Madison Garcia refused to admit she had a stuttering problem. The speech disorder would come and go in phases. Talking on the phone or saying her name was sometimes problematic.
“Because you feel like you can’t communicate,” she says, “you feel like you really don’t have a place in society. That was my biggest fear. If I ended up saying this is what I struggle with, I’d have to deal with it.”
Fourteen students will show off their summer research projects Thursday, Sept. 7, at 4 p.m, in Founders Dining Room. “A Celebration of Student Research at Westmont” will include a student’s work investigating the angular mapping of cosmic muon flux over the sky as well as another student’s work determining the physical structures responsible for working memory.
Dozens of black rubber-band balls are strewn about Westmont’s Reynolds Gallery as part of the latest exhibit, “Cort Savage: Scattered Man and the Particle,” which will be on display from Thursday, Sept. 7, through Oct. 20. Savage has wound the rubber bands around each bone in the human skeleton, reducing the physical human being to an abstract form.
The much-anticipated new film from Columbia Pictures, “Gridiron Gang,” is based on a true story involving former Santa Barbara resident Paul Higa, who died in April. Higa was the chief probation officer for Los Angles County. His widow, Jane Higa, is vice president for student life and dean of students at Westmont.
The 333 members of the incoming class of 2010 have begun arriving at Westmont. Joyce Luy, dean of admission, says the first-year students represent one of the strongest and most selective classes ever. There are also 41 transfer students.
Orientation programs run through Sunday, August 27. The first day of classes is Monday, Aug. 28.
Fourteen new Westmont students have returned from a unique orientation program that takes students backpacking through the North Yosemite backcountry.
The optional orientation program, Inoculum, offers students units of academic and physical education course credit. Students are assigned several readings, lead discussions on the books and write a paper later in the semester.