Alumni Blog

Below are the introduction and epilogue for Brian’s stories. Read all of his stories, see his photos and art and find your shared Seattle University experiences.  

INTRODUCTION

Brian, you wrote a book? 

Yes, an art book. 

What started out as a social experiment on Facebook to help raise awareness for Seattle University’s Uncommon Good campaign, quickly became an outlet for personal discovery and a platform to rekindle all sorts of amazing relationships with fellow alumni, professors, friends, family and mentors.  

What you are about to read is a collection of short stories about my personal experience at Seattle University during the late ‘90s and beyond. As I was writing each story, I began to notice the narrative became less about me and more about the people, events and surroundings that shaped my college experience. Thus these stories are less about me and more about us. 

We all share experiences similar to the ones you are about to read. We all got nervous on Freshman Orientation day. We all struggled with money at some point and might even take pride in what we consider to be the most inventive way to cook Top Ramen. Many of you have had friends come and go and at some point you will drive 5 hours away just to see them one more time, even in the peak of winter with 14 inches of snow on the ground, because you miss them and eagerly wish to reunite despite all logic concerning road conditions. If you have not experienced it yet… trust me, you will. We can all relate to this. This is OUR story. 

My name is Brian Gonzales. I am a Seattle University alumnus from the class of 2000, a Portland Alumni Leader, and SU Social Ambassador and proud to help out in the way that I can. This is my way of giving back. 

Enjoy this book. 

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I must warn you: I AM AN ARTIST. 

Sometimes I get a little carried away in my grammar and over dramatization of what would otherwise be a normal event. I am also compelled to make and share drawings, photographs and other visual highlights sometimes to the point of exhaustion. 

Prepare your liver for a swell of:

• Following my brother towards Nirvana
• Afro, Orientation, and the Art Nudes | AKA: How Visual Arts Major found Me and a tribute to Father Roger Gillis, SJ
• The golden voice of Jeremiah and how he fed my starving soul at the Chieftain
• May the force be with us all
• KSUB radio and the ubiquitous basement vibes
• His Spanish name is “Kiko”
• Zoom out. Navigate. Experience. Connect. Innovate. Give back. Thanks.
• Empowered by our Mission and life beyond diploma 

Yours truly, 

Brian Gonzales
Seattle University
Class of 2000
Major: Visual Arts
Minor: Spanish 

EPILOGUE

Empowered by our mission and life beyond diploma

These days I find myself asking a lot of questions to Google or Siri. 

“Hey Google what is the weather like today?” 

Within a moment's pause a friendly voice replies with factual data gathered from the interwebs.

“Today in Gresham it will be mostly sunny with a forecasted high of 70 and a low of 42. Right now it’s 42° and sunny.”

How many of you know the mission statement of Seattle University verbatim? As alumni, I bet we all inherently understand the main concept. I always knew it had something to do with developing students to be well rounded (hence all the core classes we had to finish whether we liked it or not) and something to do with social justice. I knew I was close, but I also knew it was more specific than that. So let’s ask: 

“Hey Google what is the mission of Seattle University?” 

“Seattle University is dedicated to educating the whole person, to professional formation, and to empowering leaders for a just and humane world.”

It's been over 2 decades since I graduated from Seattle University in the year 2000. On a daily basis I try to live my life with positive energy, being kind to people, making ethically correct choices, expressing appreciation for others and their contributions to our society as a whole and helping others when I can. I enjoy hobbies ranging from cooking and writing to home remodeling and computer programming. I am a firm believer in community, shopping local, volunteering for a good cause, continuous education, and I try to amplify the voice of those more quiet than I am. I have a fulfilling career and aside from the occasional feeling of “imposter syndrome” I am confident in my professional skill set.  

I am not saying this to boast. I am saying this to relate. I bet You, fellow alumni, also have a broad interest in the world around you. Your hobbies might align with mine but they probably extend well beyond in unique and wonderful ways. I bet you have a high capacity for critical thinking. I bet you have a natural process of ethical reasoning. I bet you have appreciation for the arts.  I bet you also strive for making a positive impact in your community and would choose to volunteer for a good cause if you could carve out the time in your busy schedule. As difficult as it may be at times, I bet you amplify the marginalized voices that are otherwise difficult to hear.  

What we are experiencing is the continual fulfillment of the Seattle University mission. No need to ask Google; we live it on the daily. 

Thank you for reading this art book and sharing in the experience. Let’s keep sharing stories and building community connections online and in person whenever possible. Join your local regional Alumni Chapter and stay involved. Let us all be empowered by the mission and help spread the good word. 

Cheers! 
Brian Gonzales

• Brian's Book of Stories

ABOUT BRIAN 

Brian Gonzales, ’00, is a multidisciplinary artist specializing in technology, marketing and creative services. He started the digital creative agency called PAIRODIME (originally Pair O’ Dimes Productions) while attending Seattle University in 1999 and it continues to help companies and brands locally and around the globe as a partner in modern marketing solutions. Brian lives with his wife Alyssa and their 2 children, Elias and Ariela in Gresham, Oregon. Brian loves to spend time with family and friends, cook, do various art projects, read, and watch movies. When not at home, you might find him traveling in his Minnie Winnie Winnebago, snowboarding, skateboarding, biking and pretty much doing anything that sounds like fun.

Alumni Engagement and Admissions are partnering in a new effort to connect prospective Seattle University students across the U.S. and around the world with our extraordinary alumni. Set to launch next month, the Alumni Admissions Interview Program is designed to build affinity with Seattle University among prospective students and inform the admissions process. Recently we sat down (virtually) with James Miller, Associate Vice President and Dean of Admissions, to chat about this new cross-departmental collaboration, how it works and how you can get involved. 

First, James, I must ask—how are admissions coming along for the 2021-2022 academic year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic?

We’re pleased with how the admissions cycle has progressed thus far. Applications for first-year student admission are up eight percent compared with last year at this time. We’ve seen strong increases in our most important regions: Washington State, Oregon and especially Hawaii, where Oahu and the neighbor islands show double-digit increases in applications. In addition, we’ve been investing in growing the Seattle U brand in Colorado, Texas, Illinois and Minnesota. Each of these markets continue to show large increases in applicants year over year.

We’re pleased that applications for admission from minoritized students have also increased as a percentage of our applicant pool. We were concerned going into this year because these students have been disproportionally impacted by the pandemic in terms of access to college counseling, access to technology and access to their school buildings in general. So, we’re really excited to see these students persisting through the process at a higher rate than they have in the past.

Are you able to predict what the size of the freshman class will be at this point? 

No and I think that it’s something of interest right now because there's been a lot in the media about college admissions over the last six to eight months. Much of what will occur in terms of freshman and transfer enrollment is dependent upon how things look in the fall with respect to our ability to be back on campus. This will impact the students’ decisions as to whether they want to enroll this year. We’ve done everything we needed to do to set ourselves up for success.

Why is it important for alumni to be part of the admissions process?  

Alumni are some of the most effective advocates in the Seattle U community. Simply by representing their positive Seattle University experience in their place of business, their neighborhood, their faith community and among family and friends, they are doing enormously helpful work that university admissions could never do. Alumni who are advocates for Seattle U and spread good words about the institution in their communities can make a huge difference in our student enrollment.

How does the Alumni Admissions Interview Program work and what is its intent? 

To start, we have a form on the admissions website for interested alumni to fill out, which will add them to our interviewer database. Then in May, Admissions will host a training for the interviewers. We’ll take a look inside the admissions process, how it works and cover basic Seattle U information of interest to prospective students. We’ll also talk about the characteristics of a good interview and what we need the interviewers to focus on. We’ll provide training materials for the interviewers’ referral, too.

Once the interviewers have been trained, we’ll begin connecting them with prospective students who have requested an interview opportunity and will do our best to match the interviewer with a student who shares a commonality. This may be a geographical similarity, an academic interest or another area of affinity like identity. The interviewer will contact the prospective student and they’ll determine a convenient time for a 20–30 minute interview.

At what point in the application process will this interview take place? 

We’re going to start off by offering interviews to pre-applicants—students in their junior year of high school—through those who are in the process of applying. Once we’ve matched a student and an interviewer, we’ll introduce the two via email. From there it’s upon the interviewer to reach out and confirm a time to meet with the student via Zoom, by phone or in-person at a mutually agreeable time. 

What type of information are you hoping the interviewer will gather from the prospective student that is helpful to admissions? 

The important thing is we’re not asking interviewers to be admissions representatives on our behalf. What we want them to do first and foremost is to represent the university from their own perspective and their own experiences. They don’t need to speak in-depth about a program they didn’t study in. We really want them to share with the student the value of their Seattle U experience and its impact post-graduation, as well as what’s been great about being a member of the Seattle U alumni community.

The information we’re looking to gather from prospective students is their level of interest in Seattle U. Do they have a sense of us? Do they understand who we are? We don’t want the interviewers to get into sensitive academic conversations, but sometimes a student will say, “Hey, I had a hard time my sophomore year and my grades really dipped, but I’ve recovered and I’m back on track academically.” This is really helpful context. Sometimes we’ll see a big dip in grades on a transcript that the student hasn’t really explained. But if they explain this in the interview, suddenly it’s like, “Oh, okay, totally understood,” as opposed to having to follow up.

We also want to get a sense of what questions the student has. Would they like to connect with a financial aid officer or with an admissions counselor who can answer specific questions about a program? The interviewer plays a role in helping us learn what the student needs, too.

It’s worth saying that our average enrolling student applies to at least 10 other schools. The real challenge for busy high school students is finding the time to get to know a college well. The alumni interviews will enable students to have a meaningful experience that they may not have the time to seek out on their own and they will help us gain context about students that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to gather.

It sounds like another opportunity to practice "cura personalis, that care for the whole person" that is so much a part of who we are at Seattle U. The individual attention will make students feel welcomed and wanted. 

That's 100 percent right. At the end of the day, we really want to feature in our admissions process the same level of personalization and personal care that we know our enrolled students experience. The challenge is there are 8,600 applicants this year and it’s just not possible for admissions counselors to make highly individualized contact with every single one of them. But the alumni admissions interview creates another opportunity for that individualized contact. It’s a value add for sure. 

What happens after the interview? 

After an interview takes place, we ask the interviewer to provide a report. This is just the interviewer’s notes from the conversation and if there’s something the student needs as a next step. They may also state if they would recommend the student for admission. Of course, the hope is that the student and the alumni interviewer will stay in touch throughout the admissions process and start to build a relationship. If the student decides to come to Seattle U that relationship may pay off in other ways. 

Why are international alumni reviewers particularly important? 

Seattle U has made deep inroads recently in starting to build an international recruitment strategy. Our biggest limitation in the global community is that it’s both time and resource intensive to interact directly with students from around the world. International interviewers can help us build better affinity between prospective students around the world and be great mentors for what it’s like to make the cultural transition to the U.S. and Seattle, specifically.

What kind of a time commitment does this program require of alumni interviewers? 

There is the initial training and beyond that, the commitment is very periodic. The busiest times will be in the spring and summer when high school juniors are starting to ramp-up their college searches, so probably May through July. It will likely get busy again around the early application deadline in mid-November through the close of the notification period in March. Our main ask is that interviewers who register with the program try to interview at least one student. They can always let us know if there’s a maximum number of interviews they can do or if they will be unavailable for certain periods of time and we’ll honor that. 

If alumni are unable to participate in the Alumni Interview Program, what else can they do? 

We always welcome alumni referrals. If an alum knows of a student who would flourish at Seattle University, we invite them to make a referral using this link. Admissions will follow up with the student and ensure that they get all the information they need to consider joining the Redhawk community.

Is there anything else that you’d like our alumni to know about the program? 

I’d just like to add that we're excited to be partnering with our alumni and about the potential for this program.  
 
Seattle U alumni are vital to the academic, spiritual and emotional health of our community. As part of Our Moment for Mission: The President’s Challenge, you can participate in the Alumni Admissions Review Program by registering here. Or, join us in one of many other volunteer roles, strengthening the university—and ensuring the wellbeing and advancement of our students, faculty and staff—for years to come. 
 
Sign up to be an Alumni Interviewer

• Alumni Admissions Interviewer Interest Form

Register for May 17 training (2:30-3:30 p.m. PDT)

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Register for May 18 training (5:30-6:30 p.m. PDT)

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