Not even May Gray could dampen the excitement of hundreds of Westmont College graduates Saturday morning.
A large crowd of families and friends filled Thorrington Field to celebrate the graduation of roughly 300 students from the Class of 2026. The ceremony included speeches, prayers and awards presentations.
“This is the first time since the pandemic that it feels pre-pandemic, and I love it,” Westmont College President Gayle Beebe said.
Walking alongside the 2026 graduates was Westmont’s class of 1976, celebrating their 50th reunion.
Ceremony speakers shared messages centered on faith, community and making the world a better place.
Graduate Kaisa Lindman-Marshall recounted how during her freshman year, despite being in “the most beautiful city in the world,” she was still unhappy. “I had a festering disappointment in my soul,” she said.
It wasn’t until she began learning “how to accept God’s love for me” that things changed, she said.
She told her fellow graduates that the greatest gift Westmont had given them all was “the knowledge of the perfect love of God” and urged them to lean into their faith as they leave the college.
Similarly, graduate Anthony Gose encouraged his former classmates to always think back to the community they cultivated during their four years at Westmont.
“I want us to hold on to that, not the answers that we don’t have, but the love that we have already been given,” he said.
Commencement speaker Henrietta Holsman Fore, former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the former executive director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), encouraged graduates to consider living a life of service.
“Consider doing something in your life that is larger than yourself,” she said. “There’s plenty to do in the United States, but there’s also a worldwide need for education, health, food and economic opportunities.”
Fore is the first woman to have served as administrator at USAID and as the director of the U.S. Foreign Assistance.
She has also worked for several different national government departments.
She recalled her time working with the USAID and being in Bangladesh when an environmental disaster hit.
“I saw the first of the great Asian cyclones that tore through the country, inundating the lowlands and the rice paddies,” she said. “It swept away people and animals.”
She described how she and her team went to work helping the community by distributing necessities like food and water.
However, she recounted, it was American universities and research institutions that “did something remarkable.”
They planted rice and wheat that could grow in salt water.
“It meant that the crops were not ruined and it could bring forth rice and wheat in the harvest, and the people of the (Ganges) Delta in Bangladesh would not starve,” she said.
She said that experience made her realize the positive impact American academic institutions could have around the world.
Fore shared other stories from countries and continents, encouraging the Westmont graduates to change the lives of others.
“Possessing a Westmont education, you could change the lives of thousands of people,” she said. “If you take up this challenge, you will never wonder why you get up in the morning.”
She also challenged the graduates to be prepared for the next pandemic, expand worldwide internet access, utilize Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing, foster creativity in the global workforce and enhance health and care services.
Saturday’s ceremony also recognized Nancy and William Kimsey with the Westmont Medal for their contributions to Santa Barbara and international affairs.
The Westmont College celebrations don’t end on Saturday.
More than 20 graduates of the seventh cohort of the Westmont Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing program will participate in a pinning ceremony on Thursday at the Montecito Covenant Church.
