BLAKE KNIGHT
Staff Writer
“Strengthening Lives for Purpose, Service, and Leadership.”
Students have heard Pepperdine’s mission statement a thousand times before. But is that really what they’re getting out of their college experience here in Malibu? Those who have participated in the Social Action and Justice freshman seminar shout a resounding yes!
While a significant percentage of students at Pepperdine are involved – or have been in the past – with the SAAJ program, the majority of the student population doesn’t really know what the seminar is all about.
Launched in 2002 by professors Jeff Banks, Lee Ann Carroll and Cindy Novak, the program is now popular among incoming freshmen. According to Pepperdine, the SAAJ program is “focused on issues of social justice such as human rights, wealth and poverty, the interplay of religion and culture, and the role of media in shaping social movements.”
The campus approved of the program and its concepts and the administration can feel safe that it made the right choice in approving the program five years ago.
“We kind of felt our way in the dark,” Banks said of getting the program going. “The program had to be approved by the entire university. The graduate school, the law school, you name it.”
“Every year when students graduate, there are some real leaders that come out of being in the program,” Banks says. “Some take it because they think [the classes] will be easy, but they end up getting hooked.”
Composed of 18 students each, these classes provide students with opportunities to tie in their unique and diverse backgrounds with the social issues discussed. With such small numbers, the intimate setting makes it easy to have close bonds with other classmates and SAAJ professors.
During the four hour class’ lunch break it is not uncommon to see students and professors sitting together in the Caf enjoying their meals. Not often do students get to form such devoted relationships with professors here at Pepperdine. It is a great community and many students make friends that will last throughout their entire stay – and beyond – at Pepperdine University.
“The purpose of the SAAJ program is all about making a difference in the lives of Pepperdine’s students,” Dr. Maire Mullins, three-year professor of SAAJ, said. “We try to immerse [the students] in service.”
A group of six professors rotates in and out each year of the curriculum, but not to worry; the instructors are more than qualified to do their parts when the time comes.
Before coming to Malibu, Dr. Mullins worked on service learning projects dealing with women’s shelters and domestic abuse among other issues at Saint Xavier University in Chicago. A woman who is passionate about social justice, she has been one of the rotating professors in the SAAJ program for three years now at Pepperdine. Dr. Banks also did a great deal of volunteering in hospices and mentoring children before coming to Pepperdine in 1994.
It is difficult to locate other service programs, not to mention a program that spans four semesters, where such dedicated professionals can be found. Although there are similar classes and programs at the University of Southern California and the University of California San Diego, they don’t compare to the caliber of Pepperdine’s service-oriented agenda.
“I’ve heard of other programs,” Mullins said. “But nothing as successful.”
The faculty members work closely with the Volunteer Center to help students find ways and places in which they can lend their time. Each semester, freshmen in the SAAJ program are asked to accumulate 20 hours of service as part of their class requirements. Whether it’s helping out at St. Vincent’s Cardinal Manning Center for the homeless on L.A.’s Skid Row or volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, a SAAJ student has ventured there.
But the Social Action and Justice classes not only give students the chance to make a difference in the surrounding communities and Greater Los Angeles. They hold other perks for them as well.
“SAAJ is unique because not only does it satisfy the freshman seminar need, but it also takes care of other GE requirements,” SAAJ alum Ryan Huie said. “It’s also good to get more of a liberal view and to not [be blind] to the rest of the world while we sleep silently in our castle in Malibu.”
The freshman seminar replaces English 101, Religion 301, and the first-year seminar and literature requirements. With fringe benefits like those and the important message that the program passes on, SAAJ is growing and students are being turned away because of the class size cap. It seems that students are eager to fulfill their part of the Pepperdine mission.
“It really is about Pepperdine’s Mission Statement,” Mullins said. “We try to integrate service into the lives of every student.”
04-16-2007