This past week has been a trip. I was asked to give a ‘prospective student’ a brief overview of the benefits of attending Pepperdine a few days ago. Our meeting took place over lunch. The prospective student came out from St. Louis to visit a few campuses here in Southern California. We chatted about everything, academics, nightlife, sports, what I did before grad school, what I plan to do after, you name it we covered it. It was interesting for me because I remembered vividly what my first impressions were like when I first arrived at Pepperdine. My reception from the staff was amazing, anytime I had a question all I had to do was call and whoever answered the telephone, usually Kristine or Joan, would reassure me that they would answer my questions or get back to me ASAP if they couldn’t give me an answer right away. This could not be said of USC or UCLA…Score 1 point for Pepperdine.
I also thought about the first time I reached out to a student for feedback, the student I contacted wasn’t very helpful. I was irritated to say the least and I wanted to be sure that this prospective student did not leave campus with the same feelings I had. In retrospect I know understand and accept the fact that my first attempt at connecting with a student here on the SPP campus probably happened at a time when this student was swamped with school work. Seriously, who really cares if some prospective student may or may not attend classes here? Why should a current student care especially when he/she is stressed about finding his internship, reading, paying rent, reading, hitting the gym, reading, and so on…I wanted to be different. I hope that my approach worked. I honestly believe that my extra effort, giving an honest opinion of the pros and cons of attending Pepperdine, and the fact that I encouraged this prospective student to contact me anytime with questions made a difference in his overall view of the program. It isn’t like this prospective student is going to choose Pepperdine simply because I attempted to keep lines of communication open. The truth is communication is always open and for what it’s worth this feeling of openness is something that I would have appreciated when I was in his shoes last year.
Now on to some fun stuff…We took a ‘field trip’ to the Jonathan Club last Friday to hear a professor lecture on how to handle the media. Fielding questions from reporters is an interesting thing to consider. I never thought I would ever have to know about how to handle media relations and now as I ponder my future I can see how exposed my life may be from a professional standpoint. I may likely end up in a position where I will have to answer questions on TV, in the newspaper, or some other media outlet. After lecture a few of my classmates and I decided to explore a bit, enjoy some coffee, and take pictures with Charles Wooden’s portrait. Aside from the helpful advice and random exploration, we also had the chance to hear Steve Cooley, Carmen Trutanich, Robert Hertzberg, Dan Schnur, and Joel Fox voice their opinions about the upcoming medical marijuana initiative. I found it interesting that they were willing to take at least 2 hours out of their busy schedules to address students on only this topic. After the Jonathan Club, I decided to have an early dinner with one of my classmates. We discussed the events of the day and what we learned etc. I then carved out a couple of hours to get some reading done before heading out to Jackie B.’s charity event. She is raising money to help construct fresh water wells in Africa. The event was pretty cool, lots of fresh food, lots of fun people, and best of all it was for a good cause.
