Daily Bruin Alumni Network wins UCLA’s Network of the Year award
All of the awardees from the ceremony, including DBAN President Lawrence Ma, stand with Chancellor Gene Block. At the event, DBAN was awarded Network of the Year by UCLA. (Courtesy of Sandy Nguyen)
By Catherine Hamilton
May 21, 2023 10:43 p.m.
UCLA awarded the Daily Bruin Alumni Network with its Network of the Year award at the UCLA Awards on May 13.
The Network of the Year award goes to the UCLA alumni group that has made outstanding contributions to the university’s community. Last year’s winner was the UCLA Alumni Band.
DBAN’s recognition is important because free press has been targeted by politicians, said Lawrence Ma, a Daily Bruin sports alumnus and DBAN president.
“They were calling them (journalists) the ‘enemy of the people,’” Ma said. “Those are my classmates.”
Ma added that the award meant more to DBAN because the network was only created a few years ago and was considered alongside more well-established groups.
Connie Guglielmo, a Daily Bruin news alumnus and DBAN board member, said that, oftentimes, social studies and liberal arts educations are undervalued, but that this recognition acknowledges the importance of having spaces for the humanities, such as a school newspaper.
“The work that the students do, it might not seem like it’s a big deal, but it actually is all about protecting the future, about protecting democracy,” Guglielmo said.
Other honorees of the 2023 UCLA Awards included Kiet Lam – who won the UCLA Award for Alumni Volunteer of the Year – and Keith Terasaki – the Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year.