Bruin Blog

Have you met the UCLA Optimists? Over the next several months, the Bruin Blog will be highlighting our student Optimists. These current UCLA undergraduates will give you insight into the application process and tips, student life and culture, and what it means to be a Bruin.

My experience at UCLA has been invaluable. Despite being born and brought up in a different cultural environment in a place diametrically across the world (New Delhi, India), I have adapted really well at UCLA. Since my first week here, I tried to be as involved as possible in different clubs and organizations. By getting involved in student organizations and by going to as many campus events as possible, I connected with many great people pretty early on. A lot of those people are now my close friends.

UCLA has more than 1,000 diverse student organizations. This vibrant student body was a major reason I chose UCLA. Before even coming here, one of the things I was looking forward to was the Enormous Activities Fair. The Enormous Activities Fair occurs during Zero week of Fall quarter where hundreds of our student organizations table in Royce Quad so new students can explore and find organizations they might be interested in joining. At the fair this year, I was handed hundreds of flyers, and it was very challenging to pick which clubs I should be involved with because they all sounded very tempting!

As a Computer Science major, I’m very interested in tech-startups. So one of the first clubs I joined was Bruin Entrepreneurs, where I met many people interested in startups and entrepreneurship. I also worked on a short film as a visual effects editor with the Film and Photography Society. I later joined the Daily Bruin as a Web Development intern to gain technical skills. The skills I learned by going to different workshops helped me prepare for the career fairs. At the Engineering career fair in winter quarter of my freshman year, I met lots of recruiters and interviewed with about seven companies. Each interview prepared me for the next and ultimately I was fortunate to secure an internship at Thomson Reuters for the summer. My internship was extremely enriching and I had a wonderful experience working as a UX and Frontend Engineering intern. I’ve written more about my internship here.

A great perk of being a Computer Science major is the opportunity of going to different hackathons around the US. In the past two years I’ve been to hackathons at schools like Stanford, UC Berkeley, Cornell and University of Pennsylvania. At these hackathons, one can meet people, create products, network with companies and have fun–all in 36 hours! Plus, the trip is usually paid for! After going to hackathons, I started loving the idea of organizing events that promote innovation and collaboration. So I joined the organizing team for LA Hacks, one of the best hackathons in the country, hosted at UCLA. I had an amazing time working with some talented people to organize LA Hacks 2016 and 2017. My passion for collaboration, innovation and creating things also lead me to start a new club with some Bruin Entrepreneurs members. This club – Creative Labs – encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration, learning and creativity. I am very proud of the fact that I contributed in connecting many people from different majors for creating digital products.

UCLA’s student organizations have had a huge impact on me. I’ve met friends, learned skills and most importantly had a very fulfilling time. I recently got elected as the President of UCLA Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and I hope I can contribute in fostering a vibrant, inclusive and collaborative tech community at UCLA.

Stay tuned with more of my projects and writing at: www.mihirmathur.com 

MIHIR IS A SECOND YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE MAJOR FROM NEW DELHI, INDIA.

Have you met the UCLA Optimists? Over the next several months, the Bruin Blog will be highlighting our student Optimists. These current UCLA undergraduates will give you insight into the application process and tips, student life and culture, and what it means to be a Bruin.

UCLA has an endless list of amazing qualities and opportunities for students. We have all heard the list a million times: prestigious academics, competitive athletics, a beautiful campus, ground-breaking research, an incredible location. While I am grateful for all of these things, my favorite thing about UCLA isn’t something that is easy to see from the outside. When you sign your intent to register at UCLA you aren’t just agreeing to receive an education from a school, you are joining a family.

I don’t believe that you can find another place on earth that is filled with more talented, passionate, incredible people. People who walk miles and camp out at Drake stadium to raise money for cancer research. People who plan and perform an entire play in just 24 hours and leave the audience doubled over in laughter. People who raise thousands of dollars and stay on their feet for 26.2 hours to eliminate pediatric aids. People who win more NCAA championships than anyone else in the nation. People who protest social injustices. Most importantly, people who are there for each other.

When you go to college you face so many challenges. Some are foreseen: being away from your parents for the first time, taking more challenges classes, making new friends, and the all time favorite having to do your own laundry. Other challenges are unexpected: overcoming self doubt and feelings of inadequacy, finding your own identity, and trying to figure out where you fit in to this enormous Bruin family. Though challenge can be difficult, it more importantly results in growth.

Being a Bruin is a beautiful journey of self discovery, and the best part about the journey is that you are never alone. In fact, it is all of your Bruin family members who make the journey possible. When you first start your time at UCLA you meet a lot of incredible people, which though amazing and enriching, can also be intimidating. You think to yourself, how could I possibly be smart and talented enough to be a member of such an impressive group of people? You might even consider running into Murphy Hall and making sure the admission officers didn’t make a mistake letting you in. Then UCLA works its magic and everything changes.

Each time you meet another Bruin they teach you something new and amazing about yourself. When I walk into a challenging physics class on the first day of the quarter rather than entering a hostile competitive environment, I am surrounded by peers who immediately sit down next to me, shake my hand, and exchange phone numbers with me in order to study together and help each other work through the class.  As a campus tour guide, after a rough day when I am feeling down about myself, I go to the tours office and am comforted and reassured of my strengths by each and every one of my fellow guides. As a member of the Greek community, I have created close relationships with incredible women who remind me everyday how strong and capable I am. Over your four years at UCLA with the support of your peers you go from wondering how you got into such an amazing institution to knowing that it wouldn’t be nearly as amazing without you in it. UCLA is nothing without the people who make up the Bruin family, each and every person is an integral member and that is what makes UCLA so special.

In the end, one’s time as a Bruin extends far beyond the four years it takes to complete your undergraduate degree. When you meet another Bruin in any random corner of the globe it doesn’t matter if they graduated the same year as you or 60 years before you, that person is instantly part of your family. The Bruin family is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Each student is a uniquely shaped piece, and if a single piece is missing the whole picture just isn’t complete. Sure, it’s great to graduate being an expert in Biochemistry or Economics, but the most valuable thing that you learn here is that you matter, and your Bruin family will always be around to remind you that.

JAMIE IS A FOURTH YEAR BIOCHEMISTRY MAJOR
FROM THE BAY AREA IN CALIFORNIA.

Have you met the UCLA Optimists? Over the next several months, the Bruin Blog will be highlighting our student Optimists. These current UCLA undergraduates will give you insight into the application process and tips, student life and culture, and what it means to be a Bruin.

I am from Merced, CA. It’s a relatively small town where cows and dairy farms are more common than skyscrapers and business suits. While in high school I joined my school’s Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) club, which definitely changed my life for the better. Through AVID, a college preparatory class, I was able to learn all the details about what it takes to apply to college and how someone like me could get there. I was always told education is the gateway to a better life, but it can be difficult to envision yourself as a college student if no one in your family was able to attend college before you. I think it is easy for students to automatically rule out top-tier institutions because they assume they will not be able to afford it. I originally fell victim to this flawed ideology as well. Finances was one of the major factors I considered when searching for colleges. But after applying for financial aid and scholarships, I realized college was an attainable goal. Granted, I did not think I would ever attend a school as prestigious as UCLA, but I’m glad I had the courage to apply after all.

Fast-forward to my first quarter at UCLA; unfortunately I continued to stress about money, and I felt like I needed to find a job. Luckily, getting a job came easier than I thought it would! First, UCLA does a great job in helping students find jobs by posting them online through the ASUCLA jobs board (for on-campus jobs). The daily student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, also publishes both on-campus and off-campus jobs! In college, I realized there are regular jobs and work-study jobs. Federal work-study jobs are great for students because wages do not fall below the current federal minimum wage, and most times are even higher. The amount of hours you are able to work under the work-study program depends on an individual student’s financial need, when you apply, and the amount of school funding at your institution. UCLA is really helpful in providing resources for students to find jobs. The main portal every student uses, MyUCLA, has a section devoted to finances and jobs. Within this section I was able to search for work-study jobs offered both on- and off-campus. After refining my resume, I was able to land an administrative assistant position in an office directly next to my on-campus residence hall. The great thing about on-campus jobs is that sometimes the positions you hold are so convenient you can almost roll right out of bed to get to work.

Although there are great opportunities to work on-campus, I also spent two years as a tutor at a local Santa Monica middle school. I initially did not consider working off-campus; however, it definitely has its perks. At first I was hesitant because I did not have a car and although Santa Monica isn’t too far from campus, it was definitely not in walking range. However, my future career goal is to be an educator, so I felt that this experience would be beneficial in the long run. So of course I took the job as an AVID tutor when it was offered to me. Commuting to Santa Monica actually wasn’t too bad, considering I could get directly to the school for only $0.50 each way on the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus.

The last job I received was actually the first one I wanted when I came to UCLA. During summer orientation, my New Student Advisor (NSA), was honestly the coolest person I had ever met. She was so helpful, so knowledgeable, and she seemed to be having fun. Advisors counsel incoming students and make sure they start off their UCLA experience in classes perfectly suited to their needs. When incoming freshmen and transfers come to their own student orientation, parents and siblings are welcomed too. I was able to work with the New Bruins who came to the sessions, as well as reassure parents that their child would be safe on-campus and would definitely make friends (possibly the top 2 concerns parents have for their kids). Initially I didn’t know being an NSA had so many dimensions to it, but once I joined, I loved how inviting everyone was. It didn’t feel like a job, which was a bonus. Over summer, although we worked hard, we also acted in skits for the incoming freshman, had impromptu photo shoots, and even held our own “Club Jamba” party session in Jamba Juice every week.

Overall, I didn’t think having an on-campus job could be enjoyable. I initially just wanted a job to pay for extra expenses. It turns out UCLA offers a wide range of jobs for almost anything students are interested in. Looking back, I stressed over not being able to afford college. Students who think college isn’t worth pursuing because of financial reasons should abandon that thinking as quickly as possible. Between financial aid, scholarships, grants, loans, and jobs on- and off-campus, UCLA offers more than enough resources for students who may be worried about financially staying afloat. So many people are here to help, which creates an atmosphere that is unlike any other college I’ve visited. Whether I am at work, in class, or cheering at a sports game, I am always experiencing new things at UCLA and learning what it means to be a True Bruin.

Dreama is a third year Psychology major
and Education Studies minor from Merced, CA.

Have you met the UCLA Optimists? Over the next several months, the Bruin Blog will be highlighting our student Optimists. These current UCLA undergraduates will give you insight into the application process and tips, student life and culture, and what it means to be a Bruin.

Gazing out the window of a 45-minute bus ride across town to Westchester, a lost little girl yearned for nothing more than to attend college. Raised in a low income household in Torrance, CA with three sisters in a hard-working family, my mother wanted better opportunities for her daughters. She had my sisters and me transported to magnet schools for the promise of a better education; a brand new high school with little resources and few opportunities to help me excel. Despite the setbacks I faced, I was given an opportunity to participate in a two-week writer’s camp in North Carolina at Duke University early in my high school career. Following this eye-opening college experience, I was motivated to return home and do everything I could to pursue a college degree.

Fast forward to a high school senior and I am a part of the second graduating class at Ramon C. Cortines in downtown Los Angeles. I am a first generation college student, so when I was applying to colleges, I had little assistance from both my family and my school. Remembering how great my time at the writer’s camp at Duke University was, I focused on reliving that experience and decided to not apply to any in-state colleges or universities. Since my family trusted that I understood the complicated college application process, they let me lead the way independently. I wound up admitted out of state, which was great. Then I looked at an out of state price tag of over $60,000 with no significant scholarships. I quickly realized I made a mistake. I tried to sign up for student loans to chase a dream, but my mother had a tough decision to make: to co-sign my future or help my oldest sister with her new born child. Family came first and before I knew it my dream of attaining a higher education looked like just that: a dream.

Honor student. Dance captain. Poet. Writer of spoken word. High school senior. Lost. I blamed my family for insufficient funds to provide me a better education and myself for not attaining scholarships. Without the ability to pay for the schools I had been accepted to, I enrolled at El Camino College, a community college in Torrance. Embarrassed and confused my first semester, I was determined to defy the odds. Students at junior colleges are stigmatized to not have a clear objective towards transferring but I did not accept that. As a full-time student, I worked in Financial Aid, Counseling, and I became a Campus Ambassador. My three years in community college allowed me to find my voice and purpose towards higher education.

Not only was I very active at my community college, I also saw it as my second chance and utilized the resources available at my community college. One resource I utilized is the Center for Community College Partnerships (CCCP) through the Academic Advancement Program (AAP). On Saturday’s they would hold seminar sessions to guide us on the application. I was given a student mentor from UCLA. My mentor would visit me at El Camino, assist mewith my UCLA application, and check up on my grades and everything (shout-out Jeremy Solorzano, Class of 2016)!  UCLA is very transfer-friendly because they have honors programs like the Transfer Alliance Program (TAP) and STOMP Conference that give community college students access to UC schools. From recruiters, programs, peer mentors, counselors, and partnerships there are an abundance of resources and people who want to see students succeed! I am grateful for CCCP to guide me here. When I found out I was accepted to UCLA, I was so proud of what I had accomplished. I changed the trajectory of my life by becoming a competitive applicant who applied to 12 in-state colleges and accepted to every institution with financial aid offers to cover my tuition as a transfer student. I bring up this backstory to motivate prospective students that you have the power to change your life and chase your dreams. Your background and lack of resources does not define you; your ambition does and as an optimist, UCLA is looking for tenacious leaders who are breaking barriers to keep moving forward!!

Fast forward today, I am a senior at UCLA majoring in African-American Studies and receive the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan, which pays my tuition and fees. I wanted to take advantage of being a full-time UCLA student, so I lived on campus my first year in Acacia Residence Hall, which is a plaza dorm with private bathroom. Luckily at UCLA, housing is guaranteed for three years for freshman and one year for transfers, so I didn’t have to worry about commuting! I had become so accustomed to commuting, that I quickly realized what a privilege it is to live on campus. I highly advise prospective students to get at least one year living on campus to get the full college experience. Academically, I am in a contract course through the Center of Community Learning. I also have an internship course, 195CE English, where I receive academic credit to intern off campus. My internship is at Live Nation where I am chasing my next dream of working in the business of tech and music for live music festivals. I have also had the opportunity to work in the music industry where I found myself on a yacht with P. Diddy, Drake, and others. When I am not surrounded by talented musicians, or being a full-time student, I can be spotted navigating the Los Angeles freeways as a Bruin Ambassador! Through this on-campus student job, I drive to local high schools conducting presentations, attending college fairs, and motivating students to pursue their higher education goals at UCLA!

As a first-generation, transfer student I never forget my journey or the people from my community who believed in me! From their support, I am resilient and aware that I need to give back and help those who do not see their potential yet. This past summer I went back to Duke University as a student counselor from UCLA and did just that! As I look back at the lost girl who felt like doors were closing, I am opening new doors as an Optimist ready to face the world as a Bruin! Will you be next!?

Aryonia White is a second year transfer student who will be graduating in June with a major in African American Studies with a minor in Music Industry.

Have you met the UCLA Optimists? Over the next several months, the Bruin Blog will be highlighting our student Optimists. These current UCLA undergraduates will give you insight into the application process and tips, student life and culture, and what it means to be a Bruin.

Before applying to UCLA I had never been to the campus or really thought of it as where I wanted to attend college. The academic prestige and athletic excellence excited me. However, having lived in Southern California for nine years, I had planned the next four years to be in the east coast. I wanted to attend a small school, where I could have the opportunity to know everyone, have smaller classes, and easily get involved. I definitely had no plans to attend a big university, let alone the most applied to school in the nation. Now I am writing to you as a rising senior at UCLA, so obviously the east coast small school plan didn’t happen. However, my journey at UCLA has been everything I could have ever wanted.

Upon admission to UCLA, I decided to attend an Admitted Student Day on campus, about 40 minutes north from my home in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA. The minute I stepped onto this campus, something felt right. I hopped on a tour and listened to students and faculty as they gave their testimonies of their experiences here. The day ended with a video highlighting the work of students and faculty, finishing with a video of 8-claps all around the world. This short video moved me. It moved me because it was a testament to how powerful this campus is and how this campus community could empower me and help me pursue my passions.

My whole life I knew there was more to this world than my own personal needs. Therefore, I knew my passions lied in discovering societal issues and solving them. That’s why I was interested in engineering – it is all about problem solving. So, I decided I was going to apply to UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering. Two principles that I live by are: everyone deserves access to clean water, and no human should sleep cold and without shelter. Therefore, I chose Civil and Environmental Engineering, which includes the concentrations of hydrology, structural and environmental engineering, to find cost efficient, eco-friendly ways to make clean water accessible to everyone and sustainable infrastructure for anyone without shelter.

My passion to tackle problems in this field was strong, but I began to realize how exciting it would be to address my passions here. Coming in, I was competing with students who had already mastered the language of C++, who were able to disprove physical theories with my professors, and knew how to build robots at the age of sixteen. My experience was limited to the Advanced Placement math and science classes I took in high school that I somehow did well in. My first quarter in the school of Engineering, I learned how important my classmates would be in my academic success. The community here is strong and through our study groups, career fairs, and engineering projects (like building a canoe out of concrete and racing it) I have become close to many of my classmates and plan to stay close beyond my four years here. The study groups alleviated my individual approach to understanding the toughness of material in my classes, all the while making learning challening concepts tangible and interesting. My friends and I will sometimes stay up for hours discussing the dielectric and semi-conductive characteristics of materials and how those properties affect and help us understand everything in our physical world. Trust me, if you take the course Introduction to Materials Science Engineering, your mind will be blown. The campus has also given me so many opportunities to pursue my passion of sustainable infrastructure as I am doing research in LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) certification for existing buildings on campus. In addition, the career fairs hosted at UCLA aided in establishing my internship this summer for a construction management company as a project engineer. Lastly, I have been able to work on service projects such as the Navajo Project within our chapter of Engineers Without Borders, where we are providing a clean water system for a family on the Navajo Reservation. The initial academic challenges I faced were a struggle; however, I can say with true fervor, that I was more prepared than I realized to overcome such challenges and that has made me stronger, shaped me into who I am, and given me the ability to pursue some of my deepest passions.

I am surrounded by some of the most brilliant minds in a university filled with opportunities waiting for me to take part in. The UCLA campus is overflowing with excellence and I am so honored and blessed every day to be a part of it. Being a Bruin means you get to be surrounded and supported by a campus of people who will push you to achieve whatever you want. Trust me, we have it all at UCLA.

Alyson Kim is a third year Civil Engineering major from Rancho Palos Verdes, CA.