Westmont Magazine Two Trustees Join the Westmont Board
The Westmont Board of Trustees has welcomed two new members.
Allen Hopkins ’95, a sportscaster for ESPN and FOX Sports has served on the college’s Board of Advisors since 2007. “I had a tremendous, life-changing experience at Westmont,” he says. “It allowed me to grow and to find my gifts.” He majored in kinesiology and played on the men’s soccer team.
After Westmont, Hopkins spent two years pursuing a career in teaching and coaching at San Diego State University where he did graduate work in statistics and measurement while serving as the assistant men’s soccer coach.
Just two years later, Hopkins began calling local sports for a San Francisco Bay Area TV station, eventually landing a job as a play-by-play broadcaster and analyst for Fox Sports. In 2006, after seven seasons at FOX, Allen began working for ESPN primarily covering all things soccer, including the last two FIFA World Cups and NCAA college basketball.
“I visit student bodies and athletic programs at many different schools nationwide, “ Hopkins says. “What Westmont has is very unique: creating meaningful, lifetime memories and relationships. That is rare.”
Robert Nicholson, Ameriprise senior financial adviser in Stockton, Calif., has co-chaired Westmont’s Athletic Advisory Board for four years with Athletic Director Dave Odell.
“We have been absolutely floored by the consistency of our experience with Westmont students and their ability to articulate why they are here and what their experience has meant to them,” Nicholson says.
A Stanford basketball player who later served as an assistant coach and recruiter, he says his love of athletics also drew him to Westmont. “The athletics here are reminiscent of when I was in college rather than today’s big-time Division I athletics factories,” he says.
Nicholson’s areas of expertise as a financial adviser focus on retirement and estate planning, including family and business succession planning, charitable giving and savings plans for college.