Tag archives: college
With great appreciation, Westmont announces two major gifts totaling more than $15 million, the two largest cash gifts in college history. In late August, Westmont received $8.2 million from Ed and Mollie Miller, the largest single gift ever. It supports the Paul Raymond Miller Scholarship Endowment, named in honor of Ed’s father and originally established […]
Imagine a kid. He’s your son, and he has big plans. He wants to attend college, launch a startup, and make it big. He wants to change the world. He’s always been like this. He always aims high, and he usually succeeds, even when the odds are stacked against him, which they always seem to […]
About 410 new students, who include 58 new transfers, begin their journey at Westmont Thursday, August 26, moving into residence halls and enjoying several days of welcoming activities during Orientation. “This class has persisted through the pandemic and arrives with high energy and optimism to live and learn in person in real community,” says Irene […]
Westmont College and Young Life Southwestern Division have awarded full scholarships to Arath Gomez of Santa Barbara, Destiny Mitchell of Victorville, and Serena Nohmeh of Reseda. Young Life Urban Leadership Scholarships provide funding for each student to attend Westmont for four years. This joint effort encourages students who have benefited from Young Life to remain […]
Years ago, after graduating from college, I went through a six-month period where I suffered from blood-curdling, ghastly nightmares — where I dreamed that I hadn’t really gotten my diploma after all. I’d wake up in a cold sweat, covers tangled on the floor, breathing heavy at 2 am, convinced I’d forgotten to do something […]
Amid a global pandemic and dire nursing shortage, Westmont’s proposed Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) arrives just in time to meet a great need not only in the Santa Barbara community, but also in California. The program, run in partnership with Cottage Health, received unanimous approval for its feasibility study from the California […]
I entered my 20s in the pandemic. Ten years prior, you would’ve found me in Mr. D’Alfonso’s fourth-grade classroom at Montecito Union School. It was a good year. It was a big year. We started algebra and my friends taught me how to change the background image on a computer, so we could all have […]
Since starting this column, I’ve hoped to either feature a fellow student from my own university or another student of psychology. Today, we’ve got two for the price of one. I am happy to introduce Maiya Roddick: an alumna of the University of St. Andrews, a student of psychology, and a wonderfully thoughtful and accomplished […]
This week you are being treated to yet another saga from bonnie Scotland –only this time, the story is not from me. Meet Tobias Cole, Montecito native and second year student at the University of St Andrews. I met Tobias for the first time in a coffee shop on North Street, St Andrews. And I […]
It was not my intention to feature quite so many letters in this column that draw attention to my personal kryptonite (math), and yet, here we are. This week you are being treated to a letter from someone who is not only a talented visual artist but also an aspiring mathematician. Meet Alec Sherwin! Son […]
I’ve written and rewritten this introduction so many times. I keep revising because I want to get it right. Most importantly, I want to get it right without any of the self-congratulatory nonsense that often accompanies social justice grandstanding. I first met KiSea Katikka on my visit day to Crane Country Day School. A shared […]
Much to my disgust, this week’s letter is from yet another wonderfully gifted visual artist. Meet Sierra Willard, current student at University of the Arts London and Laguna Blanca alum. High ranking on the list of things I’m not good at is drawing. Any type of drawing. My freshman year of college, I was in […]
Confession of the week: I didn’t know what a drag race was. I thought it was the highly demanding sport where large groups of men spend months work-shopping their bodies and paint jobs, preparing for their minute on the fashion runway. It was only recently I found out that not all drag racing is hosted […]
I’m going to tell you something, and I’ll bet you haven’t heard it before. Back in school, my most stressful subject was art class. Every single year. Even when I liked it, art class was always a source of anxiety for me. I cannot isolate shapes or reproduce still images, and as someone who felt […]
I do a fair bit of writing when I can work up the courage to face my laptop keyboard. Do you know the feeling you get when you’ve stared at one word for too long and it no longer looks right? In psychology, we call this “semantic saturation.” It’s the idea that prolonged exposure or […]
I don’t often meet other people with the name Stella. So not only was it surprising for me when I was put in touch with the author of today’s letter, but it was doubly interesting to learn that this Stella had also dipped her toe into the waters of journalism. Two Stellas, same industry? Stanley […]
As a biology student, I spend much of my time learning about the effect an environment has on its organisms. As a psychology student, I focus on the interaction between an individual and their surroundings. To appreciate growth and change, these are the principles you must understand. But these ideas are not exclusive to the […]
You may find this hard to believe, but it wasn’t until after I had gone all the way through the British school and college system, and emigrated to the U.S., with a bachelor of arts degree in history, that I became aware of the fact that “education” is a subject which can itself be studied […]
Recent college and university rankings continue to affirm Westmont as one of the top Christian liberal arts colleges in the nation. According to Payscale’s 2020 Best Universities and Colleges by Salary Potential, mid-career Westmont alumni, including those with a graduate degree, earn a median income of $119,800 after more than 10 years in the workforce. […]
Westmont’s class of 2024 is the most academically talented in the college’s history. It’s also among the most diverse, with 39 percent of the 375 new and transfer students identifying as Hispanic, Asian American, African American, Hawaiian Pacific Islander, Native American, and/or multiracial. Twelve percent are the first in their family to attend college. The […]