UW grad led by example

Twenty close friends, three varieties of ice cream and one $60 pecan pie shipped overnight from Florida were the ingredients Leoule Goshu chose recently to mark his graduation.

His dessert party was a low-key alternative to donning a cap and gown Saturday at Husky Stadium with 4,300 other University of Washington students and an estimated 35,000 onlookers. Goshu considers commencement a family celebration — and he's been estranged from his parents and sister for the past four years.

In many ways, Goshu, 23, seems the storybook student: He's articulate, passionate about social justice and the winner of a prestigious full-ride graduate scholarship to Harvard University, where he plans to study next fall.

But his journey through college has been far from typical. He's black, gay and a long-term resident of transitional housing for homeless youth. His activism has taken him as far as the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans and Cape Town, South Africa.

Goshu is among the half of eligible UW graduates who — for a variety of reasons — will choose not to walk at Saturday's ceremony. And he's one among many who've helped broaden and redefine what it means to be a student at the UW.

"Dynamite"

At a recent Capitol Hill party called Youthopolis, celebrating the achievements of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens, a song from New Wave band Devo played while camp performers stripped to their underwear in front of an appreciative crowd that Goshu knows well.

It's a scene far removed from his Tacoma household, where Goshu said homosexuality was detested.

Goshu said violence at home led him to cut ties with his middle-class family around the time of his 20th birthday. Goshu's parents could not be reached for this story, although Goshu acknowledged they would likely disagree with his version of events and argue he simply decided to leave home.

Goshu, already a UW student at the time, moved to Seattle and found shelter at Straley House in the University District, run by the nonprofit group YouthCare, which helps homeless youth. Debbie Rieschl, who supervises the house's dozen residents, said Goshu quickly took a leading role in group sessions.

"We don't get many people who are already in college. It was actually very exciting; he was a very verbal young man," she said. "He mentored other young people and helped them find their voice and feel OK about their situation."

Rieschl said Goshu helped others in the house — toughened from street life — realize that they didn't have to be a "big old thug."

"To be a man of color and also gay and also in college broke down a lot of stereotypes," Rieschl said. "For me as a supervisor, it was dynamite."

Goshu's schoolwork suffered for a while, but he got back on track after coming to terms with his situation and getting encouragement from other students. He eventually double-majored in communications and comparative history of ideas. By then, he'd moved into a YouthCare apartment with one other roommate, giving him a more typical college-living environment.

During his time at the UW, he became increasingly involved in organizing gay and lesbian events and was director of the campus GBLT Commission.

Campus Q Center Director Jennifer Self said Goshu came up with the idea of an annual luncheon for new gay and lesbian students, which has become one of their biggest events, and also wrote an early version of an informational pamphlet called "Q Tips."

In 2005 Goshu was named a "Future Gay Hero" by national magazine The Advocate. On campus he became known for his outspokenness, which he said sometimes didn't sit well with his peers.

"He's definitely a talker," said Scott Winn, a faculty member in the UW School of Social Work. "In class discussions, he has a way of putting himself out there and saying what's on his mind, of telling his personal story and understanding his place in society."

New Orleans

What excited Goshu the most about his time at the UW was a four-month trip to New Orleans last year to promote the Lower Ninth Ward Health Clinic, which offers free services in a neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

"The whole city is traumatized and affected by that storm," Goshu said. "As an outsider, it kills you. You want people to be happy and live everyday lives and go back to work."

Given his passion for social activism, many friends were surprised at Goshu's choice of master's program at Harvard: public policy and urban planning — with its image of dry bureaucracy. Goshu counters that the degree will allow him far more impact on decisions affecting communities than would a typical liberal-arts degree. And he plans to stay in school to get a doctorate.

"I want homeless people, gays and immigrants to represent themselves and not have elite people representing them," Goshu said. "I really want to change minds."

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com