Shella Michael arrived in Los Angeles in 1982 after fleeing the aftermath of the Armenian genocide and the Lebanese civil war.
She later had the opportunity to showcase her artwork at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings usually take place every week on Tuesdays at 7 p.m.

Yeneca Lee remembers sitting on her grandmother’s kitchen floor as a child surrounded by large tubs of kimchi. A staple in any Korean dinner, the pickled and spicy cabbage reminds the fourth-year political science student of home.

Madison Olandt, a second-year world arts and cultures/dance and psychology student, said her major has given her a sixth sense.
“We’ll take a class where we will all lay down and close our eyes, listening to our surroundings, or sit in Bruin Plaza and then make a dance out of the pedestrian gestures we observed,” Olandt said.

Nikki Friedman came up with a new theme two weeks after performing in Spring Sing last year with her sorority Delta Gamma and the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha.

One hundred eighty five dresses hang in Vita Newstetter’s closet.
An avid clothes collector and thrifter since the age of 12, Newstetter’s fashion interests followed her to UCLA.

Lyndsey Silveira was holding a bag of garbage when the image struck her.
The Nordic god Odin had taken the shape of a grizzly recycling guy in her mind.

Michael Peck spent the summer after his college graduation in a Napa Valley wine cellar, pitching yeast into a grape skin and juice mixture and filling 1,000 barrels with fresh red and white wine.

Lithium- and Xanax-induced semblances of happiness are hidden behind the makeshift smiles of the Goodmans, a seemingly average American family.
A trauma hit the Goodman family 16 years ago and still echoes in their minds.

Wearing leopard slippers, a tiger-patterned cardigan and a vibrant orange afro, Panini Jones laid between two miniature palm trees.
Tears flowed down his face as Jones announced his profound aspiration to be as selfless as the tree in the popular children’s book “The Giving Tree.”
Jones is just one of the many comedically improvised characters set to appear on the new Web series “Beyond the Bruin.” Created by three UCLA students and premiering on YouTube on Monday, the show will combine serious interviews with comedic acts and musical performances.