Stitched with Service: How Seaver Graduate Alysha Burles Found Her Voice in Marketing

Stagelights illuminating the delicate tulle of a dance tutu remain one of the formative images from Alysha Burles’ childhood. She would run her fingers through the fabric of her own costume, knowing that her mother’s artistry was behind every stitch. 

Now a Seaver College senior graduating with a degree in integrated marketing and communication (IMC), Burles explains that her mother’s designs for her dance recitals, combined with a heart for family, were the inspiration for her to live out those blend of qualities. Creativity. Intentionality. Service. 

Channeling her creativity toward the world of marketing, Burles considers Pepperdine University to be where she was prepared to become a successful professional, quite quickly finding a community of “service-focused professors and friends” who took the time to recognize and shepherd her strengths. 

Throughout her time at Pepperdine Burles did it all from curating a high-level brand campaign for the sports merchandiser, Fanatics—a client of her IMC capstone project—to closing out her senior year by interacting with the president of the iconic restaurant-chain that she grew up working for, Lynsi Synder-Ellingson of In-N-Out Burger. Here's how it all began:

Hometown Roots

From the chaparral-laden hills of Simi Valley, Burles explains that her close-knit family and small-town roots are central to who she is. Dance practices and recitals soon became a hallmark of Burles’ childhood, where she performed on stages across the nation. Yet throughout her dance career, a cherished custom remained, as her mother would create each of her costumes. 

Burles celebrating her recent graduation with a friend

“My mom is definitely creative, and that is where I get a lot of that juice from,” says Burles. “But she also looked to serve others. From her, I saw that you could do both.” 

During her sophomore year of high school, when time came for many young people to get their first jobs, Burles was hired at none other than her local In-N-Out Burger. Employment there beckoned many formative moments for Burles, including where she deepened her skills in multitasking, work-ethic, time management, and service. 

For years hot summers were spent under that distinct rush of air conditioning or on the sidewalk taking orders. Yet here she came to understand that building connections with others can never follow a cookie-cutter formula. 

Creativity and tact is required to craft memorable conversations with customers, Burles now remarks, such as remembering a regular's favorite order and even their favorite sports teams. It wasn’t long before she brought these skills into the world of marketing.

Immersed in Integrated Marketing Communication 

After earning an associate’s degree in visual communications from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, where her mother also worked, Burles pivoted among creative outlets. 

Desiring to meld the people skills of her service background with an outward-facing creative voice, this is when she set her sights on the growing field of IMC. Soon, she enrolled at Pepperdine, seeing the University as a place where her ideas could be refined among people of like-minded Christian values. 

“I have big aspirations,” Burles explains. “Most colleges have separate marketing and communications majors, but Pepperdine stood out as different. The integrated program here is a conglomeration of everything I wanted to do in the future. I want to create brand campaigns.” 

Burles (right) at the CCB

Burles’ wish came true a little sooner than expected. During her senior capstone course, Sarah Fischbach, associate professor of integrated marketing communication, entrusted Burles with the task of creating a comprehensive brand campaign for the client of Fanatics, a company that creates licensed merchandise for the professional sports leagues such as the NFL, the MLB, and the NBA. 

After connecting with Kevin Longo (’06) on LinkedIn, vice president of commercial at the company and Seaver College alumnus, the real work began. Though Fanatics worked behind the scenes on the creation of many memorable products, the duo sought to bring the company to become more of a forward-facing brand. . . a household name. 

Reminded of the care her mother put into crafting her dance costume, Burles imagined the joy of a little boy wearing a baseball cap in a crowd-filled stadium or a teen wearing their favorite basketball jersey to school. 

Thus, Burles came to the epiphany that all fan experiences begin with the products Fanatics creates.

“I am very proud of her and her grit,” says Fischbach. “She jumped on board and collaborated with Longo for the last 15 weeks on this campaign. She has a strong foundation that has helped her to keep grounded and to take her education seriously.”

During the week of final exams in April, Burles presented her brand campaign concept to Fischbach and her IMC peers. She received very positive feedback. 

Servant at the Heart

As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty. Now with the perspective to reflect on her time in college, Burles marvels at the accomplishments she achieved within two short years. 

In a moment of serendipity, Burles closed out her senior year by interacting with the president of the iconic brand she spent her teen years working for—a place which stewarded her Christian faith and encouraged her heart for service. And this was none other than Lynsi Synder-Ellingson of In-N-Out, who visited the Malibu campus for the President’s Speaker series. 

Burles (second row on the right) with her Pi Beta Phi sorority

Aware that Snyder-Ellingson had grown up working at an In-N-Out location in Redding, California, Burles had one question ready: What did you do back when you worked the line as a teenager? Washing lettuce, the In-N-Out Owner and President responded. And this was the same job Burles worked throughout her senior year at Pepperdine and before, at the same hour of the morning. 

“It feels like my two worlds of Pepperdine and In-N-Out collided in the best way possible,” says Burles. “I loved getting to ask Lynsi that question, and it is inspiring to hear that we had something like that in common.” 

Burles’ heart of service extends to the campus community, where she acts as social media manager of the University gym, a member of the Waves Marketing Club internship program, and a sister within the Pi Beta Phi sorority. For the chapter’s philanthropic “Read, Lead, Achieve” initiative, her sisters would often travel to local elementary schools throughout Los Angeles County to inspire lifelong reading habits in school-aged children. This is what inspired her most about her sorority. 

After a summer visit to her mother in Florence, Italy, Burles plans to continue channeling her creative spark in the professional world. As a proud IMC graduate, a high aim of hers is to craft storytelling that is intentional of its audience, where people aren’t considered as mere statistics, but human beings with needs and wants to be considered. 

“My time at Pepperdine was such a blessing,” Burles adds. “I loved having my values reinforced by my professors and the academic community here. That’s very important to who I am as a person and how I want to live my life.”