I knew I wanted to be a part of the Daily Bruin even before I came to UCLA.
But when I joined Outreach as a freshman in October 2021, I didn’t know how big of an impact joining a new seven-person section would have on my college experience.
In only its second year at the paper, I came into Outreach as a wide-eyed intern who had been an editor at her high school newspaper, wanting to meet others who also cared about journalism to the degree that I did. Though the first year was a mixture of remote and in-person work, it led me to my Outreach family: Danielle, Kate and Cece, who made our little section feel like a second home.
My journey at the Daily Bruin was one of taking chances that I never knew would be presented to me. At the end of my freshman year, I was encouraged to apply for the Outreach director position, something that I didn’t even realize I wanted until Kari, the director at the time, said I would be a good fit.
It’s here that I have to also say a huge thank you to Olivia, David and Victoria for believing in me and my vision while quelling my fears of applying for such a large role as a freshman.
Outreach being so new gave me the room to create my own workflows and projects. We were traversing in untouched territory. We completely changed the way we approached our recruitment and marketing, created more networking opportunities both inside and outside the paper through launching DB Connections and working with alumni, worked closer with other sections and so much more.
All of these accomplishments would not have been possible without my true partner-in-crime, Danielle. Thank you for always being unafraid to do something we hadn’t done before and for being right by my side through it all for two years.
And to Kaiya, thank you for being such a valuable asset throughout my first year of leadership. Thank you to my team for all your trust and for making assignment desks the highlight of my week.
To Sanjana, Joseph C., Matthew, Ben, Tyler, Talia, Joseph J. and Emily, thank you for all the laughs and core memories. Being Outreach director allowed me to connect with and speak with every section in the paper, and it made me even more excited to do the work that I do. So to everyone else I met inside and out of the office, thank you for supporting the section’s growth with open arms.
If I had to choose one memory to summarize my experience at the Daily Bruin, it would be writing a script and then coordinating and “directing” 20 people from sections all over the paper for the “73 Questions with Daily Bruin” video. We had so much fun and so many laughs (I still can’t believe we did it all in one take).
Through all the chaos that day, that experience is the perfect example of what the Daily Bruin means to me: People coming together to make something that matters while being there for each other through it all.
Badve was a rimmer 2024-2025, Outreach director 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 and an Outreach contributor 2021-2022.
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