Photo courtesy of Alexandria Oguntula
“Since I’m graduating in April, I think that it’s made me a little more aware of my relationships with people, and I think that I’m just trying to get close and have as many good memories as possible before I leave. I think it’s really important to sustain relationships with people. I make sure that I have lunch with people in the Caf, and it’s easier to do when I’m on campus.”
Senior Alex Oguntula is a Political Science major here at Pepperdine and after only three years, she will be graduating this spring. She came to Pepperdine after hearing about it from her sister.
“I knew they had really small classes, and that is what I was looking for,” Oguntula said. Last year she spent her second semester abroad in London, England, away from campus and away from the friends she had in Malibu.
She said that her biggest decision since coming to Pepperdine was deciding to go abroad. “Going abroad to London, was kind of a last minute decision, and I applied on the last day that applications were open. I wanted to stay close to my family, but eventually I decided that I needed the experience, and it was worth it,” Oguntula said.
While abroad, Oguntula said that she became a more well rounded person.”I feel like I got more cultured while I was abroad. I was able to live by myself and expand on my maturity.” Her visit to Scotland was her favorite time abroad where she really dove into the culture. “I went to Scotland for my travel break and I really loved it. We went to the castle and stayed in the heart of the city and that was really fun. We got to walk around and really experience it, and so it wasn’t a tourist kind of trip,” Oguntula said.
When Oguntula came back, she said she experienced a big transition from living abroad. “It was a little bit of a transition — I felt like I kind of needed to get used to the school again, and there were a lot of challenges with that. I think I’ve kind of adjusted to that and gotten back into the groove. I think that reconnecting with the friends I left behind was hard. We weren’t as close and it took me a while to see where they were with their lives and like what I had to do to get involved, and it was difficult,” Oguntula said.
Oguntula said her time at Pepperdine has prepared her for her future outside of Malibu. “I think that I’m going to need a little time to prepare, and hopefully over the summer I’ll get that experience. I’m thinking maybe I can have an internship or something, but I think I’ve gained all that I can from Pepperdine. I plan to go to law school in the fall,” Oguntula said.
Oguntula felt that her time at Pepperdine was a great stage for her to mature.
“I think that Pepperdine has made me a better person, and I’m ready to get to the next step in my life and I’m glad that I came here,” Oguntula said.
_____________
Follow the Pepperdine Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic
