College of Arts & Sciences '25-'26 Story Highlights

High-impact research, global connections, and life-changing milestones — all at The College of Arts & Sciences.

The 2025-2026 academic year was a season of "firsts" and "foremosts" for the College of Arts & Sciences. From the historic induction of our inaugural Phi Beta Kappa class to interdisciplinary innovations in art and neuroscience, these highlights showcase a community in motion—dedicated to the Jesuit tradition of leadership and the pursuit of the common good.

This is just a slice of the happenings here at The College, check us out on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook for more!

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Student Achievement

Ava Knap, Neuroscience and Art

Ava Knap ('26), a student-athlete and member of Gonzaga's inaugural neuroscience graduating class, brought her honors thesis to life with Where's My Mind — an exhibition at the Jundt Art Museum's Shoebox Gallery exploring how art and science illuminate one another. Inspired by her younger brother's experience with learning disabilities, Ava's interdisciplinary project invites viewers into an accessible, imaginative conversation about how the brain works. Read Ava's story

Integrated Media Goes to the Super Bowl

Four Gonzaga seniors turned classroom training into real-world journalism when they traveled to the Bay Area to cover Super Bowl LX in February 2026. Natalie Keller, Madylin Campbell, Kyle Sweeney and Michael Hanrahan — all integrated media students — attended press conferences, produced human interest stories and reported alongside hundreds of credentialed media members. Led by assistant professor John Collett, the experience drew coverage from Spokane outlets including the Spokesman-Review, KXLY, KHQ and KREM. Read the story

Taleah Ibrahim, NextGen Public Policy Academy

Political science senior Taleah Ibrahim earned a competitive spot in the NextGen Public Policy Academy, a three-week immersive program hosted by the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Policy with sessions at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The experience exposed her to how public policy intersects with fields ranging from healthcare and international relations to urban planning and environmental policy — reflecting Gonzaga's Jesuit commitment to educating students for leadership in public life. Read Taleah's story.

Alexis Sandoval, A Zag Holiday Poem

English student Alexis Sandoval ('27), after discovering a love of poetry in Professor Tod Marshall's writing class, was tapped to the original poem featured in Gonzaga's 2025 annual Christmas video — appearing alongside President Katia Passerini. Sandoval, who has since been published in multiple literary journals, wrote the Gonzaga-specific holiday poem in an hour, aiming for the warmth of a childhood classic. Read Alexis' story.

Phi Beta Kappa Inaugural Inductees

Gonzaga held its inaugural Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony in April 2025, welcoming 75 students into the Epsilon of Washington chapter — the first class to be recognized by the nation's oldest academic honor society at Gonzaga. National Phi Beta Kappa leaders traveled to Spokane for the installation, with speakers centering on the essential role of liberal arts education in a self-governing society. Read the story.

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Faculty & Research

Gloria Chien Named Arnold Distinguished Professor

Associate Professor of Religious Studies Gloria (I-Ling) Chien, Ph.D., has been appointed to a three-year term as Gonzaga University's Alphonse A. and Geraldine F. Arnold Distinguished Professor, effective fall 2025. In this role, she will advance Buddhist studies and the liberal arts through public lectures, innovative courses, and community programming — including the 2025 Arnold Lecture featuring Sharon Suh, Ph.D., on Asian American feminist Buddhist identity and resistance. Read the story.

Professor Explores Whitehead's Legacy at Global Conference

Philosophy and Environmental Studies Professor Brian G. Henning, Ph.D., attended an international conference in Zhuhai, China, marking the 100th anniversary of Alfred North Whitehead's Science and the Modern World. His paper argued that Whitehead's philosophy anticipated the field of environmental ethics by nearly 50 years — and that process philosophers were foundational to the discipline's earliest scholarly milestones. Read the story. 

Bringing the Ancient World to Gonzaga

History Professor Andrew Goldman, Ph.D., spent an academic year in Rome as Professor-in-Charge of the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies — the premier U.S. undergraduate study abroad program for ancient history and archaeology — leading 36 students from more than 30 institutions through an experiential curriculum at sites including Pompeii, Herculaneum, Troy, and Rome itself. He plans to bring those new perspectives back to Gonzaga students when he returns to campus. Read the story.

NIST Grant Expands STEM Research

A $1,846,500 grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), shared between SEAS and the College of Arts & Sciences, funded a significant expansion of research infrastructure in the Bollier Center for Integrated Science and Engineering. New equipment spans environmental engineering, advanced manufacturing, robotics and applied AI, materials characterization, and computer science — elevating hands-on learning and deepening Gonzaga's commitment to interdisciplinary research. Read the story. 

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Arts & Culture

Nic Marshall, Thumbelina Composer

Nic Marshall ('25), a business graduate who pursued music composition independently throughout his time at Gonzaga, wrote the original score for the Dance Department's sold-out production of Thumbelina — a collaboration that came through faculty mentor Michael Kropf. Dance Department Founding Chair Suzanne Ostersmith described Marshall's compositions as immediately inspiring choreographic ideas, noting they elevated the entire production. Read the story.

Gonzaga Language Exchange

For nearly a decade, Modern Languages faculty member Rebecca Stephanis, Ph.D., has coordinated Gonzaga's Virtual Dual Immersion program, connecting 60–120 students per semester with peers at Jesuit institutions across Latin America for structured bilingual conversations — without leaving Spokane. The program has since expanded to include COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) modules, a global faculty committee role for Stephanis, and a SEAS-student-built scheduling application to support the entire international network. Read the story.

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Mission & Community Impact

Patrick Ferro Center for Materials Research

Gonzaga officially opened the Patrick Ferro Center for Materials Research in February 2026, naming it in honor of beloved mechanical engineering professor Patrick "Pat" Ferro, who shaped the program from its earliest stages. The center — located in the Bollier Center for Integrated Science and Engineering — is designed as a hub for interdisciplinary research, industry partnership, and workforce development, with ambitions to position Gonzaga as a regional leader in aerospace materials innovation. Read the story. 

Dale Carnegie Training Partnership

Gonzaga launched a new partnership with Dale Carnegie Training of Washington and Idaho to offer two professional development courses — Effective Communications & Human Relations and High Impact Presentations — through the Center for Lifelong Learning in collaboration with CAS. Both courses are led by Gonzaga alumnus and certified Dale Carnegie instructor Vito DiMaio, and carry Gonzaga-issued continuing education credit, extending the university's mission for working professionals beyond the traditional classroom. Image courtesy of Ash Elliott of the Gonzaga Bulletin. Read the story.