When Brandy Kuentzel was a UCLA student back in the early 2000s, being on a reality television show competing to work for Donald Trump was one of the last things on her mind. Kuentzel graduated from UCLA in 2002, and has since received her juris doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School, worked as an attorney and started her own cupcake business.
She is also now being featured as a contestant on NBC’s “The Apprentice,” which airs Thursday nights at 10 p.m. on NBC.
“I’m an attorney, and I saw a posting on a blog that lawyers tend to follow, and I sort of just thought it would be a fun thing. My best friend and I thought it would have been fun to take a road trip to Los Angeles. We went down together and tried out,” Kuentzel said.
While at UCLA, Kuentzel worked at UCLA’s Department of Neurosurgery, majored in political science with a minor in English, studied abroad and had several jobs to support herself through college.
“One of my best memories at UCLA was sharing an apartment. I had a one-bedroom apartment my first year of college with three other people, and at the time, I hated it. But now … I look back on it, and I’m like, “˜Wow, those were such great memories,'” Kuentzel said.
Kuentzel is now competing against the show’s other contestants for an opportunity to work for Donald Trump at the Trump Organization and a starting salary of $250,000, while maintaining her own cupcake truck business in San Francisco with Amanda Newkirk, also a UCLA alumna and Kuentzel’s best friend.
“I think she has a really smart strategy. If you notice, she kind of sits back and she lets the other women tear each other down and stoop to a level that’s a little below where I think she would ever find herself. She just sits back and does what she needs to do,” Newkirk said.
The show is based on the idea of helping those who have been negatively affected by the recent economic plummet and giving them a second chance. To qualify, applicants had to make it through numerous interview rounds, making the show “the ultimate job interview.”
“You know, I really think that the show is a good show, and that you should get out of it that you can make all your dreams come true and basically do what you want to do. I really like the positive spin on “˜The Apprentice’ this year,” Kuentzel said.
The season is typically 13 weeks long, with all of the filming done during the summer in New York City. All the episodes have been taped, except for the live season finale, which will air in December and will reveal the final results between the last two remaining candidates.
“Brandy seems like a good candidate, but it seems as if nothing about her makes her stand out. Sometimes it seems as if she likes to play it safe all the time, but the other people like to take risks and make their presence known, and that’s what I think Trump might possibly be looking for,” said Abby Delos Santos, a second-year history student.
As “the ultimate job interview,” the show revolves around Donald Trump assigning teams to tasks involving numerous aspects of the business industry and judging their performance.
“My favorite part was meeting Donald Trump. It’s not every day that you get to meet Mr. Trump and have access to him. He’s very thoughtful and very calculated, amazingly confident. He definitely demands the attention in the room. He’s exactly what you see on TV,” Kuentzel said.
Kuentzel and the rest of the cast are given ambitious tasks with strict time constraints each week. Every week, someone is dismissed from the show and hears Trump’s infamous line,
“You’re fired!”
“Someday, I’d like to be the next apprentice and work for Donald Trump,” said Cheryl Groenenberg, a third-year political science student. “That would be a ridiculously amazing experience. I think it’s crazy that a UCLA alumna is on it, especially someone who has the same major as me. All the more reason for me to think I could be on it.”
Just more than halfway through the season, Kuentzel is still in the running, with six weeks left until the finale.
“You know, if I were to become the next “˜Apprentice,’ I honestly would feel really grateful. I really was on the show to try and be a strong competitor and teammate and do my best to my own ability every day. The real test was to be the best person you could be to get places in life,” Kuentzel said.