Tag archives: Westmont

Art Faculty Explore ‘Lines of Inquiry’
By Scott Craig   |   September 9, 2025

Westmont’s talented art faculty, who inspire students to envision exciting, real-world possibilities for their own creative paths, offer an impressive range of works from their innovative careers in Lines of Inquiry: Westmont Art Faculty Exhibition Fall 2025 from Sept. 4-Nov. 1, in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. The museum hosts a free, public opening […]

Warriors Fall to Gauchos in Exhibition and More Soccer Stuff
By Scott Craig   |   September 9, 2025

Westmont men’s soccer jumped out to an early lead and then battled back from a three-goal deficit but came up just short in a 4-3 loss to the crosstown Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara on Aug. 30 at Harder Stadium. This exhibition game was the 63rd edition of the Community Shield between the NCAA Division […]

Welcoming the New Warriors
By Scott Craig   |   September 2, 2025

About 400 first-year, transfer and nursing students arrive at Westmont for Orientation and Warrior Welcome on August 27-31. Off campus, 38 students begin the Westmont Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing program, joining two other cohorts of students enrolled in the accelerated 16-month Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. Most of the 71 first-generation students (18% of […]

Snyder Named Women’s Tennis Head Coach
By Scott Craig   |   September 2, 2025

Sheila Snyder, who compiled 438 coaching victories as the women’s tennis head coach at Wayne State (MI) for 35 years, is the head coach of Westmont Women’s Tennis. “Coach Snyder has an impressive history of building a very successful Division II women’s tennis program, developing leaders and fostering excellence in the team culture that she […]

Partnerships with SB Scholarships Abound
By Scott Craig   |   August 26, 2025

Westmont’s expanding role in local college-prep programs has led to a noticeable increase in local student enrollment over the last three to five years. This momentum was clearly on display at two recent events hosted by the Santa Barbara Unified School District’s Program for Effective Access to College (PEAC) and the Scholarship Foundation of Santa […]

Motherhood in Full Form
By Scott Craig   |   August 26, 2025

A notable new arrival now graces Westmont’s campus: Maternity, a nearly 2,000-pound bronze sculpture by renowned South American artist Fernando Botero. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has loaned the work to Westmont from the collection of the late Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree. Standing about nine feet tall, the piece – in Botero’s self-definitive style of […]

Celestial Clusters in the Cosmos
By Scott Craig   |   August 19, 2025

This month’s stargazing event will feature several star clusters, including M18, the Black Swan Cluster in Sagittarius, on Friday, August 15, beginning about 8:30 pm and lasting several hours at the Westmont Observatory; home of the powerful Keck Telescope. The college hosts a free public viewing of the stars that lasts several hours, on the […]

Physicist Among Winners of Prestigious Award
By Scott Craig   |   August 19, 2025

Westmont scientists join thousands of researchers worldwide who have been honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, awarded to the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as several related experiments. The Breakthrough Prize specifically highlights the ATLAS Collaboration’s significant contributions […]

Study Explores Nursing, Belief in Miracles
By Scott Craig   |   August 19, 2025

Female nurses who believe God intervenes to cure ill people are less likely to experience depressive symptoms, according to findings published in Mental Health, Religion & Culture. The study, which uses interviews from nearly 4,000 American Indian and South Asian women as well as white, female nurses, asked respondents who believe in God to choose […]

Innovative Programs Grow Downtown
By Scott Craig   |   August 12, 2025

Westmont is finishing renovations at the Keith Center, 29 West Anapamu, which will eventually house several programs, including the expansion of Westmont Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing and other post-secondary allied health programs, as well as other post-secondary programs that meet the growing needs of the dynamic community. The Center for Applied Technology Lab (CATLab) will […]

‘Theology of Health’ Wins Book Award
By Scott Craig   |   August 12, 2025

The Martin Institute and the Dallas Willard Research Center (MIDWRC) at Westmont College have chosen Tyler J. VanderWeele’s A Theology of Health: Wholeness and Human Flourishing (University of Notre Dame Press) for the 2025 Book Award. The MIDWRC Book Award program was created in 2015 to help place an enduring emphasis on the intellectual and […]

AI’s Impact on Higher Ed
By Scott Craig   |   August 5, 2025

Higher education must enhance student experiences and foster meaningful relationships if it’s to meet the challenge of rapidly advancing AI. That was the message at Westmont’s Impact Conference, which brought higher education technology leaders to campus from July 24-25. They stressed that technology should serve, not supplant, the social networks and values at the heart […]

Environmental Studies Major Takes Root
By Scott Craig   |   August 5, 2025

Beginning this fall, Westmont offers a new environmental studies major to engage pressing climate-related issues, explore environmental stewardship through the lens of Christian theology and ethics, and examine the links between social and environmental justice. Since adding an environmental studies minor in 2019, Westmont has hosted several national climate workshops, including Faith. Climate. Action., and […]

‘Building a Collection’ Open Through Aug. 2
By Scott Craig   |   August 5, 2025

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art is keeping the celebration alive. While the party to honor Judy L. Larson – who retired after 17 years of directing the museum – has concluded, the sizable exhibition, Building A Collection: 2008-2025, continues through Saturday, August 2. Interim Director Chris Rupp has scoured through the 2,500 art objects […]

A Divot-ing Evening
By Richard Mineards   |   August 5, 2025

It was a very in-tents occasion when Santa Barbara Polo Training Center hosted its 9th annual gala dinner for 120 all-white clad guests at the Carpinteria locale – which enabled the purchase of a much needed $77,000 John Deere tractor. Each year, the 13-year-old organization makes $10,000 grants to UCSB and Westmont College polo team […]

Alum Keeps Marching Forward
By Scott Craig   |   July 29, 2025

Lee Park (‘22) marched into a career soon after graduating from Westmont and being commissioned as a second lieutenant. Participating in Army ROTC as a student first at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) and then at Westmont led to his position as an assistant operations officer in an Army Combat Sustainment Support Battalion at Joint […]

College Honors Faculty and Staff
By Scott Craig   |   July 29, 2025

Westmont celebrated service anniversaries and recognized its Employees of the Year at the annual Staff and Faculty Appreciation Brunch on campus. This year’s Employees of the Year were Charles Ryu, Christen Foell (‘01) and Aaron Sizer (‘01). Ryu, an overachieving mobile, web application, and content management system developer, recently appeared on John Stossel TV to […]

Creating a Spiritual Formation Hub
By Scott Craig   |   July 22, 2025

Workers have begun constructing a new $7 million building on Westmont’s campus north of the Global Leadership Center to house the Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture. Crews expect to complete the 3,700-square-foot complex and 1,500-square-foot deck in about 15 months, replacing the existing structure at 909 La Paz Road. Private donors are funding construction […]

Cultivating Community in Age of AI
By Scott Craig   |   July 22, 2025

The fifth annual Impact Conference, Cultivating Community in the Age of AI, brings together senior technology leaders in higher education to explore ways to apply AI to strengthen – rather than replace – human connections on July 24-25 in Westmont’s Global Leadership Center. Purchase tickets, which cost $129 per person for two full days with […]

A Natural Defense: Sheep Clear Brush to Curb Fires
By Scott Craig   |   July 15, 2025

Westmont has welcomed a herd of sheep to campus to eat non-native vegetation and reduce wildfire fuel in the barranca west of Voskuyl Library, adjacent to the dry Westmont Creek. Coordinated by Montecito Fire, the flock from Cuyama Lamb will eat their fill before the grasses dry out later this summer and have the potential […]