Pepperdine students and staff gathered in the Light House for the Resilience-Informed Skills Education (RISE) Summit on Feb. 19. An annual event, this year the Summit included a meal, a raffle and a talk from Shauna Shapiro, a clinical psychologist, professor and author.
The RISE Summit is split between two sessions: one at lunch and the other at dinner.
The lunch session of the Summit included a full meal and officially began with a video of three students telling stories about their experiences with mental adversity and failure. An evening panel of undergraduate and graduate students who spoke about their experiences with resilience followed this session.
“We wanted storytelling,” said Sergio Gallardo Palma, associate director of RISE. “We have a lot of other means through which we teach and remind folks of these resilient skills that we have in our curriculum, but we want a space of storytelling.”
RISE helps students develop resilience and works to help students learn important social, cognitive, service, physical and spiritual skills, according to its website.
RISE’s student leaders staffed the Summit, greeted people at the front desk and handed out meal tickets along with RISE-branded hoodies.
On the back of the hoodies and stickers adorning the table, the motto of this year’s Summit’s motto was: “Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from bouncing back.” The videos, the motto and Gallardo Palma’s opening remarks encouraged attendees to adopt the principles of determination, perseverance and a growth mindset.
Senior Steven Cordova has worked with RISE since the start of his junior year at Pepperdine. Cordova said he values how RISE helps students, like himself, find structure, resilience and assistance with mental health when they need it.
Cordova said he appreciates how the Summit outsources its keynotes to expert speakers who come from outside the University but who are nonetheless connected to the Pepperdine community.
“I think it’s just a testament to Pepperdine’s tight-knit community, and the reliance that we have on networking and you know, giving back to the community,” Cordova said.
This semester, the speaker was Shauna Shapiro, a professor at Santa Clara University. Her work and research in mindfulness had led her to speak to the King of Thailand, the World Council of Psychotherapy, the Danish Government and Fortune 100 businesses like Google and LinkedIn, Gallardo Palma said.
Shapiro spoke both about the science behind mindfulness and its practical application.
Calling mindfulness a powerful tool, Shapiro listed its myriad of health benefits, including strengthening the immune and cardiovascular systems and increasing focus and resilience to stress. It incorporates as well, a shift in the self-perception of those practicing it away from shame and toward kindness.
“Shame doesn’t work,” Shapiro said when discussing how shame impacts students. “It can’t work. It shuts down the learning centers of your brain.”
Making clear that mindfulness takes work, Shapiro insisted mindfulness training is possible for anyone due to neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity is a progression that involves functional and structural changes to the brain, according to the National Institute of Health.
Shapiro was clear that practicing mindfulness can be very beneficial to college students.
“It helps them reduce their stress and anxiety. It helps them focus their attention so they can study better,” Shapiro said. “I think in college, you have lots of different choices, and so it helps them stay connected to their values.”
At the end of the lunch session, RISE gave away a pair of Bose Headphones with a year-long Spotify subscription, as well as a decorated, note-taking study set of the Bible with a year-long subscription to Headspace, among other things.
___________________
Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Eliot Cox via email: eliot.cox@pepperdine.edu
