Westmont To Broadcast Commencement Live Online
For the first time, Westmont will offer a free, online, live broadcast of Commencement from the newly renovated Russell Carr Field Saturday, May 8, at 10 a.m. Viewers can log in here during the ceremony to view the video.
The college, which introduced an iPhone application in April, has been streaming video of athletic events to computers this year.
Commencement will feature 330 graduates this year, 119 with honors. Among the students graduating with honors will be Colleen Atkinson, Westmont administrative assistant to the campus pastor and chapel coordinator for more than eight years. Atkinson has had a lifelong desire to complete the college education she began more than 40 years ago.
A father and daughter are graduating together as well this year. Salinas firefighter Shannon Patrick Bryant has completed a degree in economics and business at Westmont. His daughter, Amy, has earned a bachelor’s degree in history. Shannon, who is married to Lori (Holbrook) Bryant ’84, is the son of Robert S. Bryant, owner of Bryant and Sons Ltd. Jewelers, who received the Westmont Medal in 2007.
Michael Towbes, one of Santa Barbara’s leading philanthropists will receive the Westmont Medal at Commencement this year. Towbes, chairman of both The Towbes Group and Montecito Bank & Trust and chief financial officer of The Towbes Foundation, is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Princeton University who attended graduate school at MIT.
The Westmont Medal honors those whose lives embody the very principles associated with the Judeo-Christian character of the college. These men and women give substance and credence to our beliefs and serve as effective role models for our students.
As a community leader, Towbes has served and chaired innumerable local nonprofit boards. He was president of the Santa Barbara Foundation and served on the board of Cottage Hospital for 27 years, including five years as its chair. He has made multi-million-dollar gifts to create the Granada Performing Arts Center and to assure the continued presence of the classical music radio station KDB.
Richard J. Foster, author and founder of Renovaré, presents the Commencement address, “The Humiliation of the Word in Our Day,” a title taken from Jacques Ellul’s “The Humiliation of the Word.” Foster, best known for his book “Celebration of Discipline,” co-authored “Longing for God: Seven Paths of Spiritual Devotion” with Westmont President Gayle D. Beebe.
Three Monroe Scholars will graduate: Elri ten Brink, a biology major from San Diego, Calif., Daniel Wendler, a double major in Spanish and economics and business from Carlsbad, Calif., and Andrea Owen, a Spanish major from Dallas, Texas. The Monroe Scholarship is a four-year, full-tuition scholarship offered to a few exceptionally high-achieving first-year students each year. It is the highest academic honor an incoming student may receive.
Commencement is free and open to the public. However, there is no parking available on campus. Guests will need to park their cars at Santa Barbara City College and use Westmont’s free shuttle service to campus for the ceremony.