The School of Law joins President Andrew K. Benton’s wide-scale push to strengthen the alumni community with the launch of Dean Deanell Reece Tacha’s Tasha 2.0 Tour.
The tour opened in Encino, Calif., yesterday and continues through May. Stops on the tour will include Washington, D.C., Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Boston.
During the Tacha 2.0 Tour, School of Law alumni will host conferences to strengthen the university network. With the alumni reconnection, Dean Tacha also provides formal presentation on the law school’s goals and the state of law in today’s environment.
Working to foster connectivity, Tacha incorporates various outlets and tools in her tour including alumni mentors to current law students, business card exchange, internship and externship opportunities and community building talks.
“I strongly agree with President Benton’s push toward a greater strength and network of alumni,” Tacha said. “In today’s challenging legal environment, it is more important now than ever before for Pepperdine to ensure its alumni are strong in their connection to their school and each other.”
Recently, Seaver has been promoting Benton’s alumni outreach efforts through the Student Alumni Organization (SAO). The SAO is advised by the Seaver College and George Pepperdine College Alumni Affairs and committed to service “through creating connections between students and Seaver alumni.”
“We put on events for our students, such as the Night 2 Network to give students an actual example of a person who works in the student’s field of interest,” Jonathan King, vice president of SAO said. “The alumni come and talk to the students in order to answer any questions they may have. ”
SAO is tasked with recruiting alumni to get involved with Seaver Campus decisions and activities like Waves Weekend and Hang 10 Dinners, where alumni host dinners in their homes for up to 10 students.
Tacha said she hopes to build something “similar to the Student Alumni Association.”
Step Forward Day, held last Saturday, is one of the main annual events the SAO suggests to alumni when seeking involvement. The volunteer-centered day occurs on one Saturday a year in cities across the U.S. Every year on campus, students come out in groups in order to serve the Los Angeles Community.
Recently, the SAO has seen an upswing in participation from the alumni chapter of Step Forward Day.
“Step Forward Day ties into reconnection efforts because it is an activity that both students and Pepperdine alumni chapters take part in on the same day,” King said.
He believes Step Forward day is important in the grand scheme of alumni reconnection, noting he often hears “of alumni participating in Step Forward Day for five to six years after graduation.”
This is the second year of the tour, and in an interview, Dean Tacha explained the adaptive direction of her tour’s goals: “Last year was for the alumni to get to know one another and begin reconnecting. This year, my aim is for the alumni network to expand and to create a proper network for opportunities and community.”
