Bob Bejan ’82 studied drama at University of the Pacific well before experiential learning was an established concept. Pioneering faculty recognized his potential and offered their own hands-on training, preparing him for a rich 40-year entertainment career.

Bejan is now helping a new generation of students learn by doing. With a $250,000 gift, he and his wife Bonne created an endowment to provide experiential learning opportunities for students in Pacific’s Media X program. The program prepares students for impactful careers in film, digital media, journalism and more.

Named in honor of Bejan’s parents, the Barbara and Benjamin Bejan Experiential Learning Endowment has enabled 18 Media X students to network or intern at global film festivals since 2022.

“Our gift seemed like the appropriate way to do two things: to acknowledge Pacific’s impact on my career, and all that it enabled me to do, and to acknowledge my parents as the true enablers of where I come from and what I am,” Bejan explained.

He credits his parents with faithfully supporting both his creative aspirations and his athletic pursuits as a member of Pacific’s swimming and water polo teams.

He points to Pacific faculty as drivers of his career, which began with performing in musicals and then writing them, and progressed through advertising, establishing his own recording studio and eventually joining the founding musical team for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ live tour.

Bejan later held leadership roles at Warner Brothers, AOL and Microsoft, helping those companies tell stories on a global scale using experimental marketing, video and interactive media. He retired from Microsoft in 2023.

While the Media X program wasn’t established at Pacific until 2016, Bejan experienced its essence. In his first year, dance department chair Karen Bradley invited him to choreograph five productions for Fallon House, Pacific’s longtime summer theatre venue in Sonora County. Later, as a senior, he single-handedly produced a one-act multimedia play with support from Professor Bill Wolak.

“The relationships I had with faculty, their willingness to collaborate with students, combined with the foundations of a liberal arts education—those things set the stage for my entire career,” Bejan said.

With Bejan’s help, Pacific is now setting the stage for students’ careers on a global scale. Nearly a dozen students have interned at the Cannes Film Festival in France, where they filmed events, assisted guests, and helped coordinate programming. The endowment supported their housing, travel and participation costs.

Interns also attended film premieres and networked with industry professionals, giving them an up-close look at how the film industry operates.

“It gave me an idea of the people that I’ll need to be around in order to be successful,” recalled HT Fleming ’24. “I met someone who I hoped would work with me as a publicist, and I met people who do things like set design—different aspects of the film industry that I did not understand or even know existed before going to Cannes.”

More recently, 14 students attended the 2024 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. They witnessed how filmmakers pitch, sell and distribute their films, got feedback on their own work and enjoyed networking with other film students and recent graduates.

According to Media X Program Co-Director Joshua Salyers, these opportunities help students learn about themselves as much as their craft, and while the festivals cement students’ passions, their enthusiasm doesn’t stop there.

“Meeting actors, directors and producers gives students perspective and guidance to shape their professional identities. Students often return with a mature focus and creative energy that cannot be replicated purely in the classroom,” Salyers said.

“The experiences supported by the Bejan Endowment have transformed creative collaboration among our students,” he added. “Past participants have come back to mentor others, to help them get the most out of their trip. They have come up with creative collaborations and formed student organizations to create festival quality work together.”

In September, Bejan made a new gift to grow the endowment and expand its impact. Alongside his philanthropy, he also enjoys gifting students his hard-earned wisdom.

“Virtually everything I’ve done is grounded in what I learned at Pacific.” he said. “I remind students there’s a lot of very satisfying work in the field if you’re willing to open your mind and have a learn-it-all approach, rather than a know-it-all approach.”

To learn more about supporting the Media X program, contact Amber Flores, assistant vice president for development, at 209.946.7345 or aflores6@59shoushen.com.