Tag archives: college
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 […]
In response to the novel coronavirus, schools around the world rushed to integrate their curriculum into online learning platforms. Concessions were made by students, teachers, and administrators alike to accommodate a novel learning experience that was, to many, the bane of a semester reaching its conclusion. I have heard many accounts of slow Wi-Fi and […]
Managing this column, I’ve been put back in contact with quite a few individuals I used to look up to back in my elementary school days. This week we’re hearing from Montecito Union alum and New York University grad, Julia Kupiec. Second grade Stella had myriad compelling reasons to hold Julia in high regard; she […]
For so many parents, sending a child off to college is a milestone, akin to a wedding day or buying that first home. Until recently, it’s been a romanticized moment of waving goodbye as the center of your world officially branches out to start a life of their own. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest […]
It’s not every day you open your email to find that the young woman who used to sell your family Girl Scout Cookies is now a grown adult in charge of building the new Air Force One Hangar. Enter Meredith Urschel, daughter of Carissa Smith and Ted Urschel, a Cornell alum and concrete enthusiast. Before […]
Jason Tavarez joined the Westmont community as director of institutional resilience in February 2020 and almost immediately began working to protect the college from the dangers of COVID-19. “My biggest concern has been keeping the coronavirus off our campus and doing everything we can, as a community, to keep our remaining students and employees safe […]
This week’s letter comes from a person who recently made their professional debut doing the 3D VFX work for the 2019 blockbuster Little Women. Animation student Beatrice Tolan is a rising senior at Northeastern University in Boston where she is pursuing her BA with a minor in theatre. This, of course, is no surprise to […]
