UCLA grad

During his time at UCLA, MIMG student Amitoj Singh found a love for community service and a desire to always take the extra step.

“UCLA has encouraged me to want more and never settle for less,” he said.  “Just coming here and developing a big work ethic helps me strive to be the best person I can be.”

Singh, a Sikh student from an immigrant family, moved from the Fresno to Los Angeles and like many freshmen, he initially struggled to find where he belonged at such a massive university.

“I had never lived on my own, and I come from a close family,” he said.  “Separating that connection was hard and I had to adjust to a fast-paced environment.”

Singh was initially struck by the diversity he found in Los Angeles, and said he had the opportunity to meet students from outside the small group he had in high school, who all came from a similar background.   By interacting with students from various backgrounds, he said he became more accepting and acknowledging of the role diversity plays on UCLA’s campus.

Singh said he feels much of his experience at UCLA has been shaped by his academic pursuits.  He switched his major from Chemistry to MIMG to cater more to his medical school aspirations. He said he developed strong skills in writing and critical thinking.  His classes challenged him to study beyond just memorizing facts, and he had to learn to solve problems logically.

During his four years at UCLA, Singh also dedicated much of his time to his community service activities.  He said he first realized the importance of community service growing up in Fresno, where many of his classmates were from middle to low-income families.  He said he feels lucky to be able to attend college, and he enjoys using his advantages to volunteer within his community.

“Being in my position, I feel like I have to (give back),” Singh said.  “It’s like a need I have to fulfill.  I feel like my life has revolved around it.”

Singh has worked with the Bhagat Puran Singh Health Initiative (BPSHI) for the past four years, where he helps check vitals of Sikh community members at local temples.  He personally started a program within the club to create pamphlets that provide important health, exercise, and dietary information.

He has also worked with Share-a-Meal at UCLA, where he helped deliver veggie burritos and other supplies to the homeless in Venice Beach.

“I’ve realized how unfortunate some people are, especially in our local communities, and how important it is to help others,” he said.

After graduation, Singh plans to take a gap year and volunteer at his former high school before attending medical school.  He plans to teach a research course over the summer for low to middle-income students, and he will tutor students throughout the year in math and science.

In his free time, Singh is an avid basketball fan and played intramural basketball almost every quarter at UCLA, in addition to regularly attending games at the Staples Center and Pauley Pavillion.

Singh emphasized UCLA helped him grow and learn to take advantage of every opportunity, and he encouraged UCLA students to do the same.

“The organizations I’m involved in have helped me feel more at home and develop strong relationships with other people,” he said.

Ernesto Javier Rojas helped with his aunt’s delivery of a baby boy.

Rojas, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student, was working as an EMT at the time. Noting his interest in the medical field, his aunt had offered to let him stay in the delivery room and interact with her physicians. Rojas had already begun lab research at UCLA, and said the experience of witnessing birth sparked his fascination with reproductive health.

Rojas now works in two research labs, where he studies the role of stem cells in restoring fertility and where he focuses on the ethics of using CRISPR/Cas9 technology to genetically engineer embryos, respectively.

Until recently, the genetic engineering of embryos was something people only talked about. The technology was portrayed in films like “Gattaca,” where it created a social divide by enabling those who could afford it, Rojas said. Because CRISPR/Cas9 technology is so new and so cheap, Rojas said there are concerns about future implementation. His work now focuses on preventing impending dangers, especially in the state of California, where there are almost no regulations on what one can do with embryos.

“We found a company that will sell me a $200 kit to edit bacteria, and that’s a little dangerous because if I get the right bacterial strain, I can cause severe e.coli, poisoning and start messing with stuff like that,” Rojas said. “How is it that this technology can be used in this field that is basically the wild west of reproductive health? California is that area, so (there are) dangers of having that technology in the hands of an open free market with no regulations.”

Rojas frequently visits his high school in nearby Downey to talk about his research and inspire younger students to take the route he did. He recently looked at his graduating class profile and found an overwhelming percentage of his class were Hispanic or Latino and qualified for school lunch services based on need, himself included; yet many of his classmates did not meet the minimum requirements to attend a California State or a University of California school.

As an immigrant from Honduras and first generation college student, Rojas said it can often be difficult to carve a path for oneself, especially in STEM.

“The first thing I wanted to do was just get into college and go to UCLA and start doing that. It’s like, I’m always the first one to tread a path that hasn’t been tread before,” he said. “Kids like me, we get this impostor syndrome sometimes, where we’re like, ‘Is it just that I slipped in through the cracks?’ because I don’t see anyone like me in my family–in my community–who is doing something like this.’”

But UCLA put all students on an equal platform for success, Rojas said. Having excelled in a field of his interest and secured funding for his research, Rojas said he hopes to turn his attention toward helping the next generation of students like himself.

“I’m applying to some of the top schools in the world, and I got a great MCAT score,” Rojas said. “I’m not going to be getting into a medical school or a graduate school because I’m Hispanic or Latino–I’m going to be getting in because I earned it.”

Kimberly Goodwin’s weekly routine at UCLA involved juggling her 3.975 GPA in Applied Mathematics Major and Statistics Minor, tutoring students online and in person, and working long weekend shifts at a job near home.

“I really didn’t have time to procrastinate, since I was so busy,” she said.

Throughout Goodwin’s four years at UCLA, she continued working weekends at a part-time job she started after her freshman year in her hometown, Chino. She’d spend the weekdays at UCLA, and transport home to Chino on the weekends for her job.

“It was kind of like jumping between two worlds,” she said. “I was gone every weekend when people would hang-out and spend time together.”

Goodwin spent her weekdays tutoring students, both online and in person. Her passion for teaching math started in seventh grade, when she knew she enjoyed solving math problems, but wasn’t interested in the idea of doing math for its sake. Her first opportunity to tutor came after she helped her substitute teacher solve a math question in eighth grade,

“After class, she asked if I could teach her daughter Geometry,” she said “As an eighth grader, I thought ‘I guess I could do that.’”

Her tutoring career continued at UCLA, where she worked for the Department of Mathematics  as a course reader, and later as a learning assistant for the Math 31A class.

Goodwin also taught online as a video creator for a tutoring company called GRITI during her freshman and sophomore years, following an opportunity which arose during a class.

“I applied and sent in a video of me explaining a random physics question and I was hired as a video expert,” she said.

She made complete video series for undergraduate math courses at UCLA, working remotely following class syllabi and homework problems for content.

“Originally, I was making videos for UCLA students. Then, these videos spread to other UC schools, and other Cal-state schools,” she said. “By my sophomore year, it ended up being distributed to other universities across the nation. I had a wide audience, so I felt like all the time I put into it, all the planning, wasn’t put to waste.”

Goodwin also volunteered for the Reading to Kids organization, spending the second Saturday of each month with local elementary school students.

Goodwin said she would eventually like to teach high school mathematics, since she said high school students are at a more impressionable age and are more open to positive influence.

“My goal is to instill confidence in students, especially when it comes to math, which may be a polarizing subject,” she said. “I want to make an impact on students at that age.”

Despite the additional time commitment of her weekend shifts and tutoring sessions, Goodwin managed to maintain a 3.975 GPA and graduated summa cum laude.

“From the beginning of each quarter, I’d try to start being on top of things, because I know it’s really hard to catch up in a quarter system when you fall behind,” she said.

Goodwin suggested students interested in STEM subjects approach their studies with a growth mindset.

“Growth mindset is believing that intellectual capabilities are malleable, and can wane if you don’t work on it, or grow and develop with practice,” she said, “Even if you hadn’t been good at math or science before, with conscious effort, lots of practice and careful guidance, you can really develop capacity to understand material deeply and thoroughly.”

Neil D’Silva’s advice to incoming Bruins? In the words of Bruce Lee: Be water, my friend.

D’Silva had to heed Lee’s call for resilience throughout his time at UCLA on his way toward graduating on the pre-med track with a degree in molecular, cell, and developmental biology.

“I will admit that sophomore and junior year, and even portions of my senior year, were filled with disappointments, rejections, and failures,” he said. “It would have been easier to leave the pre-med life and decide on something easier.”

His discovery of new pockets of campus that helped him grow and thrive led him to become a leader in the Community Service Commission of the undergraduate student government, UniCamp, and the Resilience Peer Network.

At CSC, he volunteered with several tutorial and healthcare projects, such as Kids Korner, Project Literacy, Pilipinos for Community Health, and Flying Samaritans at UCLA.

His time at UniCamp saw him working with older campers as an advisor, where one summer, a cancellation of a session meant he wouldn’t be able to work with the young people with which he was planning to host. However, he was touched when his teammates

And, as a fully certified Resilience Peer, he led support groups sessions for students with anxiety and depression to help them meet self-determined goals for recovery

The connection he forges with people on a deep, personal level really draws him to community service, D’Silva said.

He added his experience with the various organizations of which he has been a part ultimately played a part in securing his future plans, more so than many of his UCLA classes.

Though his ultimate goal is to become a doctor and practice medicine, D’Silva said he recognizes changes in health management are made not made at the doctor-patient level, but rather the population level, requiring more effort.

D’Silva’s service to communities in need continues with his travels to China with the Peace Corps, where he will teach English for two years before returning to the U.S. He said he plans to start preparing to apply for medical school when he returns, but that his time with the corps will be one of self reflection and for him to explore potential side projects.

Because of the Peace Corps’ training schedule, he missed most of his commencement festivities, but D’Silva said he is excited to start his journey.

“I feel like I don’t stress out about things until I’m in the situation,” he said. “I won’t feel all the  excitement until I land in China and I step foot outside of that plane.”

Mercedes Cornelius originally wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up.

For a school career day, when everyone else dressed up as his or her favorite actor, she donned a long cloak in her attempt to be a judge.

However, the now biophysics and applied mathematics student has dedicated her last five years at UCLA to laboratory research and STEM education for youth

Born and raised in Florida, Cornelius moved at an early age to California to live with her uncle, a physicist. In Florida, most math classes only went up to pre-Algebra and Cornelius had her sights set on studying law in college; however, her uncle convinced her to give physics a try.

“When I first got my hands on a physics problem, I was like ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a physicist,” she said.

During the first few weeks of her freshman year at UCLA, Cornelius founded the National Society of Empowered Youth (NSEY), which aims to encourage underrepresented student groups to gain interest in the maths and sciences. Members used accessible modes of learning such as exploring the physics of music or the chemistry of cooking to inspire students.

“When I first got to UCLA I was like ‘Oh man, there are all these resources I can use, I’ve got to give back’ because I want some other kids to see how beautiful physics is too, maybe it’s for them,” she said. “Just the fact that they would be exposed to it is something different, because I wasn’t exposed to it at all, but I ended up loving it.”

Cornelius said this was her most memorable experience in her NSEY work happened while she was working with students from the Jackie Robinson Foundation. One student watched a series of videos, got all the concepts right, and  was so excited he could hardly speak, going up to his mother afterwards to proclaim his excitement.

The other primary aspect of her UCLA career lies in research – Cornelius currently works as an undergraduate researcher in a lab where she aids in growing a smaller version of a human organ on a chip – a micro system that will keep the organ running. She’s helped with creating several organs on chips in an effort to study cancer cells, which ties into her interest in oncology.

“It’s an area that I think has a lot of room for improvement, a lot of room for innovation,” she said. “Cancer in itself is just a very interesting thing – it gets me – just how complex it is…it doesn’t even have to be understood simply, but just to be understood, I like doing that.”

Eventually Cornelius aims to complete an M.D.–P.h.D., a dual doctoral degree which will allow her to do research, specifically in oncology, as well as see patients. However, before that, Cornelius will be traveling to China to do research at Peking University, as part of their pharmaceutical sciences program. She said she is excited to study traditional Chinese medicine, learn martial arts, and speak Mandarin, which she has been learning on her own.

During her first week at UCLA, Regina Brodell walked through the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Gardens asking herself what she hoped to accomplish in her time in college.

Putting down thoughts in her school-themed notebook, she said she was struck by the school’s motto: “Let there be light.” Then and there, she vowed to herself to be a light for those in the dark.

Brodell herself has experience being in the dark, with the loss of her father and experiencing homelessness. She also raised her two younger siblings from a young age before they came under the guardianship of an older sister.

“When I began classes freshman year, I struggled to see myself as capable of accomplishing anything,” she said, “because I saw the world through a heart filled with pain.”

Brodell compared her academic journey to a fable about a man afraid of his shadow, running from it until he died of exhaustion. Though she initially felt shame to be a former foster youth, bouncing from home to home, and tried to run from the stigma, she eventually learned to befriend her shadow. Additionally, she said the different support systems she found around campus allowed her to rest in the shade, where her shadow blended into the background.

Brodell singled out two programs at UCLA helped her embrace her identity: the Bruin Guardian Scholars Program and the UCLA Teaching, Intervention, Education and Services for Families Foster Youth Mentoring program.

Through BGS, she met people with similar experiences to her own and eventually found a sense of family and companionship with her peers. Similarly, through the TIES Foster Youth Mentoring Program, she was able to establish a bond with her mentee for the past four years, and as her mentee enters high school, Brodell said she intends to keep that bond going through the college application process.

Brodell said her work with BGS and TIES have taught her the importance of treating all people equally and loving them, working towards a future that excludes no one.

“If I had to sum up in one sentence what UCLA has done for me, it’s taught me to always be a learner,” Brodell said. “And I want to take that wherever I go.”

Brodell also said during the fifth annual Winston C. Doby Distinguished Lecture by Rep. John Lewis in 2017, she was moved by his call to action to “find a way to get in the way” when one witnesses injustice. She said she aspired to embody in her life the values she admired in his: courage, accountability, service, and empowerment, among a host of other traits.

Bodell founded Bread as Bridge, a service club whose members serve homeless individuals in Westwood; and Restorative Justice, which takes students to visit incarcerated youth.

“I just feel really grateful for where I am in life right now,” she said.  “I want to be able to give back, (to) be what I didn’t have growing up, and give back what I didn’t have.”

Brodell will spend the upcoming year as a research assistant at the UCLA Nathanson Family Resilience Center, housed within the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, after which she plans to apply to graduate school. Her research will focus on working with youth who have experienced trauma and teaching them methods for regulating their emotions.

Jason Naderi told the four-year-old whose eyes he was examining that he could win the game they were playing if he maintained eye contact with a flower projected inside the examination machine.

Naderi told the boy if he focused hard enough, the machine would make cricket noises that meant he was winning. In fact, it was measuring his eye prescription.

“A four-year-old getting a huge machine stuck in front of his eye isn’t going to excite him, so I made it a game,” said Naderi, a fourth-year biology student who has volunteered for the past four years with the UCLA Mobile Eye Clinic.

After examining the boy’s vision, he discovered he had a lazy eye.

“Spotting this at a young age is really important, because we were able to get the child the lenses and treatment he needed to correct the lazy eye,” Naderi said.

With UMEC, Naderi travels to preschools across Los Angeles to provide children with free vision screenings. He said his work has made him very aware of the socioeconomic disparities that block access to healthcare in many parts of the city.

“People see (Los Angeles) as lush and luxurious, so many people tend to ignore there are so many areas where children and adults lack access to basic healthcare,” he said. “I would see how a lot of children were already starting to develop eye abnormalities. If it weren’t for us screening them, they wouldn’t have realized they had them and would have gotten worse.”

Naderi also volunteers with the Vision In-School program through the Jules Stein Eye Institute, giving presentations about eye health to fifth-grade classrooms in Los Angeles. In his presentations, he discusses eye anatomy, how to keep eyes healthy, and even dissects a cow eye in front of the students.

Two years ago, Naderi asked the program’s coordinator if he could give a presentation at his old elementary school, Sherman Oaks School for Enriched Studies.

“I was back in the same classroom I had sat in nine or 10 years ago, with the same teacher,” he said. “It felt surreal to be teaching the students instead of being taught. For a school that gave so much to me, it felt like my duty to give back.”

After Naderi finished his presentation, a little girl hugged him and said she wanted to be a doctor like him when she grew up. She also asked if he was Persian, like her.

“I said yes, and she said “I can’t wait to tell my mom!”,” he said.

Naderi’s parents immigrated from Iran to Westwood in 1982, just across the street from the UCLA campus. He said he was raised to be proud of his culture, but embraced his heritage more at UCLA by joining the Farhang Foundation, an organization that promotes Iranian art and culture, and meeting others with the same background and family values.

“It’s been important for me … to spread a positive image of (Iranian culture),” he said. “The environment at UCLA helped me understand how important it is to be in touch with one’s culture.”

Naderi said UCLA also helped him understand the importance of standing out in a crowd. When he started taking classes in the biology department, he said he was intimidated by large lecture sizes. He began to go to office hours regularly so his professors would not see him as just another face in a 300-student class.

“You have to stand out in some way, and it’s going to take work and dedication … but in the end, it’s worth it,“ he said. “As I went to more office hours, I better understood and became more passionate about the subject.”

Naderi said Tae Kwon Do has taught him how to apply dedication, discipline and respect to his studies. He has practiced the martial art since age nine and holds a fourth-degree black belt. Now, he runs his own weekly youth class for Meeting Every Need with Dignity, a non-profit organization that serves low-income communities in the San Fernando Valley.

He said he teaches his young students respect for others through Tae Kwon Do. Recently, some students in his class laughed at another student who was unable to do a pushup, and Naderi spent the rest of the class explaining the importance of respecting others.

“Tae Kwon Do is about making friends and having respect and discipline,” he said. “At the end of the day, that’s what life is about … by the end of class, we were able to understand that.”

 

Gaël Aimé Adrien Mbama recalls the first time he arrived in the United States and was greeted by a large portrait of then-President Barack Obama as he descended the escalator to the arrivals level of the airport.

With large and circular metal-framed glasses and a mild French accent, Mbama said he thought President Obama was the best president the United States has ever seen, and that he too wants to be the best in something one day. He speaks enthusiastically and with an air of confidence about his desire to lead—whether in his classes or his field of the work in the future—as the best he can possibly be.

Mbama will be interning at the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office following graduation, which he hopes will prepare him to eventually enter a career in law to help change the lives of others.

Born and raised in France, Mbama is the younger of his two siblings who also experienced life in the U.S. during their college studies.  He said he wanted to attend UCLA since he was in high school, since the university has international name recognition, but also because of the opportunities present in the city.

“As part of a minority, black and French, I wanted to be in a city where I could meet people from all walks of life,” Mbama said.

In 2013 he enrolled at Santa Monica College with the goal of transferring into UCLA. He said people were concerned about his chances of transferring, since he planned to only apply to UCLA, but he was determined to prove his mettle.

“Every time you challenge me, I’ll do my best to prove your wrong, to show I’m different,” he said.

Although Mbama said he initially struggled with the quarter system, he has come to love the pace of the academic schedule for which UCLA is known.

Mbama said he always strives to be the best in what he does—whether academically or professionally—and hopes to enroll in a top law school following graduation, with the eventual goal of working in international law or for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“I don’t want to be a random attorney, I want to be the best attorney,” he said.

Mbama joined the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity his first year on campus and said the experience helped him form a sense of community on campus. Mbama also joined the Daily Bruin as an opinion columnist, writing about controversial topics including diversity, Greek life and sexual assault, among others. He also started a charity and club on campus called the Rett Syndrome Club, which he said he was inspired to create after a friend worked with girl with Rett Syndrome.

He also served as a UCLA ambassador of France, to assist UCLA students interested in studying abroad in France and French students interested in studying at UCLA.

Mbama said he is proud of his contributions to the Daily Bruin, since he has only spoken English five years, but is most proud of the work he has done to bring awareness to minority communities.

“There are a lot of minorities that are suffering a lot of micro aggressions on a daily basis, and being a watchdog and journalist was extremely (prideful) for me,” he said.

He said he found UCLA offers a wide range support if one knows where look, despite warnings that he would be “just a number” within a public university.

Mbama said although he said he is sad to leave the school behind, he is happy with what he accomplished as a Bruin.

“You don’t want to leave the world without added value,” he said.  “You want to improve other people’s lives.”

 

At age 16, Alia Manetta decided to travel to India by herself for the summer.

Manetta was interested in a hands-on volunteer opportunity in a hospital, but couldn’t find any opportunities near her home, so she turned to India.

Manetta contacted hospital after hospital until she found a charitable hospital Silchar, a city in a remote region of the country, that agreed to let her shadow all the doctors. She organized and raised funds for the trip herself, and enjoyed the experience so much, she returned to the hospital to volunteer for three more summers.

Working seven days a week at the hospital, Manetta quickly became involved in all parts of the hospital’s operation, from delivering medicine to patients to assisting doctors in performing surgeries.

“Before the first day had ended, I, the only female assistant, assisted in three gallbladder surgeries and a thyroid surgery,” she said.

Involvement in service and entrepreneurship projects has interested Manetta since she was a young girl.

At age eight, Manetta began selling organic fruits and vegetables from her mother’s garden. What began as a business on a local street corner grew to online ordering service that delivered fresh produce to neighborhoods outside her home in Laguna Beach until its closure when Manetta moved to Los Angeles.

In third grade she built a system to wash hair for bedridden hospital patients using items recovered from her trash, and two years later used the experience to create clothing from trash for a school talent show.

“Even in third grade, I knew I wanted my future career to empower me, and provide me a platform to positively impact my community,” she said.

Manetta said she relishes opportunities to innovate and has learned from her realization at UCLA that “the arts and sciences are not at odds.”

“The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how to knowledge is communicated,” she said.

While in high school, Manetta gained exposure to the health sciences as a volunteer at the UC Irvine Mind Institute, where she coordinated fundraising events to benefit those affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

She continued her work in the biomedical field in college as a research analyst at the Oppenheimer Center for the Neurobiology of Stress at the David Geffen School of Medicine, where she worked as a clinical research analyst investigating pain disorders and educating physicians on new bodies of research.

In 2013 she was named a Top Ten Graduate of Orange County to Change the World and in 2015 received the Order of Omega Leadership Award.

In 2015 Manetta presented research on mental health and homelessness at the National Health Care for the Homeless Conference in Washington, D.C., and in 2016 she presented research on brain alterations in children with gastrointestinal disorders at a symposium at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Prior to graduation, Manetta worked at Merrill Lynch in Beverly Hills as a wealth management intern, and also served as the philanthropy committee chair for Kappa Alpha Theta from 2013 to 2017.

Manetta graduated on the Dean’s Honors List and is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars.

She is currently working toward a Master’s Degree in Business of Bioscience at the Keck Graduate Institute.

 

Bo James Hwang believes rejection is the best protection.

Growing up in Hollywood, Hwang wasn’t allowed to join a gang because he was a girl. Now he sees it as a blessing – rejection is the best protection.

But there is one thing he wasn’t rejected from: UCLA. Hwang, now a senior gender studies student with an Asian American studies minor, has served as an inspiration for many high school and college students due to his hard work and determination in life.

Hwang was born in Korea and his gender assigned at birth was female. After coming to America at age 4, Hwang was quickly introduced to a new lifestyle. He said his friends in elementary school were sexually active. Hwang was first sexually assaulted at age 7.

In middle school, Hwang was bullied – his classmates expected him to be smart and good at math because of the model minority myth about Asian Americans, he said. He began skipping class and taking the city bus to go shoplift, or just to ride it to the end and back.

But home wasn’t a safe space either. Hwang said his father, who drank a lot, and his grandmother were abusive. His older sister was feminine and excelled in school – contrasting with Hwang and setting up expectations with teachers that he did not always meet. His teachers told him he would amount to nothing.

It was also in middle school when Hwang was raped by his boyfriend at the time. He used to wonder if it was his fault – he didn’t say no, he didn’t say stop. But being at UCLA has taught him more about consent, that it’s the norm.

“I felt like Casper the ghost,” Hwang said. “I was like split from my body watching it happen.”

Even though he had failed his middle school classes, Hwang somehow slipped into a high school in Los Angeles. During high school, he ran away for four months.

He couldn’t afford to pay for after school activities like piano, so after school he did crystal meth with his friends.

“It felt like the perfect drug to use, especially being on the street,” Hwang said. “Being hyper vigilant, that was a way for me to cope because it was a lot of stress.”

Hwang would get into cars with random men in order to get free food from them. He said it was also expected to give sexual favors in exchange for free drugs.

“Nothing is free,” he said.

Hwang recalled once getting into a cab with a man who offered an unlimited supply of meth, cocaine and marijuana. But Hwang felt something was off when they pulled up to buildings in Westwood. He realized the cab driver was a pimp trying to sell Hwang and his friend. But everything happens for a reason – the taxi ran out of gas so they all went to a motel. The pimp fell asleep, and Hwang took his car keys. With the help of his 12-year-old friend to get the car started, he drove home and hoped the police wouldn’t pull over the two little girls at the wheel. His family didn’t ask where he had been.

Hwang attended 11 different high schools, spent about a week in juvenile hall and attempted suicide three times.

“No one had my back,” he said. “It was just me, me, me.”

His mindset changed after his boyfriend abandoned him with a strange man, and Hwang awoke to semen in his hair. Hwang took the city bus all the way to the end, to UCLA. He realized he needed to start doing well in school.

“I used to blame my rapist, my mom, my dad, but then I saw that 1.1 GPA,” he said. “I’d rather give it my all and fail, than cheat and succeed, or not try and fail.”

He enrolled into therapy, attended transgender support groups in high school, graduated at age 16 and went to two community colleges. One of his proudest moments is getting a B in an art history class that he worked hard for.

After applying for about 80 scholarships, Hwang could afford to go to UCLA. He transferred to UCLA and met positive transgender role models for the first time.

Now the 25-year-old plans to pursue a career in medicine and social work. He’s been sober for seven years.

His time at UCLA has been marked by his desire to give back to the community. He didn’t have anyone to rely on growing up, so he wants to be there for others looking to attend college. Kids need to see someone like them being successful, he said.

“You need role models to show you and guide you – I didn’t really have that,” he said.

Hwang has given about 120 talks and workshops about his story, helping students without resources write their college applications. He served as a peer mentor for the UCLA Médicos, Enfermeros, y Dentistas Para el Pueblo (MEDPEP) Program for underrepresented community college pre-medical students from California. Hwang was proud to help his mentee get a full ride scholarship to San Francisco State University. Now that he’s followed his dreams, he said he can be happy for others who do the same.

At UCLA, Hwang has also worked on research about binary restrooms, AIDS and HIV prevention information for transmen and health inquiries of LGBTQ+ people.

Despite his successes, however, Hwang is critical of himself and doesn’t feel like he is enough. He said he’s on a journey of self-love. His bracelet reminds him, “Who you are makes a difference,” which he got in 2014 when he began using male pronouns.

He started transitioning about a year ago, even though he was worried what other people would think. Hwang realized his opinion and happiness are the only ones that matter.

“I wanted to live my authentic self,” he said. “I felt like I should start living my life now.”

Hwang reflects on single choices in life, how you don’t know what will happen due to a small change, like saying no to crystal meth one day or being born another gender. In the end, everything happens for a reason.

It took two years, but Hwang’s dad, a traditional man, finally calls him his son and not his daughter.

“Sometimes you have to lose to win. Everything I’ve ever wanted is in my face,” he said. “I made it.”