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Luanne Olson graduated from UCLA 35 years ago, but she’s never lost her passion for the university.
For nearly 25 years, Olson and her husband, Ken, have played at university events with the UCLA Alumni Band. Her son, Andrew, now a UCLA senior, grew up listening to the band perform at one event after another.
“It was a dream of his to come here and we were so thrilled when he got in,” Olson said. “Our UCLA legacy will just keep going.”
The Long Beach resident was one of an estimated 1,500 UCLA alumni and community supporters who attended Saturday’s Centennial Campaign event at Royce Hall. A ceremony honoring four outstanding alumni and a student leader kicked off the night’s festivities, which also included a festive outdoor reception and a sound and light show highlighting UCLA’s history and luminaries that was projected onto Royce Hall.
“By the time UCLA turns 100 years young in 2019, our successful campaign will ensure that UCLA has the resources it needs to thrive, not just survive, during the next century,” said Anthony Pritzker, co-chair of The Centennial Campaign for UCLA, told those gathered at the ceremony.
He added that UCLA alumni are the university’s best ambassadors for the campaign, which has a goal to raise $4.2 billion.
“You can attest to UCLA’s transformational role in society,” Pritzker said. “You know how important UCLA was to you personally and to your family and your community.”
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who was honored for his dedication to the public good, said the lessons he learned at UCLA have stayed with him throughout his nearly 40 years in various political offices.
“UCLA gave me an education that was second to none and an experience that was second to none,” said Yaroslavsky, who earned a bachelor's degree in 1971 and a master's in 1972. “What UCLA taught me to do and what I have strived to do in the last almost 40 years is to be important by helping others.”
Also honored for activism that made a difference were young alumni such as Angela Sanchez, B.A. ’13 and who is currently a first-year master’s student in UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies; Anthony Allman, B.A. ’08; Ericka Jones, who will graduate from UCLA in 2015; and Nick Ekbatani, B.A. ’09.
Other alumni spoke about the diverse experiences they had as students and what encourages them to continue to give back to the university.
Daniel Potasz, B.S. ’85, M.S. ’93, said he attended UCLA because he received a scholarship from the Alumni Scholars Club. But the group also created a sense of camaraderie. For example, the group took a trip to Sacramento to learn more about state government.
“It was great to have a community of people and feel very connected to the university,” said Potasz, who also attended a reunion of alumni scholars earlier in the day.
As a student, Ruth Simon, B.A. ’58, said UCLA’s libraries nurtured her passion for knowledge and literature. Several years ago, Simon, who is a retired campus counsel, funded an endowment for the UCLA Library Prize for Undergraduate Research.
“I wanted to support something that was part of a process of how people use libraries,” Simon said. “UCLA has a magnificent library and we have resources that are not going to be taken over by technology.”
Michelle Jhun, B.A. ‘05, and Alina Lee, who graduated in 2006 with bachelors degrees in economics and psychology, said their involvement in UniCamp, UCLA’s student-run summer camp for inner-city youth, keeps them committed to the university.
In addition to providing young people with what is often their first time hiking and camping in the wilderness, UCLA camp counselors also encourage campers to go to college.
“High school students that we’ve worked with have gone on to college, and some have even come to UCLA,” said Jhun, adding that those students are part of what encourages her to keep giving back to UniCamp.
