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Alumni Association

Pepperdine University Global Service Program

Executive Summary - January 9, 2009

Vision
Alumni Affairs is charged with strengthening the Pepperdine community by engaging alumni in a lifelong relationship with the University, its students, and fellow alumni through meaningful service and leadership. In order to advance its mission, Alumni Affairs has undertaken a major initiative to determine how we can engage alumni more effectively. Through this process, we have learned that the concept of service, central to the University's mission, unites and enervates all sectors of our alumni community.

During focus groups conducted by Alumni Affairs in 2008, alumni at large and Alumni Leadership Council (ALC) members all recommended engaging alumni through service. Internal stakeholders support the idea, with many seeing service as a theme for greater engagement of students, faculty, and staff as well. To strategically and sustainably engage alumni, we recommend the creation of a "Global Service Program."

We believe that the Global Service Program, now called "Waves of Service" will reveal Pepperdine alumni living lives of significant purpose, service and leadership. We have already seen that "ever-increasing and widening waves of good citizenship and Christian influence" emanate from our alumni base, just as George Pepperdine envisioned.

In connecting these service leaders back to Pepperdine, Waves of Service will substantially improve the University's ability to live its core mission. As George Pepperdine noted in his inaugural address to the student body:
"Education should include the right outlook on life: a realization of our responsibility to society, to our country, and to God... that young people be taught that their place in the world is to serve and to give."

For a Christian university committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values, where students are strengthened for lives of purpose, service, and leadership, who better to serve as mentors and models of a meaningful life than graduates of Pepperdine who are living examples of Pepperdine's mission?

We further believe Waves of Service will distinguish Pepperdine among an elite group of universities which effectively and comprehensively engage their alumni in service to students, fellow alumni, the University, and the world.

Objectives
Much of the distinction and greatness of the Pepperdine community lies in its commitment to using its talents in service to the world. Pepperdine alumni share this commitment with other Pepperdine constituencies and yearn to "connect to a University that is a major positive force in the world." In this spirit, Waves of Service can:

  • Acknowledge and celebrate alumni currently living Pepperdine's mission through service as part of their chosen profession or though volunteer activities
  • Facilitate connections between alumni and Pepperdine community members in support of service events, projects and initiatives
  • Create a vibrant University community and sense of pride that unites all stakeholders
  • Reinforce Pepperdine's Christian heritage and brand around the concept of "service"
  • Meaningfully change the world and the lives of people in need

To accomplish this, we must involve the entire Pepperdine community in a focused and unified effort to capture existing opportunities and dramatically expand new avenues of service for the benefit of all. Relationships between all University stakeholders and the communities in which they live and work will be strengthened in transformational ways as we progress.

Strategies
Waves of Service strategies are focused on long-term achievement with phases leading to noteworthy milestones. With this view, the 75th anniversary of the University in 2012 is the most proximate milestone event leading up to an even grander 100th anniversary in 2037.
The following strategies will be used to meet the five Waves of Service objectives.

  • Engagement and participation with alumni
  • Recognition and rewards for lives of service
  • Communication about alumni service
  • Infrastructure to enhance connection
  • Leadership for program sustainability and growth

The Inaugural Year
We will start the program with tactics supporting all five strategies during 2009. We are confident this near-term action plan will build a solid foundation for a meaningful, sustainable, University-wide service program while also providing the means by which to immediately engage alumni and generate visibility for the program. In 2009, the GSP will:

  • Identify and engage service leaders among Pepperdine alumni
  • Pilot alumni service programs in the Chapters, through PAN Online, and with the Pepperdine Volunteer Center that build upon Pepperdine's service strengths
  • Pursue media coverage of Pepperdine alumni living lives of service, purpose, and leadership
  • Establish infrastructure and processes to make possible ever-increasing levels of alumni engagement
  • Reduce barriers to alumni engagement
  • Invite the full Pepperdine community, including faculty, staff, current students, friends and family to participate

Going forward, Pepperdine University is poised to engage its alumni around their interests, values, and passions in their desire to positively affect the world. We envision a life-long relationship in which alumni around the world are united through service to our students, their fellow alumni, the University, and the communities in which they live and work.