ASHLYEE HICKMAN
Living Editor
Actress, dancer and humanitarian: these are a few words that sum up freshman Miriam “MJ” McSpadden. Her passion for the arts fueled her to exhilarating heights.
Now that DIF is over, she continues to find new ways to sharpen and enhance her craft.
With God in the forefront of her mind, McSpadden diligently tries to live her life not according to her plans but to his. Her enrollment in the Social Action and Justice Colloquium (SAAJ) has helped her shape her perception and the need of the world. With that, she wishes to utilize her talents to help. McSpadden says she wishes to be an actress, but wants to turn Hollywood upside-down and clean up the sludge that Tinseltown produces.
As a freshman, how was the DIF experience?
I loved it. It was so much fun it was actually my first real dance performance ever. I played soccer in high school, so I always missed my dance recitals. So this was really fun. I had a blast.
How much of a time commitment was DIF?
We had auditions at the beginning of the year and that was a full weekend from morning to night. Then for each dance that you’re in there’s an hour and a half practice. I was in four so it took about six hours a weekend. Once it got closer to show time it got a lot more intense. There were extra practices. The final week there were practices just about every night from Saturday to Saturday.
Where do you want to take your dance and theater experience?
The dance part I’m not absolutely positive about. It’s something that I love to do. So I’m just praying to God asking him what he wants me to do with that. With theater I see movies reach millions of people. I think that right now it’s used to show a lot of violence, alcohol, sex drugs the stuff that supposedly sells and I think that it can be used to show things that are a bit more beneficial. Stuff like what the “Invisible children” has done or films like “Crash” and “Hotel Rwanda, “movies with a message. And it’s not only with movies, plays also tell important stories. What I’m passionate about in terms of theater is using it to bring important issues to the surface.
What is your experience with the SAAJ program?
It’s really interesting, the different avenues of social justice. You can help with gangs in L.A. and work with the homeless or learn about sex trafficking. The term “social justice” branches out to so many different areas. There is so much need in this world and it’s scary, but at the same time we have to do something about it. It’s definitely an eye-opener.
Do you feel the program has empowered you?
Yeah, everyone says knowledge is power and SAAJ gives you that knowledge. It tells you about the issues around the world so it was empowered me in that way and knowing my know options and what I can do to help.
Overall, how has your attendance at Pepperdine helped your spiritual life?
Of course there are a lot of opportunities here to get plugged in and do things like small groups. At the same time the whole thing about life is when it’s going great people have the tendency to say, ‘OK, like is going great. I don’t need to have a relationship with God.’ I can hands down say that my life at
Pepperdine has been the easiest time in my life so that has been my challenge in itself, just remembering to remember God and thank him and realize that all the good things are coming from him. It’s a different aspect than I’ve had to deal with before.
02-22-2007