UCLA Love Story: Maria and Jason

In honor of UCLA being in the Sweet 16, the true love story of Maria Fabregas-Iglesias ’23 and Jason Guo ’23, how they met, commuted, courted, and married–all during FEMBA!

My grandmother always told me, “If you want to catch a fish, you better go where the good fish are.” With over 125 different graduate programs, plus our amazing undergrads, UCLA attracts the best “fish”, the most talented, high-aspiration people from across the US and world. 

My way of expressing the personal possibilities to create lifelong friendships at UCLA is Hogwarts meets the United Nations, by which I mean the magic of Hogwarts + the global diversity of the United Nations. When you read Maria and Jason’s story, you’ll see the magic of an international love story, made here in the USA at UCLA. Go Bruins!

Maria and Jason’s Love Story

Maria and Jason: from Orange County to UCLA, commuting turned into courtship

Although Maria and Jason’s paths never crossed during their undergraduate studies in San Diego nor when they both relocated to Irvine, it was when they enrolled in the UCLA MBA program in 2020 that their lives ultimately intertwined. The pandemic kept them apart for a while, but when they finally met in person in the summer of 2021, they quickly became close friends.

Living in Irvine, Maria and Jason found themselves carpooling to school events and gatherings. Jason, normally selfless and eager to help others, deliberately declined to include others in their carpool. He wanted Maria to know he was pursuing her. Luckily, Maria consistently asked to carpool with Jason, and he was more than happy to oblige.

During their long drives to and from UCLA, they enjoyed quality time together and truly got to know each other. They shared many interests, especially in regards to finances and investments. They found common ground in their love for Disney but had one major difference: Maria was devoted to Apple products while Jason was an avid Windows and Android user. This led to a choppy texting experience between their devices. However, Maria quickly suggested WhatsApp to bridge the gap, and Jason absolutely loved Maria’s sense of practicality and problem solving.

As the end of 2021 approached, Jason found himself captivated by a Formula One race. He was a diehard Red Bull fan and watched in awe as his favorite driver Max Verstappen won the championship. Overcome with emotion, Jason knew it was time to take a chance and ask Maria out. To his delight, she agreed. Even more, she asked him what had taken him so long!

Their first date was delayed until mid-January 2022 because Maria was visiting her sister in Spain, but Maria and Jason wasted no time in deepening their connection. Within the first week of dating, they met each other’s parents; within the second, their parents had met each other. Soon after, Jason asked Maria’s parents for their permission to marry Maria, and with their blessing, Jason quickly bought a ring and proposed just a month after they began dating.

Maria and Jason had an intimate civil wedding in May, surrounded by their closest family members. Their friends and classmates were both shocked and unsurprised by the quick progression of their relationship. Funnily enough, their parents were completely unfazed, already inquiring about future grandchildren.

Maria and Jason’s love story had begun in January, led to an engagement in February, and culminated in marriage by May of the same year. This is the level of productivity you would expect out of UCLA Anderson MBA students!

Maria’s perspective:

Coming to UCLA Anderson, I knew I would encounter like-minded people and learn from talented professors. Little did I realize that I would also meet the love of my life and so much more. Since day one, I felt at home at UCLA, and developing friendships came naturally. When I met Jason, I thought it was too unreal to be true. Juggling a demanding job, lofty aspirations, and school is no easy feat; I never imagined I would find time for dating as well. The idea of meeting someone who understood the pursuit of an ambitious career seemed unfathomable to me. Jason not only understood but also shared my goals, constantly encouraging me to do what was best for myself. Fortunately for me, he was what was right for me! Saying yes to his proposal was the easiest decision I ever made. Having my classmate as my partner and support system has been amazing as he always empathizes with my experiences.

Jason’s perspective:

I always knew that I wanted a business partner in a wife. Maria shares my curiosity and empathy, and I adore her genuine kindness and care towards others. Her ambition, intuition, and intelligence make her an amazing companion, and we could talk for hours without getting bored. Whether we accomplish 100 tasks or none at all, spending time with her never feels like a waste of time. What is even more exciting is that we share the same entrepreneurial mindset, with an equal amount of caution. We are both passionate about building something amazing together, and I know that we are going to accomplish great things. I am so grateful to have found my business partner in life, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for us! Maria is my type, and I love her so much.

Who is Maria Fabregas-Iglesias ’23?

Maria pursued her undergraduate degree in economics at UCSD. She then became an associate at Goldman Sachs where she continues to work. She decided to pursue her MBA at UCLA to accelerate her career and acquire the technical skills she knew would facilitate her growth. Maria enjoys traveling, especially to visit her family in Mexico and her sister in Spain. She is bilingual and is now learning Mandarin Chinese in preparation for visiting Jason’s family in China! UCLA Anderson has taught her that one’s network is of paramount importance.
Maria on LinkedIn

Who is Jason Guo ’23?

Jason holds finance and accounting degrees from the University of San Diego. He began his career in tax, gaining M&A experience and assisting with company restructuring, digital implementations, and long-term strategizing. Jason later shifted to real estate investments and is currently pursuing an MBA from UCLA to expand his knowledge and network, joining 17 clubs and attending countless events. Jason looks forward to pivoting into technology after graduating from UCLA and appreciates all the support from the faculty and his classmates. Most of all, he found Maria, the love of his life. Even more, Maria’s family in Mexico and Spain also love Formula One!
Jason on LinkedIn

Jason Guo and Maria Fabregas-Iglesias

When you know, you know

Life is better with a best friend.
Happy journeys Maria and Jason.
Oh, the places you’ll go!

Thanksgiving 2020: “No one goes hungry in Los Angeles County”

“No one goes hungry in Los Angeles county.” – Los Angeles Regional Food Bank vision statement

Meet Will Tran ’23 (right in foto) a new member of the FEMBA family, along with Staff Sergeant Minter, California Army National Guard (left) who was instrumental in getting the troops rolling

Will Tran ’23 has been involved with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank (LARFB) in some capacity for the last five years. For three years, he has been at the Commerce location where dry food kits are produced – primarily for seniors and children (these photos give you a sense of the contents of each box including what the boxes themselves look like). During this time, he has done plenty of offsite distributions where these kits are handed out to locals in the community (Lincoln Heights senior center and Barnes Park in Monterey Park are two of his favorite sites). He works both sides of the operation: production and distribution.

What a food box includes.

Helping ease hunger in Los Angeles County, one box at a time

Covid-19 entirely changed the way they do things.

Nearly overnight, demand increased by 60%. Demand reached such a level that 60+ soldiers of the Army National Guard were stationed here from mid-April until late-September to meet quotas. Currently, they have a squadron of Air Force National Guard airmen with a volunteer work force from All Hands and Hearts to help alleviate the pressure. The number of volunteers they are receiving is not enough to meet demands.

We get by with a little help from our friends…

This week, quota increased by 25% due to the Thanksgiving holiday plus the heightened Covid situation. Panic mode has again set in. Residents are anticipating the second Covid wave.

LARFB ran a food distribution today near the Commerce warehouse to get a measure on how dire the situation is. The surveyor noted that cars stretched a length of 1.8 miles in wait. The average wait time to get a week’s supply of food was roughly 45 minutes. Pre-Covid the wait at most distribution centers never exceeded 15 minutes. All cars could fit into an average sized grocery store parking lot.

So what does Will do? 

Written on his work shirt are the words “Fighting Hunger. Giving Hope.” That’s what he does. Never in his life has he worked with greater passion, more clarity, or definitive purpose than now. 

Will spent his entire adult life working in hospitality. Doing so trained him for this exact moment. While the setting is different, he is still surrounded by food and people. His purpose is still to feed people. 

“In my industry, we have a term called “push”. Push means working with a sense of urgency and purpose. Every shift I take, I push. I push to the end of the line. I push to the end of the shift. I push to the end of the day. Because I believe that now more than ever, we need to take care of each other.  I also believe that we can.” -Will Tran ’23

This Thanksgiving, count the blessings of your family and friends. And also be grateful that FEMBA has a person like Will Tran ’23, making the world better, one food box at a time.

What can a US Marine teach me about dealing with COVID-19?

Joel Searls, UCLA Anderson 2017, was an officer in the United States Marine Corps before he got his MBA. What can Joel teach us about dealing with COVID-19?

In this first-ever “home edition” Drive Time interview, Joel and I talk about the life-and-death training he received in the United States Marine Corps and what that might teach us all about how to deal with living through this unique chapter.

Joel generously explores how he has been able to re-create his career four times so far, from being a theater major producing a full play, to being a military officer, to associate producing a full-length Hollywood movie, to now becoming an investment banker. He tells about his perspective on networking and we reminisce about the time he brought the Back to the Future DeLorean to FEMBApalooza!

Enjoy!

Joel Searls ’17 was kind enough to bring the Back to the Future DeLorean to FEMBApalooza.

Here’s hoping we are “live” again for Palooza 9, this summer of 2020.

Covid-19: day-by-day leadership and an alumni podcast

Like everyone around the world, we are adjusting day-by-day to the changes imposed by this global virus. UCLA leadership provides our students, faculty and staff daily updates about changes to exams, student life, spring quarter scheduling, and general overall hygiene and civic decorum. We all digest the new realities daily and make the adjustments to student goals, professional responsibilities, and personal realities at home, like children, parents, neighbors and friends; everyone is impacted.

This is a time for perspective, patience, and prudence. If ever the world needed you to exercise your personal leadership, this is it. Please give your best self to colleagues and family in these upcoming weeks–people need your steady presence. And we can all wash our hands!

As you may have more time now, here is an interesting podcast of two FEMBA alumni discussing their perspective of Covid-19. Friends since FEMBA, Ryan Hughes ’14 is the Founder of Bull Oak Capital (he has spoken at FEMBApalooza before), and on his new podcast he interviews fellow alum Jim Best ’14, Founder and CEO of Serenity Cancer Patient Advocates. Enjoy!

(The views on the podcast above are those of Ryan and Jim alone. This link is for awareness only, and does not imply accuracy of their conversation.)

UCLA Heroes (Part II), Wooden and Kareem, Sana and Aaron

Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving.

It’s 5:45 am Friday morning. My house is quiet as I sit down to write to you. Our kids will sleep late because we got home way past bed time last night. We shared Thanksgiving with a family we’ve known almost ten years, since our sons became best buddies at UCLA daycare.

Mom works for UCLA like me. Dad is from India, and came to the US for a graduate degree at Texas A&M, my alma mater. Dad’s been to Aggie games, the Dixie Chicken, Tom’s BarBQ (now defunct), all the staples of College Station, Texas. Both Mom and Dad have been to FEMBApalooza twice. I’d love either to pursue an MBA someday: Mom’s a faculty researcher at UCLA and Dad’s a leader at Google. Both are friends to my wife and me.

Friendships and UCLA, that is part of what I promised to write about. Last week, I promised to write more about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and what I learned listening to him at the John Wooden Global Leadership Awards.

Kareem told a story that most people don’t know about Coach Wooden.

Kareem told about coming to California in March of 1965 on his recruiting trip, and meeting Coach Wooden for the first time. A self-described, cocky, young, star athlete from New York, Kareem remembers meeting Coach Wooden, his nasally midwestern lilt, his hair parted straight down the middle like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals, and what he chose to talk about.

Kareem was ready to talk basketball. But Coach Wooden barely mentioned it.

“I’m impressed with your grades, Lewis,” said Coach. “For most students, basketball is temporary. But knowledge is forever.”

Grades? What about my impressive stats? thought Lewis Alcindor (later to change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar).

But Coach Wooden knew his priorities, and his priority was that his players would have opportunities beyond basketball, and that meant academics first. They spoke for about thirty minutes, but only briefly about basketball. Coach Wooden did say that he usually recruited for speed, not size, and that he’d never coached someone as tall as Lewis/Kareem was.

“I’m sure we will find the proper way to use you on the court. I am looking forward to coaching someone like you,” he said.

“Freshman year can be very difficult,” he warned. “Making that transition from high school isn’t easy…But you seem like the kind of young man up to the challenge.”

Coach Wooden offered Lewis a challenge, the thing he sought most.

The rest is history.

Due to the “freshman rule” Kareem could not play on the varsity in 1966. But from 1967 to 1969, he and Coach Wooden would post an 88-2 record and win three consecutive NCAA National Championships. Kareem would be selected National College Player of the Year, consensus first-team All-American, and Final Four Most Outstanding Player — 3x  for each award. And, he earned his History degree from UCLA and graduated in 1969.

Kareem would later earn 6 NBA championships and is still the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

That is all history, and well-known history.

What Kareem talked about that is less known is the context in which all that basketball success occurred.

In March of 1965, the time of Kareem’s recruiting visit to Westwood and his first meeting with Coach Wooden, our nation was in racial turmoil. Malcolm X had been assassinated in February. Civil rights leader John Lewis had just led the march in Selma, Alabama, to be met by police with tear gas and billy clubs that sent fifty people to the hospital and became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A few weeks after, Martin Luther King, Jr., would lead another group of protesters over the bridge, this time with federal protection.

Kareem, an almost-eighteen year old soon-to-be college freshman, and an African-American man, was finding his voice in all of this. Growing up in Harlem, he’d accidentally gotten caught up in a violent riot the previous summer. Protests over the shooting death of a fifteen-year-old black boy by a police lieutenant had led to gunshots, and one of the scariest moments of Kareem’s life.

And here is the history of Kareem’s friendship with Wooden that is much less well known. Here is the story that told us at the Wooden Global Leadership Awards.

In 2008, Kareem visited with Coach to show him a documentary he had made on the Harlem Rens, the greatest basketball team no one had ever heard of.

Being friends for nearly fifty years, Kareem was pretty sure he knew everything there was to know about Coach Wooden, from their time at UCLA through decades of lazy afternoon conversations ever since. But as they talked in 2008, a never-before-shared story arose.

Back in 1947, in his first year coaching at Indiana State Teachers College, Coach Wooden’s team won the Indiana Intercollegiate Conference title and was invited to play in the National Basketball Tournament in Kansas City, a big deal to the team and the school.

But, the tournament officials had one condition: Coach Wooden could not bring his player Clarence Walker, because he was black.

Kareem, hearing this story for the first time, over sixty years after it had happened, was fascinated.

Coach continued, “To tell the truth, I’m always surprised when people act poorly for no good reason. Lord knows Clarence had been through enough. Sometimes when the team was on the road, restaurants refused to serve him or hotels wouldn’t let him stay there with the rest of the team.”

“What did you do?” Kareem asked. Always the important question about moments like that, what do we do?

Coach Wooden, a first-time coach with a career and a family to think about, told the tournament officials that either all of his team would play, or none of his team would play. His team did not go to the tournament.

The next year, again after a winning season, the tournament committee called Coach Wooden and again invited him. Coach Wooden had the same question, “May all my players play?” and when the committee replied with the same “No” answer, Coach began to hang up.

Wait. Wait! they replied, and that second year they allowed Coach Wooden’s team, with all his players, white and black, to play.

“We lost in the finals to Louisville. Only championship I ever lost,” said Coach.

The point?

Coach Wooden had been an early pioneer of Civil Rights, putting his own career at risk, in 1947, by turning down participation in a fancy tournament. But he’d never talked about it.

Think about being Coach Wooden in March of 1965, meeting Lewis Alcindor, all 7′ 2″ of him.

That was Kareem’s other point.

Coach could have told this story to Lewis, to try to gain loyalty or “make a connection” to get Kareem to sign with UCLA. But that is not what Coach did. He talked about academics. He talked about team. He offered Lewis a challenge. And, he let their friendship begin the way that it should have begun, without manipulation.

If you live in Athens, Greece, after a while you may not notice the Parthenon.

If you go to UCLA, after a while, you may forget about Coach Wooden.

I wrote that in the last blog. I didn’t even know who Coach Wooden was when I started working here in 2002. I’ve come to appreciate his legacy more and more through time.

And that’s what it was like for me at the Wooden Global Leadership Awards. Inspired? Yes. Educated? For sure.

America was dealing with its issues in 1965. We are dealing with our issues in 2017. Putting principles before profit worked for Coach Wooden in 1965, and it inspires me in 2017. I hope it does the same for you.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend all. May your studies be fruitful. May your investment in your own growth and development pay dividends.

Best,

Dylan

P.S.

It’s now almost 8:45 am as I finish this post. I hope you like it. My five-year-old is pseudo-patiently waiting for me to finish. He’s ready to wrestle!

P.P.S.
Quotations of Kareem and Coach Wooden are excerpted from Coach Wooden and Me, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Grand Central Publishing, 2017.  Kareem told this basics of this story at the Wooden Global Leadership Awards, but the book offers much more detail than he could share in his minutes onstage. Anything inspiring in this post is the product of Kareem and Coach. Any typos or errors are entirely my own.

Basketball statistics are from the above book and Kareem’s Wikipedia page.

L-R Sana Rahim ’19, Evan Barnes ’18, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ’69, Kevin Plank, Anna Goldberg ’18, and Brandon Scott ’18.

Sana Rahim ’19, pictured above, was the 2017 Wooden Fellow selected from FEMBA. Sana’s words from the stage Monday night would make every FEMBA proud. Committed, poignant (and funny), Sana’s remarks showed me how her life is a living legacy. Her love for her family, for making a difference, and for being willing to sacrifice for the team would make Coach Wooden smile, and will make you proud to know her as a fellow-FEMBA. Enjoy her Wooden Fellow video and read the full-length article “Inclusion is No Sacrifice”, both below.

Aaron Kaplan ’17, is this week’s Drive Time podcast interview. Aaron came to FEMBA as a practicing Rabbi who wanted to reinvent himself, to contribute in life in a new and different way, while building on his history of service. I hope you enjoy listening Aaron’s story of reinventing himself as you drive to campus today.

“Inclusion is No Sacrifice” meet Sana Rahim ’19

Aaron Kaplan ’17 and his Drive Time podcast interview, above.

Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob J. Lew

This doesn’t happen everyday: Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob Lew, is speaking right here, right now, in Korn Convocation Hall. He’s en route to Cairns, Australia, for the Group of Twenty (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, but stopped off at UCLA Anderson to speak to a full house. His speech is also live-streaming on our Anderson website.

First topic: tax inversions and patriotism.

Next: US economic relations with Russia.
Next: China.
Next: Value of the Dollar.

Now, questions and answer period. The questions posed by students:
Syria and ISIS?
Scotland and UK?
Student loans?
Tax code reform, reactions from other countries?
Wealth inequality?
Communicating post-2008-financial-crisis efforts?
How to communicate contentious topics abroad, at home?
Dean Judy Olian, last question, immigration reform: As one-third of our students are international. How do we make sure they can work here, with their UCLA education?

Making History: The new FEMBA Class of 2017

Last week we welcomed the UCLA Anderson FEMBA Class of 2017, the 27th entering class and the largest-ever entering class!

The highlight of my year is making the opening-day welcome, where I get to give the class profile and share my “diamonds polish diamonds” metaphor. My half-hour speech is only a small part of the whole Leadership Foundations, an intense, five-day immersion taught by some of our freshest-thinking professors, embedding social-connectivity with multiple experiential-learning components.

Below are some of the statistics of our amazing new class of students, as well as some photos of the week.

The FEMBA Class of 2017

• The 27^th entering FEMBA class
• 330 students = most ever. Up 13% from last year.
  FEMBA has more than quintupled since beginning in 1988.
  At over 900 students, FEMBA is poised to be one of UCLA’s largest graduate program student bodies, if not the largest.

• 715 applications, up 19% from last year
• 92 women = most ever
• 23 Military = most ever (to the best of my knowledge)
  
• 8 MDs = most ever
  I don’t know how to confirm this, but my hunch is that this is more than any other part-time and also probably any other full-time MBA program.
• 7 Lawyers
• 3 PhDs (Biochemistry, Electrical Engineering and Experimental Particle Physics!)
• Class includes patent-holders, published authors, CPAs, CFAs, Eagle Scouts, a Peace Corps graduate, a Teach for America graduate, Missionaries, Riordan program alumni
• 2 married couples (both spouses in Class of 2017)
• 3 are married to other Anderson students (2 MBA, 1 FEMBA)
• 5 members of the class have a parent with an Anderson MBA
• 443 SuperSaturday admission interviews were held on-campus.
  100% of all admits were interviewed.
  We’ll surpass 5,000 life-time SuperSaturday interviews November 8th!
• 9% are of Hispanic or African-American heritage
• 36% are married
• 30 average age
• 610-730 middle 80% GMAT
• 3.4 average undergraduate GPA
• 26% hold advanced degrees
• 150 undergraduate universities represented
  UCLA #1, 46 graduates
  USC #2, 23
  UC Irvine #3, 16
  UC Berkeley #4, 13
  16 Ivy League graduates
  9 Military Academy graduates
• 268 total employers represented

• $83,198 is average salary
• 77 are already earning over $100,000/year
  27 nationalities/countries of birth  (the United Nations meets Hogwarts!)
  34 states of birth

• 7% reside outside of California and 1% reside outside the US (see below)
  We have three international commuters (two from China and one from the UK, all into FLEX)
• FLEX grew 11% from last year ( up to 63 from 57 )
  FLEX has students from 13 states and 2 countries (China and UK)

What’s it like to give a keynote welcome to 330 people? A bit intimidating, especially since it takes three shots just to photograph them all.

The new FEMBA Class of 2017, August 25, 2017, day one of Leadership Foundations. 1 of 3.

The new FEMBA Class of 2017, August 25, 2017, day one of Leadership Foundations. 2 of 3. (See Associate Dean Freixes down front.)

The new FEMBA Class of 2017, August 25, 2017, day one of Leadership Foundations. 3 of 3. (Directors Melissa de Ramos and Bonnie Kim coming down for their opening welcomes.)

Hail to the Chief! Our FEMBA student body president, Kari Schumaker ’15, welcomes the new students.

Let out your inner thespian. Joining Kari on-stage are FEMBA Council Officers Vibhore Bhaskar, Amber Jackson, David Forbes, Chihiro Kurokawa and Allyson Tom for a skit or two.

 

Allyson Tom ’15, FEMBAssador Co-Chair, also welcomed the 2017s, and gave an overview of FEMBAssadors.

David Duong plugged all-things-social. In the background he showed two videos, for Section Wars, and here, AnderProm.

If you’re excited to be starting at UCLA, let’s see you raise your hands!

They made six months’ worth of work look effortless; the team who managed the entire week: Kuni Kondo, Itze Ornelas, Amjad Ezzour, Michael Fontanez, Abraham Martinez.

These upperclass FEMBAs gave up a week too, so that they could be the Teaching Assistants for Leadership Foundations: Brad Phillipi, Ryan Rosales, Chihiro Kurokawa, Jack Warren, Asa Sharma, and Alyse Thompson.

The engine that makes the whole enterprise go, our excellent faculty. Here were the five leaders of Leadership Foundations 2014, our professors Keyvan Kashkooli, Noah Goldstein, Craig Fox, Margaret Shih and Jenessa Shapiro.

Finally, I want to thank the three team who make my professional life possible, my Admissions Team, Our Alumni Reader Team, and our FEMBAssador team. Thanks everyone! Your efforts created this history-making, largest-ever entering FEMBA Class of 2017!

 

UCLA Commencement 2014, FEMBA memories

Commencement 2014! Grads and dads and moms and grandparents and babies and boyfriends and girlfriends and all of the support network of the FEMBA Class of 2014–all the dedicated loved ones gathered in the California sunshine. It’s one of the best days of the year at UCLA.

The view from Lot 4 never looks so good.

“That’s right! Next time I see the A building, I’ll be an alum,” thought by an almost-graduated 2014.

Dylan, Linda Tran ’14 and Matt Gorlick ’13

Linda and her mom, “Last time, when I graduated from Berkeley, I couldn’t get all my family up there. This time? No excuses. Everyone’s coming today.”

Couple of Texans… Dylan and Doug Longo ’14. Back from his new job at DFA in Austin.

GAP power team. Former GAP Fellow Matt Gorlick ’13. GAP Faculty member Janis Forman. GAP Executive Director Paul Brandano ’06.

Smiles!

Top left, taking the selfie!

I can’t look up into the sun this long! Take the photo already!

The photographer on the roof of Korn Convocation Hall said, “Close your eyes for a second. Then open them all at once and look up.” I thought it sounded like something a doctor would say before doing something painful to me.

“Now the happy one!”

Going to miss Anastasia, Melissa, Beth. You all brought so much energy to FEMBA!

More smiles.

Oh yeah we did!

Yup!

With Daniel Millner ’14. Daniel works on-campus, as the Director of World Arts and Culture. Thanks for all the coffees at Il Tram these last years Daniel. I think we solved all the world’s big problems over those conversations! So nice seeing your wife and family last night.

Dylan con Manuel Ambriz ’14. ¿Manuel, qué puedo decir? Es increíble que volabas desde ciudad de México a Los Angeles durante tres años. Eres una persona increíble.

Manuel Ambriz ’14, commuted from Mexico City to Los Angeles for three years. He wore out three passports. He wasn’t in FLEX, he was in all-day Saturday. I don’t know for sure, but I doubt there’s a UCLA Anderson graduate who logged more miles for their MBA than Manuel. Felicitaciones!

Yeah!

Josh Schachter ’14, Hrag Hamalian ’14 and me. Can’t wait to see what these two entrepreneurs cook up next!

Jon Dearing and Susan Dearing. Congratulations Jon. Congratulations Mom!

Ryan Hughes ’14. Founder of Bull Oak Capital and a committed father and husband. Go Ryan Go!

Never have to take another MBA final exam….

Professor Janis Forman, Professor Carla Hayn (FEMBA’s Senior Associate Dean for the last seven amazing years) and Patricia Godefroy, our new marketing Dean.

With Kari Shumaker ’15, FEMBA’s new student body president.

Dean Judy Olian, Dean Al Osborne, and Susan Wojcicki ’98, CEO of Youtube and our 2014 Commencement speaker.

Faculty line up.

Looking at the grads lining up, from the catwalk.

Faculty parade.

Brian Sterz ’14. Going to miss you!

Brian and Doug!

Follow the leaders. Susan Wojcicki ’98 and Judy Olian lead the procession.

Andrew Hull ’14, with Gonzalo Freixes and Carla Hayn. Congratulations Andrew. Your commencement address was outstanding. Heartfelt. Compelling. Great.

I see you, seeing me. Gonna miss you Michael Klausler.

Susan Wojckicki ’98 offers applause for the new grads.

Andrew Hull ’14, gives a heck of a speech.

Nothing beats the California sunshine!

Brian Sterz ’14…get off the phone. We’re trying to have a graduation here!

You know it’s a party when we break out the bagpipes!

Let there light! UCLA to raise $4.2 Billion

How would you raise $4.2 Billion?  UCLA said, “Let there be light!” and launched the Centennial Campaign last Saturday evening with a one-of-a-kind light show outdoors on the walls of Royce Hall. As the campus counts down to its 100th anniversary in 2019, the Centennial Campaign marks the largest fundraising ever undertaken by a public university. The campaign celebrates a century of growth and achievement and seeks to secure UCLA’s future as a center for higher education where teaching, research and service advance the public good.

Enjoy the video below, or read more at LetThereBe.ucla.edu.

UCLA lunchtime inspiration

What did you do at lunch today? I burned 434 calories and got my afternoon’s inspiration!

434 calories on the elliptical, then some crunches: all to “Kings of Leon” station on Pandora

Nod to the Bear

Probably my next career, fund-raising for education

Did you know?

Freebie zone. Got a new recyclable grocery bag.

Why not? Selfie with Joe Bruin.

Tomorrow’s Bruins on a tour

Can’t leave out Coach Wooden!  Right inside the door of the Wooden Center.

Hard to read, but the Wooden quote on the wall is this, “Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” — Coach Wooden. Inside the Wooden Center