Westmont Magazine Two New Grants Support Trailhead and Academic Advising

Thanks to another grant from the Lilly Endowment for nearly $300,000, the Trailhead program will stay on its steady ascent. The funding supplements Lilly’s initial investment in Trailhead and will help the college maintain the program for the next five years. Trailhead provides opportunities for high school students to explore their own ideas of vocation, service and ministry and to “discern God’s call on their lives.” 

The Lilly Fellows program has also awarded us a smaller grant to enrich efforts in academic advising. This grant will bring together several of our more experienced faculty advisors to assess our strategies and priorities for advising so we can craft new ways of equipping all professors to mentor and guide a fresh generation of students. Through an Academic Advisors Ambassadors Program, we’ll re-envision the role of advising in the holistic mission of a Christian liberal arts college and respond to the changing demographics of our student body.