Pepperdine Magazine Vol. 13, Iss. 2 (Summer 2021) by Pepperdine University

Volume 13 Issue 2 Summer 2021

Moments

It looked like a sea of waves as the Classes of 2020 and 2021 at three schools celebrated their commencement.

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Contents

F E AT U R E S

16 The Blockchain Boom Ready or not, blockchain technology is turning the world on its head—in the best and most mind-bending ways possible

22 Collective Impact

A duck basks in the twilight at alumna Kacie Scherler’s (’13, MA ’16) sustainable farm in Oklahoma.

Pepperdine Magazine

Summer 2021

From agriculture to corporate strategy and policy advocacy, Pepperdine University alumni make significant contributions to sustainability efforts for a more just world

VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 2 | SUMMER 2021 Pepperdine Magazine editor

Gareen Darakjian

senior designer

Courtney Gero

writers

Sara Bunch Amanda Pisani Abigail Ramsey Jakie Rodriguez (MS ’13)

SPOTLIGHT

Ahead of the Game

Production Values

The man behind America’s favorite game shows got his start in the Pepperdine broadcast studio

Inspired by his lifelong love of worship and entertainment, a Christian creative artist tells a classic story in a groundbreaking way

Gold Standard

Shooting for the Stars

As athletes, coaches, commentators, and statisticians, 15 members of the Pepperdine community made waves in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan

Alumnus Colbey Ross (’21) takes his shot at the NBA

graphic designers

Mallory Bockwoldt (’16)

Danae Doub

photographer

Ron Hall (’79)

copy editor

Amanda Pisani

production manager

Jill McWilliams

Published by Integrated Marketing Communications Matt Midura (’97, MA ’05) Associate Vice President for Integrated Marketing Communications and Acting Chief Marketing Officer Nate Ethell (’08, MBA ’13) Director of Communications and Brand Development Keith Lungwitz Creative Director Allen Haren (’97, MA ’07) Director of Digital Media Ed Wheeler (’97, MA ’99) Senior Director of Operations

46 Locally Made, Globally Inspired A Seaver College alumnus and his wife are dedicated to sharing Ecuadorian cuisine with the world

Mauricio Acevedo Director of Digital Marketing Pepperdine Magazine is the feature magazine for Pepperdine University and its growing community of alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends. It is published three times per year by the University’s Integrated Marketing Communications department

9 Headlines

6 Inside Voices

28 Snapshot

7 Campus Notes

48 The Cut

ADVERTISING Each issue of Pepperdine Magazine contains a limited number of half- or full-page advertising opportunities for University departments and initiatives. To learn more about advertising, contact magazine@pepperdine.edu.

and is produced with guidance from an advisory board representing a cross section of the University community. Send address changes, letters to the editor, and other queries to: magazine@pepperdine.edu All material is copyrighted ©2021 by Pepperdine University, Malibu, California 90263. Pepperdine is affiliated with Churches of Christ, of

MAGAZINE.PEPPERDINE.EDU

PA2104336

1 Moments

which the University’s founder, George Pepperdine, was a lifelong member.

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D Editor’s Letter

Don’t let the compelling cover art fool you. I had no idea what lay ahead when I first had the idea to explore the bewildering world of blockchain in Pepperdine Magazine a few months ago. My mind was riddled with questions and doubt. Would readers be interested in dissecting the many layers of blockchain that elude even the sharpest minds? Could the Pepperdine community speak to the nuances of blockchain technology and could I find the diverse perspectives needed to tell the story? Was I the best person to educate readers on the topic? I’m not a tech expert. Where would I even start? My fear and, admittedly, dread morphed into impostor syndrome and took me from “Let’s do this!” to “What have I gotten myself into?” The entire experience—right until the moment I submitted the draft I had written, rewritten, edited, and fact-checked the life out of—reminded me of a quote I had recently heard on a TV show: “Some people can only see what scares them.” Scared I was, as I pored over pages of reports and infographics while researching intricate concepts I had never encountered before like nodes and P2P networks and nonces. I couldn’t bear the thought of misleading readers with my—at the time—elementary comprehension of cryptocurrency. I was lost, and my singular job was to make sure other people found their way through the winding world of my writing. That’s what fear does. It consumes you to the point of paralysis and convinces you that you will fail. I snapped out of my fear funk only when I realized the secret support system that was rooting for me all along: the subjects who had helped me wrap my head around their innovative and inspiring work in the blockchain space. My solitary goal became less about what I could (or couldn’t) accomplish and more about what they had.

At Pepperdine, we are blessed to be surrounded by people who commit themselves to the work that challenges them beyond their comfort levels. Through Pepperdine Magazine, we have the pleasure of celebrating and learning from them. In this issue, we meet a television executive who graciously and adeptly took on an iconic role of a lifetime at a critical point in pop culture history; a record-breaking student-athlete who took his best shot at a professional career in basketball; the Waves who went for the gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games; and, of course, the brilliant blockchain brainiacs who graciously dedicated their time to educating me and, by extension, you, about their wonderfully complex world. We may only see what scares us, and sometimes that’s OK. Yet, while fear is one of our greatest motivators, it is also one of the hardest hurdles to overcome. But with a caring and committed community around us, we can be gently guided out of fear and into a space that restores our faith in ourselves.

GAREEN DARAKJIAN editor

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Summer 2021

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Inside Voices “I constantly seek to learn about the ancestry I have inherited and the people who came before me.”

Finding My Jewish Identity Through the Music of the Holocaust By Brittany Weinstock Student, Seaver College

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Summer 2021

When I arrived at Pepperdine in August 2019, one question resided in the forefront of my mind: how would I keep my Jewish heritage alive while attending a Christian university? Growing up in a dually ChristianJewish household and integrating both faiths into a unique religious experience, I had never been confronted with such a quandary. But now that I was on my own in college, it was time for me to create that experience for myself and dig even deeper into my relationship with my faith and with God. As a first-year student, I became a Brenden Mann scholar with the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies and learned where my unique faith perspective fit into this new environment. The University was open and interested in the conversation I brought to the table, honoring and respecting Christianity’s Jewish roots while recognizing how parts of both faiths could be reconciled with each other. Through the Glazer Institute, I found opportunities for discussion and inquiry that were essential to an extraordinary strengthening of my faith and my heritage. As someone who has always been interested in history and narratives of the past, I constantly seek to learn about the ancestry I have inherited and the people who came before me on both my Jewish and Christian sides. In the eighth grade I wrote a book about my family’s experiences during World War II, particularly the story of my great-great aunt who hid Jews from the Nazis in the cellar of her restaurant in Slovakia. I was always in awe of people who had lived through this horrific time, curious to understand and honor their lives in whatever way I could, even beyond the stories of my own family. When music professor Gary Cobb offered me an opportunity to research Jewish music

of the Holocaust with him as part of the Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative, I immediately accepted. I was interested in shedding light on these inspiring Jewish composers and highlighting elements of resistance within their music, as well as discovering their personal stories. The research culminated in a paper, a video, and a presentation that I gave, in conjunction with the Glazer Institute, at the Seaver research symposium. I even learned and performed a set of Yiddish songs composed in a concentration camp. I discovered how these artists, despite the extreme oppression they faced, incorporated elements of resistance into their work through themes, lyrics, Jewish and cultural folk elements, and the very act of making art itself. This research was incredibly impactful for me not only as a musician and composer myself, but as a person of Jewish heritage. Although most of these composers were eventually murdered in the gas chambers, their stories live on through the music they created, leaving a Jewish legacy that Hitler couldn’t destroy. As I continued my research, I realized it was my duty, as both a musician and a Jew, to continue amplifying their stories and to make sure that their voices aren’t silenced as the Nazis intended. I must continue to bring this music to life and in doing so, breathe life into the composers’ spirits. This is my Jewish legacy. This is what I must do in order to keep the spirit and strength of my people alive. As part of the project, I interviewed Inge Auerbacher, a Holocaust survivor who shared with me her story and words of wisdom. She has written many books detailing the circumstances she and her family faced in a concentration camp near the Czech Republic town of Terezín and their eventual move to the United States in 1946. Auerbacher’s words and her work in Holocaust education have inspired me to continue that same work throughout my life. In a matter of years, very few Holocaust survivors will be alive to tell their story, and the duty will fall on me and my generation to continue it. And continue it I shall, upholding the legacy of those whose beautiful artistry will be honored forever in the annals of history.

Campus Notes PEPPERDINE PEOPLE

Endrew Omana (MDiv ’17) The administrative services and notetaker coordinator at the Office of Student Accessibility (OSA) is an open book when it comes to his service to students The OSA provides notetaking services for 515 online and in-person courses per semester across all five schools for students who, due to disabilities, medical conditions, or symptom flare-ups, are unable to take notes during a class session. Services are also available temporarily for students who are injured. “There is a misconception that a disability has to be visible. But numerous invisible disabilities such as mental illnesses, eating disorders, migraines, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder also impact concentration and learning.” A secure HIPAA-compliant application enables notetakers and recipients to upload and download resources. Notetaking apps, smart pens, video closed captioning, interpreting services, and books in PDF and audio formats are also available. Some notetakers decline their end-of-semester pay as a way of giving back to Pepperdine or as an indirect contribution to someone in their life who has a disability. “As a Pepperdine student, I witnessed how employees put their energy, compassion, and efforts into helping students succeed. As a staff member,

it’s rewarding to see students achieving their academic goals and knowing you have been part of this journey with them.” Omana partners with Caruso School of Law staff to accommodate students by reserving exam rooms, adjusting exam times, creating enlarged printed exams, and securing standing desks, ergonomic chairs, exam timers, and white noise machines. An army veteran, Omana served as a combat medic while deployed in Iraq and Kuwait. While serving in the National Guard, Omana trained soldier medics and helped them receive the educational credits needed for their Emergency Medical Technicians-Basic license. Since 2017 Omana has been involved with Pepperdine’s spiritual mentorship program to help guide veterans through their spiritual formation. “Together we seek ways to move from struggle to growth.”

Giving It a Shot In spring 2021 the Student Health Center opened clinics at the Malibu campus to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to faculty and staff in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Learn more about the center’s approach to community health throughout March and April.

1,500

vaccines ALLOTTED

1,488

vaccines

ADMINISTERED

1,160 FROM PEPPERDINE

783

Visits PATIENTS

first dose

328 FROM MALIBU

705

Visits PATIENTS

second dose

VACCINES GIVEN TO ALL PATIENTS

10 healthcare professionals

ADMINISTERED VACCINES

80+

volunteers

DURING 14 LARGEST CLINICS Source: Student Health Center

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Campus Notes SOUND BITES Explore a collection of some of the most notable moments from recent events held across the University.

C H AT T E R The Pepperdine community celebrated the June 2021 appointments of J. Goosby Smith as vice president for community belonging and chief diversity officer and April Harris Akinloye (’00, MA ’05) as assistant vice president for community belonging. DAVID JOHNSON (’92, MIB ’94) I’m excited about these new leaders and the future.

“God’s grace is so amazing, [and] I’ve felt it so strongly in my life for four years now. Just knowing what he brought me through, and the fact that he gave me this vision, felt like a gift of hope [because I am] able to help people.” Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson, Owner/President, In-N-Out Burger EVENT: Coffee with Jim: A Conversation with Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson

“As we go through [post-pandemic] structural changes, everything is intimately linked to improving environmental efficiency for sustainability reasons, improving profitability, and improving the workforce. You need the right person for the right job at the right time.” Paul Donovan, Chief Economist, UBS Global Wealth Management EVENT: Dean’s Executive Leadership Series: The Future Global Economy - Structural Issues and the Digital Revolution

ENDYIA KINNEY-STERNS (’98) Congratulations! This is so vitally important. ROBIN PRESTHUS (‘14) Pepperdine has made an excellent choice, one that will surely lead to growth, unity, and respect! KATRINA WILLIAMS (MA ’96) Great to see Pepperdine making “waves” to encourage belonging.

“There is a lack of representation in the soccer pro leagues and at the college level. When you’re young, you look for people on TV that look like you. And if [no one] looks like you, then how do you dream that dream?” Lynn Williams (’15), Professional Soccer Player, North Carolina Courage; U.S. Women’s National Team EVENT: Kicking It with Lynn Williams: Discussions on Race, Sports, and Society

DID

YOU KNOW

Throughout April 2021, Pepperdine Human Resources hosted six virtual parenting support groups for faculty and staff led by licensed marriage and family therapists.

“Relationships require intentionality. We can’t expect to have a strong support system of friends and family if we’re not invested in the time and effort into those relationships. Being intentional with your relationships will give you the confidence to call out for help and ultimately get through life’s obstacles together.” Matt Abracosa, Student, Seaver College EVENT: Three Tips for Cultivating Resilient Relationships

FROM THE ARCHIVES Alex Haley, author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, addresses graduates during the Graduate School of Education and Psychology commencement ceremony on May 2, 1987.

Source: University Archives Photograph Collection

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Summer 2021

Headlines

Jay Brewster Named Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Pepperdine University Jay Brewster, professor of biology and divisional dean of the Natural Science Division at Seaver College, was named provost and chief academic officer of Pepperdine University. Brewster, who has served at Pepperdine for 24 years in various capacities, began his new role on August 1, 2021. “Jay Brewster is a person of impeccable character and has demonstrated his gentle yet profound wisdom in each of the leadership positions he has occupied,” said Pepperdine president Jim Gash (JD ’93). “He is also a reputable research scientist who embodies Pepperdine’s commitment to transforming lives through rigorous academics, spiritual exploration, and the significance of a life of purpose.” Brewster was selected following a rigorous nationwide search led by search committee co-chairs April Marshall, professor of Hispanic studies at Seaver College, and Tim Perrin, senior vice president for strategic implementation. “We are most grateful to our colleagues on the Provost Search Committee for their extraordinary investment of time and energy over the course of the last six months and to the many members of the Pepperdine community who thoughtfully participated in the search process,” said Marshall and Perrin in a joint statement. Since joining Pepperdine in 1997 as assistant professor of biology, Brewster has been an active member of the University community. He has held several appointments on various University committees,

including the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence Selection Committee; the Pepperdine Accreditation Committee for High Impact Practices; and the Rank, Tenure, and Promotions Committee. Brewster’s dedication to students and their academic growth has been recognized at the University for many years. He is a 2006 recipient of the Howard A. White Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2010, in recognition of his nationally acclaimed scholarship, he was named the Frank R. Seaver Professor in Natural Science. Beyond guiding students in the classroom, Brewster has demonstrated a commitment to students’ spiritual development as an elder of the University Church of Christ for the past four years. In his new role, Brewster oversees the academic development and integrity of Pepperdine University and its five schools. He is primarily responsible for directing the University’s academic programs and strategic initiatives while also recruiting exceptional faculty and encouraging critical scholarship and teaching. “[Pepperdine University] is a special place that partners the sincere care for each student with a faculty of accomplished scholars,” shared Brewster. “I have loved my time at Pepperdine and look forward to the work that is to come. I look forward to partnering with President Gash and the deans of each school in support of this premier Christian university.”

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Headlines Pepperdine Waves Win 2021 NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship For the second time in program history, the Pepperdine University men’s golf team won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championship following a 3–2 victory over the University of Oklahoma on June 2, 2021. The Waves earned their 2021 trophy after playing a seventh round of competitive golf in six days at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I would have never thought that I would be called a national champion,” said senior Joey Vrzich. “I can’t believe how many Pepperdine fans came to watch. To have my dad here . . . I don’t even have a word for it. It makes me tear up every time.” Teammates Joe Highsmith and William Mouw won the first two points, while fifth-year senior Clay Feagler secured the victory on the 18th green amid a large crowd of Pepperdine fans. Feagler and Highsmith won all three of their match-play rounds at the NCAA Championship.

“It was surreal to come down to the 18th hole and basically have the last point on my shoulders,” said Feagler. “It was nerve-racking but it was exciting. I didn’t think I was going to be the final point here. It was kind of crazy.” This victory is the men’s golf program’s first national title since 1997. This year the Waves were competing at the NCAA finals for the 11th time in program history and for the third time in the last four tournaments. This win, which featured Pepperdine’s first-ever appearance in NCAA Championships match play, marks the 10th NCAA Division I team title in Pepperdine Athletics history and the first since men’s tennis in 2006. “When I played at Pepperdine, I always felt like we could be the best team in the country,” said Michael Beard (’02), head coach of the Pepperdine men’s golf team. “To be able to come back as coach, I still felt that way. Everyone that has worked with us and every player that we’ve had come through believes in that as well. I’m just so proud of these guys.”

Dylan Menante

Clay Feagler (’20)

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Summer 2021

Pro Football Hall of Famer Tony Dungy Defines the Values of a Mission-Driven Team During 45th Annual Pepperdine Associates Dinner On May 15, 2021, members of the Pepperdine community gathered virtually to celebrate the 45th annual Pepperdine Associates dinner. Featured speaker Tony Dungy, former head coach of the 2007 Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts, football analyst for NBC Sports, and author of several books including The Soul of a Team: A Modern-Day Fable for Winning Teamwork, explored the theme “The Soul of a Team” in a prerecorded interview with president Jim Gash (JD ’93). Hosted by TV personality and former national news correspondent Adam Housley (’94), the event also featured exclusive moments with Pepperdine’s record-breaking student-athletes and the coaches guiding their teams to success both on and off the field with their exemplary leadership. In a candid discussion with President Gash, Dungy referenced the four key elements that comprise the acronym SOUL:

selflessness, ownership, unity, and larger purpose. “Selflessness is putting the team above yourself, and that doesn’t mean not having individual goals and not being motivated individually . . . Ownership is about owning your role [because] everybody can’t be the star . . . Unity is being together without being the same,” explained Dungy. “[And a] larger purpose is the most important part because it’s not human nature to be selfless, own your role, or be unified . . . We have to have a bigger purpose, and to me, that’s making a difference in the community.” At the conclusion of the interview, Dungy shared that he hopes his legacy would be associated with his purpose in life. “I would hope that [people] would say it was fun to go to work, we all had a larger purpose, we all had to work together, and that he was a guy I could trust and he helped me be a better person.”

L-R: Colbey Ross (’21), Jim Gash (JD ’93), and Ashley Lahey (’21)

Pepperdine University Introduces New Hub for Spiritual Life On May 3, 2021, president Jim Gash (JD ’93) announced the launch of the Hub for Spiritual Life at Pepperdine—a new initiative to reimagine and enhance students’ experience of spiritual growth at the University. Central to the hub’s mission and programming is the emphasis on developing students as leaders throughout their faith journeys with the community support of fellow students along with faculty and staff spiritual mentors. “On our team, we recognize and celebrate that we do not provide the whole spiritual experience but are part of a greater whole,” said Sara Barton, who will lead the Hub for Spiritual Life in her new role as associate vice president for spiritual life alongside associate chaplain Rachel Collins. “Collaboration is my leadership style, which is one that aims to bring people out of silos to work together, and that’s inherent in the language of a hub.” The team’s new approach will connect students to every spiritual life opportunity whether in their residence halls, on athletic teams, or while studying abroad. With this holistic focus, collaboration with University partners is key to incorporating spiritual growth at each level of students’ undergraduate careers. One of the first changes resulting from the new initiative includes the restructuring of Seaver College’s Convocation Series, which will henceforth be known as Seaver 200. The program creates gatherings for first- and second-year undergraduate students to explore faith and feel welcomed into the community. Seaver 200 will also allow third- and fourth-year students to take an active role in their spiritual growth by choosing their level of involvement in spiritual leadership opportunities. magazine.pepperdine.edu

Headlines

Pepperdine University Celebrates Classes of 2020 and 2021 with Commencement Ceremonies Throughout May 2021, Pepperdine University celebrated its graduating Classes of 2020 and 2021 with in-person ceremonies at the Caruso School of Law, Seaver College, and the School of Public Policy. The celebrations were held more than a year after the University postponed 2020 commencement ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The School of Public Policy (SPP) kicked off the commencement season on Friday, May 14, 2021, in Alumni Park celebrating graduates in both the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2021. Abigail Scott (’21) gave the Class of 2021 student address before Matt Cutler, director of development at SPP, presented Vianey Lopez (MPP ’12) with the Distinguished Alumnus Award for her exceptional public service as a government official for more than 10 years.

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Summer 2021

The Caruso School of Law celebrated the Class of 2021 on May 21, 2021, and the Class of 2020 on May 22, 2021. At the first ceremony, Zachary Carstens (JD ’21) delivered the student address to his fellow graduates. President Jim Gash (JD ’93) presented the Distinguished Alumnus Award to Angela M. Powell (JD ’97). Luke Manzo (’20) gave the student address to the Class of 2020, and Pepperdine Board of Regents member Virginia F. Milstead (JD ’04) received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for her dedication to public service. The honorable Consuelo Callahan, who serves as a circuit court judge in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, gave the commencement address at both ceremonies.

Seaver College hosted the Class of 2020 and their guests on the afternoon of May 21, 2021. Class of 2020 graduate and Caruso Law student Payton Silket (’20) delivered the student address before Pepperdine Board of Regents member Alan Beard (’94, MPP ’99) gave the commencement speech. The following day, Cameron Lowenfield (’21) delivered the student address to fellow Class of 2021 graduates, which was followed by Board of Regents member Brett Biggs’ encouragement to students. With more than 800 graduates in the Class of 2020 and 900 graduates in the Class of 2021, the ceremonies were the largest class celebrations ever held by the University, made possible by expert planning and care from University staff and faculty.

The Seaver College Fine Arts Division and Flora L. Thornton Opera Program Present Spring 2021 Lineup of Virtual Student Performances Throughout April and May 2021, Seaver College students in the Fine Arts Division and the Flora L. Thornton Opera Program presented a variety of virtual performances through the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts website. From April 9 to April 11, 2021, the website debuted the virtual production of William Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Hollace Starr, associate professor of theatre at Pepperdine, directed the student cast and shared that the group was guided by the power of human connection as they explored new facets of the classic play. “As our department continues to adapt to this new method of doing theatre, I am grateful to be able to provide learning opportunities for our actors who are hungry to play characters, for our designers who desire to build worlds, and for our audience to connect with engaging stories, all within a unique medium,” shared Starr.

From April 22 to April 24, 2021, students in the Flora L. Thornton Opera Program performed Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon in a digital performance. Long-Tao “Pierre” Tang, assistant professor of music and director of instrumental ensembles at Seaver College, conducted the French opera. “The logistics of rehearsing this complicated music over the internet required extra innovation and planning on the part of the cast and production team,” shared Keith Colclough (’08), assistant professor of music and director of opera. “I am extremely proud of our cast’s resilience and cannot wait to share their work with a live audience.”

On May 6 and May 7, 2021, the Fine Arts Division presented its production of Ugly Lies the Bone by playwright Lindsey Ferrentino. Cathy Thomas-Grant, professor of theatre and divisional dean of the Seaver College Fine Arts Division, directed the student cast. “This is a beautiful play about the struggle to stay resilient while pushing against physical and emotional pain, something so many of us can relate to having experienced the effects of this pandemic on our lives,” said Thomas-Grant. “Things will never be as they once were, but with the support of family and loved ones, we are closer than ever to pulling through. It is through this love for each other that we will recover. The courage of the characters in this story is inspirational, and the message was delivered powerfully because of the dedication and love that the actors and the entire creative team have for the theatre.”

Dance in Flight Debuts Documentary Film During the first weekend in May, Dance in Flight, Pepperdine University’s resident dance company featuring students from a variety of performing arts backgrounds, interests, and fields of study, debuted its first-ever documentary film, RAW. The documentary, which was developed during the coronavirus pandemic, served as a replacement for the student-led dance company’s annual spring performance at Smothers Theatre in Malibu. To maintain quality production standards, the University provided costumes and lights to all dancers, who recorded their routines individually after rehearsing the choreography either synchronously via Zoom or asynchronously by following along to pre-uploaded videos. “As with any art form, we want people to feel connected and understood by our work and experience the impact and the importance of our community,” explained Erinn Heffes (’21), who codirected this year’s performance in her senior year. “Our goal was to create a show that uses dance as the medium to express what words cannot and to highlight the human experience.”

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Headlines Harbor 2021 Explores Resilient Faith During Virtual Event On May 26, 2021, Pepperdine University presented Harbor 2021, a five-hour virtual event designed for spiritual community leaders, ministers, and the Pepperdine community. The event opened with Mike Cope, director of ministry outreach, who introduced this year’s theme, “Resilient Faith: A Day of Renewal for Church Leaders.” Each of the speakers of the day acknowledged the unique challenges of the past year and encouraged the audience with the purpose of ministry. Cope described faith as inherently resilient in its ability to accept reality, find meaning amid struggles, and adapt and improvise in the face of such challenges. “While we longed to host our Harbor audience on campus, we are grateful for those who participated in this virtual event,” shared Cope. “It was especially good to see groups of church leaders gathered to watch together on social media. From an opening review of what Christian leaders reported through the pandemic by Barna president David Kinnaman to inspiration from N. T. Wright at the end, there was plenty to challenge and encourage leaders.”

Pepperdine Celebrates Diversity and Inclusive Excellence at 11th Annual Loqui Ceremony On May 20, 2021, Pepperdine hosted the 11th annual Loqui: A Celebration of Diversity and Inclusive Excellence to recognize Seaver College students and faculty who foster a collective sense of diversity, inclusion, and belonging within the Pepperdine community. Sierra Bell and Juan Carlos Hugues received the 2021 Bowers, Davis, and Todd Award for Leadership in Diversity and Inclusive Excellence, an honor that recognizes one male and one female graduating senior who demonstrate an active commitment to advancing institutional diversity and inclusive excellence at Pepperdine as part of their faith. Rebecca Y. Kim, Frank R. Seaver Chair in Social Science and professor of sociology at Pepperdine, received the Distinction in Diversity and Inclusive Excellence award. “Loqui highlights the voices of students on the margins,” says Rebecca Campos (MPP ’15), director of intercultural affairs. “Everyone wants to belong and to feel a sense of kinship. During my time at Pepperdine, I have noticed that we have more and more students of color and a growing desire for students to be a part of clubs on campus. Many institutes of higher education in the United States are predominantly white spaces. Through Loqui, I hope our students get to see their culture represented on stage, hear their language, and feel a sense of pride about their own identity and about being a part of an inclusive community.”

School of Public Policy Hosts Preserving the American Project: The Bias Narrative vs. the Development Narrative

As part of the Augustus and Patricia Tagliaferri Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series, the School of Public Policy hosted “Preserving the American Project: The Bias Narrative vs. the Development Narrative” at Elkins Auditorium on June 5, 2021. Economist Glenn Loury, a leading national expert on social capital, explored the components that lead to greater economic opportunity and broader societal flourishing while analyzing those that do not result in such favorable outcomes.

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Summer 2021

Pepperdine Libraries Hosts Inaugural Alumni Author Lecture Series Event Featuring Catherine Meeks (’70) On April 27, 2021, Pepperdine Libraries presented the first-ever Pepperdine Alumni Author Lecture Series event featuring George Pepperdine College alumna Catherine Meeks (’70), the founding executive director of the Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing and retired Clara Carter Acree Distinguished Professor of Socio-cultural Studies and Sociology at Wesleyan College. In her discussion, Meeks examined the activism and advocacy of journalist Ida B. Wells, as discussed in her coauthored 2019 book, Passionate for Justice: Ida B. Wells as Prophet for Our Time. She also shared insights about her time as a student at Pepperdine and how her college education informed her future as an author of several books. “Young people in the 21st century need to interrogate themselves about what matters to them, and Ida B. Wells can be a good guide in that interrogation process,” said Meeks. “I want to encourage you to dig into life and find out the things that matter [to you], the ways in which people have interacted with you, the ways you have treated people, [and] find out what’s at the core of yourself. Ida B. Wells is a great role model for that work and that journey.”

Undergraduate Students Display Academic Excellence at Virtual Research and Scholarly Achievement Symposium The Pepperdine community gathered virtually on April 23, 2021, to celebrate student research accomplishments at the Seaver College Research and Scholarly Achievement Symposium. Hosted by the Office of the Vice Provost, the event featured more than 120 student presenters representing research and scholarly work across all eight divisions at Seaver College. This year’s event marked the conclusion of Undergraduate Research Week, a national celebration of students’ achievements and their mentors. During each session—which covered a diverse range of topics including performing arts, studio arts, political science, psychology,

and biology—students’ commitment to academic excellence was evident through their engaging presentations, perfection of technique, and passion for their work. “Opportunities for our students to perform and showcase their scholarly work are both an essential component of their research experience and a way for those in our academic community to experience and engage with the work of our student scholars,” shared Katy Carr (MA ’11), assistant provost for research at Pepperdine University.

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Features

Ready or not, blockchain technology is turning the world on its head—in the best and most mind-bending ways possible By Gareen Darakjian

Pepperdine Magazine

Summer 2021

By the time this article goes to print, hundreds if not thousands of headlines will likely be written at lightning speed about a new breakthrough in blockchain technology. Or a glitch in the latest cryptocurrency trading platform. Or the recordbreaking sale of a non-fungible token (NFT) of a one-of-a-kind digital cat on something called Ethereum. Is your head spinning yet? Consider yourself in good company. It has become almost a cliche to admit you have no idea what any of these words— seemingly coined by a community of elite tech insiders who regularly convene in some alternate universe—mean. But, the era of ignorance is over. Blockchain technology— and the masterminds behind its meteoric rise over the last decade—is in the process of disrupting, dismantling, reimagining, and reconfiguring everything we know about, well, everything. And Pepperdine is jumping into the fray with an innovative academic initiative to propel the University into leadership in the space. So, what is blockchain, who is behind it, and why should we care about the trillion-dollar industry nobody can quite wrap their heads around?

B LO C KC H A IN 10 1 At its core, the blockchain can be simplified as a digital platform that maintains a ledger of transactions shared across a decentralized network. This ledger holds an immutable history of digital transactions—most notably of cryptocurrencies or encrypted digital assets such as Bitcoin—that are legitimized by peer-to-peer consensus. Blockchains are built on open source software, which allows developers to ensure the safety and security of transactions by avoiding third-party governance and interference by a central authority. The blockchain operates on a network of computers that contains a universal data set that is displayed to all users, making all activity, especially the transaction history of digital assets, transparent and unalterable. One publication compares blockchain to Google Docs, living documents that are created and owned by one party and distributed (not copied or transferred) to any number of people who all have access to the document. Users are able to make changes at their convenience without restriction, and all changes are recorded and visible to all users, making it an entirely transparent process. Blockchains are made up of multiple individual blocks (think of them as links in a chain) that contain all of the data related to a digital transaction. Each block also contains a 32-bit number called a nonce—an abbreviation for “number only used once”—that is randomly generated when a block is created and a cryptographic hash, a 256-bit number that acts as the block’s digital signature or fingerprint. As blocks—which are stored chronologically—are added to the blockchain, they create unbreakable bonds that are difficult and almost impossible to manipulate. “No individual party can change the rules or take over the database structure and alter it,” says Thomas Lombardi (MBA ’07), adjunct professor of digital asset finance at the Graziadio Business School and managing director of 3iQ Corp, an investment fund manager offering digital asset investment products such as the Bitcoin Fund. “It would require nation states to invest potentially hundreds of billions of dollars to burn it down. No other party in the world could do anything to these structures.”

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Features By having this database—this open financial platform that no one can manipulate— IT UNLOCKS SO MUCH OPPORTUNITY for people who would have never had that access.

B I T BY B IT For a culture so accustomed to relying on major institutions to manage our most valuable assets, it’s no wonder decentralized systems are taking time to catch on. However, the promise of cryptocurrencies and their ability to enable the transfer of funds directly between two parties without the need for a financial institution is appealing to many. It is also the biggest threat to the financial sector, which is heavily regulated by the government. The strongest thesis within the blockchain and Bitcoin conversation, says Lombardi, is financial inclusion as it relates to currency transactions. “The privileged few that live in well-to-do areas have access to Venmo and PayPal and the most trusted financial institutions in the world,” he explains. “But that is not the case for 4 billion other people. This technology enables financial inclusion for those who don’t have trust in their government and financial institutions.” Lombardi cites Etsy, a web marketplace where designers and creators sell handmade or curated items to users anywhere in the world, as an environment that limits the availability and equality of opportunities for merchants to access financial services. “The reality is that many international sellers have to go through a lot to get the money from their sale,” he says. “They are either making the transaction through their local Western Union that’s connected to a local bank or they have to go through governmentcontrolled banks. Etsy also takes a cut of their profits. You don’t realize how many layers these sellers in different parts of the world have to go through to access their finances.”

THOMAS LOMBARDI (MBA ’07)

Blockchain technology and digital assets such as Bitcoin enable financial inclusion between someone in one of the world’s biggest metropolises and someone operating a business from the most remote, rural region on the other side of the world. But, with the current structure of international banks and tariffs, the possibilities are slim. So, what does the future of open financial systems look like and what does it enable? So much, says Lombardi. “We use so many intimate products and services in our daily lives such as email, social media, and payments that we have no control over,” he says. “By having this secure database—this open financial platform that no one can manipulate—blockchains unlock so much opportunity for personal rights, free speech, and entrepreneurship.” Blockchain is the foundation of cryptocurrency, digital assets that can be traded for goods or services through secure online transactions across the blockchain network. Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency and the longest-running blockchain, was created in direct response to the Great Recession in 2008. “Bitcoin proved for the first time that you could have an asset that is purely digital in nature,” says Lexy Prodromos (’16), who has

been immersed in the world of blockchain professionally since graduating from Pepperdine. Prodromos is currently a product manager for blockchain and digital currency for Discover Financial Services based in Chicago. “Bitcoin is composed of several lines of code and has real value that isn’t backed by gold or currency, and the price is market determined. It was the first proof that you can have something fully digital like this that can be scarce.” Bitcoin, like gold, is “mined” and exists in finite supply. But unlike gold’s physical extraction from the earth, the digital currency is sourced through a computer. With only 21 million Bitcoin in circulation, a figure determined by its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, its scarcity model ensures that it remains valuable for an indefinite period of time. “The way the blockchain is designed for Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies is that there are more efforts to secure mining than there are to duplicate these bitcoins,” Prodromos continues. “That was a game changer in allowing you to not only transact these cryptocurrencies peer-to-peer online, but to use blockchain technology to transact purely digital items that have value with people you know and don’t know across the world.”

BLOCKCHAIN BASICS

A user requests a transaction.

18 Pepperdine Magazine

The request is broadcast to a peer-to-peer network of computers.

Summer 2021

The network validates the transaction and the user’s status using advanced algorithms.

The transaction is combined with other transactions, creating a new block.

The new block is added to the existing blockchain.

The transaction is complete.

P OL IC Y IN N OVATION

F RO M B A IT TO P L AT E

Around 2015 cryptocurrency companies were required to obtain a license to operate virtual currency business activities in their respective cities, an effort to legitimize the elusive nature of the digital transactions. The now-infamous New York-based BitLicense was the only state-recognized business license for virtual currency activities at the time. Prodromos had heard former governor Jack Markell debut the Delaware blockchain initiative at the Consensus conference in New York City. Believing that there might be room for Illinois to form a blockchain initiative of its own, she approached the executives at the newly formed Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology, where they were working on a broader technology initiative and hadn’t fully considered blockchain’s potential in their plans. Prodromos, who became curious about cryptocurrency and explored it seriously as a career path shortly before graduating from Pepperdine, proposed a plan to the department to develop Chicago and Illinois into national blockchain leaders. This effort helped shape discussions of how to advance blockchain technology in the public sector, which evolved into the Illinois Blockchain Initiative (IBI). At the IBI, Prodromos led education initiatives to raise awareness about blockchain technology; inspire legislation to help Illinois become more welcoming to cryptocurrency entrepreneurs; create a physical convening space where entrepreneurs, students, private businesses, and venture capitalists could build an in-person community to network together; and launch a pilot program to implement blockchain technology within the state government. She is currently the executive director of the Chicago Blockchain Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to the education, promotion, and adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. She also supports efforts at the federal level with the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a Washington, DC-based advocacy firm for blockchain and digital currencies. “Emerging technology and government often give rise to a push and pull between trying to allow innovation to flourish while also protecting citizens from bad actors trying to take advantage of that technology,” Prodromos says. “Especially at the time, there had been several very large Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange hacks that had resulted in the loss of millions of dollars. One of the interesting things about cryptocurrency is that, while it inspires personal financial freedom, it also places much more responsibility on the individual to manage their funds.” Prodromos cites data from a few years ago that estimates that, of the 18 million Bitcoin that have been minted and are in circulation, 4 million to 6 million are missing and permanently inaccessible because of misplaced or forgotten private wallets, unique keys that are used to validate Bitcoin transactions and specifically designed to prevent third parties from using or altering transactions on the blockchain. “There were reasons at first for governments to be skeptical of Bitcoin technology,” Prodromos says. “At that point in time, Bitcoin was famous for being traded for illicit materials and used in ransomware attacks. What we wanted to do at the Chicago Blockchain Center and Illinois Blockchain Initiative was shine a light on other, noncriminal uses of this technology.” While the technology is still nascent, Prodromos says that it has the potential to alleviate pain points in many different industries ranging from healthcare, finance, real estate, media, and the arts. One of the pilot programs Prodromos initiated at the IBI was with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds Office in an effort to use a Bitcoin equivalent called colored coins to ascribe land titles and deeds, using blockchain technology to enable traceability and transparency in verifying ownership of land parcels and other forms of property and making the transfer of land ownership easier. “We have much more clarity now about how this technology can be leveraged and how to keep citizens safe from bad actors,” she says. “Blockchain turns a lot of models on their heads. The technology poses the question: ‘What if we didn’t need third-party intermediaries for digital transactions anywhere?’ Some people say decentralizing isn’t the way to go. In the future, we’re going to approach a world where there’s a mix of certain centralized and decentralized processes that increase security while maintaining the speed and ease of use that certain centralized protocols have right now. Blockchain technology accelerated that and is moving us in the right direction of having much more transparency in a trustless world.”

Much of the mystery surrounding blockchain is related to its inherently concealed nature and distinctive and often puzzling language, which not only intimidates tech novices but also creates confusion and, ultimately, skepticism among the general public. Many wonder how the technology will play a part in their daily lives and processes. While major institutions such as healthcare and higher education have adopted the technology to give individuals access to their own medical records and academic transcripts, blockchain has and will continue to show up in more ways than anyone can imagine. Throughout the Pacific region, overfishing and illegally harvested fish have resulted in a massive decline in revenue across fisheries. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fish that were procured through unreported and unethical fishing practices cost the industry more than $600 million over a five-year period in the last decade. Beyond patrolling waters and implementing stricter fishtrafficking laws, the World Wildlife Federation has partnered with a blockchain venture to create transparency around fish sourcing all the way through the supply chain. “Through blockchain technology, you can track a piece of tuna from the moment the catch comes in to when it lands on your plate,” Lombardi says. “The tuna fillet delivered to your house even comes with a picture of the fish it came from.” Specific data-collecting processes, often referred to as data provenance, essentially an audit of how data was collected and used, tags and tracks each fish as it travels from the fisherman, to the processing plant, to the packaging and distribution facility, to the retail establishment, and, finally, to the consumer. The consumer can then scan a QR code and see every step of the process using a blockchain database. The benefits to the supplier are a deeper analysis of their supply chain and more precise quality control. To the consumer, this level of transparency affirms their purchasing choices and their confidence in buying from ethical and sustainable producers. Most importantly, tracking the origins of responsibly sourced products is a major factor in combating and eliminating greenwashing across industries that manipulates and misleads consumers into believing a product is more environmentally friendly than it is. “In the case of product labeling, we have to trust someone to tell us that the product was responsibly sourced. A third party sits in the middle and claims a product’s validity,” says Lombardi. “Let’s actually just use data. Let’s hold people and companies responsible. We don’t need anyone to tell us what we’re consuming is responsibly sourced. We can find out where things actually came from and make the best decisions for ourselves based on actual data.”

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Features BY T HE S AME TOKEN

IN TH E C L A SSRO O M

Beyond the impact of blockchain technology on the industries that shape the world around us, many individuals—especially artists and content creators— have found greater opportunities to permanently secure their ownership and the authenticity of their work. Artists and musicians across mediums are using blockchain technology to expand their creative opportunities with NFTs, unique and irreplaceable collectible tokens ascribed to their digital art that live on the blockchain. An NFT’s value is determined by its popularity, and it can be sold by the individual through the exchange of cryptocurrencies. In March 2021, the auction house Christie’s made history with the $69 million sale of the first NFT based on a digital work of art. In the music industry, artists associate NFT technology with two functional areas: the sale of a collectible audio clip and the authenticity of ownership and copyright. While anyone can copy and listen to the audio, music NFTs, in essence collectible editions of music, can attribute initial ownership to an individual and offer owners provenance—the digital verification of ownership. NFTs of digital art and music are generally owned by one person who is listed on the blockchain ledger as the owner, but most people can still access the content. The sale of ownership and copyright is what raises legal concerns about owners’ rights. For example, if an owner sells 10 percent of a copyright, does that mean the purchaser is entitled to future income as well? To combat these concerns, creators can build separate income streams into a smart contract—a transaction protocol stored on the blockchain that is automatically executed or documented when the terms of an agreement between parties are met—but the question remains if purchasers are entitled to profits from subsequent sales of the NFT. One challenge that music industry insiders predict is the possibility of an NFT owner infringing on a creator’s original work. In some cases, the person minting a musical work does not own the song to mint it in the first place, and if the creator does not catch the minting of the NFT in time, it can be difficult to prevent and correct it. Another challenge is the currently undetermined extent of an NFT owner’s right to grant derivative licenses, such as to allow a major television network the right to use the music in the NFT. While these practical concerns are emergent, their legal implications are not novel. The successful adoption of blockchain technology in the world of art, music, and collectibles depends on the industry’s efforts to develop norms to help govern and guide these processes, especially as they relate to the sale of a copyright and the attachment of contractual rights with the blockchain. As more artists use NFTs to connect with audiences directly, manage their identities, and simplify transactions of their work, industry professionals remain optimistic about the emergence and prominence of NFTs and are equipped with a general understanding of blockchain technology and the challenges and opportunities it brings—a good sign for the overall health of the industry.

In 2017 Lene Martin (EdD ’16, PhD ’21) became interested in the applications of blockchain in higher education. The founder and CEO of Coastline Consultancy Inc., a firm that offers consulting services in media and emerging technologies, Martin was advising in the field of organizational development for one of the first public blockchain companies. At the same time, she was working as the information security communication lead at Amgen running the biotechnology company’s global cybersecurity communications, including efforts to educate on blockchain for healthcare. She began thinking of ways blockchain could contribute to autonomy and accountability in the world of healthcare and considered the ways the technology could put more resources and opportunities in the hands of individuals. “It can certainly do that through cryptocurrencies, but it can also do that just by giving people access to their own healthcare records,” Martin says. “That’s when I fell in love with it. I kept thinking about all of the possibilities blockchain could bring to people around the world.” An alumna of the organizational leadership doctoral program at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology and at the time a current student in the school’s global leadership and change doctoral program, Martin considered the value of bringing blockchain to Pepperdine. She applied for and won a Waves of Innovation grant in 2019 to create Blockchain at Pepperdine, an interdisciplinary and inclusive initiative designed to advance blockchain technology and innovation at the University. Blockchain at Pepperdine comprises a sophisticated team of academic and industry advisors and serves as a resource for blockchain conferences, curricula, certificates, collaboratories, and consulting for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the community. To date, Blockchain at Pepperdine has developed three Universitywide events, including multiple workshops and seminars, five master’s-level courses with blockchain concentrations, professional executive certificates with technical and nontechnical tracks, countless presentations and consultations both internal and external to the University, and more than 16 solution-design papers with several in progress. In Martin’s blockchain business applications and analytics course at the Graziadio Business School, students learn about blockchain foundations before jumping into a deeper study of blockchain applications and analytics over a seven-week period. The course encourages students to determine a real-world issue and takes them through the lifecycle of a blockchain project focusing on decentralized applications such as smart contracts or NFTs as part of that solution. Students also have the opportunity to partner with existing companies in the industry as they engage in discovery analysis, design mapping, and creating userjourney flows that go through layers of functional and technical requirements. By the end of the seven-week course, students have developed the wireframe of an actual application for their smartphone. Martin shares that if the course were spread over 14 weeks, students would, by the end of it, be able to develop a minimum viable product—the early form of a product that contains enough features to deliver a usable experience to customers. “Students often complete the course wondering what they can do next,” Martin says. “They’re wildly excited about it. Some of them have wanted to transition careers after taking the course. Some of them have established themselves as blockchain experts at work. And, for many, it’s become their favorite class. We’ve been thrilled with that response.”

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Summer 2021

A N E W DIG ITAL GENERATI ON As blockchain technology finds its legs in the mainstream, graduating students are entering the workforce and discovering career opportunities in an emerging field with great promise. While more seasoned professionals are having to pivot and reimagine existing and deeply established processes, this new crop of graduates is blazing into blockchain with an energy—and opportunities—rarely seen before. Zayi Reyes (’17), who graduated with a degree in integrated marketing communication from Seaver College, was pursuing marketing and advertising opportunities when a friend recommended her for a role at a company called MetaX in Santa Monica, California. The startup that, at the time, employed just a handful of people, was an advertising technology company staffed with developers who were considering the ways blockchain technology could remedy the digital advertising industry’s fundamental flaws, namely fraudulent transactions during the exchange of billions of dollars. Reyes became deeply involved in the burgeoning company’s operations and admits to being thrown into a master class in blockchain’s opportunities in advertising. When MetaX partnered with Consensus, one of the biggest blockchain incubator companies at the time, Reyes took a deeper dive into the technology. She was hired a few weeks before the company launched their own token, then one of the first American-based

tokens, and raised $10 million in 23 seconds. Reyes was hired to manage the marketing strategy in the tech markets. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I’m so glad I did,” says Reyes. “That experience completely changed my life.” Reyes currently works for Unstoppable Domains, the leading blockchain domain registry, that enables users to build decentralized websites that simplify cryptocurrency payments. The company offers users domain names (for example, pepperdine.crypto) that act as cryptocurrency wallet addresses that can be used to send and receive hundreds of cryptocurrencies across more than 50 wallets, exchanges, and applications around the world. This product solves incorrect cryptocurrency transfers that are common within the crypto industry due to long, complex addresses that are necessary to use for crypto payments. These mistakes can result in a permanent loss of funds. Reyes is involved in partnerships and marketing and works with the biggest crypto content creators in the world to share the value of Unstoppable Domains with their massive social media communities. “When I first started doing this, nobody had really thought about content creators in the crypto space because it was so new,” says Reyes. “And there’s also a kind of unwritten rule in crypto that you don’t market it. Now, you’re seeing companies hire performance

marketing teams to run ads and secure sponsorships. As projects learn to accept marketing, I’m seeing a rise in companies being invited to podcasts and creating large amounts of educational content, especially on social media platforms like TikTok.” Blockchain, while it has been around in various formats since the early 2000s, is still in its infancy as far as larger industries are concerned. Because of its nascency, blockchain has provided professionals who entered the field just a year or two ago with opportunities to grow significantly in their careers in a short period of time. “Regardless of your age or background, you can make a name for yourself in the industry and become an expert because it’s just so new,” says Reyes, who is a dedicated advocate for women and Latinas in tech. She and her colleague presented at South by Southwest 2021 on how decentralized autonomous organizations are built on the blockchain and operate in a self-governed manner. Reyes was also recently named a delegate of the National Briefing of Women of Color in Blockchain. “If I had gotten my start in any other industry, I would have been starting in entry-level positions and spending years working my way up. Because I entered the blockchain industry when I did, I’m running my own department. I’m getting opportunities to represent my company in front of major audiences. It’s so exciting how much opportunity there is.”

BLOCKCHAIN TURNS A LOT OF MODELS ON THEIR HEADS. The technology poses the question: “What if we didn’t need third-party intermediaries for digital transactions anywhere?” LEXY PRODROMOS (’16)

While the full potential of blockchain technology and its impact on the world remains to be seen, many corporations have adopted its practices to quietly drive some of the most recognizable processes we use in our daily lives, despite the skepticism and confusion that still exists. “Consider the internet,” Lombardi says. “When it emerged in the late ’80s, it was heavily doubted. It enabled nefarious behavior, and it wasn’t mature enough to be mainstream. That was a phase we were in at the time. For blockchain and cryptocurrency in general, we are currently in that skeptical phase. There are instances of fraud, theft, and manipulation of information and investments. But that’s a growing pain to the maturation of the space. Once blockchain technology is embraced by major institutions, it will resonate down to the users and open up a whole new world of possibilities. And that’s very exciting.”

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Features

Collective Impact By Abigail Ramsey

From agriculture to corporate strategy and policy advocacy, Pepperdine University alumni make significant contributions to sustainability efforts for a more just world

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Summer 2021

ustainability, or the ability to avoid depleting natural resources for the protection of the environment and future generations, seems to be at the forefront of public discussion, especially as leading corporations across the globe commit to decreasing carbon emissions drastically in the coming decades. With seemingly even more green and sustainable initiatives kicking off in all business sectors, careers in sustainability are in high demand. Through their work in education, policy advocacy, and corporate sustainability strategy, Pepperdine University alumni are making impacts both large and small on sustainability initiatives at every level and in every sector. These five alumni—Avery Davis Lamb (’16), Bonnie Nixon (MA ’16), Kacie Scherler (’13, MA ’16), Petra Sikorski (’19), and Sara Train (MBA ’19)—share how their lives, dedicated to purpose and service, contribute to the collective efforts toward a sustainable future.

When Avery Davis Lamb first took a sustainability course at Avery Davis Pepperdine, he felt a strong calling toward ecological conservation Lamb and environmental work while also unlocking the unique ability faith communities could have to make lasting and positive impacts on the climate. “There was a powerful way that [professors] Steve Davis, Chris Doran (’98, MDiv ’02), and Lee Kats spoke about their care and love for the planet and how their faith informed their science,” reflects Davis Lamb. Inspired by his Pepperdine faculty mentors, Davis Lamb received a bachelor of arts in biology and became one of the first alumni to graduate with a sustainability minor. He quickly set off for Washington, DC, where he worked with Sojourners, a magazine and social justice nonprofit focused on connecting faith to social change, and Interfaith Power & Light, an organization dedicated to inspire communities of faith to take action to protect God’s creation and to advocate for climate policy on Capitol Hill. For three years, he was an active voice in environmental organizing and advocacy at the grassroots level and in emboldening faith communities to support both federal and local climate initiatives through education and communication campaigns. He played an integral role in the organization of the 2017 People’s Climate March and testified before the Environmental Protection Agency in 2018 to advocate for clean energy. Now Davis Lamb serves as the co-executive director of Creation Justice Ministries and is pursuing a master of theological studies and master of environmental management at the Duke Divinity School and the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment. He reflects that at times this work is tough and exhausting, especially as the injustices of climate crises lay bare issues of racism and classism. In another way, however, he finds courage as he sees a more unified effort in policy decision-making to effect greater change on the federal level and as faith communities seek to emulate hospitable Christianity to address the issues of the world. “I am endlessly encouraged by my faith to keep going through this work,” shares Davis Lamb. “I hope, collectively, we can build a better, more beautiful world for everyone.”

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Features

Kacie Scherler with her husband Zachary Abney on their sustainable farm in Oklahoma.

With more than 40 years of experience in sustainability, Bonnie Nixon Bonnie Nixon has been a devoted leader in sustainable supply chains and corporate responsibility. Beginning her career in water safety, hazardous waste disposal, and other environmental cleanup projects, she worked as the director of public relations for the Boston Harbor cleanup beginning in the late 1980s before joining HewlettPackard as the director of global sustainability and ethical sourcing. “I see sustainability as a human rights issue,” shares Nixon. “The people who have the least are often the ones to face the dire consequences of irresponsible strategies.”

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Summer 2021

As a primary sustainability leader for multiple corporations, Nixon visited global factories and distribution centers to audit each location’s compliance with ethical standards. She witnessed people working in unhealthy and dangerous conditions across the globe—what Nixon described as the painful truth of too many corporate supply chains today. At every step, Nixon works to eradicate such conditions, which are especially prominent in diverse and Indigenous communities. She believes that each corporation should act responsibly and accept the costs of ethical sourcing for the sake of future generations. Between each of her monumental and influential years of service for sustainable corporate strategy, Nixon has remained an active consultant,

public speaker, and educator advocating for sustainable solutions driven by human rights. Her work also highlights the role technology can play not only in helping organizations adopt more humane strategies but also helping young people learn the critical importance of environmental work at an early age. To build upon her broad industry knowledge, she received a master’s degree in learning technologies at the Pepperdine Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP) and is currently completing a PhD in global leadership and change at the school. “At times this work is excruciating, especially when you are telling CEOs what they don’t want to hear,” reflects Nixon. “When it feels particularly hard, I turn to my faith to bolster me for this service to the world.”

Pepperdine cultivates a remarkable community of people that cares deeply about our world. —Kacie Scherler (’13, MA ’16)

When Kacie Scherler was first introduced to the subject of sustainability during her undergraduate journey at Pepperdine, she felt a noticeable shift in her mindset and was empowered to apply everything she learned to become a positive change maker for a better world. “Pepperdine cultivates a remarkable community of people who care deeply about our world,” shares Scherler. “That community made me feel like we could do anything.” After receiving a bachelor of arts in intercultural communication, Scherler pursued a master of arts in social entrepreneurship at GSEP, where she built her knowledge of sustainable agriculture and supplychain management before moving to San Francisco to work for Fair Trade USA, the leading third-party certifier of fair trade products, and Village Enterprise, a community-based organization focused on ending extreme poverty in African villages. In 2019, when an autoimmune disease prompted her exploration of food free of pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics, Scherler and her husband made the decision to return to her family’s farm in rural Oklahoma and raise the food to meet her dietary needs themselves. Once settled, they founded RE:Farm, a small, local farm practicing regenerative farming informed by Indigenous ecological philosophies, including rotational grazing to keep enough plant matter on the soil for the plants to grow deep and healthy root systems. “Working with Fair Trade I saw how large and convoluted supply chains are and kept asking myself, ‘Are these really sustainable?’” Scherler says. “When we were thinking about our own farm, we wanted to

make it truly regenerative from plant diversity to soil management.” The couple continues to grow their farm to provide ethically sourced food that is accessible and convenient for their community while also encouraging fellow farmers to convert small percentages of their land to regenerative farming as a first step. Scherler is also eager for their launch of RE:Supply, a waste-free shopping experience, the first of its kind in their community. “At Pepperdine I had such a desire to make big changes to the world,” reflects Scherler. “I know what may seem like small impacts now will make big impacts on this community.”

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It’s very rewarding to work alongside farmers and nonprofits to effect positive change. —Petra Sikorski (’19)

Petra Sikorski knew she would work in sustainability after spending one summer before college on the Svalbard Islands in Norway, one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas. While there, Sikorski witnessed glaciers and frozen tundra, the stars of the rough landscape, diminishing. Upon her return to the US and on her journey to Pepperdine, she joined Doran, professor of religion at Seaver College, in his first-year seminar course centered on climate change. “I had never seen climate justice and Christianity blend so perfectly together before that class,” Sikorski shares. “We were able to get to the ‘why’ in each discussion to compel us deeper into the topics.” After studying abroad in Switzerland, where she saw the idyllic small-scale farms practice regenerative and sustainable farming successfully, she was doubly motivated to continue this work. After receiving a bachelor of arts in political science with a minor in sustainability in 2019, she joined sustainable tech startup Cloud Agronomics. As the director of business development, she is bringing powerful technology to largescale farmers to help them efficiently and accurately track carbon and other micronutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in the soil. “We need to bring convenience and offer incentives while also communicating the long-term benefits of sustainable farming so large-scale farmers can take the risk in adopting these practices,” says Sikorski. Most large-scale farmers practice monocropping, which involves growing only one crop in one field, and lack the resources to use high-quality fertilizer, compost, crop rotation, and cover cropping. As a result, more resources are used to harvest enough crops to keep the farm in business. “Despite the challenges of this industry, from advocating for policy change to educating partners, we are seeing a lot of progress,” Sikorski says. “It’s very rewarding to work alongside farmers and nonprofits to effect positive change.”

Only 9 percent of plastic is recycled, a statistic that has encouraged grocery stores to commit to reduce plastic packaging.

Glaciers are the sources of most of the earth’s fresh water and are critical indicators of a warming climate.

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Summer 2021

Micronutrients contribute to healthier crops and a cleaner atmosphere.

Sustainable practices reduce the environmental impacts of large-scale farmers.

After several years serving in the field of suicide prevention, Sara Train felt a desire to make broader institutional change to more fully support those affected by inhumane systems. Through her pursuit of a master of business administration at the Graziadio Business School, she found a powerful community of students and faculty that, regardless of their sector or industry, were committed to change making. “Pepperdine offered so many opportunities for me to challenge myself,” shares Train. “I was endlessly encouraged in my belief that change can happen. We just need to do the work.” After completing her degree, an opportunity opened for her to serve as the sustainability manager at Trader Joe’s, one of the most widely known fresh format grocery stores in the US. As the grocery chain’s sustainability manager, she has helped develop food waste-management strategies such as waste diversion, significantly reducing the amount of plastic used for packaging, and decreasing carbon emissions at each stage of the supply chain.

Sara Train

Train is eager to see the future initiatives in the sustainability and social responsibility fields and how they will emphasize diverse collaboration to creatively approach solutions. She also hopes that schools, policy makers, and institutions will incorporate sustainable initiatives in their practices and approach solutions with the whole ecosystem, from people to businesses, in mind. For her exceptional guidance in the field, Train was recognized in 2019 by Pepperdine’s Outstanding Alumni | Women in Leadership initiative. “My hope is to promote sustainability from a human resource perspective,” Train explains. “If we invest in our people with deep care for their physical, mental, and economic health, they will have more resources and energy to participate in sustainable living at every level while also influencing change in their own communities.”

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MARCH 2 IT’s Technology and Learning

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(TechLearn) department begins training programs for Seaver College International Programs faculty and staff.

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88,936

Student Applications

EMAILS/SPAM

Enrolled Students

10,707

STAFF TRAINING

16.4 million

BLOCKED Spam Messages

41.9 million

DELIVERED Email Messages

LINKEDIN LEARNING Hours Viewed

1,983

7,414 |

173

Training Classes

909

Total Sign-Ups

UNIVERSITY ANALYTICS

Total Logins

28 Pepperdine Magazine

25,892

Summer 2021

% 46 DAILY

User Logins

% 55 DISTINCT

User Logins

S THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC BEGAN TO SHIFT THE WAY BUSINESS WAS CONDUCTED AROUND THE WORLD, Pepperdine’s Information Technology (IT) department swiftly and strategically developed the sophisticated tools required to help University faculty navigate the challenges of leading remote instruction, grant staff access to software needed to work from home, and facilitate the transition to online learning for students at all five schools.

Based on the IT Annual Review published in spring 2021, IT staff commemorate the anniversary of this unique time in history by offering a glimpse into the trials and triumphs they experienced one year ago.

APRIL 15 IT begins upgrading classroom

AUGUST 7 Nearly 170 classrooms

audiovisual equipment, a task that typically takes a decade to complete.

MARCH 16 IT introduces the

JUNE 2 The Malibu

“Remote Working” training series for all staff.

campus receives new audiovisual equipment.

IT SERVICE DESK

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT

Tech Central operators handled + CALLS and

≈ 245,073 documents

42,000

technicians closed 12,065+

SUPPORT TICKETS for Pepperdine faculty, staff, and students

UPLOADED to Etrieve comprising

are upgraded to allow for hybrid teaching techniques.

NATURE TAKES ITS COURSE

103 GIGABYTES of data

TOP COMMUNITY WEB PAGE VISITS

722,684 Information

377,700 Seaver

237,635 Faculty/Staff

203,231 Housing and

163,337 International

119,561 Graziadio

Technology

Residence Life

2,517,522

COURSES LOGINS

College

Directory

Programs

Business School A

% 36 INCREASE

In August 2020 Javier Monzón, associate professor of biology at Seaver College, was seeking solutions for students to analyze genetics data with software that was compatible with a variety of PC and Mac computers with different operating systems and would not decelerate the students’ computers. To help solve these issues, IT provided Monzón and his 13 lab students with access to the Cork server, where students could log in during their 150-minute lab sessions to analyze and store their data in real time. IT also granted Monzón 400 gigabytes of space to securely store his vast array of videos and photos of the animals he studies.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

AHEAD OF THE

Game The man behind America’s favorite game shows got his start in the Pepperdine broadcast studio

BY GAREEN DARAKJIAN

30 Pepperdine Magazine

Summer 2021

JANUARY 8, 2021,

marked the final episode of Jeopardy!

hosted by Alex Trebek, who had commanded the iconic quiz show lectern since 1984. Regular viewers of the primetime program that has been on the air since the 1960s were not ready to say goodbye to its quippy and quick-witted host and dreaded the day when a new face would take the podium. When Trebek had announced his illness to millions of his longtime fans just one year prior, he was confident that, regardless of his condition, he would return to the famed set and resume his role with his singular sophisticated style. And he did, many nights articulating perfectly while struggling through his speech due to mouth sores caused by his aggressive medical treatments. When Trebek passed away, just 10 days after filming his final episode, the Sony Pictures Television production team, led by its new executive producer, Mike Richards (’97), immediately deployed a succession plan—one that entailed many possible outcomes. “Choosing someone new to step in right away would have been unfair to that person, because the consensus would be, ‘You’re not him and you’re never going to be him.’ And that’s true,” says Richards, who took on the executive role at Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune in 2020 after Trebek’s cancer announcement. “[Alex] hosted his final show on Friday, and it would have become someone else’s show on Monday. That’s setting the new person up to fail. We decided the best way to go was to have a number of people take the lectern.” Among the many celebrity and industry guest hosts that stood in for Trebek, Richards, whose career began and rose in front of the camera, shined as the fan favorite. It wasn’t the first time the natural entertainer had commanded the stage and impressed an audience with his wit, wisdom, and charm. As a Pepperdine student, Richards got his first taste of television in his Broadcast 101 class taught by Susan Salas, where he anchored a news show at the University’s TV station.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

Richards on the Jeopardy! set at Sony Pictures Studios

“I fell in love with it right away,” he says. “I couldn’t believe that you could do this and get graded for it. It was the most fun I had ever had, and I still get that same feeling walking into every TV studio now that I did in those first days at Pepperdine.” The live news broadcast aired four days a week and was produced in a professional news studio complete with a news trailer, news feeds, and a teleprompter. But Richards had a knack for comedy and couldn’t help injecting his signature humor into his news delivery. “It was hard for me to stay serious for a whole half hour on camera,” he admits. “That’s just not in my wheelhouse.” Recognizing his comedic instincts and innate talent for entertainment, Salas suggested that Richards develop his own show where his sense of humor could take center stage. After returning from a year abroad in London, Richards created, wrote, produced, and hosted the Randumb Show, a weekly late-night sketch comedy talk show, which won multiple college broadcasting awards. “My dream was to interview interesting people, either on campus or in the community, and make it funny,” Richards recalls. “I wanted to gather a group of people that enjoyed the idea like I did to write, direct, and be a part of it.” Richards and the Randumb Show team developed, filmed, and edited—before sophisticated computer editing technology—44 episodes of the show in two years, every week, “like a real show.” The network executive remembers spending many nights in one of the editing bays and sleeping on a cot in the studio to edit each episode the night after it was filmed. “I was able to edit a resume reel using the episodes, which I sent to a mid- to high-level agency, who signed me as a client after watching the tape. The Randumb Show started my career.”

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Shortly after graduating from Pepperdine in 1997, Richards scored an internship at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which eventually turned into a production assistant job on the program. After leaving the Tonight Show, he served as a production assistant on Later, a latenight talk show that followed Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The show had only one writer at the time, so when Richards signed on with the writing, production, lighting, and editing experience he had acquired at Pepperdine, he worked his way in to help write jokes and sketches for the show. “I was 21 years old,” Richards recalls. “This was shortly after my internship, but the show was desperate for help at the time, so when I found out Cindy Crawford was guest hosting the next week, I wrote 10 bits for her segment. They just kept letting me do it. And because I had editing experience, I started helping with that too. I had so much experience coming out of college. It would have taken me decades to be that confident and to have that ability. I am able to draw a direct line between walking out of the Pepperdine campus and winning my first Emmy. The fact that I can do that is pretty incredible.” Throughout his career, Richards has helmed several television shows, such as Beauty and the Geek and the Game Show Network’s 2012 revival of The Pyramid as well as Divided. Richards left The Price Is Right and Let’s Make a Deal in 2019 and joined Sony Pictures Television, where he was assigned to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? as an executive producer with Jimmy Kimmel, also the host of the show, and Michael Davies for the eight-episode run in the program’s 2019–20 season. He has been nominated for 19 Daytime Emmy Awards and won three for Outstanding Game Show for The Price is Right, where he spent more than 10 years as its executive producer, at the 2013, 2016, and 2018 ceremonies.

I AM ABLE TO DRAW A DIRECT LINE BETWEEN WALKING OUT OF THE

PEPPERDINE

CAMPUS AND

WINNING MY FIRST EMMY.

While many network television professionals dream of a career either in front of or behind the camera, Richards has had diverse experiences in both spaces, inspired by a love for audience shows that was influenced by his exposure to classic late-night shows like the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His earliest memories included sneaking into his parents’ room at the age of 8 and experiencing the fascinatingly fickle nature of the show. “I was reading the Wall Street Journal, even at that age, so I understood and laughed at some of the monologue jokes,” Richards says. “What really caught my attention was when Johnny would bomb a joke in front of a live audience. There was no fixing it. The fact that it was live was exciting.” The unpredictability of live television was just one of the details Richards grasped and gravitated toward on his own path to producing. Beyond his insatiable work ethic, Richards’ desire to analyze every aspect of a TV show has been one of the driving forces of his success. To him, a good producer doesn’t just make a show run smoothly. A good producer examines every last element of a show, asks the hard questions, determines what makes it successful—and then dismantles it.

“Why is it working? Where is it not working? Why do people love it so much— and not just accept it for what it is, but looking deeper into the why. What can I do to make them love it more or, more importantly, what can I do to make them love it less? And, so, it’s really about taking all of the pieces apart and then putting them back together.” Richards’ opportunity to do just that came when another larger-than-life TV icon, Bob Barker, was retiring from The Price Is Right in 2007 at the age of 78. Richards, who was 30 at the time, was one of five host hopefuls who auditioned for the role. After camera testing and being presented to focus groups, Richards wasn’t quite what the The Price Is Right demographic was looking for, and the role ultimately went to Drew Carey. But, during his preparations for his camera test, Richards had once again asked himself the simple question: “Why do people want to watch this show?” By the time the audition process was complete, he had written 60 pages of notes dissecting the show, evaluating the factors contributing to its success and determining opportunities for improvement. A year after Carey was hired, Richards was contacted by the show’s production team to discuss signing on as producer, and those 60 pages of notes became the blueprint for the next decade of the classic show. Richards continues to lead with that same inquisitive spirit in his latest role at Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! His personal directive is to expand the universes of both shows. He recently pitched and sold Celebrity Wheel of Fortune to ABC, which enjoyed an eight-episode run this spring and will air 13 more episodes this fall, and he has several other projects in the pipeline, which are sure to bear the distinct passion and style that has characterized network television’s most successful and beloved programs throughout decades. “I’m driven by being a little uncomfortable, by having things up in the air,” Richards says. “That’s a crazy thing that I remind myself every day when making these shows. It’s a business and it’s hard and there are extremely challenging days. But, ultimately, my mandate in life and in my work is to make people’s lives happier. And that’s what I hope to do for a really long time.”

Photos from the April 3, 1997, issue of the Graphic that featured an article about Richards and the Randumb Show

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

Gold

Standard As athletes, coaches, commentators, and statisticians, 15 members of the Pepperdine community made waves in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan BY SARA BUNCH AND ABIGAIL RAMSEY

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ollowing the expected yet disappointing postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, athletes, coaches, and spectators around the world awaited the day the games would officially commence. While COVID-19 considerations kept crowds away from the stadiums, this year’s event, which maintained its original name, hosted more than 200 countries and their most elite athletes from the opening ceremony on July 23, 2021, through the closing ceremony on August 8, 2021. Since middle-distance runner Jerome Walters made history in 1956 as the first Pepperdine athlete to compete in the Olympics, Waves have had a powerful presence at the games. Among the thousands of participants that traveled to Tokyo this year, 15 of Pepperdine’s own, six of whom made their Olympics debut, joined the ranks, bringing Pepperdine’s total number of Olympians who have made their mark in the legendary competitions throughout the years to 59.

Meet this year’s Pepperdine Olympians: Miranda Ayim (’10), CANADA BASKETBALL Miranda Ayim made her third appearance at the Olympics with Canada’s women’s basketball national team and announced her retirement following her performance. During her time at Pepperdine she was the nation’s top scholar-athlete in Division I-AAA women’s basketball, was a three-time All-West Coast Conference (WCC) first teamer, and set the University’s record for career blocked shots. She first competed in the Olympics with Canada’s women’s national team in 2012 and returned in 2016. Ayim has played professionally overseas for more than a decade, and her latest title includes the Basket Landes score of the French women’s basketball championship in May 2021.

Kevin Barnett, USA INDOOR VOLLEYBALL COMMENTATOR

As a student-athlete, Kevin Barnett led the Waves men’s indoor volleyball team with 575 kills, racked up a .367 hitting percentage, and added 154 digs, 95 blocks, and 48 aces to his record. In his first season in 1996, Barnett posted double-figure kills in all 26 matches and 20 or more kills on 17 occasions. His performance on the court qualified him for the Olympics twice as a player and, after competing with the USA men’s volleyball national team in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics, Barnett joined the world of sports broadcasting with Pac-12 Networks and FOX Sports West. Tokyo 2020 was his fourth Olympics appearance and second as a commentator for indoor volleyball alongside sportscaster Paul Sunderland.

Dain Blanton (’94), USA BEACH VOLLEYBALL COMMENTATOR

Following his remarkable career as a student-athlete on the Waves men’s beach volleyball team, Dain Blanton joined the Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour in 1994 and earned 11 first-place tournament wins. In his Olympics debut at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics, Blanton won the gold medal in beach volleyball alongside partner Eric Fonoimoana. As a sports analyst and reporter, Blanton has covered volleyball tournaments for ABC, NBC, ESPN, and other networks. In 2019 he became the head coach of women’s beach volleyball at the University of Southern California. His coverage of Tokyo 2020 beach volleyball was his second Olympics appearance.

Marv Dunphy (’74), USA VOLLEYBALL COACH Marv Dunphy, Head Coach Emeritus of Pepperdine men’s volleyball, returned to the Olympics for the eighth time with his signature energetic spirit, serving as a consultant coach for the USA women’s volleyball team. No stranger to the team, Tokyo 2020 was his third consecutive time working with USA women’s volleyball. As head coach at Pepperdine, Dunphy, who was inducted in the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1994 and the American Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009, led men’s volleyball to four NCAA championships and was known to be many of his players’ biggest inspiration until his retirement in 2017. Dunphy’s Olympics career began in 1988 when he led the USA men’s indoor volleyball national team to gold.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight Brian Goorjian (’76), AUSTRALIA BASKETBALL COACH

Tom Hill (’17), GREECE TENNIS COACH

During his three-season basketball career at Pepperdine, Brian Goorjian tallied more than 70 baskets, more than 200 attempts, and more than 150 assists. After nearly a decade playing professionally, he began coaching the Eastside Spectres in Melbourne, Australia. His coaching career, spanning more than 20 years, is considered one of the most successful in the National Basketball League of Australia. Goorjian made his Olympics debut with the Australian national team at the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics and returned four years later to the games in Beijing. Tokyo 2020 will be Goorjian’s third stint at the Olympics with the Australia national team.

During Tom Hill’s career with Pepperdine men’s tennis, he racked up three honors as a Pepperdine Scholar-Athlete and three accolades as a member of the WCC Commissioner’s Honor Roll for his dedication to academics and his sport. As a player he held 16-35 in singles and 40-57 in doubles. In 2017 Danielle Collins, USA women’s tennis player, asked for Hill’s support on the court, thus setting his professional coaching career in motion. Hill made his way to Tokyo 2020 alongside Maria Sakkari, Greece women’s tennis player, who he has coached since 2018.

Kim Hill (’12), USA VOLLEYBALL

A first-time competitor in the Olympics this year, Danielle Kang qualified to participate in the US Women’s Open as a teenager in 2007. Prior to playing professionally, Kang attended Pepperdine and played two seasons, earning All-American honors in both 2010 and 2011. After winning the US Women’s Amateur in 2010 and 2011, the San Francisco native was declared victorious five times on the LPGA Tour, including the first major ever won by a Wave at the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. As of July 2021, she was the sixth-ranked female golfer in the world.

Kim Hill made her second journey to the Olympics this year with the USA women’s national volleyball team. She is one of four athletes returning with the team from the 2016 Olympics, where they brought home the bronze medal. Hill’s career at Pepperdine and beyond has been marked with an abundance of accolades and honors. She was a three-time All-American with Pepperdine’s indoor team, and, in the 2011–2012 season, became the first-ever student-athlete to earn American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American honors for both indoor and beach volleyball. She also earned MVP honors at the 2014 International Volleyball Federation World Championships.

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Summer 2021

Danielle Kang, USA GOLF

Jon Moscot (’14), ISRAEL BASEBALL Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Jon Moscot represented Israel in his Olympics debut this summer. After transferring to Pepperdine from Cuesta College, Moscot pitched two seasons for the Waves and earned All-WCC first team honors in 2012 as a junior. Following that season, he entered the professional world of sports when he was selected in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB draft by the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched a total of eight games in the major league during the 2015 and 2016 seasons but underwent Tommy John surgery in 2016, which sidelined him for two years. Moscot retired following his injury, but he returned to the sport to help Israel qualify for the Olympics.

Alex Rodriguez (’98), USA WATER POLO COACH

Luisa Stefani, BRAZIL TENNIS

Alex Rodriguez is an assistant coach with the USA men’s water polo team for his second consecutive Olympics. During his time with Team USA, he has been part of two Pan American Gold Team teams (2015, 2019) and has won two World League Super Final silver medals (2016, 2018) and two Intercontinental Cup gold medals (2016, 2018). Rodriguez also served as the USA youth head coach from 2013 to 2016 and has trained four current Olympians. He is currently the head coach of the Pomona-Pitzer men’s and women’s water polo programs and has led the teams in winning 16 conference titles. The Pomona-Pitzer women’s water polo program has made seven NCAA Championship appearances under Rodriguez’s leadership and earned an automatic bid to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with his first five league titles. Between 2016 and 2018, the men’s program reached the NCAA Tournament three consecutive seasons.

Ranked first in the Pepperdine women’s tennis record books with a .847 career-winning percentage after a masterful three-season run, Luisa Stefani made her Olympics debut at the Tokyo 2020 games playing for Brazil women’s tennis doubles. As a student-athlete, she placed number two in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) singles rankings and number eight in the ITA doubles rankings alongside fellow Pepperdine tennis player Mayar Sherif. Since 2019 she has played tennis internationally at the professional level and competed in several high-profile competitions including the Australian Open and the US Open.

Mayar Sherif (’18), EGYPT TENNIS During her inaugural stint as an Olympian this summer, Mayar Sherif became the first Egyptian to participate in women’s tennis at the Olympics. She played two seasons for the Waves after transferring from California State University, Fresno, and received All-American honors in both singles and doubles in 2017 and in singles in 2018. As a professional tennis player, Sherif became the first Egyptian to make it into a Grand Slam main draw at the 2020 French Open and the first to win a match at a Grand Slam at the 2021 Australian Open. As of early July 2021, Sherif was ranked 119th in the world in singles.

Jesse Smith (’05), USA WATER POLO Following his fifth appearance at the Olympics in Tokyo, Jesse Smith became Pepperdine’s most frequent Olympics competitor and tied for mostever Olympics participation by a USA men’s water polo player. He competed on the United States national team in the 2004 Summer Olympics while he was a Pepperdine student-athlete, won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and returned to play in the 2012 Summer Olympics. At Pepperdine, Smith was a four-time AllAmerican athlete, including three times on the first team. He was inducted into the Pepperdine Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011. Smith currently plays for the Panathinaikos Water Polo Club in Athens, Greece.

Andrew Strick (’19), USA VOLLEYBALL STATISTICIAN As a student, Andrew Strick could be found courtside at men’s volleyball games assisting the coach with gathering statistical information to track patterns and identify weaknesses in the opposing teams. A sports medicine major, Strick developed a particular interest in motor behavior and, as the student manager of the Pepperdine’s men’s volleyball team, brought his understanding of the science behind motor learning to the team’s practices to improve player performance. Strick made his first journey to the Olympics alongside the USA volleyball team this year as a statistician to support performance data analysis and more.

Lynn Williams (’15), USA SOCCER Selected as an alternate for the USA women’s soccer team, Lynn Williams is a member of the USA Women’s National Team and the North Carolina Courage. The forward previously played for the Western New York Flash and Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia. During her first year at Pepperdine, Williams started in 20 games, scoring six goals and leading the Waves with eight assists. Based on her performance, she was named WCC Freshman of the Year, earning Soccer America Freshman All-American first team, All-WCC second team, and WCC All-Freshman team honors. Williams made Pepperdine history by scoring a point during five consecutive games and is tied for second place with two multi-assist games. Photos used in this article courtesy of Miranda Ayim, Jon Moscot, Alex Rodriguez, Andrew Strick, NBC Sports Group, and Pepperdine University Athletics

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

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Summer 2021

Production Values Inspired by his lifelong love of music and entertainment, a Christian creative executive tells a classic story in a groundbreaking way By Sara Bunch

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

Vasquez and Steven Curtis Chapman on the set of A Week Away

“We

wanted to plant seeds of inspiration and hope and to tell people they are special, God loves them, and they are not alone,” says Gabriel Vasquez (’96), a Christian music artist manager and film producer who recently made history by creating and coproducing A Week Away, the first-ever faith-based live action musical to debut on Netflix. The wholesome, family-friendly movie portrays the story of a troubled teenage orphan who, when given the choice between being sentenced to a juvenile detention center or attending a Christian camp, reluctantly chooses the camp option.

Released on March 26, 2021, the cinematic Christian camp adventure quickly climbed the charts. The film earned a top five spot among international and US-based Netflix users, and the movie soundtrack reached the number one spot on iTunes Christian songs and top 15 albums among all genres. Three weeks before the movie’s release, Vasquez and A Week Away director Roman White announced a partnership with United Talent Agency and the launch of Rove Productions, a Nashvillebased production company devoted to creating family-friendly films, television shows, and books that capture the magic behind music, romance, fantasy, and animation. Pepperdine Magazine sat down with Vasquez to catch a glimpse behind the making of A Week Away, from a single idea discussed over a cup of coffee seven years ago into an eight-week production that wrapped in October 2019 at YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, just 30 minutes from Vasquez’s Tennessee home.

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Summer 2021

We wanted to plant seeds of

INSPIRATION AND HOPE Where did the idea for a Christian musical come from? It was a merging of worlds, combining my years in Christian music, a love for storytelling, and creating something message driven for my kids. I have always been a fan of Christian music and used to read CCM Magazine from cover to cover as a kid. Music from artists like Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, and Michael W. Smith was the soundtrack to so much of my life. Knowing personally the impact that this music had on my life, I hoped that it could also have the same impact now on my kids’ lives. It also came from realizing how hard it is to find a movie to watch on a Friday night that the entire family can agree on and enjoy without worrying about content that’s inappropriate for the kids.

You have worked in the music industry managing artists for the last 20 years. What inspires your work in the creative space? I am deeply inspired by movies and music and am drawn especially to films that have messages of hope, life change, and inspiration. I am also inspired by the life lessons I have learned over the years and hope to create stories out of these experiences that will resonate with others. A huge inspiration for A Week Away was seeing what moves and inspires my own kids, who attend Christian summer camp every year. Their real-life passions and experiences are what I intentionally poured into the film.

How do you hope audiences feel after watching this film? Our goal was to tell a story that demonstrated that everyone is loved and accepted just the way they are, and where being a Christian didn’t mean you had to be perfect. Our hope was that everyone could see themselves in one of our characters. It was critical for us to touch the audience without seeming preachy. We were also intentional about showing that sometimes people who are hurting become angry at God, but even in those moments they are loved and not alone.

What was the most eye-opening part of this journey for you? This all started with one little idea over a bad cup of coffee one day, and from there grew to something bigger than I could have ever imagined. God started opening doors and bringing creative people into our lives until that idea grew exponentially. Netflix believed in our message of faith and hope, and now the film has been translated into 32 languages and released around the world. It’s incredible to see the power of a good partnership and the results of being intentional about nurturing just one good idea.

and to tell people they are special, God loves them, and they are not alone. Over the last seven years, as your idea developed from concept to the film’s final cut, did you ever feel discouraged about the progress? Absolutely. In 2018, a few years into the process, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer, had two major surgeries, and was bedridden for 17 weeks. At that point I was pretty convinced the journey on the film had come to an end, and I 100 percent felt like giving up. I remember praying in bed, asking God what to do, and to clearly show me what I needed to do after recovery. Eight weeks after that prayer, a financier showed up and said she wanted to make this movie.

How did Pepperdine influence your career? Pepperdine created a foundation for me that I am forever grateful for because that’s where I learned the power to dream. Seeing how big this world is while studying in Heidelberg during my junior year opened my eyes to the possibilities that are available to us. After hosting Songfest and handing the winning trophy to my fraternity brothers during my senior year, I told some professors and administrators that I was moving to Nashville to work in Christian music. They immediately became my champions and advocates, encouraging me to do what seemed impossible. Without that foundation, I wouldn’t have had the confidence to drive across the country and chase these big dreams.

What can fans expect from Rove Productions in the future? Right now we are working on a Christmas musical entitled Wonderland and another original young adult musical entitled Stranded. Our long-term goal is to weave fantastic, unforgettable stories. Whether it’s fantasy, musicals, or coming-of-age adventures, we hope to create every project with heart and hopefully a little bit of magic.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

Alumnus Colbey Ross (’21) takes his shot at the NBA

42 Pepperdine Magazine

Summer 2021

By Amanda Pisani

Photo Credit: Morgan Davenport

Photo Credit: Kyle Cajero

COLBEY ROSS might just be the perfect symbol of the oxymoron that is 2021. As COVID-19 case rates decline in the US and we feel the possibility of brighter days ahead, the uncertainties of the past 18 months are still very much with us. Now the basketball superstar and newly minted Seaver College graduate faces the same daunting mix of hope and uncertainty as he prepares to enter the NBA draft on July 29—an exceptional college player projected as a possible second-round draft pick. There is no third round.

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

With 15 points and seven assists in his final performance, Ross concluded one of the top careers in college basketball history by helping the Waves bring home a trophy in the championship game of the College Basketball Invitational in March 2021.

Entering the draft with such a narrow window of success might dishearten a less determined person, but Ross is accustomed to beating the odds. His performance as a Wave has been nothing short of remarkable. Ross became the West Coast Conference tournament’s all-time leading scorer with a total of 212 points over his four years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sport administration while racking up more points, passes, and assists than anyone who’s ever played at Pepperdine. He is the only player in Division I college basketball history with career totals of at least 2,200 points, 800 assists, and 400 rebounds. As Lorenzo Romar, Pepperdine’s head coach of men’s basketball puts it, “He is literally the only player in the history of college basketball to do that; we are talking about history here.” Reaching such heights as a player is all the more impressive when one considers Ross’ journey as an athlete. Arriving in Malibu in 2017, Ross was neither the tallest, at 6'1", nor the most skillful first-year player to grace the basketball court at Pepperdine. “Nobody was really interested in Ross coming out of high school,” says Romar. “He wasn’t heavily recruited.” Since then, Ross has shown what discipline and perseverance can accomplish. Driven to be the best athlete he could be, Ross emulated Kobe Bryant, who, he says, “used to go to the gym really early and would be the last one to leave.” While Bryant was his inspiration, his role model was closer to home: his mother, whose diligence spurred him and his siblings to devote themselves single-mindedly to their objectives. “It’s all about hard work,” says Ross. “That’s what she instilled in us when we were young. My approach in life is to work as hard as I have to to accomplish my goals.” Romar agrees wholeheartedly. While other players could have been as good as Ross, Romar praises the guard’s work ethic for his extraordinary success.

“Ross is self-made. You’re talking about a guy who would get up at 5:30 every morning without anyone knowing about it. I would love to say ‘this is the kind of coach I am; this is what we do,’ but no, I can’t do that. He worked his tail off.” Ross’ determination to play at the highest level possible was a blessing to the Waves—and not just because he was good at putting the ball in the basket. Ross was always on time, attended his classes regularly, and even tucked his shirt in during practice. And while few students could match his dedication, his focus and success orientation did not go unnoticed. Teammates were inspired by Ross; they knew how hard he worked and what he put into his development.

I would love to say “this is the kind of coach I am; this is what we do,” but no, I can’t do that.

HE WORKED HIS TAIL OFF. Lorenzo Romar

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Summer 2021

Photo Credit: WCC

Photo Credit: Morgan Davenport

And as a point guard, Ross’ role on the court is to lead the action, to “be the extension of the coach.” In this position, and as the captain or co-captain of the team during all but his first year, Ross’ teammates looked to him for leadership. “They loved him,” says Romar. “He was constantly following them and guiding them. They listened to him.” Ross shares that he tried to be a thoughtful captain, bringing his classroom experience onto the court with him. “In a lot of classes we had to work in small groups. That helped me learn to be a part of the team and how to facilitate working together to achieve something. On the court, you have to communicate with each teammate differently, and my classes gave me insights into doing that well.” Now that he’s no longer a student, Ross has an agent and is preparing for the draft with Impact, a basketball training organization in Las Vegas. For a few months, his workouts, his diet, and his personal presentation are being fine-tuned for the NBA. Playing for the NBA’s G League or even playing abroad are options for those who don’t get drafted, but Ross has his eye on the prize: playing in the NBA. Ross says he would be happy being selected by any team. As he focuses on the future, Ross is still very much a Wave. He stays in touch with Coach Romar, who he says is a sort of father figure to him. Looking back, Ross shares that his Pepperdine experience, his connections with his teammates, and his broadened perspectives on religion and the world will always be a big part of his life no matter what the outcome is on July 29. There are only 450 spots on the NBA roster and only 60 picks in the draft. Some draft picks will never play a minute in basketball’s preeminent league. In spite of the competition, odds, and uncertainty, Ross has faith. When he gets picked, Ross says, “It will be a huge blessing. I’ll be one of just 450 people; I’ll be the one from Pepperdine.”

Coach Lorenzo Romar and Colbey Ross at the Seaver College Class of 2021 commencement ceremony

magazine.pepperdine.edu

Spotlight

Locally Made,

Globally

Inspired

A Seaver College alumnus and his wife are dedicated to sharing Ecuadorian cuisine with the world By Jakie Rodriguez (MS ’13)

“A celebration of flavors on the palate” and “a beautiful experience on the eyes” might seem like rave reviews for a trendy eatery in New York or Paris. But they actually belong to a five-star restaurant in Ecuador. Located in the capital city of Quito, SOMOS is owned and operated by Seaver College alumnus Signo Uddenberg (’08) and his wife, Alejandra Espinoza. Translating to “we are” in Spanish, SOMOS opened in May 2019 and offers locals and travelers alike contemporary Ecuadorian cuisine.

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Summer 2021

ithin the past five years, an increased collaboration between highly trained chefs and local culinary artists have generated a rise in Ecuador’s dining scene. Mixing tradition and artistry, the unified efforts have transformed the country into a worthy rival against well-known culinary capitals in South America. In April 2021, SOMOS was featured in National Geographic Traveler’s “A Culinary Guide to Quito, Ecuador,” for its contributions to the regional dining movement. Inspired by a simple goal to help share Ecuador with the world, Uddenberg and Espinoza are committed to delivering high-quality food, ambiance, and service to each customer. “SOMOS caters to those who are craving something with creativity in the food and the space,” says Uddenberg. “We use fusion flavors that pull from Ecuadorian ingredients and culture and use new techniques to create delicious food that is healthy and not as heavy as conventional Ecuadorian fare.”

Leading the strategy behind the customer experience at SOMOS, Uddenberg understands the importance of both the physical and digital location of the restaurant. Located in a central and up-andcoming neighborhood, SOMOS has become a local favorite among those who live and work near it. SOMOS also has gained an online fan base with more than 14,000 Instagram followers who engage with the restaurant via social media. While the SOMOS ambiance is hard to beat, Uddenberg and Espinoza know that what ultimately draws repeat customers and encourages word-of-mouth marketing is their specialized menu. Fulfilling a lifelong goal of opening a restaurant in her native country, Espinoza’s international culinary training mixed with endemic ingredients helps SOMOS stand out among the competition. SOMOS’ diverse menu features local ingredients and flavors and ranges from goat stew empanadas (empanada chivo loco)

We need COLLABORATION to get all of OUR STORIES out of ECUADOR and to the world. – Signo Uddenberg (’08)

to mushroom oysters smoked on hearts of palm (guaguasa palmito). Partnering with Canopy Bridge, a nonprofit network that connects buyers with Indigenous Ecuadorian farmers, Espinoza uses Amazonian ingredients such as macambo and garato yuto to share traditional Ecuadorian meals with the masses. “We have a lot to offer that has been hidden; other countries have done a better job exporting their gastronomy,” Espinoza says. “We’re here to change that by creating great experiences for people that visit as well as by taking experiences abroad.” While each option on the menu is met with rave reviews, the best seller is an Ecuadorian version of pizza called guaguasa. Developed by Espinoza and the first of its kind in Ecuador, it is made from yucca dough and is cooked in a unique oven designed by the owners and imported from Salerno, Italy. Using their best-selling dish as inspiration during the temporary shutdown of their restaurant in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Espinoza shifted to fast-casual dishes that could be offered to go. La Guaguasería, the name of their new delivery platform, will also have a physical space that opens this summer. In an effort to share Ecuador with those unable to travel to Quito and experience firsthand the culinary masterpieces Espinoza and her team create, Uddenberg has compiled a cookbook, Ecuadorian Born.: SOMOS Restaurant: YEAR ONE. Recipes for local favorites in both English and Spanish fill the colorful pages from cover to cover. Looking forward to a post-pandemic world, Uddenberg and Espinoza are hopeful to bring together chefs in Quito to collaborate with and help compete against culinary destinations like Brazil and Peru. “Quito needs more restaurants and SOMOS needs healthy competition,” Uddenberg shares. “We need collaboration to get all of our stories out of Ecuador and to the world.”

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The Cut

Love Thy

Neighb r

egardless of how we consume information, our daily exposure to numerous opinions, ideas, and experiences from myriad sources leads us to ask ourselves, “Why should we attempt to understand other people’s perspectives?” Natasha Thapar-Olmos, assistant dean of online psychology programs and associate professor of psychology at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology, explains how identifying our spiritual values is the first step toward inspiring empathy, compassion, and community healing.

Creatures of Culture

Culture automatically gets filtered in and out of us while permeating everything that we do. It is like the air we breathe. Understanding culture is essential to understanding ourselves and each other. One issue that can hinder the pursuit of a multicultural perspective in communications is the complexity of defining culture and keeping up with its many dynamics, nuances, and evolutions.

Change of Peace

Shifting our mindset to see things from other perspectives requires intentionality. Not everyone sees the value in that, which is why I encourage people who struggle in this area to first identify their key spiritual values. Once they have determined their affinity for virtues like kindness, love, compassion, forgiveness, and grace, I help them apply these concepts toward meaningful and nonjudgmental interactions with those who represent different opinions and thoughts from their own.

Making “Acceptions”

I have found through my research that a recurring theme among people in need of mental health support is the desire to be accepted. Forming a relationship with another human being who accepts you—despite your past or present circumstances—is critically curative for people.

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Summer 2021

At Faith Value

The most effective way to reduce identity-based stigma is to have a genuine interaction with a person in a stigmatized group because that connection can dispel stereotypes and allow for positive experiences. A faith-based lens toward such interactions helps to deepen their meaning, regardless of one’s faith tradition.

Stop, Look, and Listen

Listen actively and without judgment and be willing to consider other perspectives as valid. Too often we seem to be listening but will quickly refute the other person’s thoughts as soon as they finish speaking. We also have to be willing to grapple with what emotions these viewpoints muster up for us in our own spirit and mind, and explore why they make us uncomfortable. These exercises can be stressful but they are possible for anyone to accomplish.

Worth the Weight

Social media, remote work, and isolation during the coronavirus pandemic have made it easier than ever for us to stay in our comfort zone, but I encourage everyone to intentionally examine their ideas about people who are different from them with the aim of intercultural competence and multicultural understanding. The work will be heavy and difficult, but what awaits us on the other side are stronger connections, resilience, and a better chance at belonging.

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“As a Regents Scholar, I have been spending a lot of time looking back over my four years and the wonderful opportunities I have had the privilege of experiencing. Pepperdine is a unique place, as it offers the benefits of a small Christian school with the opportunities of a larger institution. These opportunities, such as international internships and undergraduate partnerships with the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, have allowed me to grow and be shaped into the person I want to become. I can truly say that I will always be thankful to my Pepperdine family and to the generosity of the Pepperdine community.” —Charlotte Lang (’21)

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C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S PEPPERDINE MEN’S GOLF TEAM and COACH MICHAEL BEARD (’02) on winning the

2021 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

Pepperdine Magazine Vol. 13, Iss. 2 (Summer 2021)

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