Directions
  • Employment at GU
  • Emergency Information
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Title IX
  • Consumer Information
  • ZagMail
  • Contact Us
  • Harassment & Discrimination Policy
  • Virtual Tour
  • myGU Intranet
Gonzaga University
502 East Boone Avenue
Spokane, WA 99258-0102
(800) 986.9585
A Jesuit, Catholic, Humanistic University
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube