Gonzaga Student Body Presidents in Real-World Leadership

Gonzaga Magazine catches up with some of the last decade's GSBA presidents to see where they're leading today. Here are the participants' original responses, unedited.

 

CONNER HOUSE ('15)

 

Major: Political Science and International Relations 

Current Residence: Washington, D.C.

What are you up to now?
I’m currently celebrating one year of living in Washington D.C.! I moved out here in October 2021 after requesting a transfer with PATH (from the HQ in Seattle to our other U.S. office in D.C.), the global health nonprofit I’m a project manager at, and where I’ve been employed for 5 years. I manage a portfolio of projects, mainly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Unitaid, which focus on market interventions to strengthen respiratory care and oxygen ecosystems in 10 countries within Africa and Asia. While I love Seattle, and know I’ll return someday, this new East Coast experience has been very exciting after having been born and raised in Western Washington. The “other Washington” is pretty great! Reach out to me if you’re passing through.

What have you done between your college graduation and the present?
After graduation in 2015, I took time off before working as a clerk for the Washington State Senate Ways and Means Committee during the 2016 legislative and budget session. After that, I was eager to live in Seattle and get more experience, so became an executive legal assistant at an employment law firm. While the field of law was very interesting, and I was able to witness many important wrongful termination lawsuits, I kept daydreaming about working in global health or international development. Which led me to PATH and the Gates Foundation funded projects I continue to support today.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
GSBA allowed me to work with a variety of important stakeholders to move important initiatives forward. My team, class officers, many other student groups (recreational and academic clubs, advocacy groups, multicultural groups, etc.), residence halls, the University administration and off-campus partners and residents were all groups I was able to work with on a day-to-day basis. It made me passionate about advocacy, collaboration, and its ability to impact public policy and decision-making by diverse stakeholder groups. This has led me to go in the direction of public policy, which I’m currently exposed to in the global health lens, but is something I hope to pursue even deeper in the future.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
One of the best parts about my time as GSBA President was the stellar team I was able to work with. Whether it was my incredible VP, Hayley Medeiros, the rest of the elected officers, the team we were able to appoint or the class representatives, we had awesome people who were very passionate about working hard to serve Gonzaga students.

My team prioritized working with the admin and security to ensure students felt safe on campus after a few incidents my junior year. We also worked hard to strengthen ties with the Logan Neighborhood, including the Neighborhood Council and some elected officials who called Logan home. We helped build the Logan Block Party that I hope continues today!

One of the coolest things to me was helping shape the development of the Hemmingson Center and the planned performing arts center. And generally, the very rapidly changing and growing Gonzaga campus. I was the last GSBA President to have an office in the Crosby Center. I’ll never forget watching the Hemmingson Center be built, taking tours of the future facilities and GSBA offices under construction, and making sure students had a say in important design elements of the place students gather today.

 

FESE ELANGO ('21) 

 

Major: Biology

Current Residence: Seattle

What I’m doing now: After fueling my passion for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) during my time at Gonzaga, I’ve been able to serve in roles committed to those topics since graduation. I’m currently a DEI coordinator at Qualtrics and manage programming for our six employee resource groups with a goal of curating inclusive environments.

GSBA highlights: Alongside Taylor Sipila, we navigated the complexities of a COVID-19 school year. COVID played a large part in the strategy for the year and really redefined the level of collaboration needed from all stakeholders on campus to maintain or reimagine the student experience in an unprecedented year. Additionally, I’m proud of our team’s response and advocacy for students in the midst of ongoing racial discrimination in the world around us and the commitment to creating space for BIPOC communities on campus.

 

TYLER HOBBS ('12)

 

Major: Sociology

Current residence: Portland, Ore.

What are you up to now?

I am currently President of the Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation just outside of Portland, Oregon. We award funds to hundreds of nonprofit organizations throughout Oregon and Washington.

What have you done between your college graduation and the present?
Prior to this work, I was fundraising with the amazing Advancement team at Gonzaga, and before that, working in secondary education in both Spokane and Los Angeles.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
My time in GSBA affirmed my passion for problem-solving, and working to leverage resources and talent across groups/stakeholders to make our communities better, smarter, and more equitable. I was also fortunate to work with amazing mentors and classmates in GSBA, many of whom became some of my dearest friends. It affirms for me that there are few more important things in life or career than finding good people to do good things with – something I still hold closely in my current work.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
Frankly, my years in GSBA all blend together, as do the initiatives and outcomes, but I am still proud of the team we put together and the pride with which each person did their work. At any point in one's career, that is always a great achievement. I was also (to my knowledge) the first publicly LGBTQ+ Student Body President and like to hope that being publicly out in such a role might have moved the needle in LGBTQ+ representation, resources, and leadership.

 

CALEB DAWSON ('17)

Major: Economics and Sociology

Current Residence: Berkley, Calif.

What are you up to now?
I’m finishing my Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in a program called Critical Studies of Race, Class, and Gender in the School of Education.

What have you done between your college graduation and the present?
I started the Ph.D. when I left GU in 2017. In addition to my dissertation research, I’ve taught undergraduate classes with Berkeley faculty, secured research grants and fellowships, published about the Black student loan debt crisis, led the Black Graduate Student Association, and most recently launched an initiative called Black Lives at Cal to research, preserve, and publicize the legacy of Black people at UC Berkeley.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
As GSBA president, I became more aware of how difficult it is to get historically white colleges and universities to prioritize the needs of historically marginalized peoples. I also reflected a great deal about how much it takes for historically marginalized students, staff, and faculty to make their universities better serve people like me. These experiential insights, alongside plenty of affirmation from GU faculty, informed my aspiration to become a professor who advances anti-racist institutional change.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
I am most proud of successfully campaigning to create what became the Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Department and changing the university's mission statement. I wanted “caring for the whole person” to be anti-racist and culturally relevant rather than color-evasive and Eurocentric. Additionally, I truly enjoyed GSBA's role designing and unveiling the Hemm Den (s/o to GSBA Chief of Staff Abby Anderson for her leadership) and my emceeing the March Madness watch parties given my time as GSBA President, a member of Bomb Squad, and a GU cheerleader.

 

JOHN DRAXLER (’14)

Major: Political Science

Current residence: Washington, D.C.

What are you up to now?
I’m currently an associate at the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, LLP in New York City.

What have you done between your college graduation and the present?
After graduating from Gonzaga I worked in local, then state, then federal politics as a staffer to elected officials. In 2018 I moved down to Los Angeles to attend UCLA School of Law.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
I think being GSBA President took a call to service that I already had and added practical perspective. I loved that job (and I still consider it one of the best I’ve ever had), and it taught me to keep aspiring to find workplaces that had similar positive qualities. To this day, I continue to seek out work that interests and inspires me, that I can share with thoughtful and kind coworkers, and that has a positive impact on the world. The arc of your post-college career is much longer than the arc of your college career, and that can be frustrating! But throughout these past 8.5 post-college years I’ve been able to pursue an ideal ultimate career goal because GSBA helped me understand what that looks like.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
I was very proud of the team we had in place and how we could support each other for some incredible work! I wish I had space to name all 60+ GSBA folks from my year, but for example, I was amazed at Deonna Smith and her team’s work in planning engaging and high-turnout GSBA events. Kyle Swartz and Reid Landon did a fantastic job supporting clubs and organizations, particularly at an intense time of change for how colleges handle club sports. Internally, Mandy Silva (GSBA Vice President), Katy Carnell (Chief of Staff) and many others were essential to keeping morale high and making sure our important work got done. Lastly, the GSBA Senate helped get a set of constitutional changes put to a vote before students, which enabled future generations to make their own improvements to the document. The GSBA Constitution hadn't been seriously revised in over a decade by the time we got there, but as I look through it online now, I’m glad to see that it continued to evolve and reflect the needs of Gonzaga in the 21st century. Great work, everyone!

 

ATHENA SOK ('19)

Major: History

Current Residence: Tacoma, Wash.

What are you up to now?
I’m currently a multilingual teacher at the high school I graduated from. I teach English as a Second Language to 9th-12th graders.

What have you done between your college graduation and the present?
Before this position, I was an assistant language teacher in Japan with the JET Program. I taught English for about a year in Japan before coming back to my hometown.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
During my time in GSBA, I was involved in initiatives revolving around diversity, equity, and inclusion. The work around advocating for students from underrepresented backgrounds inspired me to pursue a degree in educational policy. My time in GSBA and my current work as a multilingual teacher continues to be the fuel that ignites my passion for educational equity and reform. I plan to study educational policy while working as a teacher.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
The meaningful relationships cultivated all while striving towards a common goal was the most moving part about being in GSBA. My favorite example of this was a project I worked on with multiple leaders to put on the first ever “GSBA Week,” a culmination of events highlighting the amazing programs in GSBA and the Gonzaga community we celebrate. During GSBA Week, we focused on raising funds for the Undocumented Student Scholarship, which was an ongoing project spearheaded by a handful of student leaders over the course of many years. This was an impactful moment for me because it was a unified project between the Senate and the Executive branch of GSBA. We were all individuals from diverse backgrounds coming together to advocate for a cause that leaders before us put a significant amount of time and energy to create. This moment alone showed the power of student voice and continuing the legacies before us.

 

TAYLOR KRATOCHVIL ('16)

Major: Biology

Current Residence: Boston

What are you up to now?
Last spring, I graduated from medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and am now a first-year pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital & Boston Medical Center through Harvard & Boston University’s combined program.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
GSBA is what sparked my passion for leadership, policy, and advocacy in the community. In fact, it inspired me to become involved in state-level legislation in Nebraska and eventually serve as a health policy intern for Washington Senator Maria Cantwell’s office in 2019. I missed being involved in GSBA so much that in 2021-2022, I served as Student Body President & Student Regent at UNMC and was grateful for the lessons I learned in GSBA.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
There are too many great memories to count, but the first that come to mind are the opening of the Hemmingson Center, Kevin Hart performing in McCarthey, the inaugural Logan Neighborhood Block Party, laying the groundwork for an on-campus outdoor basketball court (that didn’t reach the finish line…), the inaugural Adopt-A-Block/Logan Neighborhood Clean Up program, and the renovation of Sharp Avenue.

 

CARLO JUNTILLA (’18)

Major: Political Science and International Relations

Current residence: Washington, D.C.

What are you up to now?
I currently work for United States Senator Elizabeth Warren as a legislative fellow where I support the Senator’s education, health, and oversight portfolios.

What have you done between your college graduation and the present?
After college, I joined the Teach for America Corps where I taught high school social studies in the Bay Area for 3 years. While teaching, I served as an elected official for the local teachers’ union where I helped support safe school reopening in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon finishing my TFA commitment, I became an instructor with the Fulbright Program where I supported English programs in public schools in Taipei, Taiwan.

How did your time in GSBA influence post-college decisions?
As a member of GSBA, you’re surrounded by a team of people who are committed to creatively and collaboratively solving problems; it was because of this collaborative environment we were able to handle whatever challenge we were confronted with. Now, I seek this same environment in my career decisions. I hope to continue finding opportunities where I can work with diverse teams that are driven to work together to advance social equity.

What would you say marked your time as GSBA President?
For me, successfully launching the undergraduate professional grant was the highlight of my time as GSBA President for many reasons. The grant was thoughtfully created through collaboration with student affairs, the financial aid office, and outside stakeholders. To me, the grant itself embodies the GSBA mission of working with and for others by providing crucial financial resources for high-need Zags who need extra support to make professional development more attainable.