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This summer, �±���ٳ��DzԳ�’s picturesque campus with state-of-the-art facilities becomes a vibrant hub of activity, welcoming young participants to traditional sports camps while showcasing newly launched, cutting-edge academic camps for high schoolers.

The Santa Barbara Unified School District’s Program for Effective Access to College (PEAC) held its annual PEAC Foundation Awards Night celebration at UC Santa Barbara, marking an inspiring night for college bound students as their college and university destinations were announced. It’s an evening of grand celebration recognizing the PEAC scholarship recipients who are often the first in their families to go to college.

���Ҵ�ý invites the local community to explore the night sky during its monthly free public stargazing event on Friday, June 19, beginning at 8:45 p.m. and lasting several hours at the ���Ҵ�ý Observatory. 

The held its annual scholarship award ceremonies awarding $8.4 million in scholarships to 2,300 students, including a record 75 ���Ҵ�ý students, at the Sunken Gardens at Santa Barbara County Courthouse.

���Ҵ�ý honored a number of employees for their outstanding contributions at the May 14 Faculty and Staff Appreciation Brunch, an annual ceremony that recognizes individual work anniversaries and accomplishments. President Gayle D. Beebe and members of the college’s executive team selected the recipients from a peer-nominated pool. An endowment set up by the late Bruce and Adaline Bare fund the faculty awards; he was longtime college trustee. 

The Santa Barbara Independent recognized ���Ҵ�ý's production of “Antigonick” by giving a coveted Indy Award for Set Design to recent graduate Ily Litonjua ’26. 

About 200 art enthusiasts flowed through the ���Ҵ�ý Ridley-Tree Museum of Art and the surrounding umbrella-covered patio for the opening of the Tri-County juried exhibition, “Altered Realities,” on May 22. 

���Ҵ�ý host its 12th annual LEAD Where You Stand conference, “Leadership, Human Flourishing and Artificial Intelligence,” from June 4-5 at the.

���Ҵ�ý highlights the talent of regional artists in the 2026 Tri-County Juried Exhibition, “Altered Realities,” from May 21-June 20 in the ���Ҵ�ý Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. 

���Ҵ�ý honored some of its graduating seniors in front of the community, parents and guests on April 17 at the annual Academic Awards Celebration in Murchison Gym.

Twenty-two members of the seventh cohort of the ���Ҵ�ý Downtown | Grotenhuis Nursing program were pinned at a special ceremony to honor their accomplishments on May 7 at Montecito Covenant Church. The group included the college’s first nursing fast track graduate, who earned two bachelor’s degrees in just four and a half years.

The (SBUSD) and ���Ҵ�ý excitedly announce a $2.4 million award to launch a new residency program providing tuition funds for students seeking a teaching credential and position in California public schools. Each student will receive a $33,000 stipend for tuition at ���Ҵ�ý and other living expenses, providing a yearlong, classroom-based pathway to the teaching profession.

Led by bagpipes under a blanket of traditional May weather’s fog, 356 ���Ҵ�ý graduates made their Last March from Kerrwood Hall to Thorrington Field, where they enthusiastically walked across the stage to get their diplomas at Commencement on May 9. 

The ���Ҵ�ý Women’s Leadership Council, dedicated to educating, enriching and empowering women, held its annual luncheon with keynote speaker , co-founder and principal, Rice, Hadley, Gates and Manuel, LLC and an author, former diplomat, speaker and sought-after adviser to Fortune 50 and Silicon Valley CEOs. Several hundred supporters attended the event on April 24 at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort. 

, a recognized leader in business, corporate boards, the U.S. government, the United Nations and nonprofit organizations, speaks at ���Ҵ�ý Commencement on Saturday, May 9, at 9:30 a.m. at �±���ٳ��DzԳ�’s Thorrington Field. President Gayle D.

Eighteen ���Ҵ�ý students traveled to New York earlier this month with Katherine Bryant, assistant professor of political science, to participate in the as part of their International Organizations and Law course. 

Family, friends and art lovers all packed into the ���Ҵ�ý Ridley-Tree Museum of Art to celebrate the 14 graduating art majors who presented their capstone projects in �����Գ��dzܲԳٱ��” on April 9. The exhibition, featuring a class of artists ready to make their mark on the world, will remain open through May 9.

More than 40 students will present posters and explain their research at the 30th annual student research symposium Thursday, April 16, from 3-4:30 p.m. in Winter Hall. 

The ���Ҵ�ý Observatory opens to the public Friday, April 17, at 8 p.m. for a night of stargazing that will feature views of Jupiter and the star pair Mizar and Alcor. The event is expected to last several hours.

A 60-year soccer tradition is getting a new look this spring while benefiting a globally recognized local charity.

Juniors Avala Elwood of Carpinteria and Isaiah Conway of Spring Valley won David K. Winter Servant Leadership Awards for their selflessness and humility as effective leaders. Angela D’Amour ’01, dean of students, presented the 26^th annual awards to the students in Murchison Gym.

As the academic year draws to a close, the ���Ҵ�ý music department is set to showcase a global repertoire in a series of final concerts and recitals. The season’s highlights include two major choral performances that celebrate Latin American traditions and serve as a formal send-off for the college’s upcoming international tour.

Fourteen graduating art majors will present their capstone projects in an exhibition that reencounters their cultural identity, family history and patterns, and art historical traditions from April 9-May 9 in the ���Ҵ�ý Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. There will be a free, public opening reception for “Reencounter” on Thursday, April 9, from 4-6 p.m. in the museum. 

Kim Denu, ���Ҵ�ý provost and dean of faculty, serves as the keynote speaker for the annual Good Friday Breakfast, “Keeping Hope Alive,” on April 3 beginning at 7:30 a.m. at the . Tickets, which cost $70 each, may be purchased at .

It was a night full of laughs and surprises March 28 at the as ���Ҵ�ý celebrated its 65^th year of Spring Sing, where students from each residence hall produce musical skits to compete for prizes and bragging rights. Spring Sing, the longest running ���Ҵ�ý tradition, involves hundreds of students who use song, dance and faculty/staff appearances to tell a comedic story about this year’s theme, “That’s Classic!”

The ���Ҵ�ý Women’s Leadership Luncheon, an inspiring community event dedicated to educating, enriching and empowering women, features keynote speaker, renowned author, former diplomat and trusted advisor to Fortune 50 companies, on Friday, April 24, from 12–1:30 p.m., with check-in beginning at 11:30 a.m., at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort.

A ���Ҵ�ý Downtown Lecture will explore AI's real-world implications on Thursday, April 23, at 5:30 p.m. at ���Ҵ�ý Downtown | Keith Center,

Members and supporters of the ���Ҵ�ý Ridley-Tree Museum of Art experienced California’s Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada on a unique trip Feb. 27-28 with stops at , the and nearby ancient petroglyphs.

About 120 junior high and 40 high school students enjoyed a special matinee performance of “Little Women” by the ���Ҵ�ý Theater Arts Department on March 5 in Porter Theatre. The event, made possible through a grant from the Towbes Fund for the Performing Arts, brought students from La Colina, Santa Barbara and La Cumbre Junior Highs as well as Santa Barbara High to a live performance, many for the first time. 

Violinist Nathan Schafer of Highland won the ���Ҵ�ý Music Department’s 14^th annual Guild Scholarship Competition and was awarded the $15,000 annual Guild Scholarship on March 7 in Deane Chapel.

Student filmmakers from around the world are invited to submit their work for the fourth annual Montecito Student Film Festival, taking place Saturday, Nov. 14, at ���Ҵ�ý in Montecito. The festival’s call for entries opened March 1, and submissions will be accepted through midnight on June 1.

World-renowned journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist emphasized the importance of global stability for economic prosperity, criticized the decline in civics education and stressed the irreplaceable value of a liberal arts education at the 21^st annual ���Ҵ�ý President’s Breakfast on Feb. 27.

More than 100 people packed into the ���Ҵ�ý Ridley-Tree Museum of Art on Feb. 24 to hear , an architectural and design historian, analyzes Los Angeles architecture through photographs Ansel Adams took on assignment there in the 1940s. The talk, “,” contrasted Adams’ iconic nature photos with those he captured of Los Angeles' industrial landscape. 

���Ҵ�ý ecologist Laura Drake Schultheis shares her research about plant flammability and defensible spaces in the face of climate change in a ���Ҵ�ý Downtown Lecture on Wednesday, March 11, at 5:30 p.m. at ���Ҵ�ý Downtown | Keith Center, . The talk, “Rooted in Resilience: Adaptive Planting Strategies in Wildland-Urban Interfaces,” is free and open to the public.

�±���ٳ��DzԳ�’s Martin Institute and Dallas Willard Research Center have announced the finalists of their annual book award. The winner of the Dallas Willard Book Award, which was created in 2015 to highlight the intellectual legacy of Willard, will be announced in May or June. Willard was a best-selling author and beloved philosophy professor at USC.

The ���Ҵ�ý Alumni Office launched its first Alumni Day of Service for alumni, students and staff with more than 50 volunteers serving on Feb. 7 across five different sites.

The ���Ҵ�ý Observatory opens to the public for a rare lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3. This will be the last total eclipse that will be visible in Santa Barbara for at least the next three years. The observatory will open at 3 a.m. and will remain available until about 5 a.m. when the moon dips below the horizon. March's full moon, named a worm moon, will slowly turn into a blood moon, as the Earth's shadow completely covers the moon, filtering sunlight through our atmosphere and turning the lunar surface deep red or coppery brown. 

Here is a of the video. 

Mercury and Saturn are expected to make an appearance at this month’s free stargazing event Friday, Feb. 20, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and lasting several hours at the ���Ҵ�ý Observatory.

Madeline Fanton remembers the first chapter book she read as a child: “Little Women.” Now, the visiting professor of theater arts directs �±���ٳ��DzԳ�’s production of the novel by , adapted by Kate Hamill, on Feb. 27-28 and March 6-7 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 28 and March 7-8 at 2 p.m., all in Porter Theatre.

���Ҵ�ý senior Ashley Clark, an English and theater arts double major from Henderson, Nevada, participated in the ’s competitive five-month filmmaking program. During that time, she wrote a screenplay, “Deus Ex Machina.” The festival paired her with UC Santa Barbara international student Can Basoglu, who directed the short film that premieres during the festival Saturday, Feb. 14, at 2 p.m. at Santa Barbara’s historic Arlington Theatre.

More than 60 exceptional mathletes from seven Southern California high schools matched wits in the 37th annual ���Ҵ�ý Mathematics Field Day at the Montecito campus. The event included a variety of activities, including group problem-solving, individual math presentations, called Chalk Talks, hands-on construction of 3-D models, and the popular and sometimes stressful College Bowl with Jeopardy-like buzzers.

William Morris, a faith-based climate activist, shared his journey of growing up near an oil refinery in Torrance to his current work in environmental justice. The lecture was the first of a new series about careers in environmental studies hosted by Sustainable ���Ҵ�ý and stemming from the college’s new environmental studies major.

shares snapshots of personal stories and lessons learned from nearly four decades in college athletics in a new book, “.”

Two ���Ҵ�ý engineering students presented their research findings at the (ASME) Annual Meeting in November at Memphis.

���Ҵ�ý has partnered with the (HCA) to guarantee graduates have a path to a bachelor’s degree. The Santa Barbara Unified School District approved the memorandum of understanding that guarantees academy graduates, who meet specific academic criteria, admission to Westmont along with a minimum of $15,000 in institutional aid.

, English professor emeritus and former poet laureate of Santa Barbara, hosts the 17^th annual William Stafford Reading on Saturday, Jan. 31, at 2 p.m. at the First Crossing Day Use Area in Los Padres National Forest, across from the old Los Prietos Boys Camp, 3900 Paradise Road. This is the former site of the Los Prietos Civilian Public Service Camp, where Stafford served as a conscientious objector during World War II.

Wendy Eley Jackson, assistant professor of English and film studies at ���Ҵ�ý, recently joined the board of directors for the .