Senior Spotlight: GSBA President Alyssa Guzman's Unexpected Gonzaga Connection

This piece is part of our Senior Stories series, in which we highlight GU students throughout the year.

Name: Alyssa Guzman ('26)

Major: Political Science | Minors: Public Relations, Leadership Studies

Hometown: San Diego, CA

All it took was a visit to campus, where Alyssa Guzman witnessed smiling faces and a community unlike anything she had seen at other schools, to open her mind to the idea of being a Zag. Pair the community with the opportunity to get a leadership minor and a dedication of service to others, and GU became a top choice for Guzman.

Since stepping foot on campus, Guzman has embodied the values that informed her choice. With her involvement with the Gonzaga Student Body Association, RHA and other student organizations, she encourages and develops belonging across campus. As a student ambassador, she helps GU grow by introducing prospective students to all that being a Zag can be.

Now president of the GSBA after serving in various roles within the organization since her first year, Guzman said she has always seen value in student leadership.

Guzman acknowledges that GU students tend to be extremely involved, to the point of overcommitting themselves. But she's grateful for that experience because, as she says, "You're always surrounded by people who push you to be the better version of yourself each and every single day."

As a freshman senator, she brought the Clothesline Project to life at GU to honor survivors of sexual abuse and make them feel less isolated. Guzman hung up shirts on clotheslines outside the COG and invited students and staff to write anonymous messages on notes that were strung up on blackboards. Guzman wanted to bring awareness to SA because it is something that happens too often and she believes that "creating spaces for people and getting those conversations started, that's how I believe change can happen." She emphasized the importance of vulnerability in inspiring people to share their stories and inspire change in their communities.

As a political science major, Guzman has goals of working in intelligence. Initially interested in law, her involvement with Model UN revealed a passion to be on the ground, making a change. She attended the Model UN Conference in New York City where she met students from schools around the world. Speaking with them about their schools and experiences made her realize how important the community at GU is to her and how important community is in creating change.

She has gained insight from GU's broader network, too, learning from alumni how she could tie her passions of foreign affairs and diplomacy plus her interest in immigration, into a career.

Living in San Diego and being a first-generation college student from a family of immigrants, those topics are personal for Guzman. Her mentors, including her mother and a GU alumni who was a former United States ambassador, have been grounding forces as she explores what a career in intelligence could be.

"I am the first in my family to do a lot of things, so there's not really a framework," Guzman said. "One thing I will never take for granted is how much my mom has sacrificed and given me the opportunity to live the life that I live now. The one quote that she always tells me is 'the world is always at your fingertips.'"

As she soaks up her final months as a Zag, Guzman is grateful for what this chapter of life has given her and she plans to keep the lessons she has learned here close to her heart.

"I connect coming to Gonzaga with three Cs: choice, chance, and change," Guzman said. "I made a choice to come to Gonzaga. I took a chance on Gonzaga in a school in a city and state I never lived in, and this university truly changed my life for the better. And if I can see those three Cs in this next chapter of my life that I'm going to take and look back these past four years and realize how great things really were and how much I grew and learned as a person, I think that would be my biggest lesson. If I ever want anything in life to change, I have to be willing to take a chance and to make a choice."