Westmont News

The Westmont Jazz Ensemble highlights the work of Chick Corea, who died earlier this year, in a concert Wednesday, Dec. 8, at 8 p.m. in Deane Chapel. The performance is free and open to the public. Fore more information, please call (805) 565-­6040.

“Chick Corea was one of my musical heroes and I am especially excited that we’ll be performing two of his classic songs, ‘Spain’ and ‘500 Miles High,’” says director and keyboardist Eben Drost.

Marianne D’Emidio-Caston, who served the local education community for more than three decades, received the Westmont Education Department’s 2021-22 Excellence in Education Award.

D’Emidio-Caston, who most recently directed student teaching at Antioch University Santa Barbara, spoke to Westmont education students, encouraging them to find a trusted long-term professional partner to “grow with and, more generally, to do teaching with.” 

The rubber meets the road for Westmont’s engineering students who, as part of their coursework, will race foot-long remote control cars on a short, oval racetrack in front of Kerrwood Hall on Monday, Dec. 6, from 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. The students have created the cars from kits with hundreds of parts for their Machine Design course with Dan Jensen, director of the engineering program.

The 17^th annual Westmont Christmas Festival appears for the first time at Santa Barbara’s famed Granada Theatre on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 5, at 3 p.m. Tickets, which cost $20 each, go on sale Tuesday, Nov. 23, at 5 p.m. at westmont.edu/festival.

The Westmont Festival Theatre offers uplifting songs of joy and love in “You Will Be Found: Hope Songs” Nov. 19-20 at 7:30 p.m. in Porter Theatre. “We all could use a little hope right now,” says Mitchell Thomas, director of the event. Tickets to the all-ages fundraiser, which cost $15 for general admission, $10 for students, may be purchased at westmont.edu/boxoffice.

Elizabeth Gardner, Westmont assistant professor of communication studies, examines a protest by children and adolescents in South America on Thursday, Nov. 11, at 7 p.m. in Westmont’s Global Leadership Center. The Paul C.