These two facts are what people use to frame their expectations of West without realizing there is another side to her.

West is, indeed, an accomplished Quaker novelist. However, even more so, she was a woman determined to reach her goals despite the scripted and limited role given to women of her time.

Born in 1902 in Indiana, West first came to Whittier when she was six years old but moved away and went to Fullerton High School where she graduated at 16 in 1919. That fall, she entered Whittier College and was distraught to find that professors didn’t find her gift for writing as prominent as she did. A broken West transferred to a local community college but returned to Whittier one year later – and more determined than ever – to prove herself as a writer.

She graduated from Whittier College in the spring of 1923 with a Bachelor of Art in English.

West flourished under the open-minded Quaker tradition at Whittier. While attending school, she was able to do many unorthodox things, such as found the first woman society on campus, The Palmer Society, of which she became vice president, and wittingly propose to fellow classmate, Harry McPherson.

After marrying McPherson in 1923, West began to teach in Hemet, CA, but left to pursue a degree at the University of Oxford. During her final graduate year, West suffered a lung hemorrhage. Her future, according to doctors, was grave. However, West pulled through, making her one of the lucky five percent with that particular diagnosis to survive.

West later admitted in an interview: “I thought my life was over. Instead, for me, it was the beginning of my life.”

Through her husband’s urging, West finally submitted work for publication. The first to be published was a short story entitled “99.6,”detailing life in a tuberculosis sanatorium. West was nearly 37 when her first full-length book, “The Friendly Persuasion,” was published, making her a latecomer in the writing world.

Nonetheless, West had a superlative career. One of her editors, Julian Muller said, “In all editions, her 19 published books have sold more than six million copies, an impressive record. It leaves no doubt of the deep and lasting impress Jessamyn West has made on American literature.”

Muller didn’t stand alone. Robert Kirsch, the respected and seasoned critic, labeled West “one of the treasures of this nation’s literature.”

In addition to “The Friendly Persuasion,” West’s other published works include “A Mirror for the Sky”, “The Witch Diggers,”  “Cress Delahanty,”  “Love, Death, and the Ladies’ Drill Team,” “To See the Dream,” “Love Is Not What You Think,” “South of the Angels,” “A Matter of Time,” “Leafy Rivers,” “Except for Me and Thee,” “Crimson Ramblers of the World, Farewell,” “Hide and Seek,” “The Secret Look,” “The Massacre at Fall Creek,” “The Life I really Lived,” “The Woman Said Yes,” “Double Discovery,” “The State of Stony Lonesome,” and “The Collected Stories of Jessamyn West.”

Throughout her life, West received the Indiana Author’s Day Award and the Thonnod Monsen Award . She was also given honorary doctorates from Whittier Colelge, Mills, Swarthmore, Indiana University, Indiana State College, Western College for Women, ]uniata, Wheaton, and Wilmington College in Ohio.

A friend of West’s said of her, “More than once, Jessamyn said to me, ‘Writing fiction is an almost certain way of making a fool of yourself.’ If that is so, Jessamyn is the wisest fool I have known.”

In her later years, West served as a Whittier College trustee and was the only woman to be spotlighted as an outstanding alumnus during Whittier’s 50^th Anniversary.  Among the other 25 representatives receiving this honor were Senator Richard Nixon, Whittier College President Jones and Dean Harold Spencer ’31.

West passed away in 1985.

Z2Live has grown fast since its founding in 2009 with hit titles such as Battle Nations, Trade Nations, and Metal Storm. Before the debut of Apple’s Game Center app for iPhone gamers, Z2Live was attempting to build something similar to offer users an Xbox-live style experience on a mobile device. It received $3 million in funding for the idea. Once Apple came out with the rival network, Z2Live decided to shift its focus and work on internally developed games. Z2Live’s games now have more than 25 million users.

Always ahead of the curve, Arnold, a business administration major, interned with Z2Live as a junior. After an impressive performance his internship turned into an employment offer after graduation.

Moreover, during his sophomore year, he co-founded a company that produced BracketCast, an iPhone application that used statistical analysis to project the winners of the 2009 March Madness tournament.  BracketCast reached the Top 50 in the United States during the tournament, selling tens of thousands of copies.

With an ultimate goal of building his own start-up company from the ground up – Arnold’s experience thus far has given him valuable insight into the business world.

“I was able to contribute to meetings with investors, write and file two patents with the U.S. Patent Office, and spearhead an aggressive SEO campaign for our website.  By engaging myself with a little bit of everything, I gained invaluable experience that primes me for anything that comes my way.”

Competitive athletes agree; there is a definite combination of qualities that separate a coach who is merely effective from a coach who is beloved. It’s a matter of heart, of drive, of experience, of trust. A good coach knows how to read his players, is able and willing instruct on the individual level, to identify and shore up weaknesses while reinforcing a player’s confidence in his strengths. A good coach deals not just with the physical drills but the mental skills of his players.

Without question, Jim Skipper ’71 fulfills this ideal.

Currently the running backs coach for the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans, Skipper has a combined 30 years professional experience coaching, including 17 seasons with teams in the USFL, XFL, and the NFL—specifically, the New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints, and the Carolina Panthers.

A few years after graduating from Whittier, Skipper, who had played defensive back for the Poets, decided to trade his helmet and shoulder pads for a whistle and playbook. In 1974 he began his new career on the sidelines, hired by Cal Poly Pomona to work with their defensive team.

As he explains it, “I was always a more cerebral player than most, so the transition from player to coach was smooth, and I felt comfortable taking on this new role. I was coaching guys from the perspective of recently having been in their position, so I found it easy to communicate with them, to get what I wanted from them.”

Five years later Skipper was offered the opportunity to stretch his skills at the college-level, this time managing running backs. He admits changing his focus from defense to offense was a bit tough at first, but he charged in and met the challenge. His success with college teams garnered him a solid reputation in the industry, and in 1983, he was recruited into the pro-leagues—less than a decade after his first coaching job. Skipper recognized he now faced higher stakes: the politics of professional sports, the pressure and demands of media and a vested fan base, and a team of paycheck-driven players. To his credit, he did not let these peripheral elements alter his own game. He remained dedicated to his own clear-cut goal: to train these kids how to play ball to the best of their—and his—abilities.

When it comes to practice strategies, Skipper has fashioned what some have called an unconventional approach. The physical program he requires players to follow is common enough to pro-ball: weights, running drills, scrimmage, and the like. The mental program, however, is decidedly different, and one that elicits groans from his rookies. Realizing that players are required to quickly learn and execute strategies housed in ever-expanding playbooks, the Whittier College physical education major decided to apply a basic technique of classroom teaching to football coaching.

He gives exams.

On the Saturday morning prior to each game, Skipper’s running backs assemble with pencil and paper to answer up 200 questions covering all aspects of plays and formations taught that week—which can number upwards of 135.  As an added twist, Skipper includes questions that target a variety of unexpected scenarios that could happen just prior to or during a play.

“Intuition,” he explains, “is not learned behavior; thinking on your feet, however, is. That’s what I have to train my players to do.”

Overall these tests and quizzes have proved invaluable to Skipper, allowing him to peer into the minds of his players and isolate what specific issues need to be addressed before game time.

Attentive, too, to the occasional wandering mind of students, Skipper administers verbal pop quizzes during the daily film sessions, randomly calling on players regardless of their position in the lineup. Players, he instructs, need to stay alert and receptive to new information at all times. In a December interview published in The Herald, Skipper recalled illustrating the point to his squad: “I guarantee if I gave you in the next five minutes verbal directions to go somewhere, and there’s $100,000 buried there, you will pay total attention. And this is the way you have to be when I speak. You’ve got to listen because I’m not just saying [these things] to say [them].”

As a coach, he trains himself to behave in a similar way, staying in a constant state of alert, ready to assess a situation and rally when plans are interrupted. During a game or practice should he lose a player to injury, Skipper must be able to identify at that moment which member of his squad is the best replacement. He has to be certain the new player can go from sidelines to the thick of action both intellectually and physically ready to perform at the highest level.

Skipper’s focus on the mental aspect of the game has produced impressive results; one proof point universally held by sports reporters and armchair critics alike is that Skipper is responsible for turning a pair of underachieving running backs into arguably the best duo in recent NFL history. He has also helped transform the Carolina Panthers from a team with a dismal 1-15 record into a team that proved a tough competitor against the dominant New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Over the years, interviews with various players indicate that this coach is overwhelmingly respected and revered, regarded more like a benevolent father rather than a tough disciplinarian. Yet he’s no creampuff, either. The working relationship forged with each player takes its shape on a case-by-case basis, and the approach can be as different as night and day.

He patiently explains the dichotomy: “Some guys only respond to me getting in their face and shouting out orders like a drill sergeant, while other guys need you to just sit them down and discuss things rationally and calmly. The trick is to size them up at the beginning, try to figure out what’ll work best with each guy, and be prepared to adapt or change tactics if your first attempt fails.”

Skipper silently considers his words for a moment, then sits back in his chair offering a mischievous grin.

“Which is pretty much what I require my players to do on the field,” he adds.

Whittier College has a proud history of training educators for work across a broad spectrum of fields. From teaching in classrooms to developing instructional technology, leading educational systems, and advocating for critical scholastic initiatives, Whittier alumni have been making significant contributions to this field from the beginning. Today, more than one-quarter of Whittier graduates are serving in this important industry, and many are impacting the lives of this country’s future leaders, utilizing the core principals they learned in Whittier’s own classrooms.

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In 1977, Sandy Thorstenson graduated from Whittier College with a degree in XX. In 2012, she was selected California’s Superintendent of the Year, beating out colleagues in more than 100 state districts. Her credentials for this honor are simple: essentially, she has reversed the downward spiral of five Los Angeles high schools, closing the achievement gap to just 6% between the highest and lowest performing students—one of only a handful of California schools to do so in a waning economic environment.

Beginning her career in the classroom as teacher and later in successive administrative positions, Sandy is currently the Superintendent for Whittier Union High School District, a modest enclave that has nevertheless catapulted to the public eye for its stunning forward march under her leadership.

Her mantra has been “Whatever It Takes” –an initiative and attitude fully realized in practice that has caught the interest of colleagues and critics alike. Her methods involve assessments and intervention at key junctures, and the testimony to the success of the program lies in the numerous graduates of her schools that choose to continue their education post-graduation (nearly 95%). These are students she has inspired, has challenged, and has directed toward academic and personal achievement.  And in recent times, she has been hailed for not only transforming these schools, but for developing true model “learning communities,” and for being a tireless advocate for educational funding and developmental programs.

The natural sciences have been a critical part of Whittier College’s liberal arts curriculum since its earliest days. Presented in an interdisciplinary landscape, the quest to explore, discover, and challenge from multiple angles has been de facto in the classroom—whether in a chemistry lab, arts class, or business seminar. As a result, Whittier alumni are trained for adventure and never willing to settle for the “easy answer.” For example, 1934 graduate Howard House challenged the assumption that degenerative diseases of the ear were incontravertable; in turn, he helped develop early hearing aid technology that today remains on the cutting edge via his legacy, the House Ear Institute.

Through the last 125 years, from geological tracking of earthquakes to the development of eco-friendly pesticides, from determining the origins of schizophrenia to the development of interventional neuro-radiology, Whittier graduates have a history of blazing new trails that have changed—and continue to change—lives for the better.

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In 1966 Jim Galloway left Whittier College with a dual degree in biology and chemistry. In the ensuing years, he has been called both a “pioneer and an exceptional leader” on global biogeochemical issues focusing on documenting and understanding the massive changes that are occurring in the global nitrogen cycle both through his own research as well as fostering a major international effort.

Most recently, Galloway and his colleagues at the University of Virginia, University of Maryland, and the Netherlands have created a web-based calculator that measures an individual’s impact on the nitrogen cycle according to factors such as diet and transportation choices. The calculator, launched in February 2011, is a project of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI), a global network of scientists who share research and data on the nitrogen dilemma. Galloway was the founding chair of INI.

In 2008 Galloway was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. In 2011, he was selected as the Distinguished Guest Lecturer to the Environmental Chemistry Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry in London. He has served as a Trustee for the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, Inc. St. Georges, Bermuda since 1983 and as President of the Trustees from 1988-1995. He was appointed to the executive committee of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Sciences Advisory Board (2003-2006).

Galloway has published over 200 articles, book chapters, reviews and reports with over a half dozen of them in Science and Nature magazines. He has over 53 first authored peer-reviewed publications and 28 book chapters. In 2006 he was noted by the Institute of Scientific Information as author of the third most cited paper in the field of ecology published within a two year period.

Read news article ’Top Environmental Scientist James Galloway ’66 Visits Whittier College’

As early as 1899, Whittier graduated its first African-American student, George Anthony, who went on to become a physician. Later, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, Whittier student J. Stanley Sanders ‘63 would become the first African-American student in nearly 60 years to win a Rhodes Scholarship. In the 1920s, despite a rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Southern California, Whittier continued to enroll significant numbers of not only African-American and Pacific Islander students, but international students as well (by 1923, the school had enrolled four Russian students—one of whom was a woman). Today, the enrollment at Whittier College is truly aligned with the changing demographics of America; while other institutions grapple with access and attracting diverse populations, Whittier College boasts a student body that is cosmopolitan, with more than 40% of its population of mixed ethnicities and cultural origins.

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In 1948, Martin Ortiz graduated from Whittier College with a degree in sociology. At the time, he was one of only a few Latino students in the community.

A high school dropout who for three years was a self-proclaimed “hobo” who “rode the rails” around America’s middle states, Martin would later make education his personal quest and cause.  Born in Wichita to an impoverished family, he primarily spoke Spanish in the home and found English difficult to learn; as a result, he was ridiculed by his elementary schoolteachers. After his self-selected hiatus from school, he returned with fervor, enrolling and completing high school and winning his bid for student body president.  He  began a college program but left to join the Marines in World War II. Following, he pursued the remainder of his education at Whittier College, graduated, and later returned to join its faculty. During his tenure, he wanted to ensure the academic success and aspirations of other Latino students—those like him who had the drive to succeed—and so established the Center for Mexican-American Affairs at Whittier College, an institution that would spawn several related programs not only at Whittier, but within the region and across the country. He is personally credited with the success of building Whittier’s Latino student population, and several alumni called him mentor, friend, “El Jefe.”

In 2010, only months after his passing, a district in Wichita opened a brand new elementary school, named in his honor.

Though Martin Ortiz’s era as a student at Whittier reflected a small percentage of enrolled Hispanic students, the overall record of Whittier College’s diverse enrollment tells an interesting story.

Though Richard Nixon is its sole graduate to become U.S. President thus far, Whittier College fosters the notion of public service in every field of study. Dedication to serving others is ingrained in each student’s Whittier experience, and through the last 12 decades, Whittier alumni have held political office at the national, state, and local levels, as well as key appointments to foreign embassies, serving on international peace efforts, and building humanitarian bridges across this country and neighboring nations.  In the last 10 years alone, Whittier has graduated three Pickering Fellows (selected for training in foreign service careers), one of the 50 youngest elected mayors in the U.S., and two current students who ran a campaign for Whittier City Council while still undergraduates.

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In 1934, Richard Milhouse Nixon graduated from Whittier with a degree in history. Only a few decades later, he would become the 37^th President of the United States, and leave a lasting—if storied—legacy that impacts America still today.

Nixon pioneered many ventures during his career in public service. Among his most impactful and lasting moves as president, he established the Environmental Protection Agency and enforced desegregation in Southern schools.  He was part of what he referred to as the “most historic call ever made from the White House” –speaking with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they took their first steps on the moon. He was called the “first modern vice president,” as his work under Eisenhower significantly expanded the heretofore more titular office to more tactical work in both domestic and foreign affairs.  Additionally, under his presidency, the military draft ended, the beginning of nuclear arms talks began with the Soviet Union, and the last U.S. troops withdrew from the Vietnam Conflict.

As a president largely focused on foreign policy, however, his most notable and successful legacy lay in his efforts to establish relations with Asia, marked by his historic presidential trip to China in 1972 and meetings with Chairman Mao— a series called by Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger as  the “encounter with history.”  As a result of this work, the door was opened to succeeding U.S.- China diplomatic relations,  and the establishment of profitable and longstanding global partnerships and trade and commerce opportunities.

Founded by Quakers, Whittier College has retained its deep commitment to the core principals of the Friends, though it became a secular institution in the 1940s. For 125 years, Whittier’s academic curriculum has been rooted in providing students a breadth of global perspective and understanding coupled with a strong dedication to service and social justice. Graduates of Whittier have impacted lives and communities around the world, working for large scale operations such as the United Nations, the Peace Corps, Teach for America, and the World Health Organization, as well as local institutions, including Bridges of Faith, the Los Angeles AIDS Organization, and countless others.

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In 1965, Linda Biehl graduated from Whittier College with a degree in History. Years later, she would become a global icon for healing and humanitarian action as she not only forgave her daughter’s murderers, but then worked to gain their freedom and turn her personal tragedy into a legacy of positive community action.

In 1993, Linda’s daughter was a Fulbright scholar working in South Africa to help end apartheid. In a tragic twist, she was violently killed by a few local men who were later arrested and found guilty of her murder. Taking up her daughter’s mission, however, Linda and her husband made the decision to recast this event, instead making it an opportunity to help South Africa and its local communities heal in the wake of a turbulent era of racial oppression. As a result, the Amy Biehl Foundation was established, a nonprofit that now helps South African youth through educational and arts programs, with a goal to guide them away from the cyclical violence to which so many fall.

For her outstanding contributions to the country and her continuing generosity of spirit, in 2009 then-President Thabo Mbeki awarded  Linda with South Africa’s highest civilian honor, the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo. In 2011, Linda returned to Whittier College to help launch the Center for Engagement with Communities (CEC), serving as its inaugural fellow and inspiring students to actively embrace the “power of one.”

From its earliest days, Whittier College has trained agile and strategic business leaders, able to synthesize “big picture thinking” with on-the-horizon market and technological changes. Among Whittier alumni are entrepreneurs and investors, founders of start-ups and splinter ventures, as well as CEOs and executives of established industry giants. As a result, they have contributed to the success of such household brand-named organizations as FAO Schwarz, Goldman Sachs, the San Francisco 49ers, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Oppenheimer & Co., Armstrong World Industries, and HSBC, among numerous others.

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Fred Anderson graduated from Whittier College in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in business. Today, he is the managing director and co-founder of Elevation Partners, a private equity firm with more than $1.9 billion in committed capital, focused on targeted, rapid growth investments in the technology, media, and entertainment sectors.  Among Anderson’s partners in this venture is U2 frontman and activist Bono, and current portfolio companies include high-profile industry giants Facebook and Forbes.

Along the way from his years at Whittier to present day, Anderson has made several notable stops. For eight years, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer for Apple, Inc.,working to steer the company out of deep financial troubles and, alongside Steve Jobs, helping to chart its historic and meteoric rise over the last two decades—one marked by solid financial growth, intensive product development, and immense ROI.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors for eBay, Yelp, and Move.com, and previously served on the boards for Apple, Palm, and 3COM, among others.