ADAM AMENGUAL has contributed photography to UCLA Magazine for years now, but says this issue’s video story on the UCLA Climbing Team presented “an awesome opportunity to direct a short documentary.” He and his brother Derek, who served as director of photography, are both climbers, so this project held extra interest and enjoyment. The Amengual siblings spent a few days in Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas capturing the Bruin climbers’ challenges and camaraderie amid breathtaking scenery. Adam also photographed alums Sara Safari and Alice Kao, respectively, for the other pieces of our climbing package in this issue. Amengual’s images have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, among other publications.
“I learned that it’s difficult to talk while scaling a canyon, especially when you’re interviewing an expert mountain climber who also happens to be a natural, charming conversationalist,” says SHEILA YASMIN MARIKAR, who profiles Bruin entrepreneur, motivational speaker and summit climber Sara Safari ’07, M.S. ’09 in this issue. A Los Angeles–based writer whose work has appeared regularly in The New Yorker, Fortune and The New York Times, Marikar is also a critically acclaimed novelist; her most recent book, Friends in Napa, was published last year. “I also learned that mountain climbing is probably not for me,” she adds. “But Sara didn’t always believe that she was well suited to the pursuit, either — so, hey, you never know.”
A lifelong Angeleno, MARY MELTON ’91 has been telling L.A.’s story for decades, most notably during her long tenure as the editor of Los Angeles Magazine. For this issue, she recalls the UCLA course that changed her life. “I’d always casually given credit to Professor Thomas Hines’ course on the history of Los Angeles for the impact it had on my life and career,” she says. “But when I spoke with him for the story, it refreshed my memory — what we read, the places we visited. The class was only a quarter long, but it has stretched into 30-plus years of influence.” Today, Melton runs the editorial consultancy firm Smakdab, while also serving as an editor at large for the California culture magazine Alta Journal. She’s currently working on a book about Los Angeles “in all its complexities.”
Los Angeles–based photographer JAKE MICHAELS was struck by the tranquility he found less than a mile from campus at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary — so much so that, he says, “I almost forgot I was in the middle of the city.” The cemetery, nestled between skyscrapers, is the resting place for some of entertainment and pop culture’s most beloved figures, and a draw for curious Bruins venturing south of Wilshire Boulevard. Michaels, a fine arts graduate of the Art Center College of Design, divides his time between commercial and street photography.
For LEXI PANDELL, profiling Bruin Steven Kan M.B.A. ’06, one of the most critical leaders of Google, was the perfect opportunity to capture the zeitgeist of the moment. “When it comes to artificial intelligence, few times in modern history has society so deeply scrutinized an emerging technology — and with good reason,” says the San Francisco Bay Area writer, who toured the Google campus with Kan for the story. “The cultural shift will be on a par with the invention of the printing press, the rise of the automobile, or the creation of the smartphone. Whatever your stance, one thing is clear: Neutrality is not an option. In her conversations with Kan, she says, “it became clear that he’s a voice of reason at one of AI’s most powerful drivers — offering the kind of perspective our society needs if we want this next chapter to put humans first.” Pandell has written for Wired, The Atlantic, The New York Times and The New Republic, among others, as well as authoring several prize-winning short stories.
Illustrator MARIA RABINKY’s beautiful renderings of Westwood buildings on the National Register of Historic Places grace our story on these significant structures surrounding the campus. Rabinky says that working on the piece opened her eyes to the ways in which “history, architecture and community spirit are intricately woven into the fabric of Westwood. It was like uncovering a forgotten treasure.” She notes that UCLA has been more than just a locus of learning: “The university’s presence didn’t just inspire educational growth — it sparked the birth of an entire cultural landscape.” Rabinky has made significant contributions to UCLA through her illustrations, including her maps and depictions of the UCLA Arts Campus, the UCLA Sports Campus, the UCLA Student Life Map and the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden.
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Spring 2025 issue.
