Some 15,000 Bruins will be receiving their degrees this commencement season and launching into the next chapter in their lives, carrying with them the unique blend of academic excellence, diverse experiences and a commitment to making the world a better place that only UCLA provides.
Each one of our students has traveled their own unique path to reach this milestone, and to honor them — the challenges they have overcome, the talents they have contributed and the inspiration they will continue to provide for all of us — we are privileged to spotlight just a few of their stories.
These undergraduate and graduate students, who come from across campus and represent a rich tapestry of backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and disciplines, have enhanced our community and reflect the qualities that continue to set UCLA apart as the No. 1–ranked public university in the nation.
Please join us in honoring UCLA’s class of 2024.
► ‘You have earned today’: UCLA’s class of 2024 gets the commencement it always deserved
‘Our main work is about dialogue, which is not always comfortable’
“I never really chose art-making, it chose me,” Elya Aboutboul-Bilia recounts saying to herself when she applied to Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as an eighth grader.
Aboutboul-Bilia was born in Tel Aviv and moved to Los Angeles when she was 10. As she adjusted to America, sometimes the language of art was a more comfortable way to communicate, a tool to understand herself and her environment. Even if it took time to define how art-making would play a role in her life and education.
“It was hard to accept my love and attraction for creating, but once I was at UCLA, I realized I loved art-making, it’s part of who I am,” she said.
So she embraced art as her major, and has taken on a double major in comparative literature, focusing on literature in English and Hebrew. A UCLA/Keck Humanistic Inquiry Undergraduate Research Award recipient, Aboutboul-Bilia is finishing up her courses not only by making art, but also with a culminating essay reflecting upon the methodology of the work she created this year, and on what art research is.
“You have to let your voice and the voice of the material collaborate,” she said.
International development studies seniors honored for their achievements
The research, internships and volunteer work of five seniors graduating from the international development studies program reveal the diverse ways in which Bruins make an impact on our world. Two of the seniors won International Development Studies Program awards, while three received honorable mentions in the 2024 competition.
“It was not just the lectures from my professors that inspired me to want to make a change in my community; it was the intense passion they spoke with,” said Alban Martinez, winner of the IDS 2024 Activist Award.
“I didn’t even know that international development studies was a field until I was applying to schools and saw it was an undergrad option at UCLA,” said Zibaa Adil, winner of the IDS 2024 Academic Award.
Brennan McConnel-Griner, a double major in IDS and political science with a minor in Spanish, received an honorable mention in the IDS Activist Award competition.
Melodie Ahn, who won an honorable mention in the IDS Academic Award competition, wrote a senior honors thesis for the IDS program under the guidance of faculty advisor Jennifer Chun.
Avanthika Panchapakesan, the second honorable mention in the IDS Academic Award competition, wrote a senior honors thesis under the supervision of faculty advisor Akhil Gupta.
Read more about the graduating seniors at the UCLA International Institute website.
Latino policy fellows cap year of transformative learning with graduation
The policy fellows program at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute has seen its annual cohort grow from a small handful of students upon its launch in 2020 to nearly two dozen during the 2023–24 academic year — a testament to the growing impact of the institute’s work.
The institute recently celebrated 15 of these undergraduate and graduate student fellows who not only completed the program but also earned their degrees as members of UCLA’s class of 2024.
As part of the fellows program, the students have supported all aspects of the institute’s mission, conducting hands-on research, producing policy papers, and meeting with elected officials and community stakeholders to address the most critical domestic policy challenges facing Latinos and other communities of color.
“I know that for many of the staff here, working with students is the most meaningful part of the work,” said the institute’s associate faculty director, Amada Armenta. “LPPI is a fast-paced environment and everything that we do would not be possible without the work of our policy fellows.”
Uniting art and science, from concert hall to carbon cycle
Growing up with a dad who studied earth sciences, Sarah Worden notes with amusement how her childhood bedroom had unusual décor, such as posters about the differences between good and bad ozone.
Though her path to a science career wasn’t a straight line, perhaps it’s no surprise this early immersion led her to become an earth scientist: Worden will earn her Ph.D. in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from UCLA this month. Next, she will study the carbon and water cycles of tropical rainforests at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to help answer questions about climate change.
Between learning about ozone as a kid and studying water cycles in the Congo rainforest for her doctorate, however, the Southern California native spent years as a concert violinist. She took violin lessons over Skype with a teacher in Moscow before coming to UCLA, where she double-majored in music and physics as an undergraduate.
Art and science may seem like polar opposites on the academic spectrum, but she sees similarities in both disciplines. “Whether you’re learning physics or musical compositions, you break it down into basics,” Worden said. “You master the technical skills and then build up the layers to make it more complicated.”
Read more about Sarah Worden on UCLA Newsroom.
Uncovering hidden truths through dance
Aquilah Ohemeng, a multidisciplinary choreographer graduating with an MFA in choreographic inquiry from the department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance has spent her life embarking on an artistic journey that transcends mere movement.
Her work has already been recognized for its depth and innovation. She received an honorable mention in the second-annual Class Artist competition sponsored by the UCLA Chancellor’s Council for the Arts for “PASS US NOT: Holy Ghosted.” This evening-length group performance reimagines Alvin Ailey’s “Revelations” through the lens of Generation Z’s experiences in a post-pandemic United States. It embodies her commitment to exploring historical narratives and contemporary culture through an experiential and multicultural lens.
“I viewed this work as a way to share with my peers the questions that, at least for me, that I’m thinking about such as ‘Where are we going as people?’” she said. “Especially between the Trayvon Martin era up until now, things have just almost seemed like a big snowball just rolling and rolling and rolling and never having time to fully process, at least for me as a young person. I see this work as an incubator, as a space for just witnessing, processing and grieving.”
Read more about Aquilah Ohemeng at GoArts.ucla.edu.
This first-gen college student wants to give others the gift of education
Thirty-three years ago, Ventura County officials posthumously named a library in El Rio, a small, unincorporated farming community near Oxnard, after Albert H. Soliz. A high school dropout and a World War II Army veteran, Soliz was a champion for the transformative power of education and sought to keep El Rio youth in school.
UCLA undergraduate Sarahy Torres, who was born and raised in El Rio and Nyeland Acres, a neighborhood a few miles south, remembers going to the Albert H. Soliz Library throughout her middle and high school years. “Every summer, when my mom wasn’t working in the fields, she would take me and my siblings,” she said. “My parents have always uplifted education.”
For Torres’ parents, campesinos who emigrated from Mexico and began working in the farmlands of Oxnard in their late teens, a good education opened the door for their children to prosper. Torres, like Soliz and her parents, has found her own way to uplift education for others.
Pivoting from her original plan to become an elementary school teacher, Torres, who will earn her bachelor’s degree this June as a double major in Chicana/o and Central American studies and in education and social transformation, conducted undergraduate research focusing on the mental health of students from farm-working backgrounds.
Read more about Sarahy Torres on UCLA Newsroom.
Nurturing a passion for composition at the school of music
Yoni Fogelman grew up in a family with broad musical tastes, which served as early fuel to learn, grow and thrive as an artist.
He’d built a compelling body of work before arriving at UCLA, writing music for choirs but also for classical instruments and film scores, showcasing his versatility. His early talent was nurtured through several prestigious fellowships, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Composer Fellowship program and a similar program with the Pasadena Chorale.
“I learned pretty young about the expectations from performers and the entertainment industry,” he said. This early exposure prepared him well for the challenges he would face as a composer.
Fogelman, who is graduating with a degree in music composition from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, was recently recognized with an honorable mention in the second annual Class Artist competition administered by the UCLA Chancellor’s Council on the Arts. His piece, titled “The Everlasting Flame,” a musical setting of the prayers recited during a Chanukah candle-lighting ceremony, was performed by the UCLA Chamber Singers.
Read more about Yoni Fogelman at GoArts.ucla.edu.
She hopes to leave things better than she found them
Naomi Hammonds has accomplished more in her four years at UCLA than some people achieve in a decade but no matter what she’s done, one thing stands out: Her desire to bring resources and support to the students who need them the most.
During her four years of involvement in student government, she has helped pass many initiatives to preserve, renew or create programs that help students. As a USAC representative, for instance, she introduced a parking permit grant for commuter students that will continue until spring 2025.
Now, as USAC president, she helps oversee the allocation of funds that help student organizations and activities thrive. She recently helped secure $10,000 to support several student resource centers across campus — including the Black Bruin Resource Center, Bruin Resource Center, LGBTQ Campus Resource Center, Transfer Student Center and Veteran Resource Center — and restarted a program that allows students to receive free blue books and Scantrons at the UCLA store.
Read more about Naomi Hammonds on UCLA Newsroom.
Making institutions of international law and human rights work better
Mischa Gureghian Hall began his UCLA education in fall 2021 and will earn his bachelor’s in global studies this week, after only three years study. He spent the past year researching and writing his senior thesis on proposed judicial models for prosecuting the crime of aggression in Ukraine, with financial support from a prestigious UCLA/Keck Humanistic Inquiry Undergraduate Research Award.
As a freshman, he took the yearlong Political Violence cluster course, and for the next two years worked as the course’s designated writing specialist, liaising with the teaching team and assisting freshmen with writing and research. Ultimately, he became a research assistant for UCLA historian Jared McBride, the course’s coordinating faculty member.
An aspiring lawyer, Gureghian Hall has also worked as editor-in-chief of the UCLA Undergraduate Law Journal and with the Center for Truth and Justice, a nonprofit created by attorneys to document the testimony of victims in the Azerbaijan–Armenia conflict in Nagorno–Karabakh, known as Artsakh among Armenians. The latter experience took him to The Hague and Geneva as he worked to document and file evidence with international human rights bodies on violations of international law.
“It’s the job of my generation … to make these institutions work better and make our own contibutions to this century-long process of trying to fight the worst instincts of humanity,” he said.
Read more about Mischa Gureghian Hall on the UCLA International Institute website.
A storyteller rooted in data analysis
Take one international development studies major, add a second major, fold in a year of remote education, add multiple years of service in student associations and the student newspaper, pepper with three professional internships, marinate for four years — and you arrive at the life of graduating senior Avanthika Panchapakesan.
Like her Bruin peers graduating this year, Avanthika Panchapakesan began her UCLA studies in the middle of the pandemic. She spent her first full year at home in Sacramento, taking courses remotely and participating virtually in student clubs. “It felt like I never graduated from high school,” she said.
After moving to campus for her sophomore year, Panchapakesan added a major in statistics and data science and supplemented her proficiency in Spanish and Tamil with two years of Arabic study.
The threads of storytelling, problem solving and data analysis run throughout Panchapakesan’s undergraduate years — a whirlwind that has seen her write for the Daily Bruin, serve as a member of UCLA student association Clean Consulting, complete three paid internships and volunteer with World Literary Foundation and Teach for America.
Read more about Avanthika Panchapakesan on the International Institute website.
Art as an emotional journey
Hadaway, who majored in art with a minor in African American studies, unveiled “A Seat at the Table” in 2021, an 18-by-7-foot mural depicting Black Bruins from past to present that she was commissioned to create for the new Black Bruin Resource Center. A piece of hers was also recently selected to be part of the Associated Students of UCLA’s permanent collection as part of its Art in the Union annual competition. And in this year’s Class Artist competition from the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts, Hadaway was acknowledged with an honorable mention.
“Sometimes I find it surreal walking back into the BBRC or seeing them post and my work is in the background,” she said. “And I love seeing people sitting in front of it because it really feels like they’re an extension of the mural — my original intent. Someone actually reached out to me recently and thanked me for making the mural because every time she goes in there, she’s encouraged to keep working harder so that she can make her own mark in history.”
Hadaway’s creative practice is rooted in themes of identity, human connection, faith and empathy. She paints layered portraiture through the concept of “recurring characters” throughout her work, allowing the viewer to see individuals in different contexts. Her subject matter is largely influenced by or specifically reflects people she knows and loves.
Read more about Maia Faith Hadaway at GoArts.ucla.edu.
‘It’s never too late to learn – even for me’
When Emily Wang came to California from China with her husband and 3-year-old daughter, she knew just one person in this country. Settling near Los Angeles, she worked as a restaurant cashier and contemplated options for her future. Learning English was key, so she enrolled in ESL classes at El Camino College in Torrance. A counselor told her about transferring to a four-year university. Wang was 34 at the time, with a first-grader in tow. “They told me, it’s never too late to learn,” she said. “I thought, ‘Wow, really? Even for me?’”
She successfully transferred to UCLA and will graduate this June with a bachelor’s degree from the Luskin School of Public Affairs. But the process of applying also stoked her desire to pursue policy work, as she discovered that she was technically an undocumented immigrant. The family had come to the U.S. legally and had work permits, but after eight years, they were still waiting for an interview and didn’t have green cards.
“I thought, since I’m stuck in this situation, I’m going to use my undocumented identity as my strength to advocate,” she said. “We need more support systems to help undocumented immigrants who are already here, like my daughter.”
She began lobbying on behalf of undocumented immigrants, starting with a state Senate bill that helped expand access to state-based financial aid for undocumented students.
Read more about Emily Wang on the University of California website.
She’s on a journey ‘to bring science to everybody’
Geology can take you to some interesting places. Tibet, for one.
Home to the tallest mountains on Earth, it’s where Abijah Simon spent three field seasons mapping the region’s eastern border as a UCLA graduate student. Carrying only a rock hammer, compass, notebook and camera — using what she calls “old-school, bare-bones geologic techniques” — she studied the inner workings of the world’s highest plateau, which towers 15,000 feet above sea level. In fact, Simon has mapped more of the eastern Tibetan plateau than any other American geologist.
“By measuring the rocks and compiling data, we can create a model for how these mountains formed and where the faults are that cause these really devastating earthquakes in the region. So my work has an impact on seismic risk assessment, which is pretty meaningful,” Simon said. “Our driver while we were there — he’d lost his 8-year-old son in the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people and affected millions. It meant a lot to be able to work there and have an impact on that region.”
Simon, who will graduate this year with her Ph.D. in geology, has always asked big questions about the natural world. Her unique skillset makes her particularly suited to her field: a sculptor and graphic designer, Simon triple-majored in art along with geology and environmental studies as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan.
Read more about Abjiah Simon on UCLA Newsroom.
A cinematic vision that embraces the intersection of grief and art
Kaith Karishma is an explorer. Their path to UCLA was nontraditional, with valuable time spent devoted to self-healing and exploring myriad academic interests in community college — before completing undergraduate work in film and media studies at UC Santa Barbara.
Graduating with an MFA in production/directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television this year, Karishma was named the graduate-level winner of the second annual Class Artist competition sponsored by UCLA’s Chancellor’s Council on the Arts. They were honored for the short film “Poetica for the Living,” which tells the tale of a traveler who wanders a barren landscape, sharing time and stories with others they meet on the way as humanity faces imminent climate collapse.
Karishma was inspired by research that predicts how the earth will be re-formed by rising seawater and the work of South Korean born American filmmaker Konogada, particularly his 2021 melancholy science fiction drama “After Yang.” An experience seeing writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon was also transformational, Karishma said.
“They said something that really impacted me, which is that in America, we’re not allowed to publicly grieve,” Karishma said. “I remember leaving that concert and just talking to my best friend in the car and having this rant about how in America, we’re not allowed to publicly grieve, and we’re never taught to grieve properly and with community.”
Read more about Kaith Karishma at GoArts.ucla.edu.
Studying abroad brought him closer to his parents’ migration story
Jonathan Valenzuela Mejia hardly spoke French. Yet the first-generation college student — traveling alone for the first time — was able to secure a studio apartment in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, just steps away from the Arc de Triomphe.
It was a long way from UCLA, where the global studies and public affairs major would have been starting the fall quarter of his junior year. But it was exactly where he needed to be to expand his worldview, discover a deeply personal cultural phenomenon and visualize the plight of his parents, who had emigrated from Guatemala to the United States in the 1990s.
While traveling, he was struck by how many Central American immigrants live in Europe and decided to study this phenomenon. His research identified a rise in European pro-immigrant policies in relation to growing anti-immigrant hostility in the U.S. He also studied cultural similarities between Central America and countries such as Spain and Italy. The overarching topic, which he would use for his senior thesis, combined his experience abroad and his family’s lives and legacy — and allowed him to tap into a readily available resource.
Read more about Jonathan Valenzuela Mejia on UCLA Newsroom.
A journey from Green Lake to the big screen
Growing up in the quiet, close-knit town of about 500 in Green Lake, Michigan, Sierra Falconer’s conservative family life discouraged consumption of movies and TV, but simultaneously nurtured her vivid imagination, and a passion for writing stories.
Falconer receives her MFA in production/directing this year from the department of Film, Television & Digital Media and her work “Sunfish (& Other Stories on Green Lake),” was recently named an honorable mention in the second-annual Class Artist competition sponsored by UCLA’s Chancellor’s Council on the Arts.
“Sunfish” is a deeply personal project that captures the essence of Falconer’s hometown. Through four interconnected short stories filmed over the course of one summer, it paints a vivid portrait of small-town life. Each narrative offers a unique perspective, collectively encapsulating the town’s spirit and the artist’s memories of a unique place that not many people visit. Falconer will now shop the film around to festivals and hopes it serves as a calling card.
“I was fascinated by the idea of a first film that was a portrait of where I come from, and introducing myself to the world as an artist through place,” she said. “Green Lake is so small and I just love the feel of a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It’s like a perfect bubble where nothing ever changes, nothing comes in and nothing comes out.”
Read more about Sierra Falconer at GoArts.ucla.edu.
Championing socially conscious cinema
Pedro Murcia is using his approach as a community-engaged filmmaker to put his small hometown of Puerto Barrios, Izabal, Guatemala on the map, and build a bridge between U.S. and Latin American cinema.
Murcia was the first enrolled student at the School of Film and Visual Arts at Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City, where he studied under UCLA alumnus Justin Lerner. The two partnered to create “Cadejo Blanco,” a critically acclaimed film about a young woman who infiltrates a gang to rescue her kidnapped sister, written and directed by Lerner and co-produced by Murcia. The film was released during Murcia’s third year at UCLA and was nominated for a 2024 Film Independent John Cassavetes Award, given annually to the writer, director and producer of the best feature made for under $1 million.
“We started seeing the impacts of that film while I was a student at UCLA, so I got to live a really crazy experience,” said Murcia, who is graduating with an MFA in production/directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. “It came out in theaters in the U.S. in L.A., in New York City, all around Europe, Latin America. It was a really good experience for me being a film student and having a film already playing in theaters and doing well. So it was like the best of both worlds.”
Read more about Pedro Murcia at GoArts.ucla.edu.
‘Remember to stop and smell the data!’
When Justin C.M. Brown left a 15-year career in marketing, he was determined to pivot in a direction that would allow him to make more of a difference — even if he didn’t quite know what that would be. At Santa Monica College, he realized where his journey should begin when he enrolled in his first sociology course.
When he transferred to UCLA, he found his footing and direction through the Research Revealed Undergraduate Research Preparation Program, which helps give newer UCLA students a more thorough grounding in conducting research. “The program,” he said, “gave me academic agency and autonomy, and it changed my perspective of myself, in that I was not only a student — I was also a researcher.”
Brown blends his passion for both research and art with interdisciplinary projects that combine sociology, digital humanities and creative expression. Underpinning it all is his belief that everyone possesses creative energy.
“Artists possess a kind of solidarity that crosses all other identities,” he said. “And I believe if more people nourished their artistic identities, it could help dial down the individualism, the partisan rhetoric and the atomization we're experiencing right now.”
‘I see you’: The lifesaving impact of being seen and heard
One February day in 2022, following her shift at a mental health agency, Diana Rinza couldn’t shake off an excruciating headache. She made it home, but went in and out of consciousness while her family called for an ambulance. But the EMT looked at her history of anxiety and hesitated to take her in. He thought it was a panic attack.
Her daughter called Alpa Patel, her boss at the agency, to help advocate for her. Patel, who is also a psychiatrist, insisted it wasn’t a panic attack. Her husband, who only spoke Spanish, also tried to convey that this was not normal. Eventually, EMTs transported her, but the pain continued and the hospital in the San Fernando Valley delayed seeing her.
This time her daughter called Erica Lubliner, another psychiatrist and friend. She and Patel both insisted Rinza’s doctors conduct a CT scan. The results: She had suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm.
Rinza, who graduates this spring, spoke of her experience at a visioning forum for the Hispanic Serving Institution initiative as an undergraduate voice for the “Testimonios: Yo soy HSI” panel. She acknowledges how lucky she is to be alive. If not for the interventions and advocacy by her family and friends, she may have died. She also might not have made it to UCLA without them.
Read more about Diana Rinza on UCLA Newsroom.
The art of sound: In pursuit of immersive musical experiences
Songwriter, performer and producer Jasmine Bailey has a vision for her art form: a world of immersive soundscapes and multisensory communal experiences that bring artists and audiences closer together.
Bailey is graduating this year with a degree in musicology from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She’s simultaneously preparing the release of “Negative Space,” the debut full-length album she wrote, performed and co-produced. In it, Bailey harnesses synesthetic poetry, R&B grooves and lyrics that delve into themes of isolation, healing, identity and transformation. The album was awarded an honorable mention in the second annual Class Artist competition administered by the Chancellor’s Council on the Arts.
Bailey said her musicology studies at UCLA invited her and her fellow students to dive deep into explorations of what music is, what makes it different from sound alone, why it endures as a form of human expression and the permutations of music as a form of cultural awareness.
“Music serves a very real function of keeping us together and keeping us sane and being able to carry us through some of the hardest times of our lives,” she said. “So I think music is a way to survive. Music and art is a way to survive.”
Read more about Jasmine Bailey at GoArts.ucla.edu.
Creating a world of good through the power of AI
The adage “with great power comes great responsibility” may have been popularized through the Spider-Man franchise, but in the world of artificial intelligence ethics, it’s a watchword. For UCLA undergraduate student Mario Peng Lee, it is a guiding principle.
Peng was 9 years old when he began to recognize the power and pitfalls of AI. Already fluent in three languages — he was born in Chile to Taiwanese parents and raised in China, Taiwan and Argentina — he used his first laptop to experiment with the then-newly launched Google Translate.
“I would play around, translating something from Spanish to Chinese to English, then back to Chinese and back to Spanish, and it would end up as a completely different sentence,” said Peng. “So why does that happen? Those are the kinds of questions that led me to pursue the path I’m on now.”
A UCLA, his work across three research labs has focused on applying AI and machine learning to natural language processing and understanding.
His scholarly impact has been immediate: Multiple universities utilize the Diverse Names Generator, a project he co-created that provides randomly selected proper names for example sentences in classroom settings; the resource is the first of its kind to help users overcome unconscious bias that may lead them to default to using Anglophone, male-gendered names. And a paper he coc-wrote on the project’s findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, earned him the linguistics department’s Undergraduate Research and Travel Award.
‘The responsibility of helping people’
Eva Danesh, who found her calling, and her voice, in science and journalism at UCLA, is poised to begin medical school in the fall. It’s a dream she’s had her entire life, sparked in part by watching the talk show “The Doctors” as a kid: balancing the daily responsibilities of helping patients one-on-one with having a platform to share health information with the wider public.
That dual interest is one reason Danesh got involved with journalism at UCLA, where she has worked for the Daily Bruin and served on its editorial board. During her time on the paper, Danesh has covered topics ranging from record-breaking California heat waves and John Wooden to a bone marrow registry event spearheaded by UCLA football — often with her brothers, both of whom are also UCLA student journalists.
“What makes me proudest is knowing that I can put out information that people find well-written and important enough that it can, maybe in a very small way, enact change,” she said. “For example, I’ve written a few stories about blood donation and our blood center, and one day I overheard someone look up from the paper and say they were going to donate blood that day.”
In addition to her writing, Danesh has been able to make a difference in other significant ways. She has served as co-president of the American Medical Women’s Association UCLA undergraduate division, as a teaching assistant for a cell and molecular biology course, and as the instructor of a class she created herself through UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Initiated Education program.
‘A tremendous passion for teaching’: Designing a Mandopop course from scratch
When Harry Li begins teaching Chinese to high school students in Pasadena this fall, he’ll bring with him highly relevant instruction experience, having already led a college-level course.
Li, who will earn both bachelor’s and master’s degrees this month, designed and taught a course on Mandopop for fellow UCLA students during the 2022–23 academic year. The Mandopop genre falls under the umbrella of Chinese pop, or C-pop, with the distinction that lyrics are sung exclusively in Mandarin.
Sharing this passion with other students in a classroom format was a meaningful experience for Li, said Michael Berry, a professor of Chinese cultural studies in the department of Asian languages and cultures who served as Li’s mentor in UCLA’s Undergraduate Student-Initiated Education program.
“Harry Li is brimming with intellectual curiosity, a deep knowledge of the field and a passion for learning,” Berry said. “When he learned there was an opportunity for undergraduate students to teach their own one credit course on a topic of their choice, he immediately applied. Harry is the kind of student who seeks out opportunities and takes them, making the most out of his college experience.”
Read more about Harry Li on the UCLA Division of Humanities website.
From ankle injury to solutions champion for visible and invisible disabilities
When UCLA’s disability studies major — the first at a California public university — launched in fall 2023, Catarina Gerges was quick to enroll. Already minoring in the subject and majoring in neuroscience, she had just enough room in her schedule to fulfill all the credit requirements and still graduate with two majors a year ahead of schedule.
This month, she’ll be one of the first three students to graduate from UCLA with a major in disability studies.
Gerges’ interest in disability studies was sparked after a roller-skating excursion during the winter quarter of her freshman year ended in a trip to the emergency room. With multiple torn ankle ligaments, Gerges’ mobility was severely limited. Even with crutches and support from the BruinAccess paratransit service, she experienced challenges navigating UCLA’s sprawling campus, including getting from her dorm on the Hill to her classes.
“That was the first time I realized how physically inaccessible our campus was,” Gerges recalled.
She became inspired by disabilities studies and how the interdisciplinary field seeks to challenge traditional perceptions and promote accessibility and equity.
Spirit of resilience defines Bruin translating research into care
For Youstina Labib, cardiology hits close to home. She was just 5 when her father, Raouf, underwent his first major cardiac surgery. It was to have a lasting effect on her. She became a vital part of her dad’s care team for serious and ongoing health issues while still in elementary school.
“Maybe some days, instead of playing sports or going to some after-school activity, I would go to the hospital to see my dad,” she remembers. “I spoke Arabic at home and got into a preschool that was primarily for Latinx communities. Many of those students were Spanish speakers, and I was able to learn English right along with them.”
Her dual-language skills made Labib a translator while still in elementary school. She began to understand medical terms and prescription names far earlier than most kids.
UCLA offered both a pre-med track and the research environment she was looking for, and her research has focused on sympathetic innervation in pulmonary fibrosis, which helps her understand how the nervous system responds to lung injury.
With one hand in research and the other in patient care, Labib, who plans to attend medical school and pursue career as a physician-scientist, sees opportunities to add a much-needed female presence to the field of cardiology.
Labor studies graduates reflect on their experiences and hopes for the future
Matthew Royer, Katelynn Garmendia and Breanna Ivette Maldonado were all nominated to speak at the labor studies commencement ceremony on June 15. Ahead of the ceremony, they shared how the their studies in this field have affected their activism and future prospects.
Royer: I will be attending the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School to receive an M.S. in Journalism, where I will focus on labor and business reporting. I hope to use the skills I learned at UCLA to further the world’s knowledge of workers’ struggles.
Garmendia: As a first-generation college student and Latina, our very presence breaks barriers. Recently, I got accepted to UCLA’s master’s of legal studies program, with multiple scholarships, and I am more than excited to attend in the fall and continue breaking these barriers with my presence.
Maldonado: I am committed to continuing my journey as a relentless advocate for workers’ rights and educating forward. I aspire to leverage my experiences and education to effect systemic change, whether through policy advocacy, grassroots organizing or community outreach. My ultimate goal is to contribute to a more just and equitable society for all, as I fight alongside trabajadores like my pops.
Read more about these students on the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment website.
Wonder women: From the margins to the majority in dentistry
Jordan Carfino, once a pre-med major, could have gone in a different direction than her mother and grandfather, both dentists in private practice. She never felt pressured, she said. Ultimately, it was their love for their profession and her mother’s ability to deftly balance family and work that set her on the same path.
Carfino will earn her D.D.S. at UCLA this June before joining Columbia University’s year-long Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency program.
Forty years before Jordan entered dental school, her mother, Dr. Toni Oliver-Carfino, had enrolled at the UCLA School of Dentistry; women comprised just a third of her 1984 class. The school’s 24-member inaugural class of 1968 included a single woman.
In contrast, Jordan Carfino’s class is majority female, and 61% of the recently entering 2023 are women. Carfino feels that one benefit of having so many female classmates is what they offer each other.
“In certain stressful situations and for problem-solving, it’s great. Faculty-wise, I’ve had a number of women among my pre-clinical instructors. They always made it seem —not easy — but very manageable to do what they do, to have a family, and be able to excel in this profession.”
Read more about Jordan Carfino and other women in dentistry on the UCLA School of Dentistry website.
‘I was always thinking like a musicologist – I just didn’t have a word for it’
Ashley Dao, who graduates in June with a bachelor’s in musicology, has a habit of making the news at UCLA. This year she won a campuswide award for leadership from the UCLA Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, the Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Reseearch and Creativity, and the UCLA Music Library Prize for Best Project on Music after 1900.
To cap it off, she was the first undergraduate student ever selected as an honorable mention for the Ingolf Dahl Award, given by the Pacific Southwest Chapter of the American Musicology Society.
Dao’s academic papers have been accepted at scholarly conferences around the country, and for three years she has served as the editor-in-chief of MUSE: An Undergraduate Music Studies Journal.
But she never intended to study musicology until, as a high school student, she attended a musicology department lecture at UCLA.
“It actually woke me up to the fact that I had always been a musicologist. Even as a child, I was analyzing the structure of music and the theory behind it, and I was always curious about music’s historical and social context and how it was shaped by politics and notions of identity. I was always thinking like a musicologist — I just didn’t have a word for it.”
Read a Q&A with Ashley Dao on the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music website.
Medical school graduates celebrate the journey that made them doctors
Four students who recently graduated from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, discussed how their personal and professional experiences influenced their decision to become doctors, and what they hope to accomplish in the future.
Gurjit Kaur became interested in medicine solidified after her father became gravely ill and she routinely witnessed the lack of appropriate medical care he received. Once she completes her residency, she would like to support underserved communities and sees herself working at a county hospital or rural clinic.
Emily Jones joined UCLA as a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program, earning her M.D., as well as a Ph.D. in medical anthropology. During her time in the program, she researched the intersection of violence intervention, trauma surgery and public safety at a county hospital in Los Angeles. Her next step is completing a residency in general surgery, where she aims to continue doing health equity research.
Nonye Ikeanyi will be starting a residency in orthopaedic surgery, a specialty in which women and minorities are underrepresented. As a woman of color, Ikeanyi is looking forward to helping patients from underserved communities feel comfortable when they see an orthopaedic specialist — whether it’s in the emergency room or an outpatient setting.
Marcos Munoz is looking forward to beginning his family medicine residency — a specialty facing a shortage of doctors — at Kaiser Fontana. He also wants to work on health policies affecting underresourced communities and is committed to helping high school and college students on the path to becoming a doctor.
How an introverted student built community – and an impressive body of research
When she arrived at UCLA, Kaitlyn Coons knew there was a wealth of opportunity waiting for her. But she saw herself as an introvert and wasn’t sure if she would find chances to take on leadership roles or form lasting relationships with faculty. In the past four years, she has done both and will now wrap up her undergraduate experience having completed two majors (classics and history) and two minors (digital humanities and Latin).
“I’ve been so fortunate to have been able to learn from such esteemed faculty and build such great relationships with my professors,” she said. “I think it’s a testament to UCLA and the faculty’s commitment to their students.”
She has won several honors for her work and research, including the Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Research and Creativity and the UCLA Library Prize for Undergraduate Research in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. She also serves as co-president of the Classical Society at UCLA and Eta Sigma Phi, the national classics honor society.
“Not only did I want to be a part of the community, I wanted to start building inclusive, accessible communities myself,” Kaitlyn said. “Coming in as such an introverted student, I think I’m most proud of seeing my progression from being just a participant to being a leader in my communities.”
Read more about Kaitlyn Coons on the UCLA Division of Humanities website.
At UCLA Extension, a filmmaker who honors Indigenous mythology
Lukas Valderrama has been drawn to mythology since he was a small boy. Growing up in Atlanta, he used a digital camcorder to make short films full of heroes, monsters, magic and mysticism.
But as he grew older, and started to make movies for a living, Valderrama noticed that fantasy stories on the big screen were often hitting the same notes. Having learned about the diversity of mythology in the Americas and beyond, in part from his Chilean Jewish parents, Valderrama knew that something was missing.
As part of an effort to fill the gap, Valderrama and Perry Ground, a member of the Onondaga Nation and Valderrama's writing partner, started Petroglyph, a production company focused on highlighting Indigenous stories through film.
"It's about providing a space for storytelling and cultural knowledge from Indigenous communities and combining it with our filmmaking knowledge in a way that's very new," said Valderrama, who will graduate this June with a UCLA Extension certificate in screenwriting, which he completed in December of last year.
Read more about Lukas Valderrama on the UCLA Extension website.
