When he speaks to college students, Stanton Anderson ’62 offers a crisp, new $100 bill to anyone who can convert one million, one billion and one trillion into seconds. The answer — 12 days, 12 years and 32,000 years — astounds the audience. “I haven’t had to give away the $100 yet,” he says. “Most people don’t understand the magnitude … [more]
As a child, Mary Emery ’81 did plein air painting with her father on Esther Island in the summer. She has since moved indoors, becoming an artist who does interiors, using an entire house for her canvas. An East Coast girl, Mary grew up in upstate New York and settled in Nantucket, Mass., in 1999 after 15 years in New … [more]
Played without protective gear, rugby can be a punishing sport, as Maury Hayashida ’95 knows well. Growing up in Zambia, he competed on the rugby field and started Westmont’s club team. This background, and an internship in physical therapy his junior year, awakened an interest in rehabilitation. He majored in kinesiology at Westmont and earned master’s and doctoral degrees at … [more]
Aileen Silva Carroll ’99 lives in one of the most violent cities in Brazil so she can help victims of domestic violence. Murder is the leading cause of death for women of childbearing age in Recife, and the killers are often people close to the victims. Yet few services or shelters serve abused women, and the law fails to protect … [more]
How can Westmont alumni build on the significant relationships they established during their college years? Steve Beckett ’02 (left) and Chris Clark ’03 found a way They started the Westmont Alumni Networking Group of Orange County. For two years, 30-50 alumni have gathered once a quarter at lunchtime to hear a speaker and meet with fellow alumni. More than 100 … [more]
For years, Lois Santere Dodds ’80 has helped people who experience traumatic events, personal tragedies or difficulty adapting to different cultures. A professional counselor and a person familiar with cross-cultural challenges and hardships herself, she believes those in crisis respond best to a holistic approach. Heartstream Resources, which she co-founded in 1992, provides this kind of assistance for missionaries and … [more]
Rachel Wilson Trautwein ’96 came to Westmont knowing she wanted to be a doctor, majored in biology, and went to Loma Linda Medical School after graduating. Her husband, Eric Trautwein ’94, took a less direct route. A philosophy major who transferred from UC Berkeley, he planned on an academic career. But after working on a master’s degree in theology at … [more]
Why do fewer churches hold weekly prayer meetings these days? James Banks ’84 thinks Christians find praying aloud awkward and tedious because they’re out of practice. He hopes his book, “The Lost Art of Praying Together” (Discovery House, 2009), will inspire believers to recover the rich tradition of collective prayer. “A generation ago, Christians had a passion for prayer rarely … [more]
In South Africa, a young girl is more likely to be raped than to learn to read. Sexual assault and promiscuity feed the AIDS epidemic there, which robs 500 children of their parents each week. Beth Gillig ’03 knew these dismal facts before she arrived in South Africa for a six-week research project on AIDS orphans in 2002. But she … [more]
An NAIA All-American marathoner, Amy Bergenske Alzina ’98 knows what it takes to finish the punishing race: training, determination and hard work. Just three months after the birth of her first child she qualified for the 2008 Boston Marathon. First as a teacher and then as a principal, Amy has faced a different but no less difficult challenge: improving public … [more]