Monthly Archives: September 2016

Voters and UCLA alumni attended a special candidate forum in Pasadena for the 25th State Senate District. (photos by Jonathan Van Dyke)

Dozens of voters and UCLA alumni gathered at Pasadena’s redwhite+bluezz for a special Pancakes and Politics Candidate Town Hall with both men running for the 25th State Senate District.

The crowd enjoyed a good breakfast as current Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich (R) and former 44th District State Assemblymember  Anthony Portantino (D) fielded questions from both the audience and moderator Bill Parent, UCLA public policy lecturer.

Click through to see more photos of the event and for the complete audio of the town hall

Continue reading →

Community members and education officials came together for a new partnership between UCLA and FAME Church.

On Sept. 25, Rev. J. Edgar Boyd of First A.M.E. (FAME) Church announced a new Academic Preparation Partnership with the University of California and UCLA.

Assistant Vice Chancellor Keith Parker joined Los Angeles Unified School District Boardmember Dr. George McKenna to speak to the congregation that day about the benefits of the partnership and the desired outcome of more students entering the educational pipeline.

Continue reading →

Assemblymember Mike Gipson addresses a lunch crowd during his visit to UCLA. (photos by Jonathan Van Dyke)

After touring campus and speaking with campus officials regarding the enrollment of underserved communities, 64^th District Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson) visited with students, faculty and alumni — primarily from his district — for a special lunch on campus.

The legislator spoke of his upbringing and desire to improve his community.

Continue reading →

UCLA students volunteer at Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. (Daniel Low/UCLA)

From distributing school supplies to elementary school students in the MacArthur Park neighborhood to sorting donations at a food bank to gardening at a senior center in Watts to painting at a home for veterans, the annual UCLA Volunteer Day sent thousands of Bruins throughout Los Angeles to make a difference.

This year marked the eighth edition of the nation’s largest community participation event for new college students, as more than 7,000 UCLA volunteers provided almost $1 million worth of service at 50 locations.

“It’s to give our students a sense of public service,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. “So it really reinforces the view that you’re at a public institution and part of your obligation is to help. Hopefully, this will really inculcate in a lot of our students a lifelong commitment to being involved in volunteer work.”

Continue reading →

Participating in Volunteer Day 2015 led UCLA student Monica Martinez to embrace community service and take on more volunteer work during her freshman year. Her next volunteer activity: She will be a project manager at Volunteer Day 2016 on Monday.

A year ago, Monica Martinez, a UCLA freshman from South Los Angeles, watched organized chaos unfold around her at Drake Stadium as she lined up with thousands of other new students and shuffled toward dozens of buses destined for Volunteer Day sites across the greater Los Angeles region.

Martinez felt the anticipation build as she started on this new adventure, moving as one body toward a single mission: to help others. “You feel like you are a part of this bigger community,” she reminisced. That was the first time she really felt like a Bruin, she recalled with a big smile.

Her destination back then was the Veterans Home of California — West Los Angeles, where she worked in the garden and played Bingo with a group of veterans. “Even though it wasn’t the most glamorous thing we could be doing, I knew that it would be something that would be lasting for them,” she said.

Continue reading →