2025 Year in Review: Developing Resilience in Pursuit of Greater Purpose

December 19, 2025

With 2026 on the horizon, Pepperdine University reflects on the last twelve months and the inspiring stories of resilience, innovation, and achievement that have stemmed from its campus community. Despite starting the year amid the Palisades and Eaton Fires that scorched the Malibu and Los Angeles areas, Pepperdine rallied to support its local neighbors and developed exciting academic and faith-driven standards of excellence.

The following recaps 2025 through six distinct themes—Waves of Purpose, Founded in Faith, Academic Achievement, Service Learners, Alumni Success, and Athletic Excellence—that each illustrate the University's enduring mission to prepare students for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.

Waves of Purpose

Jim Gash and Jordan Peterson

President Jim Gash and Jordan Peterson at President's Speaker Series

In 2025 Pepperdine University advanced its mission of helping students discover their own unique sense of purpose. Be it through welcoming inspiring guests to campus, equipping faculty members for success, opening new doors of educational opportunity, or enhancing its campus facilities, the University remained committed to fostering a culture supportive of personal development—one where students can learn and grow in a vibrant academic community.

Equipping others for lives of purpose is in our DNA, from Pepperdine’s mission statement to President Jim Gash’s (JD ’93) annual theme for the 2025–26 academic year. Gash articulated the theme of purpose to the University community, stating: “Purpose is an idea at the heart of all meaningful and worthy human aspiration. It compels us to seek the good of others, to sacrifice for something greater than ourselves, and to serve causes that bring flourishing to the world around us. It is the North Star that guides individuals and institutions alike."

Read more about Pepperdine’s intentional effort to help students reflect on the concept of purpose:

Founded in Faith

Students at Pepperdine Worship Summit 2025

Throughout the year Pepperdine University took steps to further its commitment to the Christian faith and provide students with a Christ-centered education. By developing exciting new partnerships with Grammy Award–winner Chris Tomlin and Lilly Endowment Inc., the institution stewarded its foundation of faith both on and off campus.

Additionally, Pepperdine continued to create space for students to explore their relationship with God in community with others. Through events like the Well and the Pepperdine Worship Summit and creative outlets like WAVES WORSHIP, the University offered all members of its community the chance to learn, worship, and express their faith-inspired beliefs.

Check out additional stories related to Pepperdine’s support for the faithful:

Academic Achievement

Seaver College Undergraduate Research Symposium

Students presenting at Seaver College Undergraduate Research Symposium

As Pepperdine’s affirmation statement relates: “Truth, having nothing to fear from investigation, should be pursued relentlessly in every discipline.” The University continued to live out this unwavering standard during the 2025 calendar year. In the process, the institution reached new heights in the area of academics and scholarship.

Over the last twelve months, Pepperdine earned recognition from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an R2 research institution; secured new funding opportunities to promote faculty scholarship; launched a School of Nursing and a School of Speech Language Pathology through its College of Health Science; and developed a Middle Eastern Studies graduate program based out of the Washington, DC, campus. While securing these institutional advancements, University faculty members played their part by accruing prestigious individual awards, developing new research projects, and sharing their insightful studies with the broader academic community.

All of these accomplishments contribute to enhanced learning opportunities for Pepperdine students.

Explore more narratives related to Pepperdine’s academic achievements:

Service Learners

Students supporting local communities

Pepperdine University is committed to equipping its students to be service-driven leaders. In 2025 this mission was galvanized by the Franklin, Palisades, and Eaton fires that afflicted Malibu and the greater Los Angeles areas. Alumni, students, and the entire Pepperdine community rallied to take care of their Southern California neighbors during a moment of great need.

But the University didn’t stop there. As a global institution, Pepperdine administrators and students found new ways to serve beyond the borders of mainland US in India, Buenos Aires, and beyond.

Study the prolific service efforts of the Pepperdine community:

Alumni Success

Tanner Gardner and Lynn Williams Biyendolo

Tanner Gardner and Lynn Williams Biyendolo at Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony

Around the world, Pepperdine Alumni are making a positive impact in their local communities and places of work. Whether as athletic stars, practitioners of law, broadway producers, entrepreneurs, or any other vocations, Waves are using their God-given talents.

Learn more about how Pepperdine alumni are at work in the world:

Athletic Excellence

Pepperdine’s Women's Soccer Team

Under the leadership of Tanner Gardner, Pepperdine University’s director of athletics, the Waves found success in a variety of competitive, NCAA Division I sports. Most notably, the Pepperdine’s men’s volleyball team made a final four run in the NCAA tournament, while the women’s soccer team earned its third straight trip to the national championship tournament.

Discover the competitive spirit of Pepperdine’s athletics programs:

Pepperdine University