Senior Audrey Altman shares her unique journey

Audrey Altman, senior organizational communication major, strives to be a successful talent agent (Photo courtesy Alex Leininger).

Senior Audrey Altman endured a lot of trial and error to find her current vision.

Born and raised in California, Altman let go of pursuing a vocal career, overcame a mysterious health crisis and struggled to find the right college and career path. Now graduating with a degree in organizational communication, she hopes to be a talent agent.

“Everything that happened in my past has paved the path I live today,” Altman said.

Alltman grew up with a passion for music.

“Most of my life I thought I was going to be a singer,” Altman said. “That is the career I’ve been wanting to pursue since I was a child.”

Altman said she was doing great things for her music career.

In high school during her sophomore and junior year, she was on tour with James Torme, a  jazz vocalist artist, and was in the recording studio on a day-to-day basis.

Dealing with negativity made Altman realize she only wanted to sing for enjoyment because of the negative pressure she felt from being in the music industry.

“So many people were saying they were better than me and I wasn’t good enough,” Altman said. “It made me realize I didn’t want to spend my life trying to please other people.”

After Altman decided to stop pursuing a serious music career, she started to feel sick everyday.

She had severe headaches, and she could barely walk or keep her eyes open.

Altman said she got an MRI and found out she had a brain aneurysm.

She had to drop out of public school her junior year because of being in and out of doctors offices and started at an independent online school.

Altman said she kept a positive attitude through this difficult time. She relied on her faith to get her through this time of adversity and continued to go to her home church, Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village.

Altman progressively got better and the brain aneurysm went away. She was able to finish her senior year at her hybrid school, Century Academy.

At the end of her senior year, Altman got accepted to Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California.

“Going to college was a really exciting aspect for me because it wasn’t until my senior year that I realized that I was OK and I was so excited to be back in a classroom setting,” she said.

Altman attended Sonoma College for two years.

Sonoma, however, was not faith oriented. She said it was not challenging academically, and she found herself becoming an introvert. As a Christian, it was important to her to choose a different school. It wasn’t a good environment for her to make friends.

This is when she applied to Pepperdine University.

“When I came to Pepperdine, I thought I made the worst decision because I was so overwhelmed by the workload,” Altman said. “But living on campus and having a roommate made me realize what a people person I am.”

Altman said she now thrives when she has social interaction.

“I just love being around people, and I learned that here at Pepperdine,” she said.

When Altman is not busy with work or school she fills her free time with going to visit friends, or serving as a Spiritual Life Advisor for Krown-Alpha housing.

“SLA’s can contribute to their house as little as they want,” said Mia Flemming, a  senior international business major. “However, Audrey is wonderful in stepping up in our house in not only leading Convos and connecting with residents, but also in being involved with resolving conflict.”

Altman said being a SLA also allows her to be connected with her faith.

She said her faith is really important to her because her faith has allowed her to feel less lonely and has helped her get through tough times.

“Even being an SLA, Alltman has connected deeper with faith,” sophomore theater major Peace Ikediuba said. “Her relationship with God has led her in helping other people become connected with their faith.”

Altman is currently finishing her last semester at Pepperdine.

She is excited to be graduating in 2018 and is hoping to work in talent representation soon after graduation.

Altman’s believes the actors or actresses is what makes a show or a movie. She has always wanted to be apart of that process whether it is working in casting or talent representation.

“I already have a couple of interviews set up that I am very excited about,” Altman said.

Dani Masten completed this profile under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield in Jour 241 in spring 2018.