Advocate for women’s and girls’ rights and Academy Award winner Geena Davis will give the keynote address during the Westridge School commencement ceremonies on Friday, June 6. Davis is the final presenter in the school’s Centennial Speaker Series. The 2013-2014 school year marks Westridge School’s Centennial, celebrating 100 years of educating and empowering young women in Pasadena.
Seventy-one girls in the Centennial Class of 2014 will graduate during Westridge’s commencement ceremonies. Valedictorian Isabela Becerra of South Pasadena and Co-Salutatorians Katherine Chu of Los Angeles and Michelle Ko of San Marino will address their fellow graduates; remarks will be made by Head of School Elizabeth J. McGregor and diplomas will be awarded by Jennifer Lum, chair of the school’s Board of Trustees.
In her remarks to the Westridge community, Davis will take aim at “empowering our daughters and ourselves.” As the Special Envoy for Women and Girls in the field of technology for the United Nations (UN), a partner with UN Women in the effort to change the way media represents women and girls worldwide, and a chair to the California Commission on the Status of Women, Davis is becoming recognized for her tireless advocacy of women and girls nearly as much as for her acting accomplishments.
Few have achieved such remarkable success in as many different fields as Davis has: she is not only an Oscar and Golden Globe winning actor, but a world-class athlete (at one time the nation’s 13th-ranked archer), a member of the genius society Mensa, and holds honorary degrees from Boston University, Bates College, and New England College. She founded the non-profit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and its programming arm See Jane, which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters — and reduce gender stereotyping — in media made for children 11 and under.
Davis’ presentation is the final installment in Westridge’s Centennial Speaker Series during the 2013-2014 school year. Featured speakers have included bestselling author, journalist, and educator Rebecca Skloot, author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”; documentarian Martha Adams, senior producer of “Girl Rising”; and author Kristen Kittscher, who is also a former member of the Westridge faculty.
Founded in 1913, Westridge School is an independent day school for college-bound girls grades 4 through 12. Westridge strives to develop young women whose joy in learning, personal ideals, commitment to ethical action, social and environmental responsibility, courage and compassion will lead them to meaningful lives as contributing citizens of the larger world. For more information about the school, visit www.westridge.org.
