Like many graduating seniors, student leaders leaving this year
are saying their goodbyes to UCLA. But they say their involvement
outside of the classroom has given them a very different kind of
education, one they will take with them as they venture into the
“real world.”
“It’s been the most rewarding, enriching experience
I’ve ever had,” said David Chung, director of the Asian
Pacific Coalition, on working with his organization.
Though Chung, a political science student, said he could have
graduated last year, he wanted to come back to be on APC staff.
“(Chung) is an extremely valuable person to have around.
He’ll be missed, but I think he did a good job of making sure
next year’s staff will be strong,” said Daniel Huynh,
this year’s programmer for APC.
Chung also said he believes the organization is in good standing
to tackle issues like the Classification by Race, Ethnicity, Color
and National Origin, a bill slated for the March 2004 ballot
designed to stop state institutions from gathering racial data.
“More than anything, the things that stand out are the
relationships that develop with the people you’re working
with, because they really do care deeply about the
community,” Chung said.
Another student leader, Avishai Shraga, director of
bruinwalk.com and co-vice president of Bruins for Israel, said
he’s going to miss UCLA, but said he knows it’s time to
move on.
He said while it is going to be hard to depart from
bruinwalk.com, it was fun to see the Web site grow from serving 100
students a day to more than 15,000.
Shraga also created UCLAProfessors.com, which later merged with
bruinwalk.com as the “Professor Reviews” portion of the
site, a feature now widely used by students.
“I just hope (Shraga) doesn’t get pigeon-holed in
some cubicle job, because there’s super potential for that
guy,” said Graham Haynes, a designer for bruinwalk.com who
worked with Shraga.
Shraga, a computer science student, didn’t become involved
with Bruins for Israel until this year, but said the experience
“opened (his) eyes to a new aspect of the college campus:
political involvement.”
Another graduating senior who is no stranger to political
activism, Andrew Jones, has had his share of controversy at
UCLA.
During his time as a student, Jones, chairman of the Bruin
Republicans, has protested affirmative action with a racially
charged bake sale, voiced his support of the Iraq war in the midst
of hundreds of anti-war protesters and chatted with cable news
commentator Bill O’Reilly.
Chris Riha, executive director for Bruin Republicans this year,
said Jones’ presence will be missed next year.
“Andy knew absolutely everything that went on in student
government and with administrators. We’re going to lose that
experience,” he said, but emphasized that the new leadership
has many new ideas.
David Dahle, this year’s president of the Undergraduate
Students Association Council, took somewhat of a different route to
becoming a leader on campus.
A political science and sociology student, Dahle got involved
early with student government at UCLA, working with the Student
Welfare Commission and as a general representative on USAC before
winning an extremely close election for the presidency last
year.
“The last three years, I’ve really grown as a person
in being able to not only lead, but take people with you and show
them how to follow,” he said.
Dahle said he has some concerns about a lack of diversity of
opinion on next year’s council, but thinks in general they
will do a good job.
“The people that got elected are passionate about issues
facing USAC, and in that sense I think they’ll try their
best,” he said.