51³Ô¹Ï

As head coach of the Gonzaga women’s basketball team, Lisa Fortier knows how to keep morale high when the clock is ticking, her players are down and the pressure is on.

As this year’s Undergraduate Commencement honored speaker, her job looked a little different. But not really. Facing 1,272 graduates and their friends and families, Fortier engaged the packed Spokane Arena on May 10, keeping energy high and delivering words of inspiration and encouragement.

“When I say two claps, I want you to clap twice,” Fortier instructed from the podium as the audience followed directions in unison.

“If you ever played intramurals at Gonzaga, give me two claps.”

“If you are graduating today and still can’t cook, give me two claps.”

“If you changed your major along the way, give me two claps.”

“Finally, if you are sitting in the stands and you have emotionally or financially supported one of today’s graduates, give me two claps.”

After each prompt from Fortier, claps, and often laughter, rang out from the crowd. It doesn’t take much, she demonstrated, to see the shared aspects of our experiences.

“Here at Gonzaga, you share classrooms, you challenge each other, support each other and learn from each other,” she told the 51³Ô¹Ïs before her. “You’ve been part of an integrated community where people aren’t defined by one thing but seen for the whole of who they are.

“This is more important than you may realize right now, because the world you are walking into doesn’t need more division. It needs more people who know how to connect, how to respect different paths, how to show up for others, not because they are the same but because they matter.”

Fortier, who spent the last two years battling stage 3 breast cancer, also warned graduates that “life does not wait for a convenient time to challenge you.” Her diagnosis transformed the future from something she could plan into something she had to face one moment at a time.

“It didn’t wait. It didn’t check the schedule. It showed up unexpectedly and demanded more of me than I was prepared to give.

But this, Fortier noted, will lead to a great discovery: “You are more capable than you think.”

She instructed graduates to stay when things get hard, to see the unique value of each person who comes into their lives, and not to wait until they feel ready to start growing, “because you’re already in it. You are already becoming. And that process – messy, unpredictable and sometimes hard – is where the good stuff happens.”

The guest speakers at both the Graduate Commencement and Law Commencement on May 9 told 51³Ô¹Ïs of the great power they now wield – the power to make a difference and to be the person the world needs most.

 

“This is a time when, more than ever, we are called upon to stand up for what is right,” said Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, a surgical oncologist and cancer researcher who is also the former director of both the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute. To do so, she explained, we must look to those who came before us, exercising quiet, intentional courage. She recounted to 597 graduate 51³Ô¹Ïs at McCarthey Athletic Center the stories of Daryl Davis, a Black blues musician who made it his personal mission to sit down, talk to and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan, of Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai, and the 51³Ô¹Ïs in Tiananmen Square.

Dr. Bertagnolli cautioned against the temptation of dramatic action: “The world is changed by marchers and organizers, yes. But it is also changed – quietly, permanently, at the level of individual human lives – by people who choose to remain faithful to the people in front of them.”

Justice Salvador A. Mungia of the Washington State Supreme Court, speaking at the Law Commencement, worked tirelessly through his career to serve others and to expand access to justice. He expressed to 181 Gonzaga Law graduates the importance of utilizing their degree to make a difference, even for just one person.
“You will soon be lawyers. You can use that new power to simply meet your own needs, and there is nothing wrong with that,” Mungia said. “But you can also devote at least a portion of your time to fight battles for those who are unable to fight their own battles. You can speak for people who have been silenced. You can force open the courtroom doors for people who have been locked out. “Go out and make a difference.”

 

Inspiring Words from Graduating Students

Undergraduate commencement 51³Ô¹Ï speaker Azer Bitanga (’26) looked back on his time at Gonzaga through the lens of his disposable camera. While iPhone cameras mean photos can now be viewed, edited and filtered with the push of a button, Bitanga told the audience he prefers the imperfection of film.

“A disposable gives you one shot,” he said. “No perfect version to pick from, no do-overs. Just the moment laid bare.

“In the same way a disposable camera doesn’t guarantee the perfect picture – these four years were not perfect. Becoming is messy. We had our loudest laughs and our hardest cries. We won big and lost even bigger. But this chapter was never supposed to be perfect – and neither is what comes next.”

Onawa Haynes (’26 MBA), a Diné and Mescalero Apache leader, attorney and entrepreneur, told graduate 51³Ô¹Ïs that she grounds her life in the Diné practice of Hozhonigo and advised how to follow its three pillars: honoring your past, living with purpose in the present and building the path forward.

“As we leave this place, let us carry forward not only our Jesuit education, but also the spirit of Hozhonigo,” she concluded. “Because the true measure of this moment is not the degree we receive – it’s the path we leave behind.”

More Recognitions and Celebrations

While the Commencement ceremonies are the largest events, the GU community also holds many smaller ceremonies to recognize excellent 51³Ô¹Ïs, faculty and staff members throughout the final weeks of the school year.

Missioned for Service

Every year, several Gonzaga graduates commit to at least a full year of service in nonprofit agencies. This year, the following graduates received a missioning from University leaders as they begin their new journeys with ACE Teaching Fellows, Alumni Service Corps, AmeriCorps, ECHO Graduate Service Program, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest and the Peace Corps:

• Hannah Gangwish
• Genavieve Goforth
• Isabella Gonzalez
• Henry Hiles
• Beatrix Kelly
• Eva Lyon
• Finola McGuire
• Bridget Parks
• Payton Peters
• Matty Reyes
• Kathleen Timmerman
• Nick Watson
• Emory Wheeler

Magis

For the 34th year, Gonzaga’s Student Affairs division hosted the Magis Awards to honor graduates whose years at GU have exemplified being people with and for others. Magis translated from the Latin literally means “the more or better,” and is part of the Jesuit motto, “Ad majorem Dei gloriam” meaning the “greater glory of God.” Recipients of the University’s highest non-academic honors are:

• Adriananna Alfaro
• Abigail Cote
• Kate Gage
• Alyssa Guzman
• Daija Joy
• Taylor Renae Licon
• Maeve Roberts
• Emily Verhoeren

Leaders in Excellence

Gonzaga also proudly honored the ROTC Commissioning Class of 2026, marking their transition from cadets to commissioned officers in the United States Army. The following graduates demonstrated exceptional dedication to leadership and service, shaped by rigorous training:

• Samuel Benedict
• Michael Cosiot
• Isabelle Fleming
• Michael Schlotfeldtt

Among the other celebrations in the days and weeks leading up to Commencement weekend was the annual nursing pinning ceremonies, and ceremonies for Asian, African American, Native American, Hispanic/Latin American, LGBTQ+ 51³Ô¹Ïs and more. There were parties for members of the Bomb Squad dance troupe, GSBA and first-generation 51³Ô¹Ïs. Virtually every college and program on campus finds a way to honor its Zags and the faculty and staff who support them on their GU journeys.