WESTMONT NEWS
Warriors Return for Homecoming 2024
Warriors Return for Homecoming 2024 Homecoming offers heartwarming class reunions (years ending in 4 or 9 last fall) and many engaging activities as well. Janay Ramos Marshall ’01, director of alumni relations, packed the schedule this year. Alums could sit in on regular Friday classes or hear professors present special talks just for them. Other options included a workshop on estate planning, networking with students, presentations about students’ summer research, a hymn sing with music professor Ruth Lin, who conducted the Westmont Orchestra, stargazing with the Keck Telescope, a vespers service, a fair for kids and a women’s volleyball match, to name a few. Each year, the Alumni Awards Celebration Brunch honors stellar alums. In October, Westmont recognized five recipients.
Eric Knopf ’04 co-founded and serves as co-CEO of Webconnex, a leading software company that powers events and fundraising for global brands such as Nike, Red Bull, Crossfit, Young Life, Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Major League Baseball. He has also founded Epic Life, a faith community where he preaches and teaches. He and his wife, Camille White Knopf ’03, live in Sacramento with their two children.
Dr. Lauren Brown-Berchtold ’09 decided to pursue family medicine after an Emmaus Road summer trip to Indonesia. She graduated from the Keck School of Medicine at USC and also completed a fellowship in obstetrics. She directs the Family Medicine Residency Training Program at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, California, 30 minutes from her hometown. She and her husband, Nick, have a daughter.
Ben Eastvold ’01, founder and executive director of GLAD Technology, a nonprofit based in Sacramento, helps refugees rebuild their lives after fleeing war and violence. GLAD also operates in rural Kenya, where Ben teaches technology courses in person each summer and remotely during the year, providing tools and training for a better life. Previously, he was a software engineer, teacher, IT director and high school principal.
Alicia Burns Eastvold ’04 leads a technology service team at Your Part- Time Controller (YPTC) that helps nonprofits use technology and data to make meaningful decisions. Previously, she has worked in accounting and earned her CPA. In addition, she supports GLAD Technology’s operations, deeply investing in its growth, mission and outreach. She enjoys helping nonprofits tell their financial stories. Alicia and Ben have two daughters.
John Bertram ’14 earned an M.S. in power engineering at Germany’s Technical University of Munich (TUM). His team from TUM won the Hyperloop competition at SpaceX, and he later worked on electric planes capable of vertical take-off. In 2018, he started OnePointOne with his brother to address food security with automated indoor vertical farming technology. John is the main architect of the technology. He and his wife, Anna-Kate Bultema Bertram ’14, live in Arizona.
During Homecoming, Campus Pastor Scott Lisea led a solemn memorial service honoring the 35th anniversary of the deadly Potter’s Clay car accident. Lisa Bebout, Alan Voorman and Garth Weedman were killed March 27, 1989, while participating in the annual spring break service trip to Ensenada, Mexico. Patty Hallock Crosby ’92 and Megan Harter Adams ’97 survived despite devastating injuries. Megan, who spoke at the event, has written a book, “Hope in the Darkest Hour: A Memoir of Survival and Resilience.” About 70 people gathered in the stone pine forest below the Dining Commons around a monument of stones students brought back from Ensenada as a memorial to the students who died. Dr. Scott and Lynn Voorman, Alan’s parents, and Sig and Diana Weedman, Garth’s parents, attended. Look for a feature story about the Potter’s Clay tragedy in the spring 2025 magazine.
Read more about the award winners at westmont.edu/alumni/homecoming/alumni-awards.