Just days into his new UCLA journey, Liam Huynh, a first-year biology major from Stockton, had already put down roots in Westwood — literally. On Saturday morning, he joined some four dozen other Bruins digging, planting and landscaping along the south entrance to campus, where a new native plant micro-forest is taking shape.
The effort was one of more than 30 projects spanning the breadth of Los Angeles and beyond that brought students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners together for UCLA Volunteer Day, the campus’s traditional start-of-the-year community service initiative. Now in its 18th year, initiative has grown into the nation’s largest service project for new university students.
► Read more about UCLA Connects and the university's deep engagement with the communities Los Angeles.
With more than a thousand Bruins fanning out across the city to beautify schools and communities, provide food and resources for those in need, assist disadvantaged kids, tend to community gardens and beaches, and clean the headstones of military veterans, UCLA alumni took the spirit coast to coast and globally, organizing similar projects from New York to Paris.
Service, Chancellor Julio Frenk said at the morning kick-off in Bruin Plaza, “has become such an essential part of the DNA of this university.” He urged volunteers to connect with people from the communities they were serving, to open their hearts and minds, and to understand how acts kindness can help build a better world. “That is one of the most fulfilling things you can do — not just to help others but also to enrich your own life.”
Frenk was joined by other UCLA and city leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who encouraged students, especially those new to Los Angeles, to see the day as a chance to lend a hand but also to discover the dynamic city beyond campus.
“Go out today with that Bruin spirit and meet different Angelenos from all around. And hopefully, this will not be the end of your volunteer activity and the end of your service,” she told the crowd. “Show them what Bruins can do!”
And with that, Bruins, clad in "Bruins Give Back" T-shirts, boarded buses to food banks, parks, shelters, senior centers and schools throughout Southern California. A small contingent stayed closer to home, where Liam Huynh and his friend, third-year chemical engineering student Razi Aftab, were helping transform a stretch of Westwood Boulevard with native plants, part of a nonprofit-funded project designed to provide cooling and nature education during the 2028 Olympic Games and beyond.
Both old hands at service, Huynh and Aftab met while volunteering for the American Red Cross in Northern California, but this was their first Volunteer Day at UCLA. As they dug into the soil, Chancellor Frenk stopped by to chat and offer encouragement.
“It was very exciting — it was my first time meeting him,” said Huynh, who last weekend attended the New Student Welcome and block party. “He’s such a nice person, and you can really tell that through his speeches and meeting him in person.”
Huynh said that while it was UCLA’s academics and diversity that initially drew him to Westwood, he was already discovering something more — a spirit of connection and service that made him feel at home.
“The school culture here is incomparable to anything else,” he said. “I love Volunteer Day.”
More on back-to-school at UCLA
► Move-in week: Bruins bring their big dreams – and a bedazzled duck – to UCLA
► Bruins' first lesson at New Student Welcome, and a block party to boot
► Chancellor Frenk: Welcome to a new academic year
► UCLA's refreshed True Bruin Values
► Transfer Bruins helping transfer Bruins
► Found in translation: How a new Bruin builds community through language
