CATLab CATLab Director's Note: November 2024

Santa Barbara feels like fall, and we're only a few weeks from the good feelings of Thanksgiving and gatherings.  Allow me to get this November month of gratitude kicked off by telling you about one of my whys for CATLab.  Let me tell you about Mike Conrad.

I was twenty-two, and a brand new theater arts graduate from Westmont.  I had no idea how to get a job.  No idea.  Full of dreamy aspirations, I drove away from my parents' home in Michigan in a white, 1987 Honda Civic my family called "the Beacon".  I was headed to the promised land of San Francisco with a couple thousand dollars and my meager belongings.  On my way into the City, I spent a night at the Conrad's home.  Michael Conrad and I were deep friends at Westmont, and I trusted his family to open a room for a night.  I had no job.  No leads, even.  I was just passing through.

Mike Sr., Michael's dad and a thirty-year-journeyman carpenter with a pastor's heart, took fatherly pity on me.  Over a breakfast of yogurt and granola in the kitchen, he asked, "What are you going to do for work out here?"

"I'm not sure yet!"

Sigh.

"What's your degree in?"

"Theater Arts!"

Sigh.  Long Pause.

"Alright...  I want you to go to this address...." [scribble scribble] "...at this time..." [scribble scribble] "...I want you to talk to Jim, and tell him Mike sent you."  He handed the little, yellow sticky note to me.  It could have been made of gold.

I followed those instructions, and that night I worked my first gig as a union stagehand at Outside Lands.  Four incredible years of my life were spent in the theaters of San Francisco, building sets and working as part of Local 16.

Mike used the gift of his network and good name to connect me to income, a profession, and the possibility of making a way forward.  I will never forget that act of kindness.  Mike saw my need and gave me a path even before I asked.  He opened the world to the liberal arts dreamer who needed a little less starry-eyed hope and more concrete, professional, action steps.

Giving that golden post-it to students today in CATLab is my way of paying it forward.  It's one of my whys.

Here's the cool thing - as a CATLab's community has grown, more and more are stepping in to help others in a similar way.  For example:

Mike Magnuson, Westmont class of '07, has been a CATLab tech talk speaker a couple of times.  He's a VP of Technology at a company where, as a new grad, he wrote some of the first lines of their company's software.  Two summers ago, he leveraged his position to sponsor an internship for CATLab student Levi Nelson, effectively bestowing that golden post-it.  It was Levi's first programming job, and opened the door for him into the software development world.  Levi's now working at a company in San Diego as a lead developer. 

Thanks in part to how he was helped by CATLab folks like Mike, Levi became one of the first movers to fund the CATLab endowment by contributing monthly.  Mike recently joined Levi by adding his own name to this list of funders.  Mentor and mentee, side by side, are building a lasting program that makes it possible for even more like them to have the experience of professional empowerment.

CATLab does a lot of things: builds great solutions for the college, trains students to be professionals, makes beautiful publications, brings back mid-career professionals to share earned wisdom.  CATLab is increasingly a community... a purpose-driven microcosm of Westmont.  CATLab is a community of people who build and give back.  We make the way straight for those who come after us.

I hope you take encouragement from Levi, Mike, and my stories, and actively look for ways of empowering those people in your life who need your golden post-it note.

More about our current CATLab students next month!  A friend of the program recently shared this article with me, and was celebrating that CATLab is preparing students for the professional world.

- Zak

PS. If you're mentoring a student, just a reminder to reach out to them for your monthly check in!  Thanks for keeping this going!

PSS.  You're on this list because you're a CATLab alum, a donor, or a speaker.  I'm grateful for you.