Pepperdine Magazine Vol. 8, Iss. 1 (Spring 2016)

Volume 8 Issue 1 Spring 2016

Pillar

of the

Mood for Thought 14 Title Waves 18 Generally Speaking 26

By her teenage years, Linda Forster (’90) had already made an impact on the disadvantaged community of South Los Angeles. 22

c o k t s m e a h t r k f e f … t r o r o e t l t l e s r e a c o G and get guaranteed income for life!

Our Charitable Gift Annuity Payout Rates* SINGLE

Immediate Income Tax Deduction

MARRIED

Age

Rate

Age

Rate

65

5.2%

65/70

4.9%

70

5.6%

70/70

5.1%

75

6.3%

75/75

5.5%

80

7.3%

80/80

6.2%

85

8.3%

85/85

7.2%

90

9.5%

90/90

8.7%

95

9.5%

95/95

9.3%

BENEFITS:

 Receive guaranteed income for life

 Support students at Pepperdine

 Payments backed by Pepperdine University

Contact the Center for Estate and Gift Planning at 310.506.4893 *Rates applicable to gifts of cash or publicly traded securities and effective through 12/31/2016.

Volume 8 Issue 1 Spring 2016

FEATURES

32

14 18

14 Mood for Thought A psychology professor and his former graduate student team up to develop an app that enables users to access cognitivebehavioral therapy in the palm of their hands.

34

18 Title Waves

36

22 Pillar of the Community

38

26 Generally Speaking

40

COMMUNITY

A documentary filmmaker joins the new Seaver College graduate program in cinematic media production.

By her teenage years, Linda Forster (’90) had already made an impact on the disadvantaged community of South Los Angeles.

Following four decades of military service, general Robert Neller receives an official order that changes the course of his life.

32 A Crime for Help 34 Beyond the Buzz

22

36 Hideaway and Seek

42

38 Quarter-Life Lessons 40 Causing a Racquet 42 Road to Rio 44 Behind the Seams 46 For Entertainment Purposes Only

44

DEPARTMENTS 2 Letters 4 Perspectives

26

6 News

46

12 Snapshot 30 Alumni 48 In Focus

magazine.pepperdine.edu

1

letters LET TER FROM THE EDITOR Unplugging. The concept seems so foreign in a digital age when we are constantly connected and feel a need to be available and “on” at all times.

And, yet, when we experience moments of disconnection, when we quiet the buzzing and humming of the devices on which we have come to depend, the silence is nothing short of spiritual.

We talk a lot about engagement—it has become sort of a buzzword for me in my job, as I am constantly seeking ways to better understand the needs of the Pepperdine Magazine audience. The results of the reader survey (see page 3) demonstrate that you are

engaging with us, and we are listening to you in more ways than ever before.

This magazine would not exist were it not for the connections, both personal and digital, that help us share the Pepperdine story.

But what happens when we disengage?

In this issue we discover that spiritual leaders across the University have been doing just that each spring for the last three years. In fact, it is the ritualistic practice of surrendering all technological devices for three days that brings them closer to what God created them to be—human beings rather than human doings.

This issue also celebrates the connections that are made when love shows up in the streets of South Los Angeles, an underserved community that Seaver College alumna Linda

Forster (’90) has been tending to ever since she can remember. Then, there is School of Public Policy alumnus Almis Udrys (MPP ’01), who serves the 1.4 million citizens of San Diego by facilitating their connection with their government using the power of technology.

The value of rest is undeniable, and the idea of disconnecting to reconnect is a powerful one. So, here’s to powering down to power up. May it restore our spirits, reinvigorate our purpose, and encourage us to seek out more ways to connect with one another.

— GAREEN DARAKJIAN editor

Rediscover the powerful story of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection at the

73rd Annual Pepperdine Bible Lectures

LIVING in LIGHT of the Join almost

JESUS STORY

300 guest speakers from around the world at over

75 daily sessions as they explore the deeper truths found in scripture.

FEATURED SPEAKERS

N. T. Wright

Anglican bishop, one of the most influential biblical scholars of our era

Ruby Bridges Civil rights and social justice activist

REGISTER ONLINE 2

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

Dave Clayton

Founder, Ethos Church pepperdine.edu/biblelectures

We heard YOU! In the last two issues we asked readers to share how they experience Pepperdine Magazine.

The survey was meant to help us better understand your preferences and learn more about the over 90,000 alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends who read and respond to the content we produce. Thank you to all who participated. We are happy to share some of the results of the survey, here.

YOU?

What topics are of most interest to

What is

YOUR affiliation

Student Achievements

with the University?

Alumni Profiles

42% Staff 22% Other 16% Student 12% Faculty 8%

Campus Facilities

Alumni

Institutional History Faculty/Staff Achievements Athletics Arts

EDITOR

Gareen Darakjian

SENIOR DESIGNER

Courtney Gero

WRITERS

Sara Alamdar, Emily DiFrisco, Sarah Fisher, Vincent Way

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Samantha Burg, Ryan Kotzin

PHOTOGRAPHER

Ron Hall (’79)

COPY EDITOR

Vincent Way

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Jill McWilliams

APP AND DIGITAL ISSUES

Keith Lungwitz

INTERACTIVE DEVELOPER

Kimberly Robison (’10)

MULTIMEDIA

Nathan Pang (’07)

PUBLISHED BY THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Rick Gibson (MBA ’09, PKE 121) ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Matt Midura (’97, MA ’05) CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Keith Lungwitz DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA

Allen Haren (’97, MA ’07) DIRECTOR OF INTERACTIVE

Ed Wheeler (’97, MA ’99)

32%

of respondents prefer to read stories featuring students

40 are 23 % the most read sections

FEATURES % & NEWS of the magazine

38%

of respondents experience Pepperdine Magazine on their smartphones

Editor’s note: A photo caption in the article titled “The Campus Crew” on page 25 in the Fall 2015 issue mislabeled the name of an alumnus. The alumnus in the photo is Alex Booker (’14), not Karl Simpson (’14).

Pepperdine Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 1, Spring 2016.

Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends. It is published quarterly by the University’s Public Affairs division.

Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California, 90263 Pepperdine Magazine is produced with guidance from an advisory board representing a cross-section of the University community.

Send address changes with publication name to: Office of Advancement Information Management at Pepperdine University, 24255 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California 90263 Other information and queries should be directed to the editor.

Tell us what YOU think!

All material is copyrighted ©2016 by Pepperdine University, Malibu, California 90263.

Do you like what you’re reading? How can we improve?

310.506.4000

Visit magazine.pepperdine.edu to tell us what you think about what you’re reading and how we’re doing. We’ll publish your thoughts in the next issue.

Pepperdine is affiliated with Churches of Christ, of which the University’s founder, George Pepperdine, was a lifelong member.

PA1604018

Connect with Pepperdine

magazine.pepperdine.edu

3

perspectives

Back to the FUTURE 25 Years Later

Suppose like Marty McFly in Back to the Future you had an opportunity to look into your own future and compare it to your current circumstances. In a way, such is the opportunity that president Andrew K. Benton has given me.

by Michael F. Adams, Chancellor

I

had the opportunity to serve Pepperdine University for nine years in the decade of the ’80s as chief development officer and vice president for University Affairs. Following a 25-year stint as president of two colleges, including the past 16 years at the University of Georgia (UGA), President Benton reciprocated with an invitation for me to return to Pepperdine for a career capstone experience. Even though I thought my wife Mary and I had stepped down to spend more time with each other and with our grandchildren, we both agreed we still loved Pepperdine, where our children had grown up, and that the California lifestyle still had a lot of appeal. So, here we are ensconced once again in dear, familiar Malibu. After almost a year back in these environs we have been asked the same question now hundreds of times from former and new friends: “What has changed at Pepperdine and what remains the same?”

4

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

When I took on the role of chancellor, President Benton requested of me two things: 1) help raise money for the University, and 2) provide some advice from my past 25 years of experience to the senior administration team.

While I hope to make a lasting impact, I have discovered that many things have changed at Pepperdine since I last roamed these halls.

One of the many reasons for this rise is that the academics here are much stronger than they were in the ’80s. The faculty is superior, the curriculum is broader, and they are a wonderfully-led group under the example of provost Rick Marrs, who achieved his terminal degree from Johns Hopkins University, one of America’s strongest graduate programs.

I must admit this is my first experience with a student body sometimes chanting the initials of the president, “AKB, AKB,” at a lecture or ballgame. In other words, the students have never been as much at the central core of the enterprise as they are today. The current administration has insured that. As one of America’s top 40 private institutions and one of the top 10 Christian institutions, we are even closer to George Pepperdine’s vision of what Pepperdine University should be: first-class academics in a strong Christian environment.

An increase in the number of specialized programs has contributed to the multifaceted nature of academics at Pepperdine. The establishment of the School of Public Policy, our fifth school, has enabled students searching for ways to enhance their careers in public service to envision positions of public leadership. Add to that the new Institute for Entertainment, Media, and Culture and the Fred Sands Institute of Real Estate, and the curriculum continues to expand, almost endlessly.

But just as “what’s past is prologue”, as it says over the door of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., a lot of things at Pepperdine have remained the same.

Namely, I see no abdication of the long-term value system about which Mr. Pepperdine spoke in 1937. The spiritual roots in the Church of Christ are as strong, if not stronger, than they have been in decades.

Opportunities for spiritual development through student-led worship, chapels, discussion sessions, and day-to-day fellowship have never been more abundant and seem unlimited in scope and growth. Virtually all of the people here, whether students, faculty, or administrators, know who we are and what we are. There is little debate about purpose or focus.

The expansion of the Keck Science Center has encouraged a much greater emphasis on research and publishing, along with excellent teaching.

The establishment of the Center for Communication and Business has provided opportunities for students to become immersed in the world of entertainment and media, and has facilitated invaluable mentorship relationships with industry professionals.

Since I last served Pepperdine, the graduate schools of business, education and psychology, and public policy have finally found a home base in Malibu at the Drescher Graduate Campus, an initiative that was in the planning and zoning phases when I was here last. Great progress has been made here academically over the last 25 years.

Furthermore, the same entrepreneurial spirit most expressively exemplified by George Pepperdine and Mrs. Frank R. Seaver, is alive and well. Campus dedications to those like Tex Thornton, Morris Pendleton, Richard Rockwell, and Odell McConnell pay tribute to those largely selfmade people who dreamed the American dream, invested in American capitalism, and contributed much of their earnings to this great goal. As capable as the men and women of the Pepperdine fundraising enterprise are today, I believe it still remains that their greatest successes are tied to that original entrepreneurial spirit and strong Judeo-Christian ethic exemplified by the names mentioned above and additional names all across the campus.

As one of America’s top

40 private institutions and one of the top 10

Christian institutions, we are even closer to George Pepperdine’s vision of what Pepperdine University should be: first-class academics in a strong Christian environment.

Like in my days here in the ’80s, the sports program continues to thrive at the highest level of NCAA competition, Division I, with added women’s sports in soccer, swimming and diving, and beach volleyball. The basis for strong competitive West Coast Conference teams is self-evident. One area that requires attention is Firestone Fieldhouse, where our once again “top flight basketball program” needs a more suitable place to play. Improving or replacing it is at the top of the list of all of us who work in the senior administration.

The institution just fits here better than it did 25 years ago. Improvements to our campus and the relationships we have built with diverse communities have helped bridge the gap between the “institution on the hill” and the city of Malibu—and have even allowed us to grow closer to the city of Los Angeles.

President Benton’s patient involvement with the community has borne fruit for both.

Yes, there are still the typical town-andgown challenges and frustrations that there always will be, and while time does not heal everything, it has gone a long way over the past 25 years to engender mutual respect between Pepperdine and its community.

For my family, the opportunity to return to Pepperdine has been a fruitful one. We loved the times of my tenure as president of Centre College and UGA, and we were partly successful at those places because of what we learned here at an early age. I hope during this current experience we will have the opportunity to give back and help strengthen Pepperdine in light of what it has done for us.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

5

news DERYCK J. VAN RENSBURG Announced as DEAN of the Graziadio

School of Business and Management

Deryck J. van Rensburg has been named dean of the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. The former president of global ventures at The Coca-Cola Company will begin his responsibilities at the Graziadio Business School on November 1, 2016.

“Pepperdine Graziadio is a world-class business school where innovative program offerings and enhanced student experiences are at the forefront of building value-centered leaders. I’m excited to join this vibrant, thriving community,” said van Rensburg.

“It will be a great honor to continue the momentum achieved under the leadership of dean David Smith.”

Van Rensburg brings to Pepperdine 32 years of international business experience in leadership roles with The Coca-Cola Company, and formerly with Unilever PLC, where he held roles in the United States, Germany,the United Kingdom, Austria, Greece, Romania, Belgium, and South Africa.

Recently at Coca-Cola, van Rensburg was responsible for identifying and developing emerging beverage trends in both domestic and international markets, incubating internal innovation, and sourcing external growth through acquisition, entrepreneurial partnering, and equity investments. Prior to his U.S. assignments, van Rensburg was president of several large businesses for The Coca-Cola Company, such as the Germany and Nordic Division based in Berlin, and the Southeast Europe and Gulf Division based in Athens. magazine.pepperdine.edu/deryck-van-rensburg

6

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

PETE PETERSON Named DEAN of School of Public Policy Pete Peterson has been named dean of the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. Peterson has served the School of Public Policy in many capacities over the course of his nearly decadelong career at Pepperdine, most recently in the role of interim dean. He has led the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership as executive director since 2010, and has held various teaching roles at Pepperdine since 2007.

with the Davenport Institute at the School of Public Policy to become the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership.

Peterson is a leading national speaker and writer on issues related to civic participation and the use of technology to make government more responsive and transparent. He was the first executive director of the bipartisan organization Common Sense California, which in 2010 joined

Peterson has cocreated and currently co-facilitates the training seminar “Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill in Difficult Times,” a program that has been attended by over 1,000 municipal officials.

In 2008, as executive director of the Davenport Institute, Peterson developed the organization’s annual Public Engagement Grant Program, which has provided over $400,000 in grants over the last several years to dozens of municipal governments across California.

magazine.pepperdine.edu/ pete-peterson

Pepperdine University Celebrates 40TH ANNUAL PEPPERDINE ASSOCIATES DINNER Throughout its nearly 80-year history, it has been at the forefront of the Pepperdine University mission to create a dynamic learning environment that leads students on a journey of self-discovery, intellectual growth, and authentic expressions of faith with the guidance of faculty mentors.

At the 40th annual Pepperdine Associates Dinner, award-winning journalist Lester Holt explored the theme “Learn, Love, Lead, Live: Navigating the Hero’s Journey”—a guiding concept that illuminates the student experience and encourages all members of the Pepperdine community to become change-makers and leaders who promote a vision for a better world.

The Pepperdine Associates Dinner was held on Saturday, April 9, at 6 PM at the JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE in Downtown Los Angeles. At this milestone event, Holt took the podium to share his own remarkable journey, reflecting on the heroes he has found in every story.

Holt, father of Pepperdine alumnus Stefan Holt (’09), is one of the most prominent names in journalism today. Now behind the desk of NBC Nightly News, America’s most watched evening newscast, Holt has spanned the globe for decades covering major news events. In both

L to R: Stefan Holt (’09) and Lester Holt

triumph and tragedy, he is widely acclaimed for his commitment to his field as he shines light upon truth and the power of the human spirit. magazine.pepperdine.edu/pa-dinner

Pepperdine Law Review Hosts 2016 SYMPOSIUM The annual Pepperdine Law Review Symposium was held at the Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu on Friday, April 1. This year’s theme, “The United States Vice Presidency: In History, Practice, and the Future,” was explored in a session led by the Honorable Richard Cheney, 46th vice president of the United States, as well in discussions featuring a distinguished panel of renowned practitioners, academics, and politicians.

The day’s events focused on the unique history and purpose of the vice presidency, as well as its future as an important instrument for government reform.

L to R: Douglas W. Kmiec, the Honorable Richard Cheney, Edwin Meese

“The vice president today is considered the deputy president, and recent vice presidents have sometimes even eclipsed the president they were serving; yet, the vice presidential office in the Constitution has only one original and narrow duty in the legislative branch as president of the Senate,” said Douglas W. Kmiec, Pepperdine University professor of constitutional law and Caruso Family chair in constitutional law.

Founded in 1972, Pepperdine Law Review is a scholarly law journal published by second- and third-year School of Law students. In its 40 years of existence, Pepperdine Law Review has been a resource for practitioners, law professors, and judges, and has been cited several times by the Supreme Court.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

7

news International Speaker and Author RAVI ZACHARIAS Leads 2016 VERITAS FORUM

Weisman Museum Displays Collection of ANDY WARHOL Works The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art presented the exhibit Andy Warhol Portfolios: Life & Legends, from January 16 to April 3. The exhibit focused on the humanistic side of Warhol’s work, exploring his interest in “Life”—the grand drama of human existence—and in “Legends”—those people and things that have become famous icons in popular culture.

The display contained over 80 works from his silk screen portfolios, including some of his best known images, such as his Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, and Marilyn, as well as other series inspired by his obsession with famous people and popular culture—namely Muhammad Ali, the Wicked Witch, and Uncle Sam. Other portfolios in Life & Legends were created to address social themes such as Myths, Birmingham Race Riots, and Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century, as well as the beauty and fragility of the natural world in his Sunsets, Grapes, Space Fruit, Vesuvius, and Endangered Species pieces. magazine.pepperdine.edu/andy-warhol

Ravi Zacharias, founder and president of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), was the special guest speaker at the 2016 Veritas Forum held at Firestone Fieldhouse on February 16.

The goal of the University’s annual Veritas Forum is to encourage and promote a deeper understanding of faith through a collective exploration of basic truths about God and humanity, and Zacharias examined this year’s theme of “What Gives Humans Value?” as it relates to spirituality and Christian values.

Zacharias has been an international speaker for four decades, including at engagements in world-famous universities, for government and military sectors, and given addresses at the White House, the Pentagon, and the CIA in Washington, D.C. The former chair of evangelism and contemporary thought at Alliance Theological Seminary, Zacharias has appeared on major television networks such as CNN and Fox, and hosts radio programs with international broadcasts. He is also an accomplished author and editor, with many of his books available in Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Korean, among other languages.

8

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

Pepperdine RANKED NUMBER ONE in Institute of International Education 2015 Open Doors Report The Institute of International Education released its 2015 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange on November 16.

Pepperdine University topped several of the data sets, ranking number one for undergraduate participation in U.S. study abroad programs at doctorate-granting universities, advancing from its 2014 ranking of number six.

The 2015 Open Doors Report estimated that 86.5 percent of all undergraduate students at Pepperdine studied abroad during the 2013-2014 academic year, revealing a 27.5 percentage point increase over the 2012-2013 academic year’s participation of 59 percent.

Pepperdine also maintained its ranking at number two on the list of longest term durations of U.S. study abroad programs offered through doctorate-granting universities.

The report contained a section entitled “U.S. Study Abroad: Fields of Study,” which outlined the top 17 fields of study and the percentage of students involved in earning degrees in each of the fields. Pepperdine offers degrees in 16 of the 17 fields of study listed.

Additionally, of Pepperdine’s seven global programs offered, five locations— including the United Kingdom, Italy, China, Germany, and Argentina—placed in the Top 25 Destinations of U.S. Study Abroad Students.

Master of Science in

BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

to Launch in Fall 2016

Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology will offer a master of science degree in behavioral psychology beginning in the Fall 2016 semester at the West Los Angeles campus.

Graziadio School of Business and Management Launches FRED SANDS INSTITUTE OF REAL ESTATE The Graziadio School of Business and Management celebrated the 2016 opening of the Fred Sands Institute of Real Estate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Drescher Graduate Campus on February 25.

The ceremony commenced with a special welcome address from Graziadio School dean David Smith, followed by an invocation from Keith Hinkle, chief development officer and senior vice president for advancement and public affairs. Pepperdine University president Andrew K. Benton invited special guests to join him in the ribbon cutting, and the event concluded with a tour of the institute.

The Fred Sands Institute of Real Estate provides graduates with the required knowledge in finance, investments, economics, and law to effectively prepare them for success in competitive international real estate markets. The Institute utilizes the Education to Business (E2B) program, pioneered by the Graziadio School, to effectively engage students in authentic and concrete real estate business challenges. magazine.pepperdine.edu/ fred-sands-institute

This two-year program is designed to prepare students for careers in Applied Behavioral Analysis. Students will obtain the academic preparation required to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst through the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

They will gain a deep understanding of human development throughout the lifespan, knowledge of psychopathology and the process of diagnosis, treatment planning, and intervention to assess and treat children and adults with autism spectrum disorders.

Along with a supportive learning environment and faculty who have exemplary academic achievements and professional expertise, benefits of this program include a traditional classroom format, which primarily meets in the evenings, combined with several online classes in order to best serve those actively working in the field. The small class sizes also provide for faculty mentorship, close peer interaction, and optimal intellectual and professional growth. magazine.pepperdine.edu/ behavioral-psychology

magazine.pepperdine.edu

9

news NCAA Committee on Infractions and Pepperdine University

RESOLVE SELF-REPORTED

Violations

Pepperdine University continues to comply with the NCAA Committee on Infractions regarding self-reported violations that occurred between 2007-2008 and 2010-2011. Many of the penalties issued to Pepperdine were proposed by the University and agreed to by the Committee on Infractions.

The violations included misapplying progress-toward-degree rules for transfer student-athletes; not seeking reinstatement for an ineligible student-athlete; inadvertently over-awarding the number of allowable athletic scholarships; not properly creating and maintaining squad lists; not properly documenting awarded nonathletic scholarships, which do not “count” against the permissible athletic scholarships; and inadvertently not completing an annual certificate of compliance.

Since discovering these unintentional violations, Pepperdine has strengthened its oversight and compliance processes, including bringing on two experienced individuals to its compliance staff, and making a commitment to continuing rules education University-wide.

When the grant-in-aid violations were discovered in the spring of 2011, Pepperdine immediately self-imposed a one-year postseason ban for the three teams that were over-awarded but were still in the middle of their seasons: baseball, men’s tennis, and men’s volleyball. Additional penalties included public reprimand and censure and four years of probation through the 2015-2016 season.

10

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

Global Justice Program at the School of Law Hosts PREVIEW SCREENING OF REMAND A preview screening of REMAND, a Revolution Pictures documentary about the work by the School of Law’s Global Justice Program in Uganda, took place on November 21 at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

Registration was open to the public for the screening, as well as for the Producers’ Dinner, which featured Baylor University president and former School of Law dean Kenneth W. Starr, film director Andy Reale, Pepperdine vice chancellor and the film’s executive producer Janet Kerr, and many of the students who participated in the prison project featured in the film.

Also present at the Producers’ Dinner was Global Justice Program director Jim Gash, who won the appeal of a young Ugandan man’s murder conviction last summer, after having spent several years working on the case.

The film’s primary focus was the execution and results of a powerful idea developed by two Pepperdine law students, which led to major changes in the Ugandan criminal justice system and benefited thousands of people. The announcement of the film’s completion and preview screening followed a successful crowdfunding campaign during mid-2015 to raise $150,000 for a follow-up to the film’s original content. magazine.pepperdine.edu/remand

Graziadio School of Business and Management CELEBRATES WINTER COMMENCEMENT

The Graziadio School of Business and Management held its winter commencement on December 5 at Firestone Fieldhouse on the Malibu campus. Honorary doctorate recipient Jeff Stibel, author, entrepreneur, and brain scientist, and Distinguished Alumnus Don Bailey (MBA ’86), former CEO of Questcor, Inc. (QCOR), a specialty pharmaceutical company, addressed the graduates.

Stibel is the vice chair of Dun & Bradstreet and a founding partner of Bryant Stibel & Co. He currently sits on the boards of various private and public companies, as well as academic boards for Tufts University, Brown University, and the University of Southern California.

Bailey is on the board of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, and chair of its portfolio committee. He was QCOR’s CEO for seven years, during which the stock price of QCOR increased over 200 times, and QCOR was named the number one growth company in the U.S. three times

by Forbes and Fortune. He is a Senior Fellow in Entrepreneurship at Pepperdine University, serves on the board of the business school at Chapman University, and is a founding board member of the Institute for Innovation at the University of California, Irvine. magazine.pepperdine.edu/gsbm-2015-commencement

SavvyChic XII Honors

VIN AND SANDRA SCULLY

The Boone Center for the Family at Pepperdine University honored prominent Angelenos Sandra and Vin Scully with the 2015 Friends of the Family Award for their commitment to family and marriage. The event took place on November 11 during SavvyChic XII, the Boone Center’s annual fall fundraiser hosted at the Beverly Hilton.

SavvyChic XII brought the greater Pepperdine community together for an afternoon of fashion and fundraising.

Highlights of the event included an eco-couture fashion show featuring Prophetik by Jeff Garner (‘00) and Riginals,

a children’s clothing boutique based in Century City, as well as boutique shopping offered by over 10 local and luxe vendors.

The Boone Center received 25 percent of all the sales.

A raffle and silent auction were held for items including a meet-and-greet with legendary sportscaster Vin Scully at Dodger Stadium. Brenda Cooper, Emmy Award-winning costume designer, served as the mistress of ceremonies. The conferring of the 2015 Friends of the Family Award was followed by remarks from Sandra and Vin Scully. family.pepperdine.edu

magazine.pepperdine.edu

11

snapshot

12

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

HOME Run Brie Carroll (’09) made Waves history when she achieved record-breaking stats on the women’s track team as a Seaver College student. Last fall a group of alumni athletes were invited to Pepperdine to participate in the first cross country meet of the season in Alumni Park. Carroll, who had just returned from a deployment in the Air Force, drove to Malibu from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, in order to take part.

Photo: Jeff Golden

magazine.pepperdine.edu

13

feature

A psychology professor and his former graduate student team up to develop an app that enables users to access cognitive-behavioral therapy in the palm of their hands.

By Gareen Darakjian

14

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

How are you?

“How are you?” The open-ended question is a ubiquitous one and, in most cases, innocuous enough to open a variety of conversations.

For users of the Moodnotes mobile app, the question is a gateway for those seeking mental health strategies to identify what they feel, why they feel it, and how to combat harmful thinking patterns.

According to recent research, only 20 to 30 percent of people in need of psychological intervention actually access professional mental health services. One of the reasons is that the traditional models of delivering such services, such as one-on-one therapy, are inherently limited in their reach.

“Only a small proportion of those in need are able to access these types of services due to factors such as cost, their inability to get to the clinic or provider, and even the stigma that continues to be associated with seeking mental health care,” says Drew Erhardt, professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology and a licensed clinical psychologist.

that if we can effectively manage symptoms when they emerge, numbers of people may not progress to the point where they need clinical treatments. With the emergence of digital technology, people are able to track various aspects of their health and well-being better than ever before. There’s no reason why we can’t leverage that technology for mental health variables, as well.”

The MoodKit for iOS was born, offering users a mood improvement toolkit to apply effective strategies of professional psychology to their everyday lives through a mobile app. MoodKit presents four core cognitive-behavioral therapy concepts in an app with mainstream appeal. It can be used as a standalone self-help tool or as an adjunctive tool in psychotherapy, offering advantages not only to clients who want to collect data about themselves and share it with a therapist, but also to therapists who can recommend the app like a self-help book to supplement therapy.

MoodKit was released in early 2011 and received organic press from day one.

A CNET article appearing soon after the app’s release brought considerable attention, and the app has continued to do very well since with respect to downloads, user reviews, and positive press. The challenge was designing something that mainstream audiences would understand, that was gender- and culture-neutral and intuitive, and also offered access to data and tools that therapists would value and use in their work.

Among the greatest needs, Erhardt explains, is trying to identify the treatments and interventions that are most effective in treating various mental health issues and finding ways to distribute them to large numbers of people.

“Whether through online programs or mobile apps that disseminate information, technology has the potential to break down those traditional barriers that keep people from getting the help they need,” he says.

Edrick Dorian and Drew Erhardt demonstrate the features of the Moodnotes app.

In 2010 Erhardt partnered with a former doctoral student, Edrick Dorian (PsyD ’03), now a clinical and police psychologist, who shared the same frustration concerning the relative inaccessibility of the effective interventions of clinical psychology. They were both interested in identifying accessible, inexpensive ways to disseminate the tools they found helpful in their clinical work to more people who could benefit from them.

“We agreed that cognitive-behavioral therapy, the approach to psychological treatment that has the strongest evidence for its efficacy, should not be something that people can access only by going to see a mental health professional,” Erhardt says. “If we can make these tools understandable and relevant to people’s everyday lives, and embed them in devices that are virtually always available to them, then they can be incorporated in their daily routines much like diets and exercise are.”

“People have made tremendous strides in taking control of their physical health as far as diet, hygiene, and sleep, and as a result, many people have adopted much healthier routines in those domains,” adds Dorian.

“There has been such an enormous emphasis placed on prevention,

“It was a really good challenge, because it’s atypical in the health and psychology arena to effectively create products that aren’t overly dry, text-heavy, or jargony,” says Dorian.

In 2014 British digital product studio, ustwo, on the heels of tremendous success with their award-winning Monument Valley game, were eager to create a mental health-related app. Impressed with MoodKit, they approached Erhardt and Dorian with an offer to collaborate on the development of a new app. A few months later Moodnotes was released for iOS devices, offering a fluid journaling app with cognitive restructuring and positive psychology elements.

Moodnotes is free of clinical or diagnostic terms in order to be as intuitive as possible. Dorian and Erhardt worked with ustwo to determine content based on what is done in a traditional psychotherapy session with a therapist.

“It’s this kind of collaboration between technology, design, and subject matter experts that has the potential of creating products with the biggest impact,” says Dorian.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

15

feature

online programs or mobile apps that disseminate information, technology has the potential to break down those traditional barriers that keep people from getting the help they need.

Whether through

- Drew Erhardt

The app launches with a call to action: “How are you?” it prompts, as a smiling face on the screen waits for the user to input his or her mood at the time of use. The face can be adjusted with the swipe of a finger from a big smile to a big frown and everything in between. From that initial data, the app logs a numerical mood rating entry. Users can save their mood entries and see emerging thought patterns through continued use. They also have the opportunity to add details to the mood rating in order to better articulate, understand, and manage their feelings.

Journaling has been a staple of therapy for decades, and is a critical tool in being able to identify specific types of information from a client, explains Dorian, noting that, as users journal, they are able to articulate the specific thoughts and images that go through their minds, and the specific situations that impact their mood shift. Users benefit from noting thoughts, feelings, and observations in real time, as they occur, versus waiting several days or weeks between therapy sessions to discuss. This repeated process is meant to lead to cognitive restructuring, a technique in which users walk through a series of steps

16

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

to identify, evaluate, and ultimately modify the distress-inducing thoughts related to the bothersome situation.

In cases of depression and anxiety, psychologists have identified a wide range of associated clinical themes and characteristic thinking spirals.

Dorian also enthuses about the app’s intuitive interface, which enables users to perform cognitive restructuring on themselves in times of emotional distress. “If they identify a positive mood, the app takes them in a different direction, designed to help sustain or deepen those positive feelings,” he explains.

“Most people tend to repeatedly fall into the same thinking traps,” says Dorian. “Our goal with Moodnotes is to help them reshape these problematic thinking habits through a guided journaling process. Using the journaling format, the app gradually teaches users about thinking errors, empowers them to modify their own thinking, and helps them see the positive impact of modified thoughts on their overall mood or emotional intensity.”

Moodnotes is designed not only to help users identify which thinking traps they are most prone to, but also provides antidotes to help them learn how to respond adaptively to those dysfunctional thinking habits. Although some of the app’s tools may, by design, become obsolete when users have developed healthier styles of thinking, the open-ended journaling it provides can continue to benefit people indefinitely.

For the vast majority of people, what happens behind closed doors during professional psychological services remains a mystery.

For many, it is associated with clinical disorders, usually severe, and invokes visions of breakdowns, tearful confessions, and hopelessness. Dorian and Erhardt hope that the app will help destigmatize the worlds of clinical psychology and mental health, and that it leads to mental health becoming valued the way physical health has been for decades.

For the price of a cup of coffee, users have access to information normally only found in a clinical setting. The ability to access these resources from every corner of the world is tremendous, as long as one has access to mobile devices and apps.

“The vast majority of people who need services don’t have them and may not even have the option of getting them,” says Dorian. “[Moodnotes] is also able to sidestep the stigma that remains in seeking mental health services or in carrying a book around with some sort of prominent psychological title. There is a certain level of discretion in being able to access [this information] on a smartphone.”

By design, Moodnotes does not share userentered data or identities with the developers or third parties, nor is there any interaction between parties. The only communication that comes from the app are prompts to consider making a journal entry.

There has been such an enormous emphasis placed on prevention, that if we can effectively manage symptoms when they emerge, numbers of people may not progress to the point where they need clinical treatments.

- Edrick Dorian (PsyD ’03)

For that reason, and the ability to respond to the needs of a younger, more tech-savvy generation of patients, Moodnotes, like MoodKit before it, has been embraced by the clinical community.

“Many therapists are hard-pressed to know what to recommend,” says Dorian. “These apps are tremendously appreciated by clinicians who are glad to know that such products exist, that they come from licensed professionals, and that ethical and user privacy concerns have been considered.”

Moodnotes also helps therapists improve and enhance their offerings, because their clients are able to e-mail data to themselves for archiving or to their therapists, providing more accurate, real-time data regarding their mood, thoughts, and circumstances.

Ultimately, Dorian and Erhardt believe that demystifying the field of psychology can have a transformative impact on people’s well-being.

“Many people don’t have the initial experience of benefiting from some of the basic content [of traditional therapy sessions],” says Dorian.

“What’s exciting is to think how this exposure creates ‘a-ha’ moments for people and makes them more receptive to that initial consult or appointment with a mental health professional, because they now have a better appreciation for the field’s offerings.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

17

feature

Title

BY SARA ALAMDAR Seaver College alumnus Takuji Masuda (’93) was catching waves along the Pacific Ocean when he dived into the world of documentary filmmaking. From surfing in Malibu to surfing the Internet, Masuda has made a career out of spotlighting the surfing lifestyle for over two decades.

As a professional surfer with a two-year run, Masuda used his time on the beach wisely, making connections with fellow surfers who also happened to be industry insiders. “I felt surfing gave me a place in the world,” Masuda says, as he organized trips to various surf sites, wrote articles about what he calls “the pandemic beach culture,” and produced surf videos as an extension of his surfing career.

After he retired from surfing in 1995, Masuda began working on Super X Media, a trilingual magazine featuring articles in English, French, and Japanese. He also developed a website for Super X Media, a technologically advanced notion in the mid-90s, when many still considered the Internet to be foreign territory. His involvement in HTML coding piqued his interest in motion pictures, and he began collaborating with his colleagues to create surfing videos.

It was in Super X Media that he published a literature review about the culture of the Pacific Ocean pier, a place where passionate, dedicated, and fearless surfers develop a strong sense of camaraderie with one another as they enjoy the endless water and sand. Masuda’s literature review

18

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

eventually evolved into a documentary film entitled Dogtown and Z-Boys, directed by skateboard legend Stacy Peralta.

A few years later, this concept was developed into the Hollywood film Lords of Dogtown, a production that included Academy Award winner Heath Ledger.

Through this experience, Masuda saw the results of what compelling storytelling can do, and gained a deeper understanding of the filmmaking process. He also realized that his personal interests had a broad audience, as there was definitely a market for people invested in this topic.

The worlds of extreme sports and film production collided again a few years later for Masuda, when he was introduced to the story of Bunker Spreckels, an American surfer who famously rode Hawaiian waves until his untimely drug-induced death in 1977. “It’s a cautionary tale,” Masuda warns. “His story resonated with

A DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER JOINS THE NEW SEAVER COLLEGE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN CINEMATIC MEDIA PRODUCTION.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

19

feature Studying at this particular university was especially beneficial to Masuda, who expresses that “Pepperdine is amazing in its geographical terms, because you’re studying and learning near some of the captains of the industry, from the actors, to the producers, to the directors.” As a result of this opportunistic proximity, Pepperdine students can “find a way to communicate with those people. My way was surfing.”

me, and I kept it close with me. And when I had an opportunity and a desire to be a filmmaker, I chose to tell this story.”

That’s how Masuda’s Bunker 77 film project was born, which he admits he initially attempted “without much knowledge” and often improvised throughout the development process. “I assembled a documentary film that was close to two hours long, and it was expository, and I didn’t really have a story,” Masuda shares.

“It was about how the guy lived and died, and I wanted to have more depth to that film. That’s when I started studying how others tell a story.”

After graduating from Seaver College in 1993, Masuda returned to Pepperdine in 2009 to learn more about the art of filmmaking, and met communications professor Craig Detweiler, who helped inspire and prepare him for a career in film production. “I brought a half-baked documentary into the program,” Masuda recalls. “I was the first student to bring in a thesis, and with the help of Dr. Detweiler and his colleagues, I was able to really challenge myself and ask all the right questions.”

20

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

Masuda further emphasizes the impact his time on the beach has had on his career.

“Surfing has really added value to my life,” he explains. “It has helped me connect with so many people that I would probably not have had the opportunity to engage with,” adding, “I have a lot of support and advice that I’m given for the Bunker 77 project by my friends in the industry that are surfers.”

These surfing friends include Stephen Gaghan, known for his work on such films as Syriana and Traffic, who joined Masuda’s thesis committee.

Masuda has also received a wealth of useful advice from established industry insiders, including veteran voice actor, animator, and producer Mike Judge, who told him that it’s only on the first project that filmmakers can work on the entire process exactly as they want. After that, they can see which parts they enjoyed the most, which parts they want to do more of, and which parts they have weaknesses in that they need to improve upon for their next film.

Along with all his other accomplishments, Masuda continues to actively pursue an education in the filmmaking realm at Pepperdine, as he is currently enrolled in the new master of fine arts program in cinematic media production, offered by Seaver College. He highly recommends this program “for anyone who is already immersed in studying entertainment, production, or screenwriting, because it’s a chance to learn about those things.”

Masuda’s acceptance of this support and advice resulted in further recognition of his film in March 2016, when Bunker 77 won first place at The Film Lab at Sun Valley Film Festival, a competition that provides filmmakers whose projects are in the final stages of the post-production the opportunity to have their movies screened and win a cash prize to help them complete their work.

After his many years in the entertainment industry, Masuda notes that “the only successful people that I see are the ones who really see the task at hand, and they do the best they can at it. And when you do the best you can, you will get acknowledged.

There are a lot of shortcut ways to get things, but without substance, it will not withstand the test of time. In this small space of beach culture and the surfing world, I have put 25 years of my life into it and contributed to it, so I feel like I can be a voice for the people that I am a part of. I have my own interpretation. It’s not the absolute voice, but I can voice it.”

A film poster for Bunker 77 (2010) directed by Takuji Masuda and produced by Super X Media

He adds that this program “will accelerate your career, strengthen the learning process, and get you face-to-face with how it works, because the people that are involved in it have made films, and have very strong moral compasses that help Pepperdine thrive. They also bring in industry professionals very frequently, so you’re hearing from people that are shifting the landscape.”

Inviting industry professionals to be guest speakers is a major benefit to Pepperdine film students, who can also use these sessions as networking opportunities to develop industry contacts. According to Detweiler, who also serves as a creative director for the Pepperdine University Institute for Entertainment, Media, and Culture, “At Pepperdine, we can offer a more personalized film education rooted in students’ particular interests,” adding, “there’s nothing I love more than connecting our students with industry mentors from right in our backyard.”

Michael Smith, associate professor of media production at Pepperdine, also looks forward to commencing the new cinematic media production graduate program.

He reveals that the mission of the program is to “educate cinematic storytellers as cultural leaders in a diverse world.”

As he explains, “We’re excited to launch this program because it meets Pepperdine’s vision to be a preeminent university known for more than just providing an education.

We want to graduate leaders with stories to tell that make the world more beautiful and more meaningful.”

Classes will feature cohorts of 12 to 15 students, who will participate in the program as a group. They will also experience “required interaction with industry mentors,” Smith says, as the program offers “units for students to earn credit for meeting with a mentor in their direct area of interest.” Mentors who have previously worked with Pepperdine include Academy Award-nominee screenwriter Randall Wallace and documentarian

I ASSEMBLED A DOCUMENTARY FILM THAT WAS CLOSE TO TWO HOURS LONG,

Lucy Walker. Smith also notes that students will “finish with a creative product and a business plan for another product they will take to the market upon graduation.”

Seaver College alumna Samantha Smith (’13) is another student enrolled in the new MFA program. “I was interested in film from a really young age, but I didn’t really start [making them] until Pepperdine,” she expresses. Smith decided to enroll in the program when she was an undergraduate student, noting, “I knew I would graduate and go work on my own films, and now I can do that and still learn.”

Like Masuda, she has also gained valuable advice from those thriving in the entertainment industry, including one from a documentary filmmaker. “My current boss told me that working on a project is like riding a bike,” Smith explains, “because you have to have momentum. And if you lose momentum, you’ll get wobbly and you can fall off track.” Smith calls this “invaluable advice,” which she admits has been “difficult to practice, but so true.”

Masuda also offers some invaluable advice to those considering enrolling in the new cinematic media production program. “In surfing, if you want to catch another wave, you want to be healthy, so you eat healthy. So when you have the right knowledge, you can navigate yourself.”

AND IT WAS EXPOSITORY, AND I DIDN’T REALLY HAVE A STORY. THAT’S WHEN I STARTED STUDYING HOW OTHERS TELL A STORY.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

21

Pillar feature

of the

22

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

By her teenage years, Linda Forster (’90) had already made an impact on the disadvantaged community of South Los Angeles.

By Gareen Darakjian

In the mid-1970s, 7-year-old Linda Forster’s neighbor was murdered. When she and her mother, renowned community activist “Sweet” Alice Harris, arrived at the scene, Forster was given three tasks: 1) to find a chair for the victim’s mother, Ms. Theresa, to sit on; 2) to take Ms. Theresa to a covered area away from the rain; and 3) to hold up an umbrella to protect Ms. Theresa from seeing her son’s body lying at the crime scene.

Hours passed and the youngster’s arm grew tired.

She can still remember Ms. Theresa’s screams as she caught a momentary glimpse of her son’s tennis shoes poking out from underneath the white sheet.

“That was my catalyst,” Forster recalls. “Just as I attempted to shield Ms. Theresa from the pain of that night, I wanted to shield the community from the pain they were experiencing.”

At the time, Forster and her family lived in the Watts area of South Los Angeles, where issues of hopelessness and low self-esteem were beginning to emerge in the primarily African American community, aided by pervasive poverty and the rise of the crack cocaine epidemic.

Forster explains that the growing diversity of the population and the language barrier between the different communities also proved to be divisive forces, a matter that the 13-year-old Forster and her mother were determined to address.

“There was a different gang on every other block,” Forster recalls, of the difficult times. “Our youth weren’t free to walk to the local store or park in fear of encountering a different gang. Even though

they weren’t actively participating, they were considered a target.”

Years of attending a local Catholic school with a high population of Latino students had enabled Forster to develop a conversational aptitude of Spanish, and when Harris started a class for members of the community to learn each other’s language, Forster was appointed as a Spanish teacher. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) heard about their efforts and sent a representative to evaluate the class.

“If we could assure them that we could maintain 15 students a night, the LAUSD would provide an instructor for the classes,” recalls Forster, of the humble beginnings of the social services program, which soon evolved to include a GED program sparked by the limited number of residents in the community with a middleor high-school education.

Education was a hot topic in Forster’s home.

Her mother was separated from the school system when she became pregnant at 13 years old and didn’t complete junior high. Forster remembers coming home from elementary school to a stack of mail waiting for her to read aloud to her mother.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

23

feature When Harris learned of a program through the Watts Counseling and Learning Center that worked with local families to improve their lives, she was encouraged to go back and get her education. Harris received her GED in 1977 and later transferred to community college and “has been preaching about education day and night ever since,” says Forster.

Forster first experienced Pepperdine as a 4-year-old on a field trip to the Malibu campus organized by the Watts Willowbrook Church of Christ in Compton, California. Thinking the verdant campus was a park, Forster would implore her mother for return trips.

“I was exposed to a college campus at an early age,” Forster continues. “We all knew we would obtain our college education.

By the time I was in high school, I had asked Mom to sign me up for courses at the local community college.”

During her senior year in high school, Forster was determined to apply to Pepperdine, the only school on her list, for the fond memories it held for her and her family. Back then, her school’s counseling office didn’t have ties to Pepperdine and her college counselor, “Ms. DeLoach,” encouraged her to apply to another local school. Though submitting an application to Pepperdine was challenging, Forster received an acceptance letter a few months later, much to DeLoach’s surprise.

Through the years Forster found herself immersed in and intoxicated by the promise of social and community service.

Pepperdine Magazine caught up with Linda Forster at Parents of Watts in Los Angeles to learn more about how she serves her community. Watch the video: magazine.pepperdine.edu/linda-forster

24

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

She and her family discovered the power of elected officials early on and befriended those creating policies that could impact their community. Forster and Harris worked hand in hand with local, state, and federal officials, including senator Diane Feinstein, mayors Jim Hahn and Tom Bradley—”every local official you can name”—and continue to have relationships with those who could help bring positive changes to their community.

Since the early 1980s Forster and her family, including her four sisters, have brought attention to their resource-deprived community with the Parents of Watts Working with Youth and Adults Multi-Purpose Community Crisis Center, which over the course of over 30 years has established shelters for the homeless and mentally ill, a foster family agency, a child day care and school, a youth center with a computer lab, a 24-hour crisis center, a teen pregnancy home, and a male parolee halfway house.

“Linda’s impact on the community is great, because she knows the community and they know her,” says Harris, noting that growing up among the people she served allowed Forster to be in touch with their greatest needs. “She can help them, because they are not afraid of her. Most people in this community are careful about who they talk to because they might talk to the wrong person and end up in trouble. But they knew Linda, and when Linda graduated from Pepperdine, she could do more because she knew more and she could help me to do more.”

Most recently, Forster has been dedicated to serving those who need extra help reentering society after being incarcerated. The Forster Company, a construction management firm that originally started as a material testing company, was established in October 2004.

The company has its roots in a social program launched with the help of the California State Department of Parolees, which assigned Parents of Watts the task of providing housing and rehabilitation to 40 state parolees, and to ensure their successful reintegration in society as law-abiding citizens two years after their release from prison.

As part of the program, the rehabilitated young men were provided individual, group, and family counseling, 12-step programs, and job opportunities. Local companies, however, were hesitant to hire former convicts.

One of them—a local construction company— challenged Forster: “If you will hire them, I will hire them.”

“Mom always taught us that we are our brother’s keeper,” Forster explains.

“She would say, ‘Linda, when you see someone, don’t see the behavior, see the individual and see that they are somebody’s child.’ When you put that in perspective, it really helps you see the need and not be discouraged.”

I realize that education is the key out of poverty.

It was the key for me and I know it will be the key for so many others.

Linda Forster and her mother “Sweet” Alice Harris walk through the Parents of Watts neighborhood.

Forster was determined to start her own company with the solitary goal of hiring ex-cons and training them in material testing— analyzing the soil upon which a building is built before construction in order to ensure that the ground can support the structure. Forster, along with her husband Egerton, were initially mentored by the local construction company to know how to train the young men for future work opportunities with them.

“The agreement was that we would keep them on our payroll for six months,” Forster recalls.

“When they saw that the men were successful, they would take them in.”

Many of the young men went on to obtain their own contractor’s licenses and became plumbers, carpenters, mason workers, and

electricians. They often return to the Forster Company to train and mentor other individuals who are in positions that they were once in.

“I believe that I have a responsibility to enhance the quality of life of others,” Forster says.

“I couldn’t do what I do without my faith, because there are days that I just want to throw up my hands and say this is too much. But on days when I get burned out and frustrated, I take the time to say a little prayer and reflect on how good God has been to me.”

Today, Forster carries with her a gift certificate from a department store given to her by DeLoach at her graduate school commencement. She says it’s a daily reminder of beating the odds and “catching the Wave” through the grace of God.

“She said, ‘Linda, I’m so sorry for doubting you.

You proved me wrong. I never thought a student from Watts, especially from L.A. David Starr Jordan High School’ which is surrounded by public housing projects, crime, and drug abuse ‘could go to Pepperdine. You make me so proud.’

I look at that gift card every day.”

“I’m a living testimony that children from Watts can attend Pepperdine University,” Forster muses.

“I realize that education is the key out of poverty.

It was the key for me and I know it will be the key for so many others. I know what Christ has done for me and I know I didn’t deserve his mercy and I know I didn’t deserve his love or grace. And when I reflect on all that he has done for me, the least I can do is help someone else.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

25

feature

GENERALLY

Following four decades of military service, General

Robert Neller receives an official order that changes the course of his life.

26

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

SPEAKING

By Sara Alamdar

Photo by: Staff Sgt. Gabriela Garcia

A

fter 40 years of dedicated service in the United States Marine Corps (USMC), general Robert Neller (MA ’81) was looking forward to retiring from the military. That is, until last summer, when president Barack Obama nominated Neller as the 37th commandant of the USMC, the highest ranking position within that particular branch of the armed forces.

The United States Senate confirmed the president’s nomination shortly thereafter, and the former lieutenant general officially began the new chapter of his military career on September 24, 2015. He describes his new role as “unexpected” and “not part of my plan,” but says the selection and subsequent offer was one he could not refuse.

Neller’s decades-long career within the USMC was also due to an unexpected turn of events. Though his original plan while in college was to become an attorney, that dream was cut short when he was

not accepted to the law school of his choice. He was also suddenly and heavily burdened by the financial pressures of continuing his education when his parents, in the midst of separation, were facing their own financial concerns and were no longer able to cover his tuition expenses.

Neller also planned to start his own family around this time and knew he needed a job to support his growing brood. He signed up for the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School with his college roommate in search of a new opportunity.

“We both went, and we both completed it,” Neller remembers. “The Marine Corps offered us a commission, and we took it. The plan was to do this for about three years, and then figure out what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

27

feature demanding life, which I think is the part that appeals to most people that want to be Marines. They want to be challenged. So we’ve got to continue to recruit and retain.”

Training the recruits is another major priority for the general, referring to the USMC reputation of being America’s force in readiness. “We have to continue to train hard, and be ready to go where the nation needs us to go, and do what the nation needs us to do. We are, by law and by heritage, a naval force, so we have to work with our navy shipmates and use the sea, and come off ships to do our business, whether it be a combat mission or humanitarian assistance.”

Neller also understands the importance of utilizing modern technology to stay on top of his game. He emphasizes that since the tools and devices that we rely on every day change so frequently, it is crucial to keep up with the latest advancements.

Photo By: Sgt. Ricardo Hurtado

This new journey also introduced Neller to the human resources management program at Pepperdine University while living in San Diego, California.

“Pepperdine had a program that was really innovative at the time,” he recalls. “They offered courses that primarily targeted military service members, and they had campuses at a lot of major military installations. There were a lot of people [in the program]: Marines, sailors, a few Department of Defense civilians, and people that still had their original GI Bill benefit that they were using to take courses.”

Neller still remembers the rigorous academic routine required of Pepperdine military students, including a class schedule that took up most of his time Thursday through Sunday, 11 times per semester, for a total of 22 weeks. After completing course work, he passed an eight-hour exam and earned his master’s degree.

“It was not what I would call an easy curriculum … so you had to want to get your degree,” he recalls.

Neller shares that the education he received at Pepperdine provided him with the necessary knowledge and training to become a lifelong leader. Thinking back to the curriculum that focused heavily on psychology and communication, he reveals that “a lot of it was leadership, and when you’re in the military, you’re kind of in the leadership business.”

Fast-forward 35 years and Neller’s leadership skills are still actively and effectively being utilized to serve the nation in various ways, primarily focusing on recruitment in an effort to continue to keep the USMC strong. As he explains, “We’re a very young force. About 60 percent of the Marine Corps is under the age of 25. We also have the lowest percentage of officers who enlisted. It’s a physically

28

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

He reveals that protecting the safety of the citizens of our country is of utmost priority. “There are people out there that, for a variety of reasons, don’t like our way of life or don’t like things about us, and want to potentially do us harm. So part of the mission is to make sure that people that live in this country can be safe and live the lives that they are authorized to live under the Constitution of the United States.”

Throughout a typical workday, Neller’s schedule involves seeing Marines and attending staff meetings that allow participants to submit policies and ideas. During “testimony season” this past March, Neller met with members of Congress to discuss various aspects of the Marine Corps, such as the budget.

The Marine Corps has also been involved in historic military modifications this year, since secretary of defense Ashton Carter has recently opened all previously closed occupations and units to women. The USMC conducted research to determine how it might integrate all qualified Marines into those previously closed military occupational specialties.

“We did a big evaluation of the assignment of female Marines to previously restricted units,” Neller explains. “We made our recommendation with the Secretary of Defense, and he decided that there will no longer be any gender restrictions, so if you can meet the standard, you are allowed to try out for those particular occupations and those particular units. We are still in the beginning of the implementation of that.”

Neller also points out that current laws do not require women to have to register for the draft. “The discussion is, since there is no longer a restriction on females serving in certain occupational fields and in certain units—which was the legal reason given for them not being required to register for the draft in the past—should they now be required to register for the draft? That’s the question. And that’s a discussion that’s going to have to take place within the political realm, and among and with the American people.”

From his first few years in the Marine Corps to his time at Pepperdine, to serving both domestically and overseas in various capacities, Neller contends that every opportunity he has ever been presented with has, in some way, been interesting, challenging, and rewarding.

When you’re in the

military,

you’re kind of in the

leadership business.

Photo by: Staff Sgt. Gabriela Garcia

Photo by: Lance Cpl. Julio McGraw

Of all his accomplishments, he happily declares that his greatest achievements are his 40-year marriage and his three children. “I’m very, very proud of my family,” he says. “At the end of the day, that’s really what counts. I think we’re all proud of our service, being able to help people, and being able to contribute along the way, but also I’m a grandfather, so that’s pretty exciting.”

Neller expresses that although he never aspired to become commandant of the Marine Corps, “sometimes life picks you, but it’s a great honor and privilege, and I’m honored to be able to be a Marine for a few more years.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

29

alumni

From holiday parties to service days to socials, Pepperdine Alumni Affairs puts on over 130 annual events nationwide with the help of more than 100 volunteers. In appreciation of the chapter leaders who continually demonstrate lives of purpose, service, and leadership, we would like to highlight those who truly embody the Pepperdine spirit.

Erica Flores

ERICA FLORES (MBA ’09)

DAVID PITTS

Hispanic Alumni Council president and L.A. Waves athletic chair

Q. What encouraged you to get involved with your chapter?

A. Pepperdine is such a great school, but the Latino community doesn’t know too much about it. There’s a lot of opportunity to expand awareness into our community. I want to pay it forward and give others the opportunity that I had in graduate school.

Aly Pinder

David Pitts

Margaret Moodian

Parent of two Seaver College students and Atlanta Waves chapter president

Q. What do you enjoy most about being involved with your chapter?

A. I have enjoyed building quality relationships with some very special

and interesting people who love Pepperdine and assist me in planning and executing our chapter events. Every event has a different turnout, which makes it fun to meet new people. And because I help organize the events, I enjoy getting to do things I wouldn’t ordinarily do.

Q. What has been your most rewarding experience as a chapter leader?

Q. What has been your most rewarding experience as a chapter leader?

A. Seeing the impact that you can make with an event is such a rewarding experience. At last year’s LinkedIn event, it was so great A. Seeing alumni coming to an event for the first time and leaving with to see people engage and ask questions. It’s always a great feeling when people let you know how much they got out of a program.

ALY PINDER (’02)

New England Waves board member

Q: What encouraged you to get involved with your chapter?

A: I moved to Boston from Southern California for graduate school and had no network in Boston. I was happy to find a piece of home here on the East Coast.

Q. What has been your most rewarding experience as a chapter leader?

A: Recently, we had a service project where we worked with an organization that partners with high school students—many of whom come from disadvantaged communities. Throughout the day, the kids’ eyes would light up when we told them we went to school “all the way out in California!” They were inspired to broaden their worldview just a tiny bit.

a sense of the community similar to what they experienced during their years at Pepperdine.

MARGARET MOODIAN (MA ’08, EdD ’11) Orange County Waves chapter president

Q: What has been one of your favorite events in your chapter?

A: I enjoyed volunteering at Second Harvest Food Bank for Step

Forward Day the last two years. It puts you in a good mood when you give back. That is one thing I truly enjoy about Pepperdine: we are encouraged to live lives of purpose and service, which is so important.

Q: What chapter event are you most looking forward to this year?

A: We are planning on holding our holiday party at the Balboa Bay Club

again. That is such a wonderful venue, and the boat parade makes it extra fun.

Read more: magazine.pepperdine.edu/alumni-qa

30

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

It was the perfect opportunity for family

togetherness – Kimberly (MBA ’06)

A Fun and Affordable Family Vacation Experience!

“Come home” to the Malibu campus this summer for the ultimate, all-inclusive vacation! Enjoy private suite-style accommodations, all meals from check-in to check-out, and activities for the whole family. Pepperdine Family Camp provides the perfect opportunity to spend quality time with the ones you love.

WHAT TO EXPECT: • Family surf lessons • Guided hike in the Santa Monica Mountains • Campfire on Alumni Park

• Beach party at Zuma Beach

• Kids camp and teen activities

• Lectures by distinguished faculty

• Fun in the Malibu sun and more!

Week 1: Wednesday, July 20, to Sunday, July 24, 2016 Week 2: Wednesday, July 27, to Sunday, July 31, 2016

CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER TODAY! 310.506.6602 | familycamp@pepperdine.edu | pepperdine.edu/familycamp

alumni@pepperdine.edu • pepperdine.edu/alumni

magazine.pepperdine.edu

31

community | scholarship

A School of Law alumnus develops a nationally recognized restorative justice program for the City of Los Angeles.

By Sara Alamdar

Jose Egurbide (JD ’95) had just graduated from Pepperdine School of Law when he began working with the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office first as a senior law clerk and, since June 1996, as a deputy city attorney. “While I had not considered government work as an option prior to that point,” he reveals, “the prospect of being able to handle my own trials immediately upon joining the City Attorney’s Office really appealed to me.” His interview with former city attorney and Los Angeles mayor James Hahn (’72, JD ’75) proved successful, and he began handling criminal trials from then on.

As he managed projects related to assistance programs for Downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row area, Egurbide saw firsthand the shortcomings that the traditional justice system has when it comes to permanently resolving various community issues. This inspired him to pursue the development of non-traditional criminal justice solutions when dealing with certain types of offenders, and as years have passed, he has become more deeply involved in mediation-based, alternative prosecution programs.

32

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

He explains that the traditional criminal justice system focuses on “seeing crimes as violations of the law, which in turn create guilt and corresponding punishments.” Alternative prosecution programs, however, view crimes as violations against the victim or the community at large, and are primarily focused on repairing the damages and on rehabilitation, rather than mere punishment.

This approach, known as restorative justice, is designed to help offenders become productive members of their communities, therefore reducing the risk of recidivism. Egurbide offers that the most effective way to achieve this is through “competency development,” which involves granting offenders access to a vast range of community resources previously unavailable to them. These resources include high school diplomas, counseling sessions, parenting courses, and job training, which are then combined with any imposed community service work, reflection essays, or apology letters meant to help repair the harm they have caused the victims and the community.

In 2014 Egurbide was back in the courtrooms, protecting the rights of the frail and those unable to adequately take care of themselves under California’s Unfair Competition Law when Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer commissioned him to develop from scratch a new post-arrest, pre-filing alternative prosecution program for select low-grade misdemeanors, including petty theft, vandalism, graffiti, minor in possession of alcohol, and disturbing the peace. After reviewing similar initiatives from other government offices in the United States, the Neighborhood Justice Program (NJP) was developed.

While NJP has a 92 percent participant success rate for fulfilling these obligations, if participants either disagree with the obligations or fail to complete them within the two-month time frame, the matter is referred back to the Los Angeles City Attorney Criminal Branch for filing and prosecution.

After only a year in operation, NJP participants had already served over 5,000 hours of community service throughout Los Angeles as one way of repairing the harm caused to their community. “There is a tremendous cost savings associated with redirecting these cases away from a traditional criminal justice system that is already overburdened with the volume of criminal matters being processed,” Egurbide explains.

Of all the positive impacts the program has generated thus far, Feuer is most proud of NJP’s impact on reducing recidivism and turning lives around. “It has changed the lives of its participants—those who have committed the crimes in the first place—as well as the lives of the victims and the community panelists who are prescribing what the participants should do to improve the community in which the offense has occurred,” he says.

“This is a chance for communities to own the results,” Feuer continues, encouraging community members to volunteer to serve in the program after training. “There is so much immediacy over the outcome when it’s constructed this way.”

Participants and victims get to discuss the crime and the impact of that crime, in a safe,

Within the scope of NJP, Egurbide explains that “participants and victims get to discuss the crime and the impact of that crime, in a safe, intimate encounter where the participant feels supported, making it easier for them to accept responsibility, express remorse, and respond more positively.” This process requires the involvement of trained volunteer mediators, who facilitate communications between the offenders, victims, and three panelists. The panelists are community members trained by NJP on restorative justice principles, in order to ensure that they properly and accurately understand their responsibilities.

intimate

encounter where the participant feels supported, making it easier for them to accept responsibility, express remorse, and respond more positively.

Egurbide explains that the process is voluntary and confidential.

“If the parties agree on a series of obligations at the end of the discussion, the participant signs a restorative justice agreement and [will have] two months to complete them,” he remarks. “Once the participant successfully completes their obligations, the diversion is deemed successful and no charges are filed against the participant for that offense.”

The program has also enjoyed national attention, as it was one of only four recipients of the Bureau of Justice Assistance Smart Prosecution grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Additionally, Los Angeles has been nationally recognized as a mentor site, and Egurbide hopes that these local efforts will encourage the development of additional restorative justice prosecution models across the United States.

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office hopes that the program will continue to have a positive influence within the community. “We’re going to be evaluating the program, and we’d like to see it expand,” Feuer explains. “Jose is playing a leadership role in making that happen.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

33

Beyondthe

community | scholarship

ALMIS UDRYS (MPP ’01) transforms political buzzwords into action for the City of San Diego.

BUZZ

By Sarah Fisher

By Sarah Fisher

New York City, 1950s: a young man, recently escaped from the Soviet invasion of Lithuania, works as a janitor and teaches himself English as he cleans bathrooms. A few years later in Dearborn, Michigan, a refugee woman from Lithuania goes to work at Ford Motor Company, finding herself in a job in a country she could hardly have imagined, after avoiding deportation to Siberia. And at the end of the war-torn century, their grandson Almis Udrys (MPP ‘01) grows up in a family haunted by memories of governmental oppression and fired-up for democracy.

“My interest in government emerged at a young age,” Udrys remembers. “My immigrant parents grew up with the refugee experience.

They worked hard to provide for me and my

34

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

three siblings, and they also provided an awareness of politics, the perspective that elections have consequences, and the value that I place on the right to vote to this day.”

Today, Udrys is the director of the Performance and Analytics Department for the City of San Diego, where he finds ample opportunities to philosophically and strategically enhance the liberties his grandparents so resolutely pursued by, for example, increasing transparency by putting government data directly into the hands of the public and by working hard to streamline expenditures within local government. In 2014 he was handpicked by San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer to create and lead the brand-new department, now in its second year.

“The best way to describe what our team does is that we take the popular electoral buzzwords—transparency, efficiency, accountability—and we turn them into reality,” he says, emphasizing that “setting up the new department has been a blast.”

He approaches his role with a private sectorstyle mindset: that the citizens of San Diego are customers/clients and, as such, deserve the very best of service from their government.

He says, “We are a city of 1.4 million customer citizens (excluding the tens of millions of tourists that visit each year), a $3.25 billion budget, and 11,000 employees. No private business provides the diversity of services a city government provides—the expectations

His parents and grandparents also raised him with what he calls a “profound belief in a merit-driven system; [that] your ideas should win the day based on their merits,” he says, and that includes giving a voice to all employees no matter their rung on the ladder. “[We have] launched some really novel programs like the San Diego Works initiative, through which we asked employees for ideas on improving customer service and efficiency.

That program was up and running within six weeks of the formation of the department and, to date, employees have already identified nearly $7 million in savings to the city over the next five years as a result of the ideas,” he notes.

In October 2015 Udrys spoke about technology in government at a TEDx community event, which explored the vision for San Diego by 2020. San Diego was the only U.S. city included in National Geographic Channel documentary series World’s Smart Cities and Udrys’ talk capitalized on its reputation as a city of technological innovation. In front of an audience of 1,500 (and more through live streaming), he explored the question: “Can Streetlights Save Democracy?”

“The streetlight project showcases San Diego as a ‘smart city,’ [and] the topic also gave me an opportunity to weave in my perspectives on government, the power of data and technology,

the decline in youth voting, and the deep need for civic engagement as a backbone of democracy,” says Udrys.

Able to speak or read five languages (including Lithuanian, of course), Udrys earned his bachelor’s degree in international business and Spanish from Hillsdale College in Michigan in 1999. He then visited the Pepperdine School of Public Policy to sit in on a few classes before choosing the school for his master’s in public policy.

“I admired the professors’ approach of teaching not simply how to analyze a problem, but to also contemplate the questions of why, giving consideration to political economics, history, sociology, and philosophy in making public policy choices and recommendations,” he reflects. “I take those elements into consideration when making policy recommendations to this day.”

“We had a $20 billion budget hole to plug, so tensions were high and the budget ended up being signed 100 days late,” he remembers.

Of note, Udrys spoke of the final days in budget negotiations, when one session was held in governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movie studio in Santa Monica. “My time in that role felt like twice to three times the actual amount of time— and the experiences are ones I would never trade for any others.”

I … HE L P E N AC T

CHANGES that ultimately improve people’s lives or facilitate their connection with—and reinforce their trust in—

THEIR GOVERNMENT.

Udrys stayed in California following graduation, evaluating problems in health care, correctional institutions, and education for the State of California. He moved on to the California State Assembly in 2005, where he eventually served as a chief budget negotiator in the State Legislature during Arnold Schwarzenegger’s final year as governor of California in 2009.

Photos: Paul Douda Photography

are monumental. So, we survey our customers and we require that our employees take customer service training. It’s an awesome time to be working at the City of San Diego.”

He relocated to San Diego in 2011—with his Italian-born wife, whom he met at Pepperdine, and their two children—and became a key policy staffer under former mayor Jerry Sanders, a position in which he led an effort to pass legislation that the City recently used in its proposal to keep its professional football team, the Chargers, in San Diego. He went on to serve Councilman Kersey as his deputy chief of staff, driving the citywide conversation on infrastructure issues that has now resulted in a ballot measure being put in the hands of the voters. Then Mayor Faulconer asked him to build the Performance and Analytics Department.

“My career so far has been a blessing; each one of my opportunities has felt much more like a hobby than like a job,” says Udrys. “I’m well aware that not many people get to say they look forward to Monday because they’re excited about what the week will bring and because no day is like any other. I keep being able to help enact changes that ultimately improve people’s lives or facilitate their connection with—and reinforce their trust in—their government.

I’m excited to see what the future will bring.”

Watch Udrys’ TEDx Talk “Can Streetlights Save Democracy?”: magazine.pepperdine.edu/almis-udrys

magazine.pepperdine.edu

35

community | spiritual life

Every winter, Pepperdine’s student ministers and leaders gather in retreat for restoration, renewal, and agape community.

By Vincent Way

You are a college student. New Year’s has just passed and you’re on a three-day weekend getaway at a resort in Santa Barbara, California, to get some R&R before hitting the books for the next semester. A young woman appears and gets your attention with a proposition to surrender your cell phone into a box that will be locked up for the weekend.

What would be your response? Anxiety? Relief? Terror?

But what comes with that proposition is a promise from Jesus.

“Laying down your phone is not only a physical act of letting go, it’s also a symbolic act of trust, of surrender—to truly find rest in Christ and experience his words, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,’” she explains, to the group of 100-plus

36

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

attendees at the Unplugged Retreat, a time of restoration and spiritual formation organized by Pepperdine in 2013 to provide rest to students who serve the University community as spiritual life leaders, campus ministers, and soul care providers.

Held on the weekend before the start of the spring semester at the Casa de Maria retreat center, the retreat suggests that

To connect to God and undergird your ability to work well and for the right reasons—to pursue your calling— cannot be done if you haven’t rested in God… Stephanie Cupp (’94) while work is important, the value of rest is just as important. Faculty and staff plan and execute the retreat entirely so that students need only attend and be attended to.

Retreat organizer Stephanie Cupp (’94), program coordinator at the Center for Faith and Learning, says, “To connect to God and undergird your ability to work well and for the right reasons—to pursue your calling—cannot be done if you haven’t rested in God, and thought, and contemplated, and worshipped, and all those other things. That’s where Unplugged comes from.”

Removing the distractions that come through a student’s phone is where it starts. And it can be hard. Jonathan Kwok, a Seaver College junior majoring in international studies, is a spiritual life advisor (SLA) and has attended three retreats.

He could not give up his phone (it’s optional) for the first two, but he finally did this year.

“It made all the difference. To say ‘what do I want to do? I’m going to go for a walk … just have God and me,’ it’s necessary to not have anything to fall back on.”

For Seaver junior Katie Park, a 2016 retreat attendee who is part of the student-led ministry Koinonia Campus Mission, unplugging came a little easier.

Hannah Parmelee (left) of the Boone Center for the Family leads a small group in communion.

“That was one of the reasons I wanted to go, to be unplugged,” she says. “But it’s hard to do it alone. It was really encouraging because everyone else is doing it together—plugging in with God and with a community that loves God.” But just putting away phones in a beautiful location is not the only thing that Unplugged offers. Like many spiritual retreats, there were numerous times of worship and a keynote speaker and small-group discussions afterwards to unpack the messages presented.

Of the small group that she led, Hannah Parmelee, a director at the Boone Center for the Family, says “I loved that time of getting to talk deeply about things and allow space for vulnerability and hear their stories, insights, and challenges—it’s a really rich time for them. It’s a joy to connect with students who love God and who are actively pursuing him.”

Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Unplugged is that it is an introduction for students into Christian spiritual practices developed to focus attention on God—workshops range from practicing the ancient Lectio Divina and labyrinth walks to “Experiencing God Through Sweat.”

One practice that everyone observes is “The Grand Silence,” in which the entire

community vows not to speak from 11:30 PM, Saturday night until mid-morning on Sunday.

The attendees take breakfast together in silence and it is a transforming experience for all.

“It was awkward at first,” says Park, “but they wanted us to be more present, so you didn’t have to constantly worry about what’s going on in your head. Rather you think how does this food taste—all you hear is food noises, utensils, plates. Our senses were more heightened.”

Kami Bates, a Seaver senior, is a seasoned third-year SLA and has attended all four Unplugged retreats and has watched it expand from primarily serving SLAs and campus ministries. “This year it wasn’t only ‘spiritual leaders’—there were people from student government, Inter-Club Council, and Intercultural Affairs,” she explains. “What I have also seen is that the retreat has done a really good job of making space for all personality types.” She credits Unplugged with being one of the most impactful experiences at college. “Each year it seemed like it saved me, and saved me in different ways.” As for her ability to cope with disconnecting? “I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even bring my phone.

The bigger struggle is wanting to continue to be unplugged, but not being able to.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

37

community | spiritual life

QUARTER-LIFE

LESSONS

By Sarah Fisher

Organization development master’s-degree student Paul Sohn pits

CAREER VERSUS CALLING for the ambitious 20-something Christian in his new book, Quarter-Life Calling.

P

AUL SOHN

knows a thing or

two about using his 20s—often called the “defining decade”—to their full

potential. At 29 years old, Sohn is a leadership consultant for GiANT Worldwide, maintains a blog that has been ranked number 15 of the Top 50 Leadership Blogs to Follow, has worked for a Fortune 500 company, and was named one of the Top 33 Under 33 Christian Millennials to Watch by Christianity Today.

38

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

Facing his 30th birthday later this year and set to graduate in August from the Graziadio School of Business and Management’s MS in Organization Development program, Sohn has collected the wisdom gained from his life experience, work, and education to publish a book for young Christians not yet as confident in their own callings.

Quarter-Life Calling: How to Find Your Sweet Spot in Your Twenties was released in December 2015.

“One of my clients had really been struggling to think about his identity, calling, future, and goals,” says Sohn. “He had a lot of anxiety behind figuring out his next step. While I was coaching him, it was eventually revealed that the anxiety came from a lack of love he felt from his parents, and that he always felt as though he had to perform and accomplish great things in order to feel worthy. That was a big breakthrough moment.”

“A lot of people embrace the model that everybody is working for the weekend, that a job is merely a means to an end,” Sohn says, hinting at the book’s subject matter. “But a calling is something that is God-given and is something that, even if you don’t make a lot of money, you are born to do. The book really explores finding your identity in Christ, as well as finding your ‘vocational sweet spot’—the place where your life story, your gifts, your personality, and your passions intersect.

Sohn’s own path to leadership began at the University of British Columbia, where he received a bachelor’s degree in commerce, organizational behavior, and human resources in 2010. As an undergrad, he took on various leadership roles within the student body, such as peer educator for the career services office, public relations officer for the tennis club, and thought leader through his writings for the student newspaper.

Childhood, however, was a different story, particularly when his family moved from the United States back to Korea when Sohn was 9 years old. The family stayed in Korea until he was 14.

The client spoke with his parents and opened up to them about the family dynamic in an intense conversation, the likes of which had never before been broached. His parents apologized for his experiences, explaining that it was unintentional, and the family experienced healing.

“That really created a breakthrough for him to find out that his parents really do love him. He was liberated from the bondage of having to live up to their expectations.”

“I was very comfortable being a follower,” Sohn recalls. “I was trying to simply survive because I didn’t really speak the language well and wasn’t able to understand the culture well, so leadership wasn’t really even an option. It was more like, how do I keep up? Now I would call myself a student of leadership; it’s something I’ve intentionally worked on.”

The only expectations that matter, Sohn says, are the ones that belong to an individual and to God. Sohn’s faith is evident throughout his writings; he calls it the single most important influence in his life.

‘It is the most important thread that is woven throughout everything in my life. Without faith, it’s hard for me to talk about my life in general—it’s just something I feel is a non-negotiable part of who I am,” he explains.

GOD HAS GIVEN EVERYONE A GIFT TO EXERCISE, AND I BELIEVE THAT IF YOU HAVE A GIFT,

YOU HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO STEWARD THAT AND BE THE VERY BEST AT IT.

His professional career began when Boeing Commercial Airplanes hired him as a staff analyst in January 2011, and that summer he launched his leadership blog, paulsohn.org, while earning a certificate in change leadership from Cornell University. He was on track for leadership roles, but he explains that sometime in the last five years he became clued in to a calling towards helping other leaders reach their potential.

He says, “I felt God calling me to a place where I could leverage my spiritual gifts and passions to help other leaders discover their own God-given callings in life.” Currently a leadership consultant for GiANT Worldwide, he mentors clients through workshops, seminars, and one on one coaching for leaders looking to experience real transformation. He has enjoyed seeing clients not just grow into stronger leaders, but, in some cases, find healing in broken areas of their lives.

Sohn acknowledges that he is fortunate to be in a position to voice his faith as part of his professional calling, but he also has advice applicable to any Christian seeking to lead by example in their place of work, no matter the circumstances.

“There is something countercultural about following the teachings of Jesus, as well as trying to do the very best you can. God has given everyone a gift to exercise, and I believe that if you have a gift, you have a responsibility to steward that and be the very best at it. Doing excellent work is a way to glorify God and keep God at the center,” says Sohn.

“You might not have a very influential role or title, but I believe that every person carries influence and becomes a leader when they act in a way that is Jesus-like.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

39

community | athletics

By Sara Alamdar

An All-American and international athlete trains a women’s tennis team for the Pan American Games. orn in Mexico City, Mexico, to a family of seasoned athletes, Seaver College alumna and internationally recognized tennis champion Isabela (Petrov) Iantosca (’97) was destined to excel in the world of sports. Her parents taught her how to play tennis as a young child in her home country, and she soon developed a love for the sport that she says “has given me everything I have in my life.”

After playing in junior tournaments in Mexico, she eventually joined Mexico’s junior national tennis team and participated in the 1991 Pan American Games. Toward the end of her high school career, Iantosca played in a few tournaments in the United States, where coaches took note of her athletic abilities. One of these coaches was then-Pepperdine University tennis coach and current director of tennis operations, Gualberto Escudero (’72), who recruited her without even seeing her play.

40

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

“I saw her records and I said these records speak for themselves,” remembers Escudero, who then offered her a full scholarship to play NCAA Division I tennis as a student. “From the moment she was here, I knew she would be one of the best players I’ve ever had.

She came in at number one, and remained at number one four years later. She was the best player to come out of Mexico that year.”

boss she knew nothing about. However, she quickly learned that “it wasn’t about the sport, it was about seeing what’s best for the athletes,” which Iantosca understood.

After earning her bachelor of science degree in business administration, IMG offered the Spanish-speaking Iantosca a marketing and events coordinator position at their Latin American office in Miami, Florida.

At Pepperdine, Iantosca majored in business administration and played tennis in both singles and doubles matches. She was named an All-American athlete in 1996 and 1997, and remembers the support she received at the University. “The professors were very understanding when you had to go to tournaments,” she recalls. “Of course you still had to take tests and study, but they offered some flexibility.”

Iantosca’s career continued to intertwine both expert sports knowledge and solid business experience, which she perfected with each job she had. Her professional dreams came true in 2000, when she joined the ESPN International team in New York City, where she currently works as the senior director of digital marketing. “I love it here because it combines the business world with the best platforms for sports,” she says.

She began to discover her career path during her senior year, when she was first exposed to the business side of sports after landing her first internship at IMG (formerly International Management Group). IMG then offered her a job as a hockey agent’s assistant, a sport she admitted to her former

While enjoying her success at ESPN, Pepperdine once again entered her life when former coach Escudero introduced her to current Pepperdine head coach Per Nilsson.

Iantosca was granted the opportunity to return to Pepperdine and meet the women’s tennis team, training with them on the

In training and in life, whatever you do, do it the best that you can … Focus on the path itself and not the final result.

– Isabela Iantosca

court and sharing her success story as a way to inspire and encourage them. She also attended the Juniors U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, where she cheered for Brazilian-born Pepperdine tennis player Luisa Stefani, currently a first-year student at Seaver College.

Although she was spending less time competing in tournaments, Iantosca continued playing the sport over the years, adding that she has “always been connected with tennis and the tennis world.” But it wasn’t until a couple years ago that she decided to compete again as a way to inspire her children. “My kids asked me why I no longer participated in the games, and I wanted to be a good example to them,” she says. That decision had a major payoff, as she accepted the winning trophy at the 2014 USTA Women’s 40 Singles in the National Grass Court Championships hosted in Forest Hills, New York.

Then in 2015, the Federación Mexicana de Tenis, A.C. (Mexican Tennis Federation, A.C.) asked her whether she would be interested in coaching their women’s tennis team for the Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario. “They said they had heard positive feedback about me, and asked if I wanted to be the coach.” Iantosca happily accepted this offer, which she calls “a very happy surprise.”

Having represented Mexico herself as a tennis player in the Pan American Games, along with the decades she spent training and participating in numerous tournaments, Iantosca could relate to the young women she now coached. After speaking with her boss and developing a plan to cover the work she would be missing while temporarily in Mexico City, she was on her way to enjoying her new role.

Her training techniques, which included strategic and emotional support, paid off at the international sporting event, as her team proudly won two Silver Medals, one in singles and one in doubles.

Switching sides from participant to trainer proved to be a positive change for Iantosca, who was able to appreciate the game from a new angle. As she describes, “This was a great experience, because it was off the field as a coach, and not as a player.”

When it comes to motivational mantras, her philosophy is to focus on the journey, not the destination. “In training and in life, whatever you do, do it the best that you can,” she insists. “You can’t control the results. Those will come on their own.

Focus on the path itself and not the final result, because sometimes you focus so much on the result that you get so stressed out and miss the present.”

Of all her professional achievements, Iantosca explains that her biggest accomplishment was scoring a scholarship to Pepperdine.

“That opened a whole list of new opportunities in my life,” she says.

“That’s where it all started.

When I hear ‘Pepperdine,’ I get a smile on my face.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

41

community | athletics

By Emily DiFrisco

RO Volleyball star Kim Hill (’12) trains for her biggest achievement yet: the Olympic games with Team USA. When Kim Hill made it on Team USA in 2013, just one year after graduating from Pepperdine, she had no idea how exciting the next year would prove to be. As she continued to improve her game, Team USA dominated at the 2014 FIVB (Fédération Internationale de Volleyball) World Championship.

In the Gold Medal match against China, she scored the team high of 20 points. Team USA won the Gold Medal, and Hill was named Most Valuable Player.

Today, Hill lives in Istanbul, Turkey, where she is training with Team USA for this summer’s Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She takes a break from her grueling schedule to tell us all about her volleyball career.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN OLYMPIC HOPEFUL 7:30 AM

First breakfast: fruit, spinach, yogurt, and peanut butter smoothie 8 to 10 AM

42

10 AM

Second breakfast: eggs, yogurt, or cereal.

Gym: The practice starts as a “slow burn” says head athletic trainer for the Women’s National Team, Jill Wosmek. “By the end, the athletes are working at a high intensity on skills like serving and passing.”

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

11 AM

45 minutes of yoga

Noon

Catered lunch: salad bar, fruit, two types of protein (usually red meat and fish), and a grain like quinoa or rice

What is the best and worst part of training for the Olympics?

When did you start playing volleyball?

At what point did you realize playing volleyball could be more than just fun?

I started playing at age 13. I had grown too tall for soccer, so I decided to try out volleyball, but I was most serious about basketball.

I realized pretty quickly, maybe around age 15, that I enjoyed volleyball most and decided I wanted to pursue it more seriously.

How long have you lived and trained in Turkey with Team USA? This is my first season playing professionally here in Turkey, so I’ve been here since October 2015.

What was it like to be named MVP at the World Championships?

That was really an incredible moment, mostly of shock. But winning that World Championship trophy was such an amazing feeling of joy and pride in what we accomplished as a team. It was truly indescribable.

What do you consider to be your career highlight at Pepperdine?

What motivates you?

The dream of the Olympics is a big motivator, but really my teammates are the biggest motivator for the daily grind. To have other people working hard with you and for you really makes you want to work harder for them.

Who have been some of your best coaches along the way and what have they taught you?

Making it to the NCAA Elite Eight was such a proud moment for me and us as a team.

I think Pepperdine had only made it that far one other time, and I don’t think anyone else in the country thought we would make it that far.

What will change about your training schedule as you get closer to the Olympics?

Getting closer to the Olympics, I’ll be back in the U.S. training with the national team, so training will become more focused on Rio. Since we will be back together as a team, it will be more focused on improving the specific things we as a team need to get better at. The routine will be somewhat similar, though.

1 to 4 PM

The best part is probably just the focus and intensity everyone feels, having this big common goal of an Olympic Gold Medal always in front of us. The worst part is just that it’s time-consuming and we don’t always get to have normal lives as athletes. Since our work is so dependent on our bodies, we have to make sure we’re always feeling our best.

So while other careers might allow you to stay out late with your friends and just be more tired the next day, as an athlete you know your body and performance will suffer with less sleep, so you have to sacrifice some of those things. But it’s so worth it.

Our national team coach Karch Kiraly is really incredible, and his growth mindset is a rare thing to see in a coach of his caliber. I also learned so much from coach Nina Matthies during my time at Pepperdine. She has been such a strong female sports role model for me. The biggest thing she taught me was to trust all the work you’ve put in, all the hours, so that when the game time comes, you know you’ve done it before and can just let it rip.

Weight training and conditioning 4 PM

Snack: fruit, a PB&J sandwich, or an energy bar

7 to 9 PM

5:30 PM

KIM HILL

ATHLETE SNAPSHOT Hometown: Portland, Oregon Height: 6’4” Age: 26 Current location: Turkey, where she plays for Team USA

POSITION: OUTSIDE HITTER

“My whole life I played middle blocker until my junior year of college when I played opposite for two seasons, and then I moved to outside,” says Hill. Being an outside hitter is “different because all areas of your game have to be great. You have to be a great passer, which I’m really working on, and a creative hitter.”

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

At Pepperdine, Hill was the first and only student-athlete to make the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) All-American first-team roster in both indoor and sand volleyball during the same academic year (2011-2012).

After joining Team USA in 2013, Hill scored the team high of 20 points at the Gold Medal match against China at the 2014 FIVB World Championship. Team USA won the Gold Medal, and Hill was named Most Valuable Player.

STRENGTHS ON THE COURT:

“Kim has an often devastating serve,” explains Team USA’s coach Karch Kiraly.

“Her serve comes screaming across the net to the other team. She also has a really sweet exterior and a really unselfish way about her. She has this outward layer of kindness but a competitive nature underneath.”

Rest: “I’m usually laying on the couch reading or watching TV, trying to rest my body as well as my mind.”

Dinner: “I love eating and trying new restaurants and new food, which makes living abroad really fun,” she explains.

10 PM

Bedtime: A minimum of nine hours of sleep at night is crucial for an Olympian in training.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

43

community | the arts

BEHIND THE

Seams A RISKY FORAY INTO THE WORLD OF FASHION HELPED A GRAZIADIO SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT ALUMNUS DISCOVER A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES.

By Gareen Darakjian

“I AM NOT A FASHION GUY AT ALL,” reveals Michael Won (BSM ’09, MBA ’10), a bold admission given that the business school alumnus sits at the helm of a global made-tomeasure men’s clothing subscription service.

In fact, when he walked into his final presentation at the Graziadio School of Business and Management, he discovered that his professor had drawn a scoreboard at the front of the class and was taking votes from his classmates whether he was going to show up to his presentation wearing flip flops.

44

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

Won is a surfer, an avid fisherman, and is, most days, attired in clothing and footwear appropriate for more casual pursuits. That his current business venture, 8/Omakase, thrives on outfitting men who aspire to look their best is nothing short of ironic.

“The way [men] want to shop and the way we’re forced to shop is different,” he contends.

“We want to look good, but don’t follow fashion trends, so there is a certain level of insecurity in what to buy.”

Won believes that the men’s shopping experience is broken, a belief that first compelled him to partner with his childhood friend Elbert Song, the former director of operations at The Honest Company, who discovered Thailand’s up-and-coming tailoring industry while traveling through Southeast Asia with a U.S.-based nonprofit group.

While a bespoke (custom, made-to-order) suit commissioned in the U.S. costs an average of $2,000 to $6,000, customers spend a fraction

of that—only a few hundred dollars—to have one made in Bangkok. Won and Song found opportunity there and developed a plan to partner with the nonprofit organization to not only bring a top-notch product to the U.S., but also to create jobs for local tailors, teach them business basics, and develop a long-term, sustainable income model.

The 8/Omakase concept is simple: men seeking a highfashion look complete a style profile that includes details like height, weight, neck size, jacket size, pant waist measurement, and sleeve length. Customers receive a tape measure to verify any particular measurement. Won and Song implemented what they call an “Intelligent Sizing” process that uses an algorithm to determine the perfect fit based on the style profile. The details are then assessed by a personal stylist charged with developing a collection of custom-tailored pieces based on the customer’s profile, and sends them to a tailor to construct the pieces.

Packages are delivered every quarter, each one containing a minimum of four pieces per shipment.

Because 8/Omakase is a zero-inventory business, it makes up for that cost by running a much leaner operation while bringing customers the same quality as more mainstream high-end clothing companies. “Our motto is: ‘It’s not the label that makes you look good, it’s the fit,’” Won says.

The 8/Omakase idea is based on trust, as the Japanese culinary term in its name implies. What the long-standing tradition has offered curious diners for centuries is a unique experience that is determined by the chef, which not only relieves customers of the burden of choice, but also enables them to explore new tastes.

But don’t call it a fashion service. Won insists that beyond that, the 8/Omakase business model benefits the organizations and communities in which they operate by providing opportunities that utilize the impactful reach of philanthropy as a product-sourcing channel. He credits Graziadio School professor Larry Cox with putting the duo in contact with another nonprofit in India he has worked with in partnership with his church.

“Instead of hiring a business to find and source products, there are a lot of nonprofits that need assistance overseas,” he explains. “Our goal is not only to help these nonprofits expand into fashion, but to become a sales platform for nonprofits.”

And in a move typical of the start-up world, they just “went for it.” The site went live in beta on a Friday last year and

by Saturday, they already had one subscriber without any promotion. On Sunday, two people had subscribed, and for the next few weeks, more and more customers signed up each day.

“We weren’t ready,” Won admits. “No one had heard about the brand and we hadn’t even lined up tailors at that time.

What’s interesting about the crazy start-up world is that when you have a cause, you have an emotional connection to your product.”

...WHEN YOU HAVE A CAUSE, YOU HAVE AN EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO YOUR PRODUCT. Won approaches business with a simple attitude: if a business owner has good fundamentals and can outline a clear problem that can be solved in the market, that skillset is more important to getting a product to market than understanding the ins and outs of the particular industry.

The future of 8/Omakase involves a big step into the world of virtual reality, which includes the use of 3-D imaging to provide the most precise fit possible. Currently going through a renaming process, 8/Omakase will soon relaunch as Dapper Indeed, a play on words that nods to the company’s philanthropic mission.

Photos: Jason Flynn

“Fashion is such a legacy industry—it’s an old school trade,” Won explains. “We think we can be a little more nimble as a small company to develop these technologies to make a much more seamless and friction-free process.”

magazine.pepperdine.edu

45

community | the arts

FOR

PURPOSES ONLY A Seaver College alumnus launches an experiential marketing company that bridges the gap between music labels, artist, and fans. By Sara Alamdar

Justin Lefkovitch (’09) was working on his bachelor’s degree in business administration when he composed a business model for a marketing company and submitted it to the Business Plan Competition, a contest presented by the Graziadio School of Business and Management in collaboration with Seaver College. When his submission was selected as a finalist, he knew it was worth further pursuit.

46

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

hile pursuing his degree, Lefkovitch began managing local singer-songwriter Ray Kennedy, admittedly his first encounter with professional music production and management. With special insights into the music industry, Lefkovitch noticed gaps in communication and satisfaction among artists, labels, and consumers. After speaking with several artists, Lefkovitch began to think about possible ways to bridge this gap that would benefit all three parties as they participate in the branding and marketing processes together.

Two years after graduating from Pepperdine, with solid real-world business experience through Ray Kennedy’s ventures, funding from angel investor Vaden Saunders, and a partnership with music production mogul Steve Kofsky, Lefkovitch launched Mirrored Media, an experiential marketing company based in Santa Monica, California.

Since opening its doors in 2011, Mirrored Media has generated an impressive list of high-profile clients, including Acura, Universal Pictures, Syfy, Fox, and Google Play. The company has also been featured in numerous publications, such as Forbes, the New York Times, AdWeek, and Event Marketer, the magazine that placed Mirrored Media on its Top 100 Event Agencies “It List.”

Lefkovitch sat down with Pepperdine Magazine to explain the concept behind Mirrored Media and share what he’s learned on his professional journey thus far.

Pepperdine Magazine: How did working with Ray Kennedy influence the development of Mirrored Media?

Justin Lefkovitch: While working with Ray, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with countless talented artists. During this time, the music industry was going through dramatic shifts, both in the artist deal structures within major labels, as well as in the way consumers perceived and valued music.

My interest in marketing and advertising, and a desire to create additional revenue

For me, experiential marketing is messaging that you can touch, feel, view, and engage with within the physical or digital space.

Basically, any experience that moves you and makes you want to share it with your friends. streams for artists in the ever-changing environment, led to an idea of creating organic brand campaigns that would not only benefit artists financially, but also meet their goals.

I saw what projects were being executed within the space and how many lacked the artist’s unique voice and brand identity.

Many campaigns were perceived as contrived by the fans. My approach was to create a win-win scenario for brands and talent.

PM: How did you discover the music industry’s pain points?

JL: By having many conversations with artists I was working alongside at the time.

I noticed that there was a strong breakdown of communication between talent and marketing executives. Each camp spoke a different language, with very different campaign goals and interests in mind. In addition, the music industry can be perceived as intimidating, due to the complexities around publishing and licensing. Some might even perceive it as risky.

This attitude, coupled with the fickle fan perspective of branded content and campaigns, laid the foundation for my idea.

I strongly believed that mutually beneficial experiences could be created to produce a successful marketing campaign—and we have now proven that.

PM: What exactly is “experiential marketing?”

JL: For me, experiential marketing is messaging that you can touch, feel, view, and engage with within the physical or digital space—basically, any experience

that moves you and makes you want to share it with your friends. While traditional advertising concentrates on verbally and visually communicating the brand message through radio, print, and television, experiential marketing can encompass a variety of mediums focusing on creating an experience that immerses the consumer in the brand message with a more high-touch but low-pressure approach.

PM: What sets Mirrored Media apart from other marketing companies?

JL: Mirrored Media concentrates on creating high-impact and enduring lifestyle campaigns that specialize in music and entertainment.

Each member of my team has extensive experience working in the music and entertainment world, as well as the traditional marketing landscape.

From previous artist managers and tour managers, to marketing directors and art designers, I am fortunate to have an incredible team that understands the needs of both the brand client, as well as the influencer partner who could be a band, artist, or social media star. I believe Mirrored Media’s strength comes from our approach and close relationships with our influencer partners, coupled with our strong creative ideas that continuously challenge the notion of what’s possible and push the creative needle over the edge.

Our executive team is made up of millennials who can continuously evolve our capabilities and creative to meet the needs of the market. Ultimately, every one of our brands and partners experience transformational results through each campaign.

PM: What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?

JL: When I first came up with the idea for Mirrored Media, Gary Mallaber—who most famously composed for Steve Miller Band and drummed for Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, The Beach Boys, John Lennon, and many others—once told me that if I could bring humanity back to the industry, we would have a line of artists and brands wanting to work with us. That always stuck with me and I tried to do exactly that.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

47

in focus

F O R E I G N M I N I S T RY With most undergraduate students at Pepperdine University participating in international programs, many attend student-led house church services on Sunday nights, while others seek spiritual strength and encouragement in different ways. Students are also welcome to participate in mid-week Bible study sessions, along with any other special activities such as worship nights and spiritual retreats. See what some of the international students are saying about their spiritual experiences.

H EIDE L B E R G

S H A N G H A I

B U E N O S

“In Heidelberg, everyone travels on the weekends, so coming home on Sunday and having that worship time and Bible study prepares us for the week to come.” Alex Booth

“In a stimulating city like Shanghai, it can be very hard to set aside time to pray and just be with the Lord. However, it definitely encourages creativity. I’ll often go to the local parks and just take in the natural atmosphere for a recharge.

Even just walking in the city opens my eyes to the different ways God is present. The key is definitely mindfulness. The second I let myself indulge in the frustrations of the city (of which there can be a lot), I lose sight of the incredible opportunity I have to be walking around in this place at this specific time in my life.” Kelly Rodriguez

“[The worship team] is a wonderful and dedicated team, and I think it’s because of house church being student-led that we have so many students attend every week!” Elizabeth Waters

G E R M A N Y

C H I N A

“I go to the college service at a church where Korean students studying abroad gather to worship in Korean. They really make an effort to make you feel welcome.” Richard Chung

A IR ES

A R G E NT I N A

“I always look forward to house church, because it gives me an opportunity to hear the Word presented by my friends—people who are going through many of the same trials and experiencing many of the same joys that I am. The messages are highly relevant and often personal, a testament to the quality of community that we have been blessed with and have fostered here in Argentina.”

Gathenji Njoroge “I have felt encouraged and challenged by those around me to pursue God further and deeper than before, and continue to ask questions and seek answers.” Caroline Rubach “[House church] is one of the highlights of my week! It is such a breath of fresh air to spend time with God and be in his presence right before you start another school week.” Balee Schwalb

48

Pepperdine Magazine

Spring 2016

YOU make the next

graduation POSSIBLE. Every gift matters!

Help support future generations of Waves today. pepperdine.edu/giving

#give2pepp

The Pepperdine Fund | 24255 Pacific Coast Highway | Malibu, CA 90263-4579 | 310.506.4579

24255 Pacific Coast Highway Malibu, CA 90263-4138

EXPERIENCE PEPPERDINE THE PEPPERDINE MOBILE APP Now available for free download on iOS and Android devices

DOWNLOAD THE PEPPERDINE MOBILE APP FOR:  University news and events calendars  Updated emergency info  Campus maps  Much more!

Free in both iTunes and Google Play stores

pepperdine.edu/u-mobile-app

IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND!