Donors Give $3.3 Million for the Liberal Arts and Scholarships

Two separate estate gifts totaling $3.3 million will help endow student scholarships and the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont. In its sixth year, the institute explores and promotes liberal arts education, which offers knowledge in a broad range of subjects as well as skills students need to succeed at work and in life.

During their lifetimes, Robert and Margaret Swift and Milton and Mildred Owens, all of Orange, Calif., set up charitable remainder trusts with Westmont as the primary charitable beneficiary. They were able to support Westmont and also receive lifetime incomes and tax benefits from their trusts.

Together, the distributions from these trusts provide $2.8 million to endow student scholarships. The remaining $500,000 will fund the institute, which is now halfway to an initial $2 million goal. In February, the Fletcher Jones Foundation gave a lead grant of $500,000 toward endowing the institute.

“These gifts address two of our highest priorities,” Westmont President Stan D. Gaede says. “We are grateful for the support and foresight of these friends of the college.”

Benefiting from these endowments is the institute’s ongoing series, Conversation on the Liberal Arts, which brings together administrators and faculty leaders from colleges and universities nationwide to explore challenges and opportunities facing liberal arts education. The sixth annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts, “Globalizing the Liberal Arts,” will take place at Westmont in February.

Two $50,000 grants in August also enabled the institute to launch the Liberal Arts Ambassadors program. Ambassadors will reach out to underserved students with the message that the benefits of a liberal arts education extend far beyond career preparation. In fact, underserved students who attend liberal arts colleges are more likely to graduate than those who attend public universities.