Incoming students during Fall 2014 Orientation Week.

Thanksgiving, that wonderful holiday in which we as a nation give thanks for all our blessings, is just around the corner. In the spirit of that tradition, I’d like to take a moment to pause and reflect on what I have to be thankful for here at Art Center.

First of all, I’m thankful for all the newest members of the Art Center family. This Fall term we welcomed a record-breaking entering class of 432 new students, a number which reflects the continuing strength and enormous appeal of both our undergraduate and graduate programs. These students come to us from a total of 37 states across the nation and 31 countries around the globe, for a total of 47 countries represented across our truly international student body.

You may also be interested to know that the average age of the entering class is 21 and that, of our incoming undergraduates, 52% are female. As always, all of our incoming students demonstrated their considerable merit through their portfolios, academic records and personal statements, and each underwent a rigorous review to gain admission.

I’m also thankful for our extremely generous donors, who contribute to the College not just through monetary gifts, but through actions like mentoring our students, hiring our graduates, and fostering corporate partnerships. Having said that, we’re absolutely delighted by a recent burst of awards and scholarships from a new group of donors whose gifts exceed $3.6 million. Ask a student whose vision is becoming a reality thanks to financial aid, and you’ll see that the impact of these contributions is profound and transformative.

These new contributions include the establishment of The Franklyn Liegel Fine Art Award, awarded to Fine Art students who demonstrate achievement in drawing, painting or collage and created through a recent gift from Barbara and Kenneth Holland; and a substantial increase to The Lou Danziger Scholarship, thanks to a generous gift from alumnus Ray Engle (BFA 59) and others, which allows the fund to provide annual support in perpetuity for Advertising students. Both of these awards were created in honor of legendary faculty members, whose influence on the Art Center community is immeasurable.

Winter in the Forest (detail) by Illustration student Alexander Vidal Santillanes.

Veterans Day was last week, and our gratitude for our veterans’ military service bears repeating. Here in our own Art Center community, I’m thankful too for the Ahmanson Veterans Scholarship Initiative, a program helping students—including some of our own—restart their education and assimilate back into civilian life.

Last, but certainly not least, I’m grateful for the entire Art Center community, and I’d like to particularly thank the College’s staff and faculty for their contributions, thoughtfulness, ideas and patience as we continue to develop the new South Campus. I look forward to celebrating with the entire community next year as our institution marks its 85th anniversary. We’ve made incredible progress this year and, through our collective efforts, we’re well on the way to making a great institution even stronger.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends, family and loved ones, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the Fall Graduation Show in December.

Lorne M. Buchman, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Art Center College of Design. To learn more about Dr. Buchman, please visit his page on Art Center’s website.