Mathematics Majors & Degrees

Kyle Bechler ’06 works as a data scientist with CBRE in Santa Barbara. In 2015, Kyle completed his Ph.D. in statistics from UC Santa Barbara. His areas of expertise include predictive modeling, machine learning, leveraged credit, and financial modeling.

Robby Cherry ’06 earned a master’s degree in education, coached cross country and track, and worked as a substitute teacher. He now teaches mathematics at Crean Lutheran High School in Irvine, Calif., and serves as an assistant coach for cross country and track and field. He has fond memories of tea and snacks at his professors’ homes accompanied by conversations about trisecting angles.

Kristin Kidd Demmert ’06 received her nursing degree at Johns Hopkins University and works at an infertility clinic in Denver, Colo. She is earning a master’s degree in nursing. She fondly remembers hours of reviewing concepts in the math office at the chalkboard, all of the dinners together, and learning math in such a tight-knit group.

Melissa McCleod ’06 teaches middle school and high school math at an international school in China, everything from sixth-grade math to AP calculus.  Her students come from all over the world, including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and Turkey. Her Westmont education prepared her well for some of the questions students ask, such as, “Where exactly is pi on the number line?”

Patsy Calderon Lloyd ’01 earned a master’s degree in biostatistics at Harvard School of Public Health and works as a statistician at International Partnership for Microbicides, helping run clinical trials for HIV microbicides for women. She’s also working on a doctorate in epidemiology. She writes, “I appreciate the dedication of my professors, who were genuinely concerned that I not only learned the material they taught, but that I understood the process of learning itself. That process is usually uncomfortable; trying to stay up all night to cram new material into your brain before homework is due is usually not the way to go. My all-time favorite quote from Dr. Rosentrater: ‘Patsy, you need sleep.’”

Stephanie Earney Meriaux ’01 graduated with a degree in math and promptly left the comforts of equations for a 4,500-mile bicycle trip across the country followed by an ironman triathlon and a brief career in outdoor education working for Outward Bound and the Boojum Institute. She lives in France and uses her travel and mathematics skills as a project manager for a geographic information systems company that collects and analyzes geographic and demographic information for corporations.

Mike Petty ’06 worked for an internet communications provider and a software developer for manufacturing after finishing his degree in mathematics. He joined the staff of Youth with a Mission and works in Romania.  Mike says, “I was a little blown away when I was first introduced to non-Euclidean geometry.  But once I was given the tools and theorems to explore, it became much more exciting to wander around this place I’d never been before.”

Paige Baird Whiting ’00 spent a number of years after graduation working as a high school math teacher. She now lives in India and works for India Christian Ministries, giving children at risk a home life in the church and an education at the local, private, English-speaking school.