Week in Photos: Feb. 23-March 1
Rick Hartman strings a tennis racket at Westwood’s tennis supply store, Westwood Sporting Goods. The shop is a common stop for many professional tennis players.
(Angie Wang/Daily Bruin)
Third-year vocal performance student India Carney will be performing Thursday in the Fowler Out Loud concert series. Carney plans to release her debut EP "Heartbroken" by the end of March.
(Felicia Ramirez/Daily Bruin)
Passersby at the Westwood Farmers Market stop to play with brown and white Chihuahuas.
(Tamaryn Kong/Daily Bruin)
Sophomore guard/forward Kyle Anderson watches his team play. Anderson and sophomore guard Jordan Adams (not pictured) were suspended for the game against Oregon due to a violation of team rules.
(Tim Bradbury/Daily Bruin)
Juggling knives in his free time. Seen near Janss Steps.
(Dang-Co Vu/Daily Bruin)
“I’ve gone to the extreme of machismo,” Chung said. “God will stop you in your tracks to get your attention. I could have been dead, but I got the chance to reassess my life.” This school year, Chung took over as executive director of a group called Bruins Reforming Incarceration Through Education, or BRITE. The project is housed in the Undergraduate Students Association Council Community Service Commission. Starting in spring quarter, the members of BRITE want to volunteer as tutors for incarcerated youth serving out the end of their sentences in a probation camp, Camp David Gonzales in Calabasas. Volunteers need official clearance to enter the probation camps, so Chung and around a dozen volunteers from Project BRITE are making drives down to the Los Angeles County Probation Department. The probation department grants clearances after a criminal background check, which can take four to six weeks. When Chung was 17 years old, he spent 13 months in juvenile hall and in a men's jail for robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. Several years later, he served another 13 months in a state prison for possession of drugs with intent to sell. His convictions give him two strikes under the three strike law in California. A third strike, given even for a minor offense like shoplifting, would put him in jail for a long time. “I could have been dead, but I got the chance to reassess my life.” – Howard Chung Howard Chung was incarcerated twice. Now 32 years old, he is a fourth-year study of religion student at UCLA who is leading a service project to tutor high school aged students in a probation camp. (Tamaryn Kong/Daily Bruin) Chung and his fellow UCLA volunteers partner with the New Roads for New Visions Foundation to tutor high school students in probation camps. New Roads has run a school in Camp David Gonzales since 2002. The program focuses on education, including GED preparation and creative arts classes. It also aims to prevent repetition of criminal activity. “For many young people, they have not viewed college as something that's in their future,” said Laura Abrams, an associate professor of social welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs who has studied juvenile justice. She added that educational programs like New Roads help open possibilities and prevent relapse for formerly incarcerated youth. Chung met the director of New Roads, UCLA alumnus Fernando Montes-Rodriguez, through mutual acquaintances. They collaborated in the past to give advice about college to formerly incarcerated youth. Montes-Rodriguez understands what some of the young people he tutors went through. As a young man, he was incarcerated twice, like Chung. “I see a lot of me in them, and I want them to see a lot of themselves in me,” he said. Montes-Rodriguez left the justice system at 21 years old and eventually graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 2001. He said his students may not choose the path of higher education he and Chung took. Many of them told him they primarily want a good job and a family, he said. However, Montes-Rodriguez wants all of them to get engaged in their communities to stop the cycle of incarceration. “I wasn’t very clear about what I wanted in life, but I knew that I did not want to be a part of the justice system,” he tells his students. Several scholarships targeting low-income and first-generation students like Chung have supported his academic endeavors at Santa Monica College and UCLA. The Wilson Academic Advancement Program Scholarship rewards service-oriented students.
(Tamaryn Kong/Daily Bruin)
Many UCLA students displayed solidarity with groups aligned with their views during last week's USAC meeting.
(Angie Wang/Daily Bruin)
Third-year American Indian studies student Arturo Tisnado reads through points he prepared for the public comments portion of last week's USAC meeting.
(Angie Wang/Daily Bruin)
A large mound of waste, including trash that comes from UCLA, piled up at the Allan Company recycling site in Santa Monica.
(Austin Yu/Daily Bruin)
"In sports, when you invest and you don't get the result you want, it hurts. But the pain of regret is way more. ... Thea doesn't ever have to worry about the pain of regret." – UCLA women's basketball coach Cori Close.
