Transfer Crush Tuesday: Chery Lai (02/24/15)

Hello Beautiful people I want to introduce to you Cherry Lai !!
she is our TRANSFER CRUSH for today. She is a very Hard working and inspiring transfer student in our community she works for CCCP and is a Mellon Mays Fellow and is doing all this as a parent of two kids!
here is more about Cherry and some encouraging thoughts from her experience,

Life in academia is constantly a waiting game. Almost two years ago, I waited anxiously for a UCLA acceptance letter. Now graduation is around the corner, and I am waiting for graduate school decisions. Waiting is passive, but I am waiting because I actively apply to graduate schools and fellowships to sustain a place in higher education. The waiting game is about doing one’s absolute best so that one can wait with hopes for the future. Four years ago, I did not have that hope. I was stuck working long hours in managing restaurants. Besides the occasional over-entitled customers that gave me a hard time, everything was routine. I waited on customers, waited for my paycheck, and returned home to two children who were waiting for me to tuck them into bed. After working for over ten years, and knowing that my options were limited, I decided to enroll at East Los Angeles College to earn an associate degree. At ELAC, I was very fortunate to have met my mentor in Asian American studies who not only encouraged me to transfer but also helped me grow intellectually. In addition, I found an ally in higher education—Center for Community College Partnership at UCLA. CCCP guided me in the transfer process, and kept me grounded at UCLA. I now work as a CCCP peer mentor at ELAC, to encourage community college students from underrepresented communities to transfer and pursue higher education. CCCP reminds me that knowledge must accompany action in order to benefit our community as a whole. As UCLA students, we have to recognize that first generation, non-traditional, minority, and parenting students are few and far between. I do not want to glorify the transfer experience because that hides the struggles that make us transfer students in the first place. I am just one of the lucky ones that has a chance to pursue higher education at UCLA. With the support of my family, CCCP, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship, I am taking on this waiting game with optimism. See More

Transfer Crush Tuesday: Jim Ong (02/17/15)

Happy 7th week everyone!! Today fro TRANSFER CRUSH TUESDAY we will be featuring Jim Ong!! he is a 4th year Psychology major and he trasnfered from Los Angeles Valley College he is a very unique and inspiring person. Here is more about him:

Other than the academic opportunities and pathways, UCLA substantiated my reason to move forward. When I was fifteen years old, my brother and I became homel...ess and we had to settle at a small place in Koreatown. My brother saw something in me and always promised that he was going to support me through college. But of course I knew that promise was only a full-hearted empty promise because we were busy filling our stomach with watered cereal. Eventually, we had to be separated after about a year of living together. He left to Alaska and I stayed back at a closet-like attic room nearby. When you’re dead poor, you get to see people without the masks because no one bothers to invest creating an image of themselves for you. The worst part about being poor is that the people you’d expect to get help from will not help you. I also didn't have many friends because everyone thought I was a loser. Who’d hang around with that socially awkward kid? Because of all this, I wanted to stand up in the middle of garbage pile and shout out to the world that I was here – alive. I learned my purpose in life when my brother died six years ago. Apparently life gave him more pain than what he had done to himself. No one understood why he did what he did… except, me. Nonetheless, when my brother died he fulfilled one of his promises: he sent me to college. With his life insurance comp., I bought a house and a used Honda civic. Then, I enrolled at a community college after Army. I told myself that I will not let his sacrifice drown in vain. For me, if community college is a bridge to a 4-year institution, then UCLA is a bridge to purpose – law school. When I become a lawyer I am going to speak for people who've become silenced through poverty. I am going to fight for and defend people like my brother who exists in our society. The quantity of numbers in our bank accounts shouldn't determine the quality of our fundamental rights. I believe that the greatest weapon that we possess as American citizens, are our words. If we become silenced because of an empty wallet, social disparity, gender, sex, age, religion, or the lack of college degree…. then what kind of life are we living? Those fancy letter of recommendations written by elected officials, shiny metals, exaggerated descriptions on our resumes, awards fabricated inside picture frames are not the things that makes us unique. As one notorious philosopher Aristotle once said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all”. We are at college not only to fulfill the standards of academia, but also to settle our standard in purpose of life. So, what makes me unique? I am just like you but only with my version of the story. I am a UCLA transfer student and I am inspired. And I have a reason to move forward.

Transfer Crush Tuesday: Tien Phan (02/10/15)

Hello everyone!! our TRANSFER CRUSH TUESDAY for today is Tiên Phan !!!
She is a super hard working STEM transfer and is active in the transfer community here is more about Tien:

I am 4th year transfer student from Orange Coast College, majoring in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology. Upon transferring to UCLA in Fall 2013, I decided to minor in Biomedical Research. I quickly joined Dr. Karen Lyons’s lab where I have been studying the functions of extracellular matrix proteins in regulating cartilage homeostasis. I have received a lot of support and mentorship from the research scholarships UFRP, CARE, and MARC, which I am extremely thankful for. I have recently been accepted to a great program (HHMI EXROP) which will fund me to do research at another institution this summer. I am now set on going to graduate school and making research my career. I am fascinated that a series of events, starting with an impulsive UCLA campus tour, brought me to where I am and shaped me to be the person I am today. Sometimes, I wonder about a parallel universe where I did not take that tour on a whim that day!

I am also the Co-chair and Research Coordinator of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Transfer Community – the only student organization that serves as a support group for UCLA STEM transfer students. We are dedicated to inform everyone of the resources available for STEM transfer students so that they can maximize their academic and professional development within their short time at UCLA.
(Follow our Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stc.ucla/ ) 

Transfer Crush Tuesday: Michael Williamson (02/03/15)

Hello beautiful people!! todays TRANSFER CRUSH TUESDAY is!!!!! Michael Williamson (Will) he works at the BRC with the Student Veterans!! here is what Will is all about!!

Okay, a blurb about me...Here it goes...

"Michael goes by Will only because his Mama only calls him by his birth name. He is a transfer student, Yey-Yey, and a World Arts and Cultures major. He loves that he is a non-traditiona...l student only because it gives him a wide perspective on life. Michael knows that UCLA is a fantastic school, but it isn't everything, people are everything. He loves people. People energize him, and although he may be afraid to admit it he's a lover not a fighter. After he graduates he plans on taking a "Gap Year" and work full-time in the entertainment industry. He is an aspiring writer as well as an actor only when he has to be ; )
He dreams of one day retiring, staying at home with his kids, cooking, telling stories, painting and drawing, and creating musical fusion. He believes he will be the best dad in the world because he will play with his children and his wife will be out of the house working - he is not a feminist. He loves the color blue (Go Bruins), and red because he loves the tastes of strawberries. If you see him on the "street" he will always usually smile at you and if not give you a huge hug, so don't be afraid to ask. His celebrity crush is Blake Lively and his man crush is...sorry it's a secret."

another cool thing about Will is that he has climbed Mt. Fuji!!!!
so if you see Will around campus just give the guy a HUG!!!