When Bea Midesya, an international student ambassador and junior media production major from Indonesia, first visited Pepperdine University, she was shocked to learn that in order to graduate, she needed to complete three Christian religion courses as part of the school’s required general education classes.
Coming from a predominantly Muslim country, Midesya found herself struggling to understand Christianity and what it meant to be attending a Christian institution.
“I did not know about the religion classes,” Midesya said. “That was very shocking to me because I was raised Muslim, so all the stuff about Christianity was a bit confusing to me.”
Midesya is not alone. Many international students interviewed for this story said they did not know about the religion classes or convocation requirements prior to starting classes — or did but didn’t understand what they would entail.
A Pepp Post poll of 53 international students found that 64% think that Pepperdine does not accurately describe the university to international students in its promotional materials. More than 71% thought Pepperdine should do a better job of educating international students on how Christian the school is and what that looks like.
Rick Gibson, vice president for Public Affairs and chief marketing officer at Pepperdine, said marketing team members are constantly trying to improve the way they work in order to reach broader audiences more effectively.
Pepperdine’s marketing focus
The Pepperdine homepage describes the university as a Christian institution that is “committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and Christian values,” but does not elaborate further.
Instead, the website focuses on service and leadership opportunities as well as the university’s location, saying it is regularly ranked as “one of the most beautiful places to study.”
Only by researching deeper into the website can one learn about the religious requirements. Students who want to know more would first need to click on Seaver College, then scroll down and click on the tab for spiritual life to read about convocation and general education religion classes.
The poll found that students believe that Pepperdine is most focused on its location, international programs, service opportunities and academic reputation in its marketing materials, rather than its Christian mission and what it means to be a Christian institution.
Students unclear about what a Christian institution entailed
Most students tend to find information about the university through reading through the website, official brochures, attending campus tours, visiting Pepperdine’s stands at local university fairs and watching YouTube videos from current students that show an inside look into campus life.
Crystal Lee, a senior international studies and political science major from Hong Kong, did extensive research on Pepperdine prior to attending the university. She researched the website, read the brochures, did a campus tour and watched YouTube videos. However, Lee said she only understood what convocation was after she attended New Student Orientation.
Erinn Heffes, a junior international studies major from Jamaica, said she thinks Pepperdine’s website doesn’t completely disclose what being a Christian institution means.
“I knew that it was Christian, but I didn’t know what that meant, what you were required to do or what was expected of you, which I feel is a good and bad thing because I don’t think Pepperdine promotes or markets themselves as actually being completely Christian,” Heffes said.
Naomi Rogat, a junior international studies major from Germany, thought she understood what Pepperdine would be like since she previously attended a Roman Catholic middle school, but she said that Pepperdine’s religiosity was far greater.
“I underestimated how religious it was,” Rogat said.
Rogat added that the religious requirements at Pepperdine are making her stray away from religion rather than feel more connected to it.
“I thought I knew what it meant to go to a Christian institution but I think it’s just really emphasized on this campus,” Rogat said.
Andy Foo, a senior finance major from Singapore who identifies as a Christian and chose to attend the university because it is a Christian institution, said he didn’t understand the extent of Pepperdine’s religiosity either. He said he had previously considered transferring because the university is too Christian.
“There’s too much emphasis on Christianity,” Foo said. “I know it’s a Christian school, but there’s too much focus on it that it becomes overkill.”
Joaquin Gigy, a junior philosophy major from Argentina, said that even though his mother works for the Pepperdine campus in Argentina and he had attended convocation in Buenos Aires, he still didn’t understand how much more Christian the Malibu campus would be.
“I saw the convo in Buenos Aires, but they’re nothing like the convos here,” Gigy said. “They are more religious here.”
Kseniya Tarasenko, a senior international management major from Ukraine, said she liked that Pepperdine was Christian.
“I knew that the university deeply values religion and spirituality, which I really like because it created a tighter community for me and I have a deeper bond with my professors because of it,” Tarasenko said.
However, Tarasenko was unaware of the religion classes she needed and was not clear on what convocation entailed before enrolling.
University response to students not knowing how Christian the university is
Brooke Mitchell, director of the Office of International Student Services, said Pepperdine welcomes people of all religions and that it is the students’ job to research prior to attending the university. Everything a student needs to know is published on the Pepperdine website.
“We can’t control how much exposure a student makes themselves aware of Pepperdine,” Mitchell said.
She added that Pepperdine does not hide information from students because that would impact student retention.
“Christian is one of the key adjectives associated with Pepperdine, so there is no real mystery about that,” Mitchell said.
Rogat said she didn’t know much about Pepperdine before attending the university and probably should have done more research.
“I looked it up online,” Rogat said. “I technically didn’t know enough to actually move here.”
International student demographics
Seaver’s international student population is more than 12% of the student body, according to the Admissions Fast Facts website. The largest percentage of international students enrolled at the university are Chinese students, who compose 38% of the total international student population. The next highest is Indonesia, with more than 8%, then Canada with 4%, and Brazil and Hong Kong with 3%.
Of these international students, less than 42% identified as Christian, less than 39% did not identify with any religion and more than 12% identified with other religions.
A Pepp Post poll found that more than 32% of the international students identified as Christian. Those remaining identified as Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, a mixture of faiths, or they did not identify with any religion.
Reasons international students were attracted to Pepperdine
Pepperdine attracts international students to enroll in the university for a multitude of reasons.
The poll found that the leading reasons international students are attracted to Pepperdine are its location, international programs and academic reputation. Less than 4% of international students decided to attend Pepperdine for its Christian mission.
“It made me a bit more apprehensive to come here, and my family also, but I met a lot of good people at Pepperdine and I don’t regret it,” Midesya said.
Lee decided to attend the university because she felt students and administrators at Pepperdine were more proactive in answering her questions than at other universities. Even though she was more interested in schools on the East Coast, she was especially attracted to Pepperdine’s highly publicized International Programs.
“Pepperdine was the only school I applied to on the West Coast, but because of the International Programs that are offered, I still decided to come here,” Lee said.
Feeling accepted on campus
While members of the international student body affiliate with a diverse range of religions, they still feel welcome at Pepperdine. However, they said they think university administrators disregard other religions.
Filippo Maria Margheritini, a senior international studies major from Italy, said other religions aren’t talked about much on campus.
“I think all religions are accepted and respected, but at the same time there is a different degree of emphasis in which they are talked about,” Margheritini said.
Foo said he doesn’t see discrimination against other religions as a problem at Pepperdine but believes that the administration overlooks other religions and treats students of other faiths as outcasts.
“Embracing other religions doesn’t mean we are not Christian or we are wrong as Christians to celebrate other religions,” Foo said.
Other international students also find it hard to relate to American students on campus.
“I do know there are some people that find it difficult to relate to some of the Christian students because of cultural differences that stem from religion,” Midesya said.
Lee said that growing up in an Asian country, many of the concepts that stem from Buddhism as well as other Asian cultures are part of her identity and occasionally these concepts are not in line with Christianity.
“Sometimes it makes me feel uncomfortable when I’m talking about different social issues,” Lee said.
Helping students feel more welcome
Mitchell said Pepperdine could be more inclusive to international students of other faiths in order to give all students a better experience at the university.
“I do think we can be more proactive about telling the story of the other demographics that we have at Pepperdine to be a bit more inclusive of the experience of all because it’s not just the majority experience,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said that the Office of International Students is currently working with the university’s marketing team to tell a broader story, including opening conversations about the diverse faith stories of current students.
Gibson said both departments work closely together to better explain Pepperdine’s take on what it means to be a Christian university with people from all countries and faiths.
“My team is focused on what the general brand story for Pepperdine is,” Gibson said. “With Brooke, we are working on some initiatives to try to communicate that story in ways that can be understood by everyone, no matter what their previous assumptions of Pepperdine were.”
Mitchell is also working hard to make Pepperdine more interfaith friendly by creating the Interfaith Convocation Program and the International Student Ambassador Program.
The Interfaith Convocation Program allows international students to learn about different faith systems from their peers, Mitchell said. This allows the students to teach others about their faith too, which makes them feel more connected to the Pepperdine community.
The International Student Ambassador Program recruits six student representatives from different regions of the world who are tasked with fostering a sense of home among international students and improving international student acclimation to Pepperdine. Mitchell created both of these programs last year.
“We are exploring some areas in interfaith more proactively so that we can create safe spaces and promote education on different faith perspectives on the campus in addition to Christianity, which they learn a lot about while here,” Mitchell said.
Haya Haddad completed the reporting for this story under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield and Dr. Theresa de los Santos in Jour 241 in Spring 2020. Dr. Littlefield supervised the web story. Dr. de los Santos supervised the visual package.
