UCLA students travel to D.C. with Chancellor Block
Civic EngagementStudentsWhen UCLA students lined up at a diner counter top replica in the National Museum of African American History and Culture for an interactive exhibit, they were handed touch screens that asked them questions about how they would respond to living through the Civil Rights Movement. This opportunity to imagine living as someone else aligned with a major goal of Chancellor Block’s recent trip to Washington, D.C.
“It gave you the chance to sort of feel what those people felt when they were doing a sit-in,” said third-year Naomi Kisel, who is a first-generation college student whose parents fled the Soviet Union for a better life and identifies herself as a political conservative.
Kisel and more than 20 other UCLA students were chosen to visit Washington, D.C. in mid-December for what is becoming an annual trip with the chancellor. The students were chosen to represent a broad cross-section of backgrounds and experiences on campus. For UCLA administrators, the trip is an opportunity to help students burst constructed bubbles, engage them with professionals and initiate dialogue with one another.
The UCLA students and administrators meet with reporter Evan Osnos of the New Yorker.
UCLA students and Chancellor Block in front of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.