Alumna learns to land on her feet in life’s adventure through rock climbing

The most important lesson Alice Kao learned from rock climbing was how to fall down, she said.

Kao, a UCLA alumna, founded Sender One Climbing in 2012 with co-founders Wes Chu and Wes Shih based on shared principles of self-discovery and a goal of connecting with others through climbing. She will return to UCLA on Tuesday for a Fireside Chat in Carnesale Commons hosted by Startup UCLA, where she will discuss her own entrepreneurship and successes with students. Kao said she hopes to help students understand how best to use resources at UCLA to discover their passions – similar to how she said climbing with others helped her build skills and learn about herself after a rough break up. Kao learned that failure is a necessary part of success, and said she had to learn how to fall down and get back up in life and in climbing.

“When I went to the climbing gym, I found my community,” Kao said. “I just found these really nice people that talked to me about climbing, and they didn’t judge me for who I was, and they didn’t talk to me about my terrible breakup or why I moved halfway across the world – and that was wonderful.”

Kao said her advice for students is to remember that it can be difficult at 18 or 21 to decide what they want to do with their lives at 40. She said she wants UCLA students to continue exploring and move past the fear of change.

Kao has experienced switching gears throughout her life, including swapping one career as an investment banker for entrepreneurship and opening a gym. Climbing, she said, helped her develop the ability to take more risks without fear of failure.

Wes Shih, Kao’s husband and a Sender One co-founder, said he experienced a second honeymoon with climbing when he helped open the gym. Apart from fostering a sense of community and trust among climbers, Shih said climbers typically share core values. One of these values is understanding the importance of protecting the areas related to their interests, such as Joshua Tree National Park, where Shih began outdoor climbing. He said trust is another significant aspect of climbing, because both indoor and outdoor climbing requires people to put faith in their climbing partner, who is responsible for belaying and giving rope that matches their partner’s speed and movements.

Climbing also is an effective method of practicing mindfulness because the risk encourages a deeper sense of awareness of one’s body and surroundings, Shih said.

The capacity for improvement lies in understanding that time is a valuable resource, something he said he and Kao both gained from climbing.

“Time is very important and you have to draw boundaries over it because you have a finite amount. I think climbing helps people discover that,” Shih said. “There are times when time just disappears, like when you get on the wall, if you’re distracted, then you’re not going to climb very well.”

Kao also said when she’s climbing, she has to remain present in the moment by focusing on herself and her immediate experience, which helps her block out stressors in other areas of her life, such as running a business and raising her two kids.

Many climbers focus on the mental aspects of the sport and the ways they connect to each other, said Charles Landis, who has been a member at Sender One for six years. A clear and focused mindset is necessary during climbing, he said, and sometimes simply talking through the route with others involved can help improve a climber’s mental state.

The lessons Landis learned from working through climbing routes are applicable elsewhere, too, he said. He said climbing helped him better work out ways to overcome his fears both on the wall – such as his fear of heights – and in everyday life, such as preparing for difficult conversations with others.

Kao tried a lot of different team sports in her time at UCLA, but she said nothing stuck until after she finished school and found climbing, where she learned how to fail and continue working toward her goals. Kao said discovering climbing was a significant change in her life and transformed her into a better person.

“I climb because it reminds me of a happy time in my life, and it reminds me of a time that climbing made me better,” Kao said. “And that’s why I get on the wall – because when I’m climbing, the only thing I can focus on is me and the wall and everything else just gets tuned out.”

UCLA South Asian a cappella group Naya Zamaana hosts interstate competition

This post was updated April 13 at 9:15 p.m.

A cappella teams from all over the country dueled on stage, performing a fusion of Western and traditional South Asian songs.

Sahana, a South Asian singing competition, welcomed groups from various states to the Ackerman Grand Ballroom on Saturday. The competition was hosted by a UCLA a cappella group titled Naya Zamaana, whose board members chose nine performers from 23 auditioning groups, said Rohan Desikan, the club’s director. Teams represented schools such as Purdue University, Stanford University and the University of Miami. Each team performed a 12-minute set consisting of songs and choreography while competing for first place. Their aim is to advance to the All-American Awaaz finals, an April competition dedicated to bringing together South Asian college a cappella groups from the country.

Desikan, a third-year electrical engineering student, said the Saturday competition was the club’s second time hosting the event, the first being in March 2018. Naya Zamaana has performed in many competitions over the years, but wanted to create its own event to support the South Asian a cappella scene, he said.

“We love giving teams a platform to showcase their talent, especially since Los Angeles is such a big city and (there are) so many South Asian people,” he said. “There are competitions in places like North Carolina where the South Asian following is definitely not as big, so we thought we should bring this (Asian) presence here.”

Just before each of the nine finalists performed, brief videos introducing each respective team and their schools played on stage. Throughout the sets, teams sang modern Indian songs, including tracks from well-known Bollywood movies, while also performing more traditional song styles like Carnatic and Hindustani music, Desikan said.

Events such as Sahana allow individuals to broaden their scope outside of Western a cappella and learn more about South Asian music, said Sarang Joshi, a board member of All-American Awaaz, and a former a cappella singer with the University of Washington.

“I think it’s great to see college kids doing what they love and bringing together parts of their own heritage with the South Asian influence as well as from the United States,” Joshi said. “It’s really great to see how we can represent our combined culture in musical form.”

Along with South Asian musical influences, teams also weaved in popular Western music, including songs by artists Ed Sheeran, Justin Timberlake and Zara Larsson. Within a team, one vocalist would perform a Hindi song while the other singer would perform an American song, sometimes singing them separately, and other times fusing the tracks together.

The event also included individuals working in the South Asian music industry. All four judges were music professionals, including third-year political science student and Indian-American playback singer Pragathi Guruprasad, whose voice has been featured in Tamil-language films.

Once the a cappella teams performed, UCLA South Asian dance groups Bataaka Nu Shaak and Taara took the stage, providing the judges with time to deliberate the winners, Desikan said. As the night came to a close, teams wearing traditional South Asian clothing with vibrant colors, beaded embroidery and scarves stood on stage for a beatbox battle.

University of Maryland’s a cappella team, Anokha, took home the grand prize of first place and a $1,000 check at the awards ceremony. Before starting their routine, the group had briefly stated some statistics about human trafficking and female victims. Anokha then performed songs in both English and Hindi, including “Survivor,” by Destiny’s Child. All their songs featured lyrics that were empowering to women, and segments of their choreography implied women gaining agency by, for example, leaving abusive relationships.

Toward the end of the event, performers from various schools represented onstage congratulated one another. This sense of community is strong within South Asian a cappella groups, said Ishan Saha, a second-year psychobiology student and creative director at Naya Zamaana. He said competing in events like Sahana and meeting other a cappella teams has been a highlight of his time at UCLA.

“It’s really cool to see how the South Asian a cappella genre is developing as a whole and how each school is developing its own distinct style,” Saha said. “It’s truly an incredible experience and I’ve loved every bit of it.”

Open stores in Westwood are great, but open spaces for students are better

Picture this: You’re walking through Westwood on a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon. You wander onto Broxton Avenue, seeing an array of storefronts and people. You decide to treat yourself to a warm, cinnamon-sugar cookie from Diddy Riese, and you step outside, eager to enjoy its sugary sweetness while feeling one with the community. You look around, though, and the only available community space you see is three dusty plastic chairs.

For years, Westwood’s lack of character could be explained by its skewed decisionmaking team, the Westwood Neighborhood Council. Despite students composing a large portion of the population, the WWNC gave student representatives little chance to participate in elections or meetings.

But now, with the student-centric North Westwood Neighborhood Council on the scene, the time has never been better for Westwood to build a community. And that starts by building community spaces.

The Westwood Village Improvement Association has heard proposals for open spaces that suggested creating rows of tables and chairs on Broxton Avenue for passersby to enjoy themselves. The first proposal came in 2012 and focused on the southern end of Broxton, but later was modified in 2015 to convert the northern end. However, per Andrew Thomas, WVIA executive director, the plan was paused for examination and bogged down by concerns about programming.

Creating a place where people simply can hang out gives character to a community and makes it far more enjoyable for its members. Westwood is lacking in reasons for residents to venture into the Village, besides day-to-day errands, and lacks an obvious destination where people can meet. For the Village to thrive, the community needs space – not just storefronts and restaurants.

Westwood is home to one of the largest universities by enrollment in the country, yet fails to cater to students. Instead, it’s a drive-through town that primarily serves homeowners and car owners – things the average UCLA student is not.

Olivia Duff, a first-year world arts and culture student, said she’s never really thought of Westwood as a place to hang out. She said Westwood pales in comparison to her hometown of Berkeley, California.

“When I think about Berkeley and other college towns, I realize that Westwood is one of the few places that (doesn’t) have a common place for people to sit and eat or just (hang out),” Duff said. “I often find myself going to Westwood for what I need and then leaving right after.”

Thomas said the WVIA is considering ideas for a pedestrian space, though it hasn’t moved forward with any specific plans.

“Right now, we’re open to what kind of plaza it will be, but we’re focusing on lower Broxton,” Thomas said. “Having a destination is huge, and right now Westwood doesn’t have a place where people can gather.”

By not giving residents a place to sit and enjoy the area, Westwood really only exists as a domain of businesses. This strips it of the ability to be a connected community.

Compare this to other neighborhoods in the city, such as Santa Monica, where residents can enjoy themselves on the Third Street Promenade, or even Downtown, where visitors can take a break from the busyness of the city by resting on benches outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Meanwhile, Westwood residents are forced to make do with bus stops and a couple broken benches.

But Westwood has potential venues that easily can be turned into community spaces. The Broxton area, for example, already offers a weekly farmers’ market and occasional events – including the fall quarter Westwood Block Party – so it already has its foot in the door as a destination. With a permanent pedestrian plaza, Westwood could host live performances, movie screenings and community events. This would allow residents to congregate and connect, while also supporting local art and culture.

Michael Skiles, president of the Graduate Students Association and the NWWNC, has long supported a pedestrian plaza along Broxton and thinks it could be home to events like farmers’ markets, WestWoodstock and performances, fitted with tables and chairs so people have somewhere to sit and enjoy.

Skiles also hopes for a parklet on Glendon Avenue near Ministry of Coffee, and for restaurants to start creating outdoor spaces that foster appreciation for the area.

“Right now, the nearest parks are pretty far from campus, but now we’re hoping to create parklike spaces by reclaiming areas that really aren’t needed for cars anymore,” Skiles said.

For college students especially, many of whom live in shoebox-sized dorm rooms, a community space would give them an enjoyable hangout spot while helping to connect the town and the campus.

Certainly, creating open spaces raises questions of whether they will disrupt the surrounding area. However, these proposed areas are naturally closed off and lend themselves to being public spaces. For instance, Broxton already is a one-way street without very much traffic, so its elimination as a through street for cars wouldn’t disrupt the community. Further, open space areas are such a significant addition to Westwood that any temporary and trivial concerns should not outweigh or delay their implementations.

Pedestrian spaces are both beneficial and feasible. They add value to the community, encourage visitors and residents to patronize businesses and gin up interest in taking part in the Village.

At the very least, they give you a place to eat your Diddy Riese cookies in peace.

Editorial: The Agora is an overwhelming mirage with an underwhelming delivery

Affordable housing is yet again a dashed hope in Westwood.

The Agora, a proposed private 16-story apartment complex, came to town in November, claiming to offer affordable student housing in Westwood. The two physicians behind the project had filed plans with the Los Angeles Department of City of Planning, promising amenities such as a farmed vegetable garden, a teaching kitchen and a meditation garden. While several community organizations, such as the Holmby Westwood Property Owners Association and the Westwood Neighborhood Council, spoke out against the project on the basis of zoning technicalities, the endeavor seemed a noble attempt to bring – for once – a good deal for students.

We should have known it was too good to be true.

The truth is, affordability really isn’t the mantra at The Agora. Most of the complex’s beds would be rented out at a cost of $1,000 to $1,200 per month. The Agora advertises this cost as less expensive than some UCLA-owned student housing, but most of its beds would still fall out of the range of what students would call economical – let alone affordable.

A 14P meal plan in a classic triple-occupancy dorm on the hill costs nearly $13,000. Its price averages out to just over $1,433 per month over the course of the nine months a student typically would live there. In other words, for just an extra $200 more than the most expensive residences at The Agora, students are offered meals, utilities and the energetic paraphernalia associated with campus housing. By those numbers, The Agora isn’t really “affordable.” At best, it isn’t even marginally better.

That’s clear given developers of The Agora don’t really seem to stand for affordability. Despite doubling the number of beds in the property from 231 to 462, the price for each bed remained the same – effectively increasing occupancy at the same price. Even more so, construction of The Agora would require the removal of the current tenants of the property, including those in PodShare, a co-living affordable housing company that currently rents out beds at $840 per month.

Community leaders appear to have missed this nuance. Both the North Westwood Neighborhood Council and the Graduate Students Association have shown support for The Agora, neglecting to examine the finer intricacies of the project. But when students at UCLA are forced into homelessness for exorbitant rent prices, we ought to hold developers to higher standards before deeming their property affordable – especially when they only manage a price tag that is a couple hundred bucks off university housing costs.

Affordability-centered developers would not sacrifice more affordable options to promote their own, and they wouldn’t shortchange students by doubling the availability of beds while keeping the cost of rent after airing concerns from the community.

And while current plans for The Agora include around approximately 50 beds that would be rented at under $500 per month, that quantity is there so the project can stay minimally compliant with Measure JJJ, which sets affordable housing mandates for projects near metro stops – not for the sake of students.

Developers in the neighborhood have long taken advantage of students’ need to live near campus, and The Agora seems just another example. And as long as we fall for nice-to-hear messaging from developers, affordable housing will continue to be as elusive as The Agora’s commitment to it.

Bruin Tea: Why are the chairs outside Ackerman Union so heavy and loud?

Quarter system got you down? Have you fallen and can’t get up? Bruin Tea is a series investigating student questions and petty concerns about UCLA.

The white metal chairs outside Ackerman Union and other dining locations on campus are controlled by Associated Students UCLA. Cindy Bolton, the ASUCLA food service director, addressed the durability and screech of the chairs.

Bolton said ASUCLA repaints the chairs every few years but they have not been replaced in decades. She said the chairs have been at UCLA since at least 1985, when she was a student, so she does not know when or why they were originally chosen.

Bolton said the chairs have survived on campus for so long because of their durability and weight.

“They don’t travel much (as in disappear) and they don’t break easily,” she said.

Students have noted the chairs make a screeching noise when they’re moved. Bolton said she thinks this issue is unavoidable with the design and weight of the chair.

“I don’t believe putting rubber or plastic feet on the chairs would help much, as they would likely fall off after just a few drags across the ground,” Bolton said.

Reusing the chairs in a recent remodel, rather than buying new ones, boosted UCLA’s sustainability ratings by a few points, Bolton added.

TL;DR: “They screech when people drag them across the ground because they are metal and heavy, and the ground is usually either concrete or brick,” Bolton said.

Track and field launches into top-5 finishes at New Mexico Collegiate Classic

Sondre Guttormsen refuses to look back.

The freshman pole vaulter was one of five UCLA track and field athletes to compete in the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Three Bruin pole vaulters had top-five finishes, including Guttormsen, sophomore Tate Curran and redshirt senior Elleyse Garrett.

Pole vaulters coach Anthony Curran said Guttormsen only envisions himself atop the competition.

“(Guttormsen is) so far ahead than he was last year at this time,” Curran said. “He now only wants to be the top in the country. He’s looking at bars way above any freshman here has ever looked at.”

Guttormsen and Curran placed first and third in the collegiate division for the second consecutive meet with marks of 5.52 meters and 5.32, respectively. The two are ranked first and second in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s pole vaulting rankings.

Guttormsen’s mark was seven and a half inches shorter than his record-breaking jump a week ago at the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge in New York.

“It wasn’t as good as I was hoping for,” Guttormsen said. “But I compete every week so I can’t be that good every time. You have to have those meets where you don’t jump as high in order to have those meets you jump really high.”

Guttormsen competed in the 60-meter hurdles – his first collegiate track event – and placed sixth with a time of 8.39 seconds.

“I haven’t ran that much hurdles over the last week so it’s always kind of a struggle going into that event,” Guttormsen said. “(In order to) find a rhythm and push the times down, you need (to compete in) many races.”

Curran set a personal record with his performance after joining the UCLA pole vault unit this winter from El Camino Junior College.

“It’s been pretty crazy. I kind of just jumped right into the mix,” Curran said.“The first week here, it was like ‘Boom, you’re going to the meet next week.’ And I was like ‘Alright, let’s do it.’”

Garrett finished fourth with a height of 4.11 meters on her pole vault attempt.

Garrett’s vault was three and a half inches shorter than her finish last week and roughly six inches short of her UCLA career goal of 14 feet.

“I didn’t jump as high as I’d like to,” Garrett said. “It’s just a matter of the more I compete, the better I’ll get. One of my biggest goals that I’m closest to is making indoor nationals and also clearing the 4.30-meter bar. I definitely want to be in Birmingham.”

Redshirt sophomore Nate Esparza – the only member of the Bruins’ throwing unit to compete – notched a second-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 18.97 meters.

UCLA will remain in Albuquerque for the Don Kirby Collegiate Elite Invitational on Friday.