Sarah, a Bangladeshi student, graduated from her undergraduate economics program back home and headed to Spokane, Washington, to attend Gonzaga University’s MBA program. After earning her master’s degree from the Jesuit university’s School of Business Administration (SBA) in 2025, she was hired full time at a US marketing firm.
While those are major accomplishments in their own right, Sarah also reshaped her approach to life’s challenges during her time at Gonzaga, combining professional success with profound personal growth.
From Chittagong to Spokane
Sarah is among the first Gonzaga students from Bangladesh. Raised Muslim in the city of Chittagong, Sarah initially sought an economics program in Germany for her postgraduate education. But that didn’t work out, so her father suggested Gonzaga, seeing similarities between Jesuit education ideology and their family’s beliefs.
Sarah was initially nervous. The small college town of Spokane was very different from the Bangladeshi commercial center where she grew up.
“But my story turned out different. You might have heard about cultural issues and students having difficulties in fitting in, but Alhamdulillah, with the grace of the Almighty, I haven’t faced any of that,” Sarah said. “The people at Gonzaga have been very accommodating and cooperative.”
After arriving on campus, Sarah noticed her home country’s flag wasn’t in the Hemmingson Center Rotunda, where displayed flags represent the backgrounds of Gonzaga University students, faculty, and staff. Sarah looked hard, but couldn’t find the Bangladeshi flag among the dozens of others.
“When I saw flags from every country in the Global Building but not mine, I requested one,” Sarah said. “They said, ‘of course, why not?’ That’s how welcoming everyone has been.”
Finding Friends and Fun
Despite the friendly faces, finding a relatable community as an international student isn’t always easy — especially if you are the only student from your country.
“Patrick, my international advisor, was very helpful when I needed information and, like everyone, he was very friendly,” said Sarah, but when it came time to find friends to help her work through personal issues and struggles, it was hard at first to find someone who could truly relate.
Sarah wasn’t lonely, though. With help from Patrick and the other international student advisors, Sarah quickly found her way. She worked in food service in the dining halls and later served as a graduate assistant to a professor. She enjoyed the natural beauty of Spokane and the northwestern United States, traveling, hiking, and going to the beach with friends.
“I’m introverted,” said Sarah. “But I love traveling, so whenever I got a semester break, I would go hiking or to the beach where you can raft.” From the Beacon Hill trail complex through 1,000 acres of wilderness to more than 70 local beaches around Spokane, there were many outdoorsy options for Sarah to explore.
Community at Gonzaga
Then, in the second semester of her first year, Sarah decided to attend a school function to observe Ramadan, in hopes of meeting other Islamic students. She almost stayed home — but then would have missed out on a new connection.
“I was really tired that day and didn’t want to go. I asked myself, ‘What should I do?’ and I don’t know what pulled me, but I went. There, I ran into one of my old professors from my undergraduate university in Bangladesh,” said Sarah. “He was a professor of mathematics. He invited me on a picnic where I got to meet more Bangladeshis. So that’s how my community grew.”
From Social to Academic Growth
By the second semester, Sarah noticed that a willingness to step outside of her comfort zone helped her make new friends and also contributed to her growth.
“The Jesuit tradition of cura personalis asks, ‘How can I be [a] better human in mind, body, and spirit?’ I think if you surround yourself with good people, you will be inspired to do better, to do more,” Sarah said. “This Sarah is unrecognizable compared to the Sarah from two years ago.”
She faced new ways of thinking and new experiences in the classroom as well. Sarah attended extra help sessions and worked closely with her professors, who helped her succeed. Sarah graduated with a 3.64 GPA despite some struggles with math and accounting.
“The education system in my country is completely different, and the academic process has been challenging for me as a new curriculum. Also, I put a lot of pressure on myself,” said Sarah. “But my professors helped me develop personally. Professor Beqiri said, ‘we’re all human and humans make mistakes. Accept that you are human. It will be better for your long-term life,’ and she was right.”
At Gonzaga, Sarah learned how to learn in a healthy and productive way. Her statistics courses, in particular, had a lasting impact, teaching her how to harness her qualitative creativity and perform data analysis.
“The marketing courses with case studies were so fun to do, because they were taken from real-world experience,” said Sarah. “They really helped me become aware of social issues happening around me and showed me how to dive deeper and strengthen my research skills.”
Finding an Internship and Starting a Career
It wasn’t long before Sarah transitioned from on-campus jobs to career-building internships, thanks to her hard work and the guidance of the advisory staff and her professors at Gonzaga.
“I tried a variety of majors, starting in HR. Then I did a summer internship event marketing for a small nonprofit in South Dakota called Williston Downtown Association,” said Sarah. “I learned a lot and had a great experience socially, culturally, and professionally. It opened many doors for me. I cherish that experience.”
Sarah credits her marketing internship with setting the course that eventually led to her full-time postgraduate job in Spokane for Reactional Marketing.
“It’s an agency that handles marketing and promotional activities for top telecommunications companies like AT&T,” said Sarah. “I’m joining as a management trainee.”
Gonzaga’s SBA - A Leading Program for Internship and Job Placement
Students attending Gonzaga’s School of Business Administration, for either undergraduate or graduate programs, gain experiential learning through hands-on experience. Approximately half participate in internships, while others take part in co-curricular groups and activities like The New Ventures Lab, a consulting program for community-based entrepreneurs and business owners, or the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, a service that helps low-income taxpayers file their tax returns.
Students who graduate from Gonzaga with a master’s degree enjoy a 98.6% success rate and an average annual salary of more than $110,000, according to a 2023 First Destinations study. They work at Deloitte, DocuSign, KPMG LLC, Vanguard, and other leading global businesses.
According to Sarah, much of the success that students achieve comes from having great professors and demanding courses.
“I used to be scared of challenges. But now, I say, ‘OK, let it come. I will face this new challenge and we will see what happens,’” said Sarah. “Challenges will help you grow. Challenges will open doors you would never find otherwise, because we never know what we need to learn until we do.”
Sarah’s advice for future international students?
“Get ready to face anything. Be flexible with challenges,” said Sarah. “Sometimes life feels static, like nothing is moving forward, but that’s when your story is unfolding behind the scenes. That time is there for a reason — maybe it’s preparing you for something better.”
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