Pepperdine alumni Kenneth Vargas, RISE Podcast Producer, and Emily Shaw, RISE Program Specialist, sit around the RISE Roundtable to reflect on their resilience journeys at Pepperdine and post-grade and share some tips and insights they learned along the way.

We also hear from three more Pepperdine alumni, who each share what has supported their resilience throughout their college career and postgraduate experience: R.J. Wicks, Allie McMullen, and Devin Cooke.

Links:

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PepperdineRISE-fb2vz
• Website: www.pepperdine.edu/rise/
• Instagram: @pepperdinerise
• Recommend a guest: https://forms.gle/HztkVNgrW85bvvd1A

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• 5:46 Kenny shares how he optimized his limited time as a student at Pepperdine
• 9:42 Emily talks about how she thought about the time management building block of the life skills dimension while she was a student
• 11:12 Having a growth mindset and learning mentality when taking on new opportunities as students
• 12:17 Trying to operate from a mindset of gratitude rather than perfectionism
• 14:43 Reflecting on our relationships with our parents and loved ones
• 20:49 Being curious about and having empathy toward our parents and people we've known for a long time
• 23:06 Research that shows just how important relationships are for one's well-being and resilience
• 27:30 Prioritizing our physical resilience and why that's important
• 28:45 How to overcome mood changes when it comes to taking care of our physical resilience
• 30:56 The importance of time management as a life skill
• 33:49 Embracing creativity and nature as a resilience practice
• 39:12 Pepperdine's motto "Freely ye received, freely give"

Nicole Fashaw, rising senior, joins RISE Podcast Producer Bo Jaden James at the RISE Roundtable. The two discuss the power of music and songwriting to strengthen one's resilience, and Nicole does a special performance of an original song.

We also hear from three Pepperdine community members, who each share a song that reminds them about resilience: Seaver alumni (Class of 2024) Alyssa Medina, Lidia Qaladh, and Madilyn Henshaw.

Links:

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PepperdineRISE-fb2vz
• Website: www.pepperdine.edu/rise/
• Instagram: @pepperdinerise
• Recommend a guest: https://forms.gle/HztkVNgrW85bvvd1A

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• 0:30 Nicole Fashaw and all her commitments and leadership positions
• 2:48 Being a part of the RISE Interest Community
• 4:46 Managing different leadership roles and commitments
• 7:15 What gets Nicole out of bed
• 8:44 Music as a positive coping mechanism
• 11:02 The first song Nicole has ever written
• 12:58 Music-making and resilience
• 15:21 Navigating imposter syndrome and feelings of not being enough
• 18:22 Nicole’s relationship with God
• 23:39 The spiritual dimension of resilience
• 24:21 Nicole provides context for her song “Finally Seen”
• 25:32 Nicole performs her song “Finally Seen”

Dr. Jaz Gray, Professor of Communication Studies, joins RISE Program Specialist Emily Shaw at the RISE Roundtable. The two discuss the power of narrative storytelling in strengthening one’s resilience.

We also hear from three Pepperdine community members, who each share a story that has impacted their perspective on resilience: Hope Dease, Assistant Director of Connection; Young Yang, Seaver student; and Tehillah Mwenya, Seaver student.

Connect with us:

• Email: Resilience@pepperdine.edu
• Instagram: @pepperdinerise
• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@PepperdineRISE-fb2vz?si=qtjB7yWoqwsJhte9
• Website: www.pepperdine.edu/rise/
• Recommend a guest!: https://forms.gle/HztkVNgrW85bvvd1A

In this episode, we discuss the following:

• 0:00 Pepperdine community members share a story that has impacted their perspective on resilience
• 4:23 What a narrative researcher investigates
• 6:09 The various mediums of narrative that supported the different seasons of Dr. Gray’s life
• 10:38 The ways in which films can be a place of escape but also a place of empowerment
• 15:35 What happens when there’s no “fairytale ending” or no “ending” at all
• 19:56 Re-negotiating the “ending” and what the “problem” is to begin with
• 24:18 The power of radical honesty in the journey to self-acceptance
• 26:41 Stories you can only experience and not tell; honoring the chaos of a story
• 30:10 Building empathy when storytelling and listening to stories
• 32:35 How marginalized communities and identities can utilize narrative storytelling to build resilience, find community, and challenge systems
• 43:14 The connections between the dimensions of resilience and narrative storytelling
• 52:55 Life plotting as a tool for resilience building and humanizing oneself
• 59:28 When to share and when to not force yourself to share your story
• 1:04:48 Bouncing back and pushing forward