A spring break hiking adventure he made with fellow students and his experiences during his years at Gonzaga College High School in Washington have been unforgettable journeys for Matt Podratsky.
This spring, he hiked parts of Camino Ignaciano in Spain with eight other Gonzaga seniors and three teachers, as part of an elective class that met before school to reflect on Jesuit spirituality, St. Ignatius and pilgrimages.
“The entire trail covers the 408-mile distance from St. Ignatius’ home in Loyola to the cave in Manresa in which he wrote his famous Spiritual Exercises. After months of classes, preparing both our physical and ‘spiritual’ backpacks, our group hiked the major sites for five days over spring break,” Podratsky, a member of Gonzaga’s class of 2025, said in an email interview.
He added, “It was an incredible experience to walk where Ignatius walked, visit the shrines he prayed at, and grow so close with my classmates. As we reflected on the remarkable legacy St. Ignatius had and all of the lives he has transformed to this day through Jesuit spirituality and education like with Gonzaga, it was powerful to think as a group of what type of legacy God wants of us and how we carry our Jesuit values with us after graduating.”
Podratsky, the valedictorian of his class, is the son of Teresa and Michael Podratsky, and the family attends St. Agnes Parish in Arlington, where he went to elementary school. He has an older brother, Daniel, who is a 2019 Gonzaga graduate.
At Gonzaga, Matt Podratsky’s favorite classes included math, ranging from geometry to calculus, taught by Mark Howell, who he said emphasized “how we can see the beauty and perfection of God’s creation through math.” In another favorite class, AP Biology, students studied life from the cells of the human body to ecosystems, and in his Social Justice in Action class, he researched and presented a gun violence prevention project.
His community service at Gonzaga included volunteering at the Father McKenna Center for the homeless and hungry. As a Gonzaga student, he was a mentor and co-leader of the Gonzaga-Washington Jesuit Academy Science Fair, working with students from that middle school. He also served as a leader at Gonzaga’s Kairos retreats, which he said offered “a special chance to share God’s love with more Gonzaga brothers on retreat.”
Outside of the school, Podratsky has served as a volunteer EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) with the Morningside Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George’s County. “Whether working alongside paramedics in critical situations or bringing a smile to an elderly patient we drive to the hospital, I cherish every interaction,” he said.
As a member of Boy Scouts Troop 111 in the Arlington area, Podratsky said his experiences included canoeing Canadian lakes and stargazing in West Virginia, and his Eagle Scout project was a boardwalk extension for a heavily eroded trail at Potomac Overlook Park.
Podratsky and his Gonzaga cross country teammates earned the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship his junior year. Then after labrum surgery on both hips this past summer, he was able to race again for Gonzaga’s track team this spring.
This fall, Podratsky will be attending Columbia University in New York City, where he hopes to major in biology and possibly minor in computer science or statistics.
“At the moment I hope to work as a doctor, as I’ve grown to see healthcare as the perfect blend of science and service,” he said. “I’ve been able to experience the intensity of emergency medicine with my EMT class and volunteering in P.G. County, and my running injury last year showed me the world of orthopedics, where surgeons can change the lives of athletes of all levels. My physical therapist has also been an incredible mentor, and seeing how he connects with patients over months of recovery is pretty inspiring, so I could also see myself down that path. All of these futures involve connecting (with) and serving others in need, which I definitely credit Gonzaga for instilling such passion in me.”
