Intercultural and Global Engagement Co-curricular Initiatives and Impact

Within Student Life, several departments collaborate to educate and engage on issues of diversity both globally and domestically. Students have the opportunity to develop cultural intelligence, discover the intersection of race and faith, and deepen their faith as they align their hearts with the God of justice. Our student organizations, outreach groups, and chapel program are pivotal in helping the Westmont community honor the beauty of God's diversity. You can read more about them below.

Intercultural Programs

Intercultural Programs office (ICP) supports and develops students of color and international students by providing academic, spiritual, vocational, cultural, social and personal resources while engaging the broader campus community with forums and programs related to race, ethnicity and culture.

Blake Thomas, Director of Intercultural Programs

Intercultural Programs are an essential part of the Westmont community. As a student of theology, I firmly believe that God is the author of culture. As creatures made in the image and likeness of God, we are invited to participate in the beauty of diversity by both making and engaging culture. I hope that you will join us in ICP as we seek to aid the college's mission to pursue unity amid diversity.

I'm blessed to work with a team of student leaders who oversee the intercultural organizations listed below. I encourage you to browse through the information to learn how you can get involved.

P.S. Stop by my office in Kerr Student Center and let's grab a cup of coffee or tea.

- Blake Thomas, Director of Intercultural Programs

Ministries and Outreach

Campus Life provides advisory support and training for three organizations that do ministry and outreach in local settings and abroad: Potter's Clay, Urban Initiative and Emmaus Road.

Residence Life

The Global Leadership Center (GLC) opened in 2017 as a residence hall and a center in which students would further augment their global experience upon return to Westmont’s campus by “bringing their learning home.” Students advance their lifelong engagement with the academy, church, and world by translating their meaningful global experience into effective global citizenship. This learning map shows how students “land, learn and launch” as part of the GLC programs.

The mission of the GLC

Chapel

Chapel is our community's "homeroom," where we regularly gather our diverse community together to experience our unity in Christ. Through exposure to different styles of worship, and listening to a broad variety of voices from different contexts, we learn to appreciate different forms and traditions of worship, and benefit from listening to the broad collective voice of the global Church.

Links to selected chapels are below.

David Bailey

Sept 27, 2019

David Bailey, the founding director of Arrabon, speaks about how Christians can be a reconciling community in many different contexts.

Jan 17, 2020

David Bailey, the founding director of Arrabon, gives a brief overview of the Bible, focusing on the kingdom of God as a just society that includes and cares for those on the margins.

Scott Lisea

Oct 25, 2019

Scott Lisea, Westmont’s campus pastor, speaks about lament and how our culture often dismisses it. He then explores lament in the context of racism in America.

Bryan Loritts

Oct 1, 2018

Bryan Loritts, lead pastor of Abundant Life Church in Silicon Valley, speaks about how Hosea and Gomer’s relationship gives us a picture of God’s unrelenting love for us and how we should pursue “strange” relationships with people who are unlike us.

Sept 4, 2019

Bryan Loritts, lead pastor of Abundant Life Church in Silicon Valley, speaks about Ruth and Boaz and how God’s providence interacts with our decisions no matter who we are.

The Rev. Dr. David N. Moore, Jr.

Feb 6, 2019

The Rev. Dr. David N. Moore, Jr., an ecumenical teacher and author, speaks about the history of lynching—a form of terrorism usually committed by people who were nominally Christian—in the United States.

Sept 20, 2019

The Rev. Dr. David N. Moore, Jr., an ecumenical teacher and author, speaks about resisting in love in order to bring about change and the “arc of the moral universe.”

Rich Reliford

Nov 13, 2019

Rich Reliford, the Los Angeles Director for Team World Vision and founder of Keeping it R.E.Y.A.L., encourages the next generation to embrace the rebellious mission to create revival and oneness in the church.

Angel Ruiz

Nov 6, 2019

Angel Ruiz, Young Life vice president of Los Angeles, speaks about the difference between diversity and inclusion, finishing by giving messages to specific groups in the audience.

WCSA

Conversations That Matter (CTM) is an event sponsored by the Westmont College Student Association (WCSA) that is intended to highlight a specific issue that is significant to the student body, the nation, the Church, or all of the above. WCSA aims to create a space for students to hear multiple perspectives from informed speakers and a chance for productive dialogue and discussion to occur. Previous CTM events have included: Three Part Lament Series on Racial Injustice and Westmont’s Racial Climate.