Parents learned the 8-clap, attended faculty lectures and interacted with clubs on Bruin Walk as they experienced UCLA student life last weekend.
UCLA hosted thousands of students’ family members Friday and Saturday for Bruin Family Weekend. The annual two-day celebration features student performances, campus resource workshops and academic presentations for UCLA families.
Deirdre Gundy, the mother of first-year biochemistry student Trey Gundy, said she valued seeing her son’s new home after supporting his education journey from across the country.
“Being from the East Coast and having a loved one so far, it’s important to acclimate myself to his environment for the next four years and be comfortable with that and be enmeshed in the community,” Deirdre Gundy said.
Deirdre Gundy said she enjoyed seeing UCLA’s school spirit, including listening to a speech from UCLA athletic director Tim Harris, and added that she plans to practice the 8-clap at home.
Family Weekend allowed students to celebrate the adjustment of moving from their homes to UCLA, Trey Gundy said.
“They (family members) always tell me, ‘New experiences are the best way to grow as a person,’” he said. “Coming here, experiencing a completely different area and culture, and being able to share it with them has been really amazing.”
Julie Mathew, a parent who visited her daughter at UCLA, said a variety of student-run organizations stopped her as she made her way down Bruin Walk.
“It’s nice to see what my daughter experiences everyday here on campus,” Mathew added.
Scott Christensen – who came to campus to visit his daughter, a first-year applied mathematics student – said he attended engineering professor Jiaqi Ma’s presentation about artificial intelligence’s role in the modern world and a workshop about the future of AI at UCLA.
“A lot of thought is being given to how to protect information security, but also give people these cutting-edge tools that are going to make their research and studies that much more efficient,” he said.
Vanessa Camou, who came to UCLA with her husband Dominique Camou to visit her son, said she attended family workshops on career resources, summer sessions and study abroad opportunities.
Dominique Camou said Bruin Family Weekend exposed him to UCLA’s family-oriented culture.
“It’s not just four years,” he said. “It’s life.”
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