Westmont Magazine Enhancing the Programs

The quality and depth of Westmont’s programs shape its unique educational
offerings. Thanks to the capital campaign, new funds will enrich current programs and develop new ones. The result is a comprehensive learning experience designed to develop young people of integrity who will contribute responsibly to a complex world.

Some of the programs benefitting from the campaign include off-campus
studies, the creative and performing arts, summer research, outreach activities, internship opportunities and special initiatives. Westmont will also upgrade its educational
technology to keep pace with recent discoveries and innovations. New equipment for
science laboratories will enhance our outstanding science curriculum and provide adequate instrumentation for both students and faculty.

‘While the greatest programmatic impact of the campaign is the two new buildings, the drive also raised money for important initiatives in the arts, intercultural programs and research.

Thanks to an anonymous gift, our theatre arts department is developing an international festival that will bring productions by foreign students to campus. The opportunity to meet people from other areas of the world will enlarge our students’ perspectives.

Another gift will provide stipends for ethnic minority students who engage in summer research on campus. Working in the lab with faculty enhances our academic program. Campaign funds for new lab equipment will also give a boost to the sciences.

In addition, we will fund more intercultural activities for students and faculty and strengthen offerings in this area.

I’m also excited about the campaign funds because they support areas where momentum and enthusiasm already exist and where only funding was lacking. They really do make a difference.”

— Provost Shirley Mullen

‘While we have been involved with Westmont for many years, the visual arts program is an area of increasing interest for us. My wife, Darlene, is a member of the Westmont Art Council, and we have both enjoyed seeing the excellent exhibits in Reynolds Gallery.

The Santa Barbara community has responded very positively to these exhibitions, including a favorable review of Tim Lowly’s recent show in the News-Press.

The new center for the visual arts will greatly expand Westmont’s ability to offer a high-quality gallery program. Professor Tony Askew has already demonstrated that he understands the kind of art that the community appreciates and benefits from.

The capital campaign has provided much-needed resources for programs in the arts as well as for scholarships, both of which will strengthen the visual arts on campus. We’ve been impressed by Westmont’s art program and expect it to become even more outstanding with the influx of campaign funds.”

— Walter Hansen, Trustee

‘The James L. Stamps Foundation’s generous grant to establish and equip a proper language laboratory has given us cause for great rejoicing! This essential resource for language study is a boon to our students, and its provision has been an enormous encouragement to us in our work.

Foreign language study has always been intrinsic to a traditional liberal arts education. Focused study of a language other than our native one certainly affords access to understanding diversity and multiculturalism. What is more, it enables a profound intellectual transformation for students who lend their minds and their imaginations to different speech patterns and, thereby, different thought processes. The remarkable advances in technology provide the tools with which students may hone their oral and written skills to become more effective and winsome messengers. Of course, as people of The Word, we seek to use language with respect and love. Few of us can appreciate our native language until we have worked intensely to learn one that is foreign to us and seen our own from the outside in!

The Stamps Language Laboratory has greatly enhanced students’ learning experience, and we are grateful for this wonderful gift that benefits us so directly.”

— French Professor

Mary Collier

‘I don’t think my experiences on off-campus programs were just a chance for me to apply to life what I had learned in the classroom. Instead, these experiences blew the roof off the classroom.

Traveling overseas in India, Nepal, and Kenya through Westmont programs taught me how much I do not know about the world around me, and how much I have an opportunity to learn. I believe these experiences have laid a foundation for me to continue learning with humility, openness, and attention for the rest of my life. I will be processing everything that I saw and experienced during my off-campus learning experiences for a long time to come.

I’m thankful that campaign gifts will help fund new off-campus experiences.”

— Hannah Notess ’03, English major