From Jackie Robinson to Cindy Montañez, many Bruins have historically been on the frontlines in taking initiative for social justice issues. Some Bruins are following in their footsteps, using their voices to make change.

Michelle Tran’s plants overgrew the boundaries of her camera roll and established roots on social media.
The fourth-year human biology and society student created an Instagram account, @plantedbymich, in May to document her plant collection.

Undergraduate student leaders are organizing in support of a 2020 election ballot proposition that would allow universities in California to consider race as a factor in admissions.

UCLA lost the most money out of all the University of California campuses because of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a UC-wide financial loss.
UCLA lost the most money – $653 million – out of all nine undergraduate campuses, according to the UC Board of Regents Finance and Capital Strategies Committee meeting Sept.

Jordan Yanowitz jolted out of bed at 2:44 a.m. to find a glowing sky and turbulent winds shaking his window blinds.
Through the sound of his banging shades and thunder, he heard his parents yelling at his brother to come inside from their backyard where he had been sleeping, said Yanowitz, a third-year ecology, behavior, and evolution student who evacuated his home in Santa Cruz County because of wildfires.

A C-session class united two students in becoming mental wellness advocates.
The Instagram account Mental Wellness Resources at UCLA was originally created for a final project in Sociology M148: “Sociology of Mental Illness.” Fourth-year students Leyla Barkhordar and Rachel Teo founded the page in August to combat the inaccessibility of resources amid remote learning.

Melody Satele is normally the sole Pacific Islander student in her classes.
Satele tries her best to include the perspective of her community in discussions whenever she is the lone Pacific Islander representative — especially in conversations about social justice, which she said often ignore Pacific Islander issues.

This post was updated July 7 at 1:40 p.m.
A petition to rename Janss Steps received over 2,000 signatures as of July 6.
The petition states that UCLA should rename the steps after an alumnus who changed the world for the better, rather than someone who contributed to institutional racism.

For Mercy Eme, balancing schoolwork and life at home during the coronavirus pandemic has been overwhelming.
At home, Eme attends her online classes while acting as a caretaker for her family, feeling lonely and worrying about her grandmother’s health, all of which exacerbated her generalized anxiety disorder, said the second-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student.

Peter Chelebian, a first-year political science student, could have fulfilled one of his high school dreams this summer – until the pandemic hit.
Since he was a high school junior, Chelebian had hoped to participate in the Terjenian-Thomas Assembly Internship Program, which places college students of Armenian descent in internships in Washington, D.C., About 20 students are accepted each year, and this year, Chelebian was one of them.