<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><item href="/pre-go-live-resources/_migration/2026-07-21/magazine/fall-2021/grateful-students-live-learn-community.html" dsn="news"><pubDate/><title>Grateful Students Live &amp; Learn in Community</title><excerpt>An overwhelming sense of happiness pervaded campus as Westmont welcomed 410 impressive new students from around the world to college life in person during Orientation on August 26. The class of 2025, including 58 new transfer students, arrived with high energy and optimism after persevering through the pandemic. Most of these high- achieving students spent the better part of the previous year learning exclusively online due to COVID-19. They greatly appreciated the vibrant greeting with fist bumps and smiles. “Arriving at Westmont for Orientation in person with over 400 new classmates proved to be somewhat overwhelming and daunting as well as exciting and exhilarating,” says Angela D’Amour, dean of student engagement.</excerpt><author/><image>
            
            <img src="/_migrated-binaries/sites/default/files/styles/basic_page/public/OR21_0558.jpg" alt="Grateful Students Live &amp; Learn in Community"/>
        </image><caption/><description>1 Column Content Background Color White Heading...</description></item>