To help her family shoulder the cost of a UCLA education, Christine Kim started to scout out on-campus resources in hopes of maximizing her tuition dollar.
Throughout her freshman year, Kim made mental notes of ways to find free or subsidized services.
She became the go-to person among her friends for advice on accessing campus resources, getting involved and saving money on a day-to-day basis.
When Kim started posting tips on friends’ Facebook walls, they suggested she turn these tips into something bigger.
In mid-July, her collection of advice and suggestions for students turned into the Tumblr website “Tips to Save at UCLA.”
The website, originally geared toward incoming freshmen, has quickly grown in popularity.
Since its launch, Kim’s website has gained more than 70,000 hits and has fielded nearly 600 posts to date, including Kim’s tips, readers’ questions and her responses to those questions.
First-year psychology student Ashley McQuerter earned $10 on her BruinCard ”“ before she even attended her first class at UCLA this fall.
She participated in several online surveys administered by the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
McQuerter, who put her earnings toward her laundry expenses, said she learned this moneymaking technique from Kim’s website.
But the website has expanded beyond financial advice into an open Q&A dialogue about a variety of topics.
While Kim did not expect this, she said she has embraced the development.
One of her subscribers, Logan Linnane, a first-year geography/environmental studies student, posted a question about joining the Campus Events Commission.
He said he was later contacted by a Tumblr user from CEC ““ and follower of the blog ““ who noticed the published question.
Another subscriber, first-year psychobiology student Tasha Nghiem, said she found the tips on the website helpful when planning for move-in this summer.
In the “ask” section of “Tips to Save,” Nghiem posted a question about work-study interviews, and Kim responded with a post on work-study addressed to all her readers.
Kim said she was not expecting such a positive response to the website, and that she still has a hard time understanding the extent of its popularity.
Despite posting a video on the website asking people to greet her if they see her on campus, the soft-spoken Kim said she is still surprised when people recognize her.
“I still don’t think I realize how big it’s gotten,” Kim said.
“When people recognize me I am just kind of like “˜Oh, oh yeah hi!’ I don’t feel like it’s a big deal. It’s just kind of something that I do on the side.”
The blog has even found its way to other college campuses.
Kim has learned that UC Berkeley students are among her readers, despite the blog’s UCLA focus.
Kim’s friend Andy Cheng, a third-year political science student at UC Berkeley, noticed his floormates browsing the website.
Terisa Yiin, a first-year undeclared student at UC Berkeley, discovered “Tips to Save” on her online dashboard when her first-year friend at UCLA started re-blogging posts from the website.
Kim said the website’s impact has extended beyond the current freshman class.
She said she has also been approached by upperclassmen who say they appreciate the resources on her website.
In addition, the UCLA Fund endorsed Kim’s site on its blog, and the UCLA Volunteer Center invited Kim to be a part of its social media group.
Kim runs the blog in addition to a job at the Jules Stein Eye Institute.
Although she said she sometimes felt overwhelmed by the amount of questions posted by her readers, Kim said she does not feel that maintaining the website is a burden.
She added that since the academic year began, questions on the site have decreased.
Kim had one advertisement on the website for about two weeks, but she took it down because she felt it took away from the mission of her website.
She does not receive any monetary benefit for her efforts.
She said the attention surprises and humbles her.
“As long as I helped at least a few people, I’m really happy,” Kim said.