Assistant Director of Campus Recreation Becci Prather is midway through her first full semester at Pepperdine and is already making great strides in the Campus Rec department.
And it’s no wonder Prather is so passionate about Campus Rec and the programs that fall beneath it. A Midwest native, Prather attended school in her home state of Iowa where she made her passion for exercise sciences official.
“I have a B.A. in Exercise and Sports Science, Pre-med, from Iowa State University and then I have a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the University of Illinois at Chicago,” Prather said.
With two degrees under her belt, Prather and her husband relocated to Southern California for her husband’s job.
“I started looking for jobs out here [in Los Angeles],” Prather said. “And so that’s how I came across the opportunity here at Pepperdine.”
Prather joined the Campus Rec staff at the end of February, where she now assists the them with intramural sports, fitness, the weight center and the outdoor recreation program.
Although Prather had time to settle into her new work surroundings, she wasn’t able to put her skills into use until the start of fall semester.
“I started midway into the spring semester and so I was just kind of jumping in and getting to know students and all of a sudden everyone was gone [for summer],” Prather said. “I was excited for the start of the fall semester, to have a bunch of our students back and to roll out some new programs.”
Prather’s excitement for the new school year to start is evident in the packed calendar Campus Rec has to offer this semester. The programs controlled by Campus Rec are taking leaps and bounds to give students more opportunities to get out and be active.
“I really want to hone in on each specific program beneath us,” Prather said.
“Within each of those [programs] I really want to drill down and take a look at what’s going on and make sure we are offering effective programs that our students, faculty and staff can enjoy and [in turn] help people create healthy communities and really help serve the greater Pepperdine mission,” Prather continued.
Prather is taking the initiative and being proactive when it comes to Campus Rec programs this year. She’s making a great effort in getting students and faculty more involved in what Campus Rec has to offer the Pepperdine community.
“I’d love to draw more awareness to Campus Rec as a whole,” Prather said. “Just getting the word out about all the programs we have, whether that be intramural, club sports, group fitness classes, or outdoor rec programs, so students are aware of us and know the opportunities that are available to them.”
Prather stresses how imperative it is for publicity to be generated for Campus Rec, because if people don’t know what’s going on with Campus Rec, people cannot participate.
Aside from getting the word out about Campus Rec, Prather is pushing hard to create a stronger outdoor recreation program.
“I really want to see our outdoor recreation program blossom,” Prather said. “It’s really new here, most schools have really established strong outdoor recreation programs and ours has only been around for the past four to five years so, it’s a really new baby program.”
Prather sees the potential in expanding the outdoor rec program for the Pepperdine community.
“We can go so far with it,” Prather continued. “We could do amazing canyoneering trips and rock climbing trips where we go away to Yosemite or the Grand Canyon. And I’d love to be able to purchase our own equipment like surfboards or paddle boards or kayaks so we have things available for trips or student rentals.”
Prather said she loves her job and is having a lot of fun working with faculty, staff and students to help create new programs. Prather is a big advocate of healthy living through fitness and said she wants to see that permeate the lives of the Pepperdine community.
“I think the favorite thing about my job, and my job specifically in this industry, is connecting with people and helping them find health in their lives,” Prather said. “It doesn’t matter where they are in their life, whether they are a student or they’re older or faculty and staff, regardless, everyone has goals.”
“For me it’s about connecting and establishing relationships and identifying ways in which I can help people really continue in their health journey to create a lifelong healthy lifestyle. I think that’s my favorite part about my job,” Prather said.
Prather wants to see Campus Rec blossom and is excited to spread the word about new opportunities. Prather wants the community to enjoy being active and healthy and sees her job as the perfect way to create such opportunities.
“I hope we can really expand on [Campus Rec] for years to come,” Prather said.
