As a first-year university student, trying to build community and finding new friends is hard enough, even without a pandemic.
After Pepperdine announced in January that in-person classes would not resume with the start of the spring semester, more first-year students took a leap and moved to the Malibu area in search of their own college community — without the traditional campus experience — to join their peers who had moved in August.
Living near or on campus (with a hardship exemption) without Pepperdine’s campus life is an unprecedented challenge no first-year students have ever faced before. Students in search of friends don’t have the option to naturally meet others in classes or on campus, and can only reach out to new people online or on social media.
“You have to be OK with the discomfort and the awkwardness of being like, ‘Hey, we’re in class together, let’s hang out,’” said Asha Weir, first-year integrated marketing communication major. “Obviously you’re not going to get along with everyone, but [meeting others has] been good.”
While moving to Malibu might appear like an easy opportunity to meet other students, things are still far from “normal.” Right now, there is no such thing as the traditional college experience — even when living on or close to Pepperdine.
Students have to navigate adversaries regarding COVID-19 restrictions, like social distancing and wearing masks, while trying to adjust to living away from home for the first time. There is also notably limited social interaction. Despite these challenges, first-year students have one common sentiment in common: They are grateful to be living close to Pepperdine.
Unconventionally building community
Kelly Haer, Pepperdine Relationship IQ director, said Zoom leaves people dissatisfied because people are connected, but they’re not really connected. Students want to make up for the loss of not being on campus as much as possible by just being in the same town.
“So much of the social interaction in context with the classroom is lost or different on Zoom and it’s hard to recreate that and that’s a lot of where the freshman experience especially is found,” Haer said. “Yes, the classroom is super important — that’s where learning is happening — but the social experience, the going to college experience, connecting with other people, the kind of nuances of how that is navigated is just very different in person than it is on a screen.”
Weir moved from Philadelphia to the Malibu Canyon Apartments in Calabasas for the spring semester after living at home in Pennsylvania in the fall. She said she lives with a roommate and two other suitemates, one of them being first-year business administration major Olivia Hale.
Weir said it isn’t easy meeting new people with COVID-19, especially since she is more introverted and has a harder time reaching out to people. Her roommate, Coco Crandell, a first-year integrated marketing communication major, is extroverted and messaged fellow students on Zoom and Instagram through direct messages. Crandell helped Weir to meet others in the area and form a friend group.
“I definitely think we are building community together, even if I define community as our small friend group,” Weir said. “To me, that’s so much better than nothing and so much better than being at home. I feel like COVID has made people so much more open and wanting to meet people and just wanting the stability of like, ‘These are my friends.’”
Hale rushed Kappa Alpha Theta in the fall and said her sorority helps her meet with other girls easily. Many of her sorority sisters have been living or moved to the Malibu/Calabasas area for the spring. Hale has met fellow students through mutual friends and classes as well.
“It’s been easier [building community] than I thought — Pepperdine kids in general are super welcoming,” Hale said. “Everyone just wants to meet each other and be friends with each other, and I think that’s been really good in that sense.”
Nutrition major Holley Anderson said she met women through rushing Pi Beta Phi as well as through Snapchat last fall. Anderson moved to Malibu in August from Waco, Texas, and lives in a home with three other Pepperdine students, also from Texas.
She said it was difficult meeting others first semester because there weren’t as many people living in Malibu. Her and her roommates would reach out and invite other women in the area for pizza nights or for a day at Ralphs beach.
“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is the people in your life are the biggest part of your life,” Anderson said. “If you don’t have good people that you can love on and care for and love you, you’re not going to succeed in anything.”
Difficulties adjusting
For international business major Alex Wilhelm, meeting others and being involved in the Pepperdine community is difficult while living on the quiet campus. Wilhelm said she lived at home in Phoenix, Arizona, last semester and moved to the Malibu campus in February after being accepted for hardship.
Wilhelm quarantined for 10 days after moving in and said she met up with other students living on campus at the beach after quarantining. However, some of the COVID-19 restrictions, such as social distancing and wearing masks at all times on campus (except in one’s room or apartment), makes it hard to meet fellow peers.
“It’s definitely very difficult — it’s probably the hardest thing we’ve ran into just because there’s not that many people,” Wilhelm said. “On top of that, the restrictions [Pepperdine has] with housing and everything, it doesn’t give us the opportunity to run into anybody.”
Mitchell Berthiaume, a business administration major from Austin, Texas, said he lived on campus last semester with a hardship exemption, but found the campus COVID-19 restrictions too difficult. He now lives in Point Dume with friends for the spring semester.
“I sat outside with two girls studying for a test and someone took a picture of us and sent it to DPS,” Berthiaume said. “DPS pulled up next to us and was like, ‘Hey, we just got a photo submitted of you guys not social distancing,’ and so they made us break it up and go study in our dorms, and that was kind of the last straw — I’m not doing this next semester.”
Berthiaume said he has more freedom living off campus, especially since he can have friends over, but it still isn’t the ideal college experience.
“There’s a huge social interaction that isn’t there,” Berthiaume said. “Just having to go to class with kids you don’t know is a big way to meet people. I feel like I’m really lucky, I have the next best thing — living on campus with a bunch of people is the second best way to meet people in college, given the circumstances.”
For Anderson, COVID-19 restrictions are a factor in whether or not she will transfer next fall.
“Even if campus is completely open, the businesses in the area won’t be able to offer the internships and experience that I’ll need to get a solid job out of college and get the connections that I need,” Anderson said. “Moving back to Texas, where it’s probably a year ahead of California, would give me those experiences.”
Making up for the college experience
During the fall semester, Hale said all of her high school friends left for college out of state because their campuses were open. This impacted Hale’s mental health as she witnessed her friends having fun at school.
“I needed a college experience with my senior year of high school getting ruined,” Hale said. “I needed something to look forward to and something to make me happy right now.”
For Weir, she said she wanted to get to know some of the Pepperdine community before studying abroad in the London international program.
“I knew I wanted to, as safely as possible, get to know students because I made the decision to go abroad next year to London for the full year,” Weir said. “I just didn’t want to be going abroad without knowing anyone or feeling like I don’t have friends at Pepperdine,” Weir said.
Students are grateful for the opportunity to live in Malibu, especially for Wilhelm. With COVID-19 restrictions lifting, she said she’s slowly starting to build community.
“It wasn’t what I expected, so I was a little remorseful and kind of second guessing it, but just knowing that I’m where I’m meant to be, that’s definitely helped push me through it,” Wilhelm said. “Now I’m really grateful to be here, especially as things are opening up and there’s more opportunities to be a Pepperdine student.”
Forming new friendships — online or in person
For students living in Malibu or outside of Malibu this semester, there is still opportunity to build community and meet others — one doesn’t need to be close to campus to make new friends.
Haer runs the Relationship IQ program, which is designed for students to strengthen healthy relationships, she said. Haer’s advice is to be curious when wanting to make new friendships online.
“Leading with curiosity, if you see something about a person on social media or a fellow classmate is Zooming into school from their bedroom and you see a picture on their wall of something that’s like, ‘Oh, I’ve been to that place’ or ‘Oh, I like that band’ and using what you can and what you can see to lead with curiosity to forge great connections,” Haer said.
Sofia Longo completed the reporting for this story in Jour 241 in Fall 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield and Dr. Theresa de los Santos. Dr. Littlefield supervised the web version of the story.
