Homecoming Alumni Awards
Westmont College is pleased to honor and celebrate four alumni for faithful lives of leadership and service.
Do you know an alum who should be considered for an alumni award? Nominations will be accepted until May 15. Nominations received after that date will be considered for the following year. Awardees will be recognized at the Alumni Awards Brunch during Homecoming. Tickets to the brunch can be purchased through the Homecoming registration form.
Award Categories
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Alumnus and Alumna of the Year Award | Young Alumni Award | Global Service Award |
Recognizes distinguished careers and lives modeling Westmont's values. Their outstanding contributions to their profession and community embody Westmont's mission. | Commends a graduate of the past 10 years with a distinguished professional career who shows promise for the future and models Westmont’s Christian principles and values. | Honors devoted service to God’s kingdom through international, missionary or non-profit work by living a faithful Christian life in a diverse, complex and quickly changing society as a citizen and servant of the world. |
Please join us in commending our 2024 Awardees:
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2024 Alumnus of the Year: | 2024 Alumna of the Year: |
Eric Knopf ’04 is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Webconnex, a leading software company that powers events and fundraising for global brands like Nike, RedBull, Crossfit, Young Life, FCA, and Major League Baseball. The Webconnex platform processes over $1.5 billion annually, serving millions of users each month. With over 100 employees and an 98% retention rate, Webconnex seeks to embody a redemptive model of entrepreneurship, fostering a generous, empowering, and fun company culture. Eric's passion also extends beyond business to ministry. He founded Epic Life, where he frequently preaches and teaches the Bible at churches, ministry schools, and events. He has written two books and is recognized as an entrepreneurial thought leader by Forbes, INC, and Business Journal. Eric is married to Camille ’03, and they are the proud parents of Scarlett and Maverick. | Dr. Lauren Brown-Berchtold ’09. After growing up in a small town in the Central Valley of California, Lauren was wildly lucky to come to Westmont College and have her world expanded. She decided to become a family physician after meeting and living among Indonesian villagers on a summer trip with Emmaus Road in 2011. Now, Lauren is the program director for the Family Medicine residency training program only 30 minutes away from her hometown. She is a borderline-rabid advocate for physician burnout prevention and mental health protections and spends a lot of extracurricular time and dollars working on this topic nationally. Lauren’s biggest adventures take place with her husband Nick and daughter Joanie, who is their star. She is happiest while under the trees of the Sierra Nevadas. |
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2024 Global Service Award: | 2024 Young Alumni of the Year: |
Ben Eastvold (‘01) is the founder and executive director of GLAD Technology, a non-profit dedicated to workforce development for displaced and disadvantaged populations. Based in Sacramento, CA, he works with refugees rebuilding their lives after fleeing war and violence in their home countries. GLAD also operates in Kenya, where Ben teaches technology courses in-person each summer and remotely throughout the year. GLAD’s Kenyan students come from the slums of Nairobi or remote rural areas with little opportunity for education and work. Through technology training, personal and professional development, and community building, GLAD’s programs give young adults the tools they need to build a better life. Prior to GLAD, Ben worked as a software engineer, a teacher, an I.T. director, and a high school principal. His passion for technology and education led him to where he is today: bringing hope and learning to ones that need it most. Alicia (Burns) Eastvold (‘04) is a nonprofit finance leader at Your Part-Time Controller, where she leads a technology service team that helps nonprofits leverage technology and data to make meaningful decisions. Although she thought her path after Westmont was leading to being a professional musician (thanks to inspiring Westmont staff like Steve Butler and Grey Brothers), life took some beautiful turns, including teaching, and eventually accounting and getting her CPA. She's now at the fun stage in her career, where the breadcrumbs from the past have brought her into clearer vocational purpose: helping nonprofits tell their financial stories and see the importance of financial stewardship. Outside of her daily job, Alicia brings her skills to support GLAD Technology's operations, and is deeply invested in the growth of its mission. Ben and Alicia have two daughters, Lillian (13) and Carly (11), who thoroughly enjoy life in Kenya each summer. | Bio — John Bertram, CTO & Co-Founder, OnePointOne John grew up with his younger brother Sam in Wheelers Hill, Victoria, Australia. After finishing High School in the 97th percentile state-wide, John moved to the U.S. to play collegiate tennis in 2010. John graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara with a B.S. in Chemistry (Chemical Physics) in 2014. John decided to divert his attention to engineering with a M.S. in Power Engineering at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in Munich, Germany. John’s professional career began with winning the Hyperloop competition at SpaceX with TUM as team lead for Levitation and Stability. John then earned a Propulsion role at one of the world’s leading Vertical Take-off & Landing electric plane companies, Lilium. John returned to the U.S. in 2018 to pursue OnePointOne, an automated indoor vertical farming technology company that he started with his brother Sam to address food security. The idea for OnePointOne was born from the fact that 1.1 billion people began this millennium malnourished. John has directed engineering development of OnePointOne since day one, and is the main architect behind the technology. John currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife Anna-Kate (née Bultema) and their pup, Molly. |