SPP Grad Student Heeded The Lord's Will to Change Her Life's Mission

"I felt a pressing in my spirit that told me the career I was called to pursue was political. The next day I went to the counselor's office and changed my major. Luckily, the Lord was guiding my steps further back than I had realized."

Renee Jackson believes it was the Lord's will that she apply to Pepperdine University, a decision that would change the course of her life. The SPP grad student was pursuing a pre-med path during her undergraduate journey when she found herself watching a political debate her mother urged her to watch. The debate featured a candidate with whom her mother was working, and the experience changed her view on what she should do with her career.

"I felt a pressing in my spirit that told me the career I was called to pursue was political," Jackson recalls. "The next day I went to the counselor's office and changed my major. Luckily, the Lord was guiding my steps further back than I had realized."

After applying and being accepted to a graduate program at her alma mater, Regent University, Jackson received an email from SPP informing her of a P-4 partnership with an organization with which she had been affiliated. The program also required her to take additional math classes, a notion she was not initially thrilled about.

"Something changed in me from that point on," she says. "I started praying that the Lord's will be done. My negative outlook on a couple more semesters of math became positive as I began to resonate with the fact that taking stats and econ as a part of a degree in public policy would make me a better candidate in the job market as opposed to a degree in government that did not incorporate the two."

Only three weeks later, Jackson received the news that not only was she accepted to SPP, but she was awarded a generous scholarship to attend. Her path was set.

"My acceptance and arrival were only the beginning. Since the start of my time at SPP, I have never felt like I have belonged at a school more," she exclaims. "I have never doubted for a second that Dean Peterson, Sheryl Covey, the rest of the administration, and my professors want to see me succeed."

Jackson went on to create the school's first politically affiliated organization at SPP, Conservatives of Public Policy (CoPP). "I would be lying if I told you it was an easy process," she remembers. "But I am excited to share that our organization garnered the most sign-ups with the first-year cohort."

Jackson will next be attending Creighton University School of Law to pursue her JD, where she will specialize in international and comparative law focusing on human rights, but she says she will never forget her time at Pepperdine. "Going the extra mile is a common recurrence at Pepperdine," she says. "Everyone I encountered, from faculty to the administration, wanted me to succeed, and I have made connections I will keep for the rest of my life. For me, Pepperdine is home, and I know I will return in some capacity."