The natural beauty of the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains surrounds students as they walk around campus.
The Pacific Coast Highway, which has caused the Pepperdine community tremendous grief, and the burn scar of the Franklin Fire surrounds students as they walk around campus.
This beautiful and dangerous location has been the source of fear for students recently, Kennedy Garate, junior and member of Alpha Phi said.
“There has been a tragedy every single year we have been here,” Garate said. “My friends and I have prepared ourselves for one poor thing, or one unfortunate thing to happen every single year.”
While numerous challenges have accompanied life in this Malibu location over the past few years, multiple students said the Pepperdine administration does what it can to make their students feel safe and supported.
Connie Horton, vice president of student affairs and member of the Emergency Operations Committee, said she sees how fires, surrounding mudslides and PCH, especially after the Oct. 2023 crash that killed four students, are a source of anxiety for students. With this in mind, Horton said the Pepperdine faculty and administration will continue to make students feel safe in the ways they can control. Parents and students acknowledge this, but sometimes feel as if the anxieties that come with the geography of Pepperdine are unavoidable.
Students React to the Franklin and Palisades Fires
Life on campus after the Franklin and Palisades fires has been an adjustment, multiple students said.
Junior Will Koning is now living in a George Page apartment with people he did not previously know. The flames of the Palisades Fire destroyed Koning’s apartment, resulting in his current housing situation, he said.
“Living with people that you don’t know is just kind of strange,” Koning said. “It was a weird transition.”
This transition took place while Koning was still trying to process the Palisades Fire and the consequences it had on his life, he said.
“I started processing everything that happened during school,” Koning said. “That was hard to deal with.”
Pepperdine administration did almost everything they could to support students affected by the fire, Koning said.
The Student Care Team constantly communicated with Koning, offering him a place to live in whatever dorm he preferred, he said.
“I felt very supported with everything that Pepperdine could support me with, which was great,” Koning said.
Koning said there was one more thing he would have appreciated after he lost his apartment — time.
“I wish I had a little bit more time [before classes started],” Koning said. “I think going back to school so early was really, really hard for me.”
Junior Sofia Llorca said giving students more time to process and respond to the Palisades Fire is something she would have also appreciated.
“It was frustrating when Pepperdine forced everyone to come back to in-person classes,” Llorca said. “That was a sensitive topic because a lot of our friends lost their homes in the fire and had to be relocated.”
Llorca, who is originally from the Philippines, said wildfires are foreign to her.
“When the fire was going on, I thought the world was ending,” Llorca said.
The kind of fear she felt during the Franklin Fire is something Llorca never wants to experience again, she said.
“I am always on and off about it [transferring],” Llorca said.
Students who grew up in locations where wildfires are common might view the situation differently, first-year Lia Cooper, from central Oregon, said.
“I feel like if I was coming from somewhere where I’d never been around fires, I would definitely feel way differently than I did,” Cooper said.
Cooper said she is not a stranger to smoke and flames, but as a 2025 spring transfer student, the Palisades Fire made for a unique move-in day.
“I was moving in and saw a huge plume of smoke right above campus,” Cooper said.
Cooper said she is glad the smoke did not scare her away because she is enjoying her time in Malibu, and continues to trust the Pepperdine administration will keep the student body safe during emergencies.
PCH Anxiety is Real for Students and Parents
Llorca, a member of Alpha Phi, said the crash on Oct. 17, 2023 that killed four beloved young women: Niamh Rolston, Peyton Stewart, Asha Weir and Deslyn Williams was the start of a series of traumatic events during her time at Pepperdine.
The back-to-back fires in late 2024 and early 2025 were a continuation of the series of recent tragedies, Llorca said.
“It’s pessimistic, but we expect these things [tragedies],” Llorca said.
Llorca said she still cannot drive PCH without thinking about that night.
“Every time I pass through that place I get anxious, even now,” Llora said.
As Julie Herning, mom of incoming first-year student Lola Herning, prepares to send her daughter to Pepperdine, she said she had a conversation with her daughter about the dangers of PCH.
“I told her to be super careful and vigilant,” Herning said.
Herning said this advice is not enough to give her peace as a mother.
“What happened to those girls was clearly not their fault,” Herning said. “That’s what makes me nervous about PCH.”
Students Put Their Trust in Pepperdine
Pepperdine’s location has been a great source of tragedy and anxiety for the student body, but Garate said the Pepperdine administration has done everything in their control to make students feel safe.
“I trust Pepperdine,” Garate said. “I think it’s just unfortunate that we live in this area.”
Horton said the administration makes decisions for the student body’s safety in emergency situations with confidence.
This applies to the shelter in place protocol during the Franklin Fire, Horton said.
“There is a strong belief and a repeated checking with the L.A. Fire Department that this [Pepperdine] is the place,” Horton said. “This is the safest place.”
Horton said she understands the fears that students and parents have, but Pepperdine would never put their students in an unsafe position.
“Our plan really, as hard as it is for some people to wrap their minds around, it really is the best plan,” Horton said. “It’s been tested and tested and checked and checked and tested and tested.”
During the Franklin Fire, Pepperdine provided on-site doctors, oxygen, therapists, breathing treatments and expert communication with other emergency agencies, Horton said.
“I mean when it comes to the level of care I don’t know if there’s another university that does more,” Horton said.
The Strength of the Pepperdine Community
Pepperdine instills principles in the student body with the RISE program to combat the stress of everyday college life and the anxieties that come with PCH, fires and mudslides, Horton said.
“Our students are amazingly resilient and we want to keep emphasizing that,” Horton said.
One dimension of RISE Horton said is important as a Pepperdine student is to prepare for challenges.
“There will be challenges. That is the nature of life,” Horton said. “We will have fires and, yes, PCH has its beauties as well as its dangers.”
But it is beneficial to remain rational, Horton said.
“That [back-to-back fires] was unusual, you know,” Horton said.
These values are something she has seen in practice since the program started in 2019, Horton said.
“One of my most memorable moments of my career was when I was waiting to go on to the platform of the graduation, and their [the four girls] roommates were waiting and they were waiting and waved at me, and when we had that hug,” Horton said. “We know what they had been through, and here they are graduating.”
Horton said this moment embodies the resilience of the Pepperdine community.
“Of course they still miss their friends, and of course they still need support,” Horton said. “But they’re graduating and they are finding their way in the world.”
Garate credits some of the resilience of the student body to the professors.
“All of my professors have checked in with me and done what they can,” Garate said.
This concern comes from a genuine place, Garate said.
“They really do care about their students,” Garate said.
Care like this allows for students to continue their education at Pepperdine despite the challenges that come with environmental issues that come with living in Malibu, Koning said.
“I’m not leaving,” Koning said. “I love Pepperdine.”
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Contact Emma Martinez via email: emma.martinez@pepperdine.edu or by Instagram: @emma.martinez17
