With a 419-acre campus and more than 35,000 students, UCLA may
seem like an overwhelming place. But students can personalize the
campus and find their niche through groups that focus on topics as
diverse as chess, Russian, robotics and salsa.
Some of these groups are based on common religion, others on
common ethnicity, and others are based on common interest.
Go Fish!, UCLA’s student fishing group, plans two or three
weekend fishing trips per quarter.
On these excursions, students unite through “a love of
fishing and being social,” said Matt Schneider, a third-year
business economics student and the founder and president of Go
Fish!
Students carpool to lakes up north where veterans share tackle
and supplies with newcomers.
“My most memorable experience is when a newcomer catches
their first fish,” Schneider said. “You just
can’t replace that feeling.”
For some students, becoming involved in a club provides a place
to meet students with similar interests and greatly influences
their time at UCLA.
Darryl Shiraishi, a third-year mathematics student, is going to
be an officer of the Delta Terrace Residents Association on the
residence Hill.
“Within DTRA we have each other’s backs. … We all
support each other with whatever events we decide to plan,”
Shiraishi said.
In the area of fine arts, UCLA has groups as diverse as
“Fem”¢bull;in”¢bull;art,” which explores gender in art
from a feminist perspective, and “Music to Heal,” an
on-campus group that serves senior citizens by using music as a
form of healing.
Where students have not found groups to fill their particular
need, they have formed their own.
Last year, second-year business economics student Sasha Hoffman
founded Bruin Bellydance, a group whose purpose is “to spread
the art form of Turkish and Egyptian belly dance to students in the
form of a dance team.”
After Hoffman obtained sponsors and trained during the summer,
she was able to venture abroad to compete.
“I toured all over Greece and Turkey and it was very
fun,” Hoffman said.
Though Hoffman is an advanced dancer, she said she enjoys
teaching beginners.
Students also tackle world issues beyond the campus through
political and humanitarian activism with groups such as Bruin
Republicans, Amnesty International and Bruin Democrats.
Last year, Amnesty International, a student group whose goal is
to inform and educate students at UCLA about human rights concerns,
tackled issues ranging from child trafficking to minority
rights.
“(Amnesty International) has made me more proactive as a
student. It has made me realize that even on campus there is work
to be done,” said Smitha Srinath, a fourth-year biology
student and the co-president of Amnesty International.
Another avenue of involvement some students choose to pursue is
volunteer work.
One program that has grown in the past five years is Dance
Marathon, an event in which students stay awake and on their feet
for 26 hours in order to raise money for pediatric AIDS
research.
“There’s just so much spirit associated with Dance
Marathon. … It’s a lot of camaraderie,” said Isidro
Mariscal, a fourth-year history student and the associate director
of Dance Marathon.
“It let me find a home at UCLA and a family I can go
to.”