“For the first time in my life, I was considering serious moral and ethical themes,” he says.
“I was thinking about poverty…and [the] social issues the College was championing.”
After earning a bachelor of science in business administration, Westhead focused on a career as a stockbroker. He was considering a position with Philadelphia brokerage firm Butcher and Singer when an opportunity arose at Philadelphia Insurance Companies. He was hired as a telemarketer and has been in various marketing roles with the company for the past 22 years.
Although community service was not yet a curriculum requirement during Westhead’s undergraduate years, he says the emphasis on giving back to the community was so much an integral part of the Cabrini experience that he has continued that practice.
A Cabrini trustee since 2005, Westhead received the College's Community Service Award that same year, and served on the Alumni Board from 2002-04. He is past chairman of the Truman Heartland Community Foundation in Blue Springs, Mo., and a past board member of Sunflowers to Roses, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to support cancer survivorship and research.
He also has been a top fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and a volunteer for Community of the Good Shepherd, which recently constructed the Cabrini Home, a group home for developmentally disabled women in Lee's Summit, Mo.
“As an alum,” Westhead says, “you have a responsibility to give back, to get involved and share what you’ve learned here, and contribute to the education of current students.”
Westhead says at Cabrini, the faculty and staff assumed the roles of second parents to students; they treated students like family.
“[The faculty and staff] here really put their heart into their work,” Westhead says. “They gave their lives to this school.”