Members of PeppVet gather at the Ronald Reagan Library on April 9. Graduating members of PeppVet attended a private event at the library to tour the site and join as a community before leaving Pepperdine. Photo courtesy of Eric Leshinsky
In fewer than two years, student veteran organization PeppVet has become a “one-stop-shop” for student veterans to find a community and safe space at Pepperdine, Director of Veterans Affairs Eric Leshinsky said. In spring 2023, the current funding for PeppVet will come to an end, but Leshinsky said he is exploring the many other options that exist to ensure military-connected students will continue to have an on-campus community.
The purpose of PeppVet is to give all military-connected students an experience they lacked at Pepperdine — a “chair at the table” and a point person to assist their unique experiences, Leshinsky said. When he began his job in July 2020, Leshinsky said he wanted to cultivate a space that provided a sense of belonging and important resources to military-connected students at Pepperdine.
“They had a service identity — they’ve lost that,” Leshinsky said. “They were a sergeant or lieutenant or captain, and then, when they come out as a veteran, they don’t have that security blanket anymore. Certainly, they have a sense of pride in prior service, but that loss of identity, that community that they had as a service member, is taken away from them.”
Pepperdine Before PeppVet
Three-hundred sixty veterans, 194 military family members, one active duty military member and seven cadets participating in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps attend Pepperdine’s five schools.
Since 2006, the Ahmanson Foundation has given Pepperdine funding to assist with recruiting, retention and education costs for student veterans, Leshinsky said. This funding has helped 20 to 25 students annually to finish their degrees after running out of education benefits from the military.
Initially, only Seaver College, Graziadio Business School and a branch of the Caruso School of Law called the Veterans Law Society had groups for the military-connected.
“The Veteran Legal Society actually is focused just on the law students — not on the majority of the students at the law school who are in their Dispute Resolution Program,” Leshinsky said. “Even that group wasn’t inclusive, so whatever events, activities, professional development, they did was a close, small group.”
Leshinsky said despite well over 100 military-connected students — including spouses, children and other family members of active duty members or veterans — Pepperdine did not offer resources or support at the University.
“That’s problematic, especially when you’re trying to build community,” Leshinsky said. “What I heard also from the [Graziadio] Business School reps when I first got here, they were like, ‘Something needs to change, because I’ve been here a couple of years, it’s a shame that I’m about ready to graduate from Pepperdine and I’ve been at Pepperdine for two years and I don’t know another veteran in another school. I don’t even know a name.’”
Even without a formal resource center for veterans, Leshinsky said the initiatives and events Pepperdine had did not provide what students said they needed — a committee of advocates.
“When they would have a veterans dinner or something, it was a one time event,” Leshinsky said. “Nobody’s really sharing stories, sharing successes and challenges and building relationships, which is what it’s all about, and I love that. So when I heard that, I said, ‘How do we fix it?’ And they [students] are like, ‘We need to have a student veteran org across the campus.’”
Origins of PeppVet
When Leshinsky began researching Pepperdine’s veteran support programs when applying for a position in 2020, he noticed the website had thorough information on many things — but lacked a veteran resource page.
“I was not looking just as a prospective employee, but I was also looking through it with the lens of a prospective veteran coming to Pepperdine, and why should I come to Pepperdine and will I find a home and a sense of belonging at Pepperdine,” Leshinksy said.
During the 2020-21 academic year, when Leshinsky began working at Pepperdine, he said he created a website for military-connected incoming and enrolled students to look to for information.
PeppVet and Leshinsky’s position is funded through the Anschutz Foundation, but there is a possibility that funding will no longer exist for the program after the spring 2023 semester. Leshinsky said Pepperdine and PeppVet are exploring other potential options to keep the organization running.
Leshinsky said he knows Pepperdine cares for its military-connected students, but there is still more to be done.
“Service is part of the DNA of Pepperdine,” Leshinsky said.
After helping with fundraising efforts and bringing in some of the fundraising on his own, Leshinsky said PeppVet gathered over $60,000 for student veterans, such as helping facilitate three students’ study-abroad expenses, hold events, buy supplies and numerous student stipends. The University has also invested over $3 million per year to pay the tuition of eligible military-connected members of the Yellow Ribbon Program.
“You show people you care for them in different ways — it’s how you spend your time and treasure,” Leshinsky said. “I think being able to spend some time focusing on veterans and making sure they feel like they’re part of the Pepperdine fabric is something Pepperdine is committed to. But then treasure, you’ve got to be able to put some money to that to make sure it happens.”
Leshinsky said he is confident the University will continue to invest in the support of the military-connected at Pepperdine.
The PeppVet organization has also created a community among students from all five of Pepperdine’s schools, Leshinsky said.
There is a council of students from each school that come together to advocate for what PeppVet needs. The first council wanted recognition at commencement ceremonies, and at the class of 2022’s commencement, all military-connected students had a cord. “I thought, how cool would it be for a student — a traditional student — to turn and see a red, white and blue cord and be able to say, ‘Thank you for your service,’” Leshinsky said.
Leshinsky said he also created a monthly email newsletter that shares upcoming events and initiatives for the military-connected.
The second, and current, council joined a chapter of the Student Veterans of America. Samantha Jones, a Seaver graduate, JD and MBA candidate at the Graziadio Business School and PeppVet council senior vice president, said this group built a foundation of belonging for veterans at Pepperdine.
“There’s a larger veterans club called Student Veterans of America, and we weren’t affiliated with that until this [2021-2022] school year,” Jones said. “Before that it was just a small [veterans club at each campus — like there was one at Seaver, one for [The School of] Public Policy, one at the law school — and there was no interaction between those groups, no mentorship or official mentorships.”
With SVA, military-connected students at Pepperdine can interact across schools. Jones and Leshinsky said this keeps the feeling of a military community many miss alive.
“We [veterans] are all in these little silos, but we’re better together,” Leshinsky said. “With lessons learned and our challenges — some challenges are unique but most most challenges are fairly shared well. So that’s where it’s great that those communication channels have improved.”
Jones said as a student veteran, she sees Leshinsky and PeppVet as invaluable.
“Eric Leshinsky has just been incredible as far as establishing that position and being kind of a center point for us to go to if we have any problem at all,” Jones said.
Challenges Military-Connected Students Face
Jones said the community in the military is tight-knit where everyone communicates in ways only the military-connected understand.
“I was in the Navy, I was on a ship,” Jones said. “We were always around each other and being pulled out of that community and going into a college program, it can be a little bit of a culture shock. You just lose out on so much of that camaraderie, and your life experiences can be quite different from your peers.”
Having the council, along with people like Leshinsky to answer military-connected students’ questions, makes Jones feel seen and heard, she said.
“It’s helpful as far as letting veterans know they aren’t alone and that there are resources for them in helping reestablish that community,” Jones said.
Being a veteran himself, Leshinsky said he knows first-hand what it feels like entering life after the military — and the struggles that come with it. Many veterans are older than the average college student, and some have spouses, children, full-time jobs and mental and physical disabilities, Leshinsky said.
How Pepperdine Can Improve Veteran Programs
Pepperdine’s military-connected are in need of one major thing, Leshinsky said — a veteran resource center.
“A lot of public and private schools around the nation have directors of student veteran affairs and have veteran resource centers and have organic peer counselors, support benefits, support staff,” Leshinsky said. “Pepperdine never had that.”
Leshinsky referenced places like California State University, Northridge, California Lutheran University and University of California schools as examples of universities with veteran programs with varying levels of funding and space. Leshinsky said he visited Cal Lutheran and saw a veteran center where military-connected students could find resources, events, professional assistance and to talk with non-military students about the military.
Beyond a center being a practical space for military-connected students, it would also be a symbol of appreciation and honor for them, Leshinsky said.
In his experience, Leshinsky said people adapt to society differently after being in the military. With a dedicated center for the military-connected, people could find resources fit for whatever phase of life they are in.
“Some people don’t miss a beat, but some students wrestle with that loss of identity and connectedness,” Leshinsky said. “So some of them really look for that, and that’s why some schools like California State Universities and community colleges, they have dedicated funding for veteran resource centers and veteran directors.”
In addition to a center, Leshinsky said he would like to see traditional members of the student body join the military-connected in certain events, such as dropping wreaths at national cemeteries with Wreaths Across America. Leshinsky also said Pepperdine should show dedication to keeping PeppVet running.
“One thing I’d love to see Pepperdine do is to have you some kind of a fitting fundraiser for veteran programs,” Leshinsky said. “My position is funded through donations.”
Leshinsky said he is committed to ensuring and advocating for whatever Pepperdine veterans require. His overarching goal, he said, is to give military-connected students the option to easily find what they need.
“There’s still a lot of our veterans that cooperate and graduate,” Leshinsky said. “The military is behind them and they don’t even want to identify as a veteran. If that’s where they’re at in life, I’m totally good with that. I just want to make sure they don’t suffer in silence.”
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Email Liza Esquibias: liza.esquibias@pepperdine.edu
