Press Releases

Entrepreneur, author and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang will serve as keynote speaker at the 2026 UCLA Extension Certificate Graduation Ceremony on June 15. Yang rose to national prominence during his campaign for president in 2020, helping ...

Spring Street Park is located at the intersection of many different stakeholders in the historic core of Downtown Los Angeles. It is surrounded by residential units. Families use it to take a break outside. Dog owners want a place to let their ...

Brian Sonia-Wallace believes poetry and the creative arts should be an interwoven part of society - that public displays of wordplay should be commonplace. To follow through on that ethos, he has spent the last 15 years lugging around a Remington ...

This year marks the milestone 10th anniversary of the UCLAxFilmFest, an annual showcase celebrating the creative works of UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies students and alumni. Since its inception, more than 100 short films have been screened, and ...

Horticulture, to UCLA Extension instructor Jill Morganelli, was "kind of a hobby that ran amok." "But I just wanted to learn more and more about it," she said. Morganelli's original professional pursuit was running a transcription company for doctors, ...

William Samayoa's rise within the entertainment ranks would have never been possible if not for the work he put in at UCLA Extension and the translation of those lessons into his day-to-day job. He began his journey with UCLA Extension in 2011. ...

More than 60 designers, artists, students, educators and creative leaders gathered at UCLA Downtown, sitting at communal tables ready to tackle what the future holds for arts and education - specifically at the intersection of the two - for the ...

When a young Shaunté Walton stumbled into the world of infection prevention, she never knew it would lead her to working at UCLA Extension and UCLA Health. But as soon as she immersed herself in this hidden career path, she knew she wanted to make ...

For people who have fallen into hard times and find themselves unemployed, or barely scraping by with part time work, there are workforce development organizations in the Greater Los Angeles area that can help. And when those organizations need to ...

Esther Hugo's career speaks for itself. As a journalism teacher, college counselor and then a teacher of college counselors while serving on multiple college counseling boards, Hugo's talent in her industry shines. At UCLA Extension, the courses she ...

April is National Poetry Month and the UCLA Extension Writers' Program is offering five free workshops to help writers get into the rhythm (or the meter) of writing poems. Each features state and local poets laureate, and enrollment remains open. ...

Growing up in Mexico City, Dulce Gallardo was surrounded by everything she loved. Her friends, family and work were all in one place. She was comfortable. Life was good. But something still tugged at Gallardo's heart, and at age 30, she made the hard ...

UCLA Extension is set to host on April 9 its inaugural RE:DESIGN // RE:IMAGINE summit, a one-day educational experience that will bring together designers, artists, students, educators and creative leaders to explore how arts and design education are ...

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is partnering with UCLA Extension to train its career technical education (CTE) teachers. The training is intended to assist a group of teachers - who are often new to the field - with best practices to ...

The dozens of people gathered on an unassuming Tuesday winter night at the UCLA Career Center were given a mission - go find someone new to you, strike up a conversation and get to know that other person on a deeper level. The gathering was the finale ...

UCLAxFilmFest returns for an encore, marking 10 years of celebrating the creative works of UCLA Extension Entertainment Studies' students and alumni, at the historic Los Angeles Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, May 3-9, 2026. "For this milestone ...

UCLA Extension has built its Writers' Program steadily into a place where writers - from the established to the merely curious, and everyone in between - have found a home. Now in its 60th year, the prestigious program counts more than 400 courses ...

At UCLA Extension, certificate graduates are offered career resources that can help them find the right job and take the best possible professional step forward. "It's our goal to help UCLA Extension graduates land the job that is perfect for them and ...

Andrew Kurtz wants people who are struggling with mental health and substance use issues to know it is OK to ask for help. Having worked at UCLA Extension for almost a decade, Kurtz is training the next generation of helpers. "I have always had an ...

At times in Sean Flinn's life the task at hand can seem overwhelming and stressful. For the past four years, he helped steer Netflix's foray into online gaming. It is a prospect that is both an exhilarating challenge and a terrifying professional ...

Melissa Pugash smiles when she thinks about the time she learned to play poker. She had no experience with the game, but she had a curiosity to learn. That day, she found herself at a table surrounded by "poker sharks," but instead of a cutthroat ...

Growing up in picturesque Chile, Gabriel Pacheco found himself drawn to the beauty of the natural landscape around him. While his journey has included detours far afield from his current career, Pacheco eventually found his way back to nature at UCLA ...

Dina LaPolt lives her life with an ethos of doing the right thing and doing right by the people who need her help the most. Her activist streak sprang to life in high school, when the administration unfairly fired a popular guidance counselor, keeping ...

Rebecca Yarros's "Empyrean" book series promises readers they will enter a "brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders." The books include elements regarding war, battle, hand-to-hand combat, perilous situations, blood, intense ...

Marissa Pianko felt restless. She had a good life. She had a loving family and a financially lucrative career. She was happy. But approaching mid-life, she wanted to feel passionate about her contribution to the wider world. One day, she stumbled upon ...