Skip to main content
  • Current Students
  • Parents & Families
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Staff

Footer quick links

  • Request Info
  • Plan a Visit
  • Apply Now
  • Apply
  • About
    • Campus Map
    • College Profile
    • Community Commitments
    • Our Commitment to Diversity
    • History of Westmont
    • Institutes & Centers
    • Leadership
    • News
    • Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts
    • Ridley-Tree Museum of Art
    • Westmont Magazine
    • Consumer Information
      • Request Info
      • Plan a Visit
      • Apply Now
  • Academics
    • Academic Services
    • Augustinian Scholars Program
    • Academic Opportunities
    • Majors and Programs
    • Office of the Provost
    • Outcomes
    • Voskuyl Library
    • Consumer Information
      • Request Info
      • Plan a Visit
  • Admissions
    • Prospective Students
    • First-Year Students
    • Transfer Students
    • Visit Westmont
    • Student Financial Services
    • Admitted Students
    • Confirmed Students
    • Prospective Parents
    • Meet your Counselor
    • Confirm your Place
    • Consumer Information
      • Request Info
      • Plan a Visit
      • Apply Now
  • Student Life
    • Words of Warriors
    • CATlab
    • Living on Campus
    • On Campus Activities
    • Off Campus Activities
    • Our Commitment to Diversity
    • COVE Career Center
    • Ministries
    • Chapel
    • Consumer Information
      • Request Info
      • Plan a Visit
      • Apply Now
  • Giving
    • Why Give?
    • Where to Give
    • How to Give
    • Giving Societies
    • Contact Us
      • Give Today
  • Athletics
  • Research
  • Westmont TV
  • Intercultural and Global Engagement
    • Reflections from the President
    • Commitments and Key Documents
    • College Initiatives
    • Academic Initiatives
    • Co-curricular Initiatives and Impact
    • Policies Addressing Bias and Harassment
    • Research, Reports, and Resources
    • Leadership
    • Admissions and Scholarships

Intercultural and Global Engagement

A Message from the President

As a college community, we’re committed to studying the life and teachings of Jesus, who taught us to love one another by learning to love our neighbor as ourselves. Learning how to live together with difference and to love each other lies at the heart of a community devoted to attitudes centered in truth and practices focused on others. 
 
More than anything, we want to walk together with hope and honor Christ with actions that bring us closer to knowing the heart of God. I deeply desire that we love one another as Christ has loved us. We’re committed to being repentant people, one in spirit and purpose, as we advance the Kingdom of God through the work of the college.

Today, our culture and society stand at a critical juncture. Our attention must continue to shift to justice, reconciliation, and diversity as we realize that a fresh understanding and a different approach is necessary in every sphere of our society.

At Westmont, we’re trying to develop a greater capacity to listen by opening our hearts to the most aggrieved members of our society. We want to understand and empathize with those who have been left out and left behind, domestically and internationally. We want to be a community of learners that actively addresses injustice and works towards reconciliation even as we experience the rich impact of God’s reconciling and transforming work in our own life. We’re working to develop a capacity to see the wider hurt in our society and the role we’ve played in it. 

Our strategic plans amplify our focus on diversity, global engagement and intercultural competency in our service to and recruitment of students. Progress and growth occur over time, with no finish line for efforts dedicated to diversity and our multicultural programs. We often overestimate what we can get done in one year and underestimate what we can get done in 10. We recognize we still have a lot of work to do, but we also have the commitments and the priorities in place to accomplish the work. 

In our long and enduring history, we’ve faced all manner of challenges arising from both natural and human origins. As we respond to our country’s past and the present reckoning with racial issues, we do so with buoyant optimism that God will remain faithful.  Just as he has led us in every previous generation, God will renew us again and help us grow in our faith and knowledge so we can better share his love, grace, mercy, justice and peace.

With a bright hope for our future,

Gayle D. Beebe

President’s Article Westmont Spring ‘20 Magazine, July 2020

President's Article Westmont Spring '21 Magazine, June 2021

Footer links menu

  • Request Info
  • Plan a Visit
  • Apply Now

Footer Utility menu

  • Employment
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Emergency Info
  • Consumer Information

955 La Paz Road
Santa Barbara, CA 93108 

805-565-6000

Contact Us

 

Social media menu

©2023
Westmont College - All rights reserved