Westmont News

Westmont’s John Blondell discusses the world premiere play that will bring Santa Barbara’s silent film history to the stage in a Westmont Downtown Lecture Thursday, February 16, at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden Street, in downtown Santa Barbara. “The Film Within a Play: Celebrating Santa Barbara’s Flying A Studios on Stage,” is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. Ample free parking is available. For more information, please call (805) 565-6051.

The Santa Barbra International Film Festival was a small local event when Sean Pratt began working for it two decades ago. Pratt, SBIFF managing director and Westmont adjunct professor, Roger Durling, SBIFF executive director, and their team have grown the festival from one featuring adventure-sport and nature films into one of the top 10 in the country.

A Westmont music professor participates in a community conversation about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Paul Mori, whose grandparents and parents were all incarcerated under President Franklin D.

The Westmont College Festival Theatre brings Santa Barbara’s treasured cinematic history to the stage in a world premiere. “Diamond to Dust: a Flying A Fantasy,” directed by Westmont’s John Blondell and written by local actor, educator and playwright Michael Bernard, explores the silent film industry and its historical significance.

Brandon Rickabaugh, known for his work at the intersection of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and Christian spiritual formation, speaks about “Mechanizing Ourselves to Death:  The Human Soul and Cultural Disillusionment,” on Monday, January 30, at 7:30 p.m. in Westmont’s Global Leadership Center.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, world-renowned presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, speaks at the 18th annual Westmont President’s Breakfast on Friday, March 10, from 7-9 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom of Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. Tickets cost $125 per person and go on sale Friday, Feb. 10, at 9 a.m. at westmont.edu/breakfast. Seating is limited, and tickets are sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

Westmont performs an ambitious operatic double bill of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury” and Rossini’s “The Silken Ladder” Friday, January 27, and Sunday, January 29; both at 7 p.m. in Center Stage Theater. To purchase tickets, which cost $20 for general admission, $15 for seniors or military members, please visit the Center Stage box office at centerstagetheater.org.

David Vander Laan, Westmont professor of philosophy, has won the American Philosophical Association’s 2022 Alvin Plantinga Prize. Coincidentally, the prestigious award honors Vander Laan’s doctoral adviser, one of the most influential people shaping Christian philosophical thought during the past 50 years.

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art features two artists whose work responds to climate change.

Westmont’s powerful Keck Telescope will zoom in on a several celestial objects Friday, December 16, from 6-10 p.m. at the Westmont Observatory. Westmont hosts the monthly viewings, held on the third Friday of the month, in conjunction with the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit whose members bring their own telescopes. Visitors are asked to enter the Westmont campus through the main, upper entrance, since the kiosk at the Colds Spring Entrance will be unmanned.

Westmont’s junior engineering students were revved up for the annual remote control car competition on Dec. 8 in front of Kerrwood Hall. The students spent the last 10 weeks working in teams to assemble hundreds of parts to create their race cars, which count for 5 percent of their overall grade in the Machine Design course.

Westmont celebrates the life of its founder Ruth Kerr on National Mason Jar Day on November 30. Following the death of her husband Alexander, Ruth became president of the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Company in 1930. Kerr became one of most recognizable American mason jar brands.

Inspired by Giving Tuesday, a new donor has stepped up to double every gift made Wednesday through Friday, November 30 at 5 pm PST to the Westmont Fund, up to a total of $50,000.

“This anonymous donor has a personal passion for ensuring students have the financial resources to thrive and grow by attending Westmont.” says Jonathan Thomas, Senior Director of Annual Giving. “The donor hopes to encourage others to give any amount, as they are able, to set students on the lifelong trajectory of significance God has for them.”

Westmont hosted a community event with education and financial representatives exploring the best ways low-income students can fund a college education on Nov. 15. About 100 underprivileged high school students and their families attended “Affording Your Dream College,” which was held in partnership with several county education initiatives.

Westmont kicks off the season of Advent with a festive, family-friendly ceremony, "Let There be Light!" on Wednesday, November 30, from 5-7 p.m. on Kerrwood Lawn.

Photos with Santa Claus begin at 4:30 p.m. in Kerrwood Hall with the line forming in the President's Patio near the fountain. Families and children are encouraged to bring their own cameras for a memorable photo with Santa.

The evening begins on Kerrwood Lawn with treats, Christmas carols and entertainment, culminating into the ceremonial lighting of Kerrwood Hall. 

Westmont is equipping evangelical students from across the nation who care deeply about the environment to lead their communities in answering God’s call to steward creation wisely. The college will be hosting "Faith. Climate. Action: A Workshop on Christian Climate Advocacy" attracting about 40 students and faculty from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), and 10 InterVarsity student leaders to campus June 25-July 2, 2023.

Westmont Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Eben Drost, will perform classic jazz pieces and more contemporary compositions on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 8 p.m. in Deane Chapel. The concert is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the music department at (805) 565-6040. 

A large, enthusiastic crowd in Westmont’s Global Leadership Center welcomed Clayborne Carson, the world-renowned and acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. scholar and director of the King Papers Project. He spoke about “The Lives and Shared Legacy of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr.,” as part of a Mosher Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership luncheon November 4.

David Hunter’s 2017 research on umpire consistency continues to garner national attention. Hunter, Westmont professor of mathematics, devised a metric for consistency of home plate umpires that others have relied on to grade Major League Baseball umpires.

The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art shares the deep trove of art collected by the late Barry Berkus, an architect, urban planner, watercolor artist and author, in “A Bold and Unconventional Collector: Highlights from the Barry Berkus Family Collection,” which will be on display from Nov. 17- Dec. 12. The public is invited to a free, opening reception Thursday, Nov. 17, from 4- 6 p.m.

Sandra Richter, Westmont's Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, speaks about “Down to Earth: A Biblical Perspective on Environmentalism” Thursday, Nov. 3, at 5:30 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden Street. The Westmont Downtown Lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required.

The 18th annual Westmont Christmas Festival, “The Prince of Peace,” returns to Santa Barbara’s famed Granada Theatre Saturday, December 3, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, December 4, at 3 p.m. Tickets, which cost $22 each, are on sale at westmont.edu/festival. For ticket information or to purchase tickets by phone, please contact the Granada box office at (805) 899-2222.

On the heels of two consecutive record-breaking fundraising years, Westmont has launched its largest fundraising campaign ever, Forward in Faithfulness. Through generous gifts from alumni, parents, foundations and friends of the college, including the two largest gifts in the history of the college, the campaign has raised more than $197.1 million of the $250 million goal.

Westmont dedicated its new accelerated bachelor of science in nursing (ABSN) program, naming it Westmont Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing on Oct. 14 at 26 West Anapamu Street. David Grotenhuis, an alumnus of the college, and his wife Anna were inspired to give generously to the program by Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, who died earlier this month.

Clayborne Carson, the world-renowned and acclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. scholar and director of the King Papers Project, speaks at Westmont’s Mosher Center for Moral and Ethical Leadership luncheon on Friday, Nov. 4, from 12-1:30 p.m. in the Simmons Center of Westmont’s Global Leadership Center. Carson will present “The Lives and Shared Legacy of Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr.” A limited number of tickets, which cost $50 per person, are available for purchase at westmont.edu/mosher-event.

The Westmont community mourns the passing of Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree, whose generosity made a profound impact on the college and touched the lives of many people and organizations in the Santa Barbara community. She personified what it means to be a true philanthropist.

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Tim Van Haitsma, Westmont associate professor and chair of the kinesiology department, is a lifelong runner who will speak about mental strength training on Thursday, Oct. 13, at 5:30 p.m. in the Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden Street, in downtown Santa Barbara.

Steve L. Porter, a longtime professor of spiritual formation, theology and philosophy, is the new senior research fellow and executive director of Westmont’s Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture.

Wendy Eley Jackson brings more than a quarter century of experience in film and television to Westmont as the theater department’s new artist/scholar-in-residence for justice, reconciliation and diversity. Jackson, a native of Atlanta, is teaching Documentary Filmmaking, Screenwriting, and Creative Writing this semester for the theater and English departments.

Five new accomplished, tenure-track professors have joined the Westmont faculty this fall.

New national rankings and economic indicators establish Westmont as one of the top Christian liberal arts colleges in the U.S. once again.

The Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture and the Dallas Willard Research Center (MIDWC) at Westmont have chosen “Relational Spirituality: A Psychological-Theological Paradigm for Transformation” by Todd W.

A Westmont professor has received a prestigious fellowship to serve at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). The Lady Davis Fellowship Trust selected Ronald See, professor of psychology and neuroscience, as the Marie and Matthew Heller visiting professor in medicine at the Institute of Medical Research.

About 320 first-year students and a record-setting 70 transfers begin arriving at Westmont for Orientation (Aug. 25-28) and the start of the fall semester (Aug. 29).

Adam Belt explores the point where art, science and spirituality converge in an exhibition, “Adam Belt: Wish You Were Here,” Sept. 1 – Nov. 5 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. A free, public opening reception takes place Thursday, Sept. 1, from 4-6 p.m. in the museum.

A Westmont professor and recent graduate won the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award from the Mathematical Association of America, the world’s largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. David J.

This month’s public viewing of the stars will focus on several exotic Messier objects as the summer Milky Way stretches across the sky from the northeast to the southwest. The free viewing on Friday, Aug. 19, begins at sunset and lasts several hours at the Westmont Observatory.

Westmont’s Center for Applied Technology (CATLab) joins forces with Salesforce to host the Impact Conference on Thursday, Aug. 11, in the Global Leadership Center on campus. Keynote speakers include Peter Coffee, vice president for strategic research at Salesforce, and Lupita Knittel, president of 7Mindsets, an education technology company.

A Westmont researcher has won a grant to further his search for evidence of the presence of mysterious dark matter. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $200,000 grant to Ben Carlson, Westmont assistant professor of physics, to continue his work on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.

It’s globular cluster season at the Westmont Observatory with this month’s viewing focusing on two conglomerations containing hundreds of thousands of stars. The free, public viewing of the stars is Friday, July 15, beginning at 7 p.m. and lasting several hours. Face coverings will be required at the event.

A tight-knit cohort of five Westmont student teachers shared inspirational stories about their experiences in the classroom at an emotional Celebration of Teaching April 28 on campus. Linda Ngo, Sam Cordes, Hannah Boelter, Simon Janzen and Shae Caragher, who all earned California Preliminary Credentials, spoke at the event, held for the first time since 2019.

Westmont senior Chloe White earned the Etienne Gros Prize for Academic Excellence in Literature this summer after graduating from the French Honors program at the Institute for American Universities (IAU) in Southern France.

Paul Wilt, Westmont professor emeritus of history, died June 23 at the age of 93. He is survived by his wife, Doris, and their four children: Tom, Marilyn ’74, Janet ’76 and Daniel ’84. A memorial service will be held at Shoreline Community Church, 935 San Andres Street, Santa Barbara, on Saturday, July 16, at 10 a.m. He has requested donations to Westmont instead of flowers.

Brad Elliott, Westmont's long-time campus photographer, father of three and grandfather to four, offers this advice for fathers on Father's Day:

Work by four enormously influential Southern California artists and art professors, Ken Jewesson, Ciel Bergman, Irma Cavat and Florence “FiFi” Russell, will appear in three exhibitions July 7 - Aug. 6 in the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art with a free, public opening reception at the museum on Thursday, July 7, from 4-6 p.m.

Westmont alumnus Ramon Gupta '94, a corporate attorney with an active practice in Santa Barbara, has joined the Westmont Board of Trustees. A partner with Mullen & Henzell LLP, Business & Real Estate Group since 1999, Gupta has taught business law at his alma mater since 2014. He will begin a three-year term at his first meeting in October.

Two Westmont graduates and Augustinian Scholars, John Corbett ’22 and Kyle Mayl ’21, have won Fulbright Scholarships to teach English outside the United States. Corbett will serve in the Czech Republic while Mayl will be in Spain.