Young boy scouts and girl scouts stood in front of John Wooden, striking poses with their arms crossed and stern gazes. They came across his statue after deciphering the clues in a scavenger hunt, an interactive campus tour which was part of Bruin Scouts College Day, Bruin Scouts’ biggest event of the year.
Bruin Scouts brought about 150 high school and middle school students from troops across Los Angeles to campus on Saturday.
Scouts participated in interactive workshops on study skills, picking the right college, essay planning and resume building, said Jonathan Wu, a fourth-year human biology and society student and one of the founders of Bruin Scouts.
The organization was founded in 2011 with the goal of interacting with boy scouts and girl scouts in the Los Angeles area. The group hosts quarterly community service events and mentors scouts, said Cristina Gonzalez, a fourth-year linguistics and Spanish student and the director of community outreach for Bruin Scouts.
Bruin Scouts hopes to forge the same bonds between members that students create when they are scouts, Gonzalez said.
“As a scout you have input from parents and other adults but not from people in college. We want to show them that even though we’re in college, we still care about scouting,” Wu said.
Wu said he founded Bruin Scouts because scouting was a big influence in his life. “I wanted to give back to scouting in some way,” he said.
Wu said he thinks Bruin Scouts is a good way for UCLA students with scouting experience to connect with each other and for high school scouts to be able to continue their scouting experience through college.
Jessie Krier, a third-year psychology student and the president of Bruin Scouts, said she was involved in different community service organizations when she came to UCLA, but she joined Bruin Scouts because she was looking for the same sense of community that scouting had given her when she was younger.
Because some UCLA students have backgrounds in scouting, Krier said she thinks Bruin Scouts can connect to the younger students better and make scouting and college more appealing and relatable for them.
Wu, who is also the director of boy scout relations, connects with local troops. Through Bruin Scouts, each member is assigned to a girl or boy scout to mentor, Wu said.
The main activity of the Bruin Scouts College Day was the interactive campus tour, which involved a series of riddles or clues, such as common myths or fun facts, that the scouts used to find different locations around campus.
“Since they are scouts, they want more of an adventure. We want to give them the opportunity to gain independence and navigational skills and strategies while they explore the campus,” Gonzalez said.
One girl scout who was a freshman in high school said she enjoyed spending time with the UCLA students who made an effort to engage every student in conversation. Though she attended the event for the experience of visiting UCLA, she said it made her more comfortable considering the university as a choice in the future.
Patrick Wiltz, a second-year statistics student and a member of Bruin Scouts, said he enjoyed working with the younger students because of their energy.
“I love how passionate the (younger scouts) are,” he said. “That drive is great to see. I wanted to share my experiences at UCLA and tell stories about being late to class and living in the dorms.”
Now that Bruin Scouts is a growing organization and has seen increased interest in the event, they plan to hold another college day again next year and make it an annual project.