This post was updated May 27 at 9:24 p.m.

The UCLA Alumni Association honored seven alumni and one network for their contributions to the university and the greater community at its 2024 ceremony May 18.

The award ceremony, which UCLA has hosted since 1946, was held at the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center. The ceremony aims to celebrate alumni achievements and acknowledge the challenges alumni have faced, said Julie Sina, the associate vice chancellor of Alumni Affairs.

“It doesn’t mean that each day is about celebration,” she said. “Each day is also about struggle.”

Donna Cox Wells, winner of the 2024 UCLA Award for Public Service, said in a video published by UCLA Alumni that she dedicated her time as an undergraduate to being a translator at the health department. She now works at a nonprofit that provides legal services to Los Angeles County employees, including those who do not know English well, Wells added in the video.

The first step to engaging in public service is observing your surroundings, Wells said in a video played at the ceremony.

“If someone wants to get involved in public service, all they have to do is look around. Every time you go to the market there’s somebody standing out front that needs help on something,” she said in the video published by UCLA Alumni. “It’s not hard. For me that’s automatic.”

Chase Griffin, who won the 2024 Young Alumnus of the Year Award, said in a video published by UCLA Alumni that he wants to build generational wealth and go into public service and philanthropy. Griffin is a quarterback on the UCLA football team and has won the National Name, Image and Likeness Male Athlete of the Year award twice.

“Service has always been a big piece of who I think I try to be. I grew up serving at the Round Rock Serving Center outside Austin, and I saw how it impacted my community,” Griffin said in a video published by UCLA Alumni. “That’s a big part of why I chose my largest philanthropic partnership in NIL with the LA Regional Food Bank.”

Refik Anadol was named the 2024 Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year for using technology to create immersive artwork and reimagine architecture using data. Anadol said in a video published by UCLA Alumni that he hopes his work can use technology and art to better the future.

“The work I’m trying to do is finding human in (the) nonhuman,” Anadol said in the video. “We have to be ready for this new era of humanity. Technology, in the hands of artists, can create more impact.”

Asad Madni, an alumnus who won the 2024 UCLA Award for Professional Achievement, said he faced difficulties paying for out-of-state student tuition when working 20 hours per week at near minimum wage after graduating from UCLA.

Madni said he needed someone to stand in as a co-signer for him when receiving his student loan, eventually finding an alumnus to help him through the foreign student office. Madni added that he was grateful for the help a stranger gave to help him afford UCLA.

“Why would somebody, unknown to me, demonstrate the empathy, compassion, and care and take the risk of signing as a co-signer?” he asked in a video published by UCLA Alumni. “I promised myself that day that if I ever became successful, there is no question about it that whatever is within my powers, I would do for our UCLA students who are deserving.”

In the face of political polarization, UCLA alumni must come together to address the nation’s challenges, Madni said.

“I have never seen anything like this, where we have a polarized nation without thinking of the greater good,” Madni said in a video published by UCLA Alumni. “I think this is the time when all of us, all of the alums of UCLA, this is the time we have to come together and utilize our moral compass in order to address these challenges.”