A few recent events of note at Westwood campuses:
On Aug. 25, students from Westwood’s Illinois campuses at DuPage, O’Hare Airport, Chicago Loop and River Oaks, as well as Online campus students graduated in a ceremony that took place on a gorgeous day along the shores of Lake Michigan. The guest speaker was Maisha Wynn, creator of the Live to Wynn Lifestyle series and former national advertising director for Uptown magazine. Wynn stressed the importance of determining what your definition of success is and living up to that standard every day. Out of the 374 students who graduated, 123 graduated with Honors ‒ earning a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher.
On Aug. 30, Westwood students from several medical assisting classes at the Los Angeles ‒ Inland Empire campus attended a live taping of the health-focused television show The Doctors. The students learned about current trends and treatments, particularly those affecting women and people with gastrointestinal ailments. At the end of the day’s taping, the show producers extended an open invitation to Westwood students to return for future tapings, a rarity due to the selective nature of these groups. Many thanks to extern coordinator Jessica Gonzalez at the Inland Empire campus for making this happen.
Finally, on Sept. 7, Westwood’s Inland Empire campus participated in the Run for a Child fundraising event benefiting Steven’s Hope, a non-profit organization which provides housing and basic needs assistance to families caring for critically ill children. A team made up of students, staff and faculty ran both the 5K and 10K races at Prado Regional Park. In the 5k category, our full-time faculty member Charles (Chuck) Scheetz placed second in his age group. For the 10k race, our solo entrant, student Juan Padilla, placed second overall. Congratulations to Team LAI: Tim Scheetz, Chuck Scheetz, Juan Padilla, Eleanor Nieves, Rudy Alday, Sofia Lopez, Deanna Sandoval, Sonia Sandoval, Liz Alday, Natalie Reyes and Tina Miller (not pictured).