Category Archives: Connect

Distant Dreams to Reality: Experience the World With Alumni Travel

magine yourself strolling through a city in Vietnam as French-accented buildings cast silhouettes onto the busy streets strewn with merchants and motorbikes as you eventually find yourself in the cascading nature and waterscape of Ha Long Bay. Or visualize yourself floating through brisk Antarctic air as you sail from Ushuaia to Antarctica, staring off your cruise ship, taking in the pristine wilderness of Earth’s last frontier. Or maybe picture yourself walking through the provincial French countryside in Monet’s famed Giverny gardens and then getting acquainted with Paris as you take in the City of Lights.

In the last two years, the concept of travel became as foreign as these lands we hope to one day see, but as the world opens up, traveling is closer to becoming a reality. The best part about dreaming of these places is that UCLA Alumni Travel can help you plan these trips with ease. Established in 1941, Alumni Travel has expert tour professionals to aid you with worry-free travel from beginning to end, and on most tours you’re accompanied by a UCLA professor who provides educational insights for your journey. Your experience includes 4- to 5-star accommodations and little concern about what to do, what to see and how to get there. With Alumni Travel, you can also see the world with like-minded, friendly Bruin travelers, where your past shared experiences lends itself to creating new memories and lasting friendships. These Bruin travelers will tell you why they travel and why they choose to do it with UCLA time and again.

WHY TRAVEL?

To some it’s about taking a break from the mundane, escaping to see life through a new perspective. For Linda and Charles ’62 Philipps (five trips with Alumni Travel), they “travel to broaden our horizons and better understand the world we live in.”

They explain, “We enjoy connecting with people from other cultures and sharing our experiences with them and other alumni. We have forged lasting relationships with some of the alumni.” Building these connections is made easier during travel where the shared experience brings forth a curiosity about others and an openness to engage. These moments of interaction can turn into lasting memories because of where we go and whom we’re with.

For Judy and Bob ’74 Woolsey (16 past trips and two upcoming), traveling is something that “provides us with the personal experiences associated with other cultures, and we have been fortunate to experience how they differ from our own.

Traveling isn’t just about getting away from what you know, but getting to know what is away in the unfamiliar and the unknown. It’s not only an exploration of a destination, but insight into oneself, the world we live in and what we want to learn. When it’s all said and done, these moments and memories are brought back home to become a part of you. In most cases, the memories last longer than anything you may have bought on the trip.

THE WORLD IS YOUR CLASSROOM

Exploring and understanding are at the core of why people like Tu-Chen Chiang ’84 and Dean ’82, M.S. ’85 (one trip taken and one booked for 2023) travel. They enjoy being able to experience other cultures and histories. Dean says, “I’m a big fan of history so learning is a big part of travel.”

As a historical enthusiast, Dean and other members of his tour benefitted from having a world class professor guide them through their journey on the Amalfi Coast. In the company of Professor Kathryn Morgan from the UCLA Department of Classics, they were able to experience Naples, Pompeii and the Isle of Capri through rich details and knowledge that goes beyond a normal tour.

One of the many benefits of going with Alumni Travel is getting to learn from UCLA professors as they guide you through the history, biodiversity or geology of your destination. The Woolseys advise that when traveling with an accompanying professor, “Ask the questions you want to ask. You will find them to be an incredible source of information about the sites and cultures you are visiting.”

Professors offer a wealth of stories and facts that go beyond what you can quickly read online or what typical guides will present. Some examples of this are:

Ravello is known for its annual music festivals
Amalfi is one of the most significant medieval trade and mercantile centers
Positano is the classic town of pastel-colored houses and shops ascending up the side of coastal cliffs
Pompeii and Herculaneum are two of the ancient Roman cities destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
There are Three classic Greek temples at Paestum

Travel Made Easy

Another benefit of using Alumni Travel is the level of care and organization that the staff ensures with every trip. After the Chiangs' first trip with Alumni Travel to the Amalfi Coast, they marveled at how hassle-free and wonderful the tours were, how they were able to experience “a safe and comfortable trip during the pandemic.” They said most, if not all of the minutiae associated with planning were taken care of, such as flights, lodging, meals and places to see. Linda and Charles Philipps agree saying, “It takes the guesswork out of travel by sourcing knowledgeable tour directors and local guides, and creating an itinerary and activities that highlight the area and maximize your experience of a new culture.”

These tours are structured to optimize for time and experience, but there is also opportunity to explore freely and through expert recommendations. The Woolseys recall, “We had very memorable activities and a great effort from Alyson Beckman, our accompanying UCLA tour host.” They explain that “due to her persuasion and encouragement, we participated in a helicopter tour to the local Alaskan glaciers that will forever be one of our special memories.” Each tour has its plans and itineraries, but by engaging with the guides and tour group, which is usually a small size of around 24 people, these moments become personalized experiences that grow into irreplaceable memories.

Let Alumni Travel ease your concerns as you turn that dream into reality with your next vacation. Perhaps that place will be a 12-night adventure on a Journey to Southern Africa or perhaps an exploration of New Zealand as you find your way through the Land of Long White Cloud? If you’re seeking a comfortable, educational, enjoyable experience with Bruins, just choose your destination and Alumni Travel will help take care of everything else.

Visit UCLA Alumni Travel to learn more.

310-206-0613
Open Monday – Friday
Hours: 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
travel@alumni.ucla.edu

Going Global: A Lifetime of Learning From Studying Abroad

n-person summer study abroad programs are returning for the first time since the pandemic. It’s the chance of a lifetime to learn about distant cultures and broaden horizons, but it’s really just the beginning of how much students have to gain from international travel. From finding new career paths to forming lifetime friendships, UCLA alumni reflect on the value of studying abroad and serve as a reminder that it is never too late to go global.

For John Arboleda ’96, going global is a mindset. Since participating in the University of California Education Abroad Program (EAP), Arboleda’s passion for travel has taken him across the world. Arboleda, who is also a former member of the UCLA Alumni Association Board of Directors, says that the perspectives he has gained abroad enables him to effectively communicate with people of all backgrounds and navigate a range of challenges—from exploring Machu Picchu by himself in the summer entering his senior year at UCLA to making the decision to leave everything behind and move to Germany to begin his life working abroad. His dedication to exploring the world beyond Los Angeles long after graduation only proves that traveling is a timeless way of engaging in continued learning and exploration.

While Arboleda began his international journey in Argentina and Chile as an EAP student, he has worked in Europe for the past 18 years and currently lives in Barcelona with his family.

“This is a life we never imagined, so for me, it's never stopped,” Arboleda says. “It's just been the next chapter of my EAP experiences.”

As Arboleda navigated unfamiliar public transit systems and balanced the demands of his courseloads in Latin America, he also forged lifelong friendships. In Santiago, Arboleda encountered a UC Berkeley student who was also looking for housing. Together, they sought out a local family renting the extra rooms of their home.

“This is a life we never imagined, so for me, it's never stopped. It's just been the next chapter of my EAP experiences."

Today, Arboleda says, that UC Berkeley student has become his best friend. She continues her own travels abroad during her regular visits to Arboleda and his family in Barcelona. The former EAP participants, whose friendship was formed across continents, have enjoyed watching their children grow up together during the families’ yearly reunions—a testament to the unexpected benefits of studying abroad.“

For me that was like, ‘Wow, that was a great program,’” Arboleda says. “But I think that program can be as much as you want it to be, and it was definitely much more than I expected.” Years after his own experiences abroad, Arboleda has helped other Bruins make the most of their travels. Four years in a row leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arboleda invited UCLA students in the Spanish department into his Barcelona home. As he introduced students to his children and showed them around his apartment, Arboleda proved that connecting with UCLA's vast alumni network can enrich the student experience.

For Megan Jensen ’08, studying abroad in Italy and Mexico was initially a way of strengthening her language skills and earning credits toward her degree. However, she returned to the U.S. with a greater passion for international education and a career path that would take her across the globe.

Jensen built upon the international development coursework she had taken in Mexico and pursued a master’s degree in international education. She has since continued to grow her global mindset and expand on her travels abroad after receiving a Fulbright grant to work in South Africa and develop literacy programs for local high schools.“

Being in Mexico and doing that program helped me to explore how different communities experience literacy,” Jensen says. “That exploration, it really just validated for me my own desire to support people in local communities in accessing education.”

"(Study abroad) can also just serve the goal of having some fun, because life during the pandemic has not been very fun for a lot of people."

When asked what she anticipates students will get out of their experiences abroad this summer, Jensen says that she hopes Bruins will find whatever they’re looking for as they embark on their international journey. She believes the return of in-person study abroad programs can bring happiness and fulfillment to students’ lives after living in a largely virtual world throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“(Study abroad) can also just serve the goal of having some fun, because life during the pandemic has not been very fun for a lot of people,” Jensen said. “Being able to have the opportunity to travel again, I hope, just brings some joy and adventure.”

Malika Pandey, a third-year student majoring in political science and public affairs and minoring in education studies, hopes to follow in the footsteps of Arboleda and Jensen by forging her own adventures in Colombia this summer as a member of UCLA’s Global Internship Program. After growing up in Southern California, Pandey says she is excited to learn more about Colombian culture and art, while also building upon her own Spanish speaking skills and passion for educational policy.

“I wanted to move somewhere that was different, somewhere that I would learn a lot about myself as well as the culture in the country,” Pandey says. “My view of the world is limited by the fact that … those around me, we all come from the same kind of common culture and the same kind of knowledge base.”

However, upon the conclusion of the 2021-22 school year, Pandey was no longer a stranger to the world beyond Los Angeles. As a participant in the UCLA Quarter in Washington Program in spring 2022, Pandey developed a new set of skills which empowered her to live over 2,000 miles away from home for the first time. From learning to take advantage of D.C.’s professional networking culture to navigating the metro system on a daily basis, Pandey successfully passed a 10-week crash course in adapting and adjusting to a new way of life.

"I wanted to move somewhere that was different, somewhere that I would learn a lot about myself as well as the culture in the country."

Perhaps most important, Pandey says that living in D.C. has helped her realize that she can find happiness beyond California—something that she hopes to continue to learn this summer.

“I have a lot of appreciation for other people and other ways of living your life,” Pandey says. “Applying that to Colombia, I think it'll be the same thing, but on an even more drastic scale.”

The opportunities UCLA provides through its study abroad program are invaluable. For many Bruins, it’s just the beginning of what can turn into a career exploration and a lifelong learning experience.

Lessons I Learned at UCLA By Antonia Klima, Class of 2021

hen I began my studies at UCLA in the fall of 2017, I was thrilled to be attending the No. 1 public university in the nation as a psychology and theater minor. I was hopeful that I would make lifelong friends and create memories that I would cherish forever. But most of all, I couldn’t wait to enjoy the delectable food at the famous UCLA dining halls. While my time at UCLA may not have gone exactly as I had originally envisioned, I am grateful to have learned lifelong lessons that will hopefully help future Bruins.

Be Present
It is easy to get caught up in the blue and gold spectacle that is UCLA, with the sports games, tailgates, bonfires and celebrations. But make sure to consistently take mental pictures because you will want to remember everything when you’re gone. Even the little things: picnicking on Janss, walking back to The Hill from class or even grabbing dinner with someone on your floor. You never know what the future holds so be present in the now.

Be Confident
As a student at UCLA, you will find yourself in classes with the highest achieving students from all over the world. Don’t let your classmates intimidate you or make you feel like you don’t deserve to be there. Push the urge to give in to imposter syndrome aside and remember that you worked your butt off to get to this moment and you can do it again!

Be Flexible
College is full of unknowns. Don’t get stuck in a fixed mindset of needing to take certain classes at certain times or live in certain areas. You never know, maybe not being able to take that geography class sophomore year will allow you to take something completely different and will help you find a new interest. Or maybe a fire near campus will cause you to evacuate but will ultimately allow you to make some great memories with your friends away from Westwood. Planning is always helpful, but make sure you have an eraser handy.

Be Yourself
Nobody knows you better than yourself, so why not ensure that those you meet get to see the true, authentic you? Obviously, this is much easier said than done, but at a place like UCLA, don’t try to be someone you’re not just to fit in with a friend group or organization on campus. Don’t be afraid to sing your heart out at your dorm’s karaoke night or go on and on about your favorite movie. As Oscar Wilde once said, “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”

Antonia Klima graduated in June with a B.A. in psychology and a minor in theater. She will be attending The George Washington University this fall to pursue a Master’s in Forensic Psychology to further her career goal of becoming a criminal profiler for the FBI. Originally from Studio City, Klima founded the Hellenic Student Association at UCLA her freshman year and served as a marketing assistant in the Alumni Association in her final three years.

Lessons I Learned at UCLA Series:

A Letter to My Freshman Self: Five Things I Learned at UCLA

ear Hedy,

Congrats on becoming a Bruin! You’ve worked so hard to get this point, and you’re finally about to start your first quarter at the (soon-to-be) #1 public university in the nation!

If you’re reading this, it’s probably September 2016, and you’ve just moved into your new dorm in De Neve Dogwood 104. You’re worrying about how you’ll possibly make friends and wondering what the next four years of your life will look like. As your future graduated self, I won’t tell you exactly what will happen, but I can tell you that everything works out the way it’s supposed to in the end. To assuage some of your worries, I’ve included some advice that I wish someone had told me when I was in your position. The points in this letter aren’t profound pieces of wisdom, but they are simple truths that will make your time at UCLA a lot less stressful the sooner you grasp them.

Your major does not define your career or your future. Don’t feel pressured to pick a more “practical” major that you’re not actually interested in. It’s fair to be concerned about post-grad financial stability, but unless you’re going into a highly specialized field like accounting or anything in STEM, what you choose to study will have very little bearing on your career outcomes. Because at the end of the day, it’s the soft skills, work/extracurricular experience and social/professional networks gained outside the classroom that will land you that dream job or get your foot in the door in a particular field. So don’t spend all your time studying, and get involved on campus! And go ahead and major in what you’re truly passionate about – whether that’s communications, Asian American studies or history. Don’t listen to people who will try to dissuade you from pursuing any major because it is “useless” or “impractical.” Even if a particular major doesn’t align exactly with your career goals, the critical thinking and communication skills you learn will carry you far anywhere you go, and the genuine passion you hold for your studies will shine through to those around you in the way you naturally seek to challenge and push yourself to greater heights.

It’s not the end of the world if you fail an exam or have to retake a class. You’re probably used to getting A’s on all your tests and in most of your classes in high school, so getting a D on your first college midterm in that lower-division math class is going to be quite jarring. But don’t put so much pressure on yourself to get the same grades you did in high school. UCLA is supposed to be academically challenging! Chances are, even some of the smartest students here have probably also failed a test or retaken a class at some point in their college careers. Encountering these problems doesn't make you a failure. If anything, it is a testament to your tenacity and ability to pick yourself back up after you’ve fallen. At the end of the day, your grades do not define who you are, and success is about so much more than achieving a high GPA.

Don’t feel pressured to become best friends with the first few people you meet in college or feel bad about not finding a friend group your first year. When you don’t know anyone on a campus as large as UCLA, it can be very tempting to cling onto the first few people you meet in orientation, in the dorms or in class. While it’s fantastic if you’re actually able to find genuine friends in these situations, it’s perfectly fine if you don’t have anything in common with them either. They are just the first of dozens of new people you will meet on campus in your first year, so don’t feel rushed to be friends with everyone right off the bat. You may feel lonely at times, but remember that the majority of other freshmen are also in the same boat. Forming close-knit friendships will take time, and they won’t come right away. As you become more involved with various campus activities over the next few years, you will slowly find like-minded people who share and understand your values, interests and goals, and when you do, you’ll know you’ve found your people.

Moving away from your family and living on your own isn’t as scary as you think. By the time you’re reading this, you’ve probably already said goodbye to your family and cried as you sat in your new dorm room, feeling the most alone you’ve ever felt in your entire life. It’s daunting — the act of moving hundreds of miles away from home to live on your own for the first time in a new environment where you don’t know anyone. But as cliche as it sounds, it gets better, and you will get the hang of it over time. You will still feel homesick every now and then, especially during this first year, and find yourself counting down to the next time you’ll be able return to the warm, safe cocoon that is home. But each day you will find yourself missing home just a little less and feeling just a little more confident. Learning to be independent and self-sufficient will make you realize just how capable you are and push you to reach for greater heights in other areas of your life.

You deserve to be here, and don’t let yourself or anyone else tell you otherwise! Given the competitiveness of UCLA, it can be very easy to fall prey to imposter syndrome. It is terribly easy to start comparing yourself to others who are seemingly smarter, more ambitious or more successful. But the truth is, nobody has it all together, no matter how perfect they appear in public and on social media. Moreover, other people’s achievements do not negate your own, and you deserve to be here just as much as everybody else. You’re going to do great things, just you wait!

Sincerely,
Hedy Wang, Class of 2020

Hedy Wang graduated in June with a B.A. in economics and communications and a minor in film, television and digital media. She recently obtained a full-time position as an assistant media planner for RPA Advertising in Los Angeles. Originally from San Jose, Wang was heavily involved with the Daily Bruin for all four years of college and served as a marketing assistant in the Alumni Association in her final two years.

Category Archives: Connect

Distant Dreams to Reality: Experience the World With Alumni Travel

WHY TRAVEL?

THE WORLD IS YOUR CLASSROOM

Travel Made Easy

Recent Articles

Going Global: A Lifetime of Learning From Studying Abroad

Recent Articles

Lessons I Learned at UCLA By Antonia Klima, Class of 2021

Lessons I Learned at UCLA Series:

Recent Articles

A Letter to My Freshman Self: Five Things I Learned at UCLA

Lessons I Learned at UCLA Series:

Recent Articles

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