CATLab CATLab Director's Note: January 2025
Welcome to the CATLab Director's Note Newsletter! I send these out periodically to update CATLab alumni, donors, and partners on what we've been up to and the achievements of our students. I can't wait to hear what you think!
In this edition, I provide an overview of what's next for CATLab in the coming year as well as some exciting industry research I've been thinking about lately.
-Zak
Hello friends,
Happy New Year from CATLab. We're in full swing of the spring semester, and we have several updates for you.
Pancake Breakfast!
Here's your next chance to connect with CATLab folks:
February 22
8am-10am
Westmont Downtown, 4th floor
This event is literally just to spend time together: CATLab alum, current CATLab members, tech talk speakers, and supporters. Drop in. It's free. Bring your spouse. Bring a friend. See you there!
Jordan Douthit '21, former CATLab UX/UI dev, and Donovan Howat '24, former CATLab ADR, are co-hosting the event with me. (Thanks, Jordan and Donovan!).
If you're willing to flip pancakes for everyone who shows up, let me know! I could use a couple other volunteers. :)
News
Summer 2024 magazines are going out in the mail this week! If you haven't received your copy by Wednesday of next week, let me know. Read the magazine
Check out our new sign in the CRM room in the library! This amazing, laser-cut sign created and donated by K Designs (Thank you, Kellie!), is surrounded by 'bricks' of those laying the foundation for the CATLab endowment. To get a brick on the wall with your name on it, commit to a monthly gift in support of the CATLab endowment. This sign is a symbol, pointing to the power of community investment.
Among the things I'm most excited about for this upcoming year is a new partnership with Webconnex, an event ticketing company created by Westmont alum Eric Knopf '04. Eric was this Westmont's 2024 alum of the year! We got to know about this platform through Kevin Kishiyama '04, who works at Webconnex and volunteered with CATLab last summer. Some of our '25 CATLab data analysts will be taking a deep dive in implementing this platform, moving us toward modern ticket scanning, merch purchasing, and donation enablement. Impact conference 2025 will run on this event ticketing platform.
It's hiring season for CATLab! Jobs for summer 2025 are getting posted next week. Please pray for this new cohort - that God would bring the right people and make clear the best way to serve our community this summer.
Mentor Reminder
If you're mentoring a student from Summer 2024, you have only four sessions left! Enjoy the time with your student, and make sure to continue scheduling time (the mentor's responsibility). Several current students have shared with me how grateful they are for this connection; it's keeping them focused on life after college. Here's the google doc of conversation ideas for reference.
If you're interested in mentoring a student in the Summer 2025 cohort, let me know!
Invitation
It's new year resolution time. Here's a thought from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, my favorite productivity book:
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.
In that spirit, I invite you (challenge you?) to join me and twenty others who have committed to the monthly habit of micro-investing in this program. The you of two years from now will be proud of the you today.
CATLab 2024 Video
Industry Thoughts
For those that enjoy a deeper dive, this section's for you. Below, I highlight three resources, and I encourage you to read through the full linked articles.
First: Jeff Selingo. He's a leading scholar on issues related to higher education, often advocating for new learning models. He is officially tied to Arizona State University as a Professor of Practice and Special Advisor to the President. He's the keynote speaker for Salesforce's Education Summit in March of this year.
Selingo's most recent newsletter describes many current, large-scale trends, pretty much all of which are hard news for schools like Westmont. From declining high school graduation numbers nationwide, to aging building infrastructure created in the 'aughts', to students today being less willing (or able) to pay for education than ever before, we may be headed into "the third era" of rapid change for higher ed. This era, he says, "will require institutions to figure out where they want to 'play' in the decade ahead." There are many challenges before us, and it inspires those of us in the day-to-day at Westmont to call on our networked, larger community for wisdom, enthusiasm, and support. The best way through the days ahead is together.
Second: David Brooks. Brooks is a NYT columnist and annual visitor to Westmont's Lead Where You Stand conference. Brooks' latest article, The Character Building Tool Kit, describes in crystalline prose the core purpose of institutions like Westmont. To highlight one passage:
Moral formation isn't just downloading content into a bunch of brains; it involves an inner transformation of the heart. It involves helping students change their motivations so that they want to lead the kind of honorable and purposeful lives that are truly worth wanting. It's more about inspiration than information.
Westmont is not just about moving through a pipeline to jobs, it's about forming people of character. A Westmont education is a unique treasure in today's chaotic landscape.
Finally: Julia Freeland Fisher. Fisher is the Director of Education at the Clayton Christiansen Institute, and advises many institutions on policy related to technology in education. She has also been a keynote at Westmont's Impact Conference the last two years. She delivers new and helpful research in a recently published article with a core theme that "human connection is becoming more valuable and more vulnerable in the age of AI."
Fisher's research is especially poignant for CATLab, as we seek to build AI tools over the next year. There are many reasons to celebrate how AI is enabling better outcomes in advising and motivation for students, but we must be careful to build with measurable goals promoting the enhancement of human relationships. Fisher points out, "An estimated half of internships and jobs come through personal connections. Students with access to mentors are significantly more likely to graduate feeling prepared for life after school. Young people who have an adult encouraging them to pursue their goals are more than twice as likely as those without to have a promising future." Bots are great and needed, but person to person connection is so important. There's a need for both the products CATLab makes, but also the environment of CATLab to produce a culture where human to human connection is developed.
Thanks!
I hope you enjoy the new email newsletter format. I welcome your suggestions on what is most fun for you to hear about CATLab, Westmont, or current development efforts. Also, if you have connections you think would benefit CATLab students, I'd love to hear about them.
Until next time.
-Zak