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Student Spotlight
Jolie Pierre-Louis, a fourth-year Sociology major and Civic Engagement Writing Minor at UC Santa Barbara, was awarded a $1,000 scholarship given annually to first-generation students in the Professional Writing Minor. In a video interview, she reflects on how her background and writing education have empowered her to advocate for low-income communities and pursue meaningful change.
Leah Grossman, an award-winning screenwriter and graduating UCSB student, has turned a childhood passion for storytelling into a promising career in film. Her character-driven work, including the surreal short Hollow, has earned festival recognition and a fellowship that now propels her to the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
In Edo-period Japan, a growing number of women embarked on long pilgrimages after retiring from household duties — journeys that offered not just spiritual fulfillment, but personal freedom. UC Santa Barbara graduate student Erin Trumble explores how these women used travel and writing to reclaim a sense of identity beyond domestic life.
The Carsey-Wolf Center at UC Santa Barbara hosted a screening and panel called Panic!: Social Studies, about a new docuseries by Lauren Greenfield that explores the impact of social media on teens’ mental health, identity, and activism. Featuring candid stories from diverse youth, the series invites critical reflection on how corporate algorithms shape the digital lives of a generation.
Natalie Riley is a third-year UCSB student majoring in English. The Catalyst is a creative writing and visual art class, as well as one of UCSB’s few literary arts magazines. The course is offered every quarter to any UCSB students who wish to join the editorial team led by an Editor-in-Chief, a a Managing Editor, Literature Editor, and an Assistant Editor. As Literature Editor, Riley promotes The Catalyst through social media, specifically Instagram, and accept outside submissions.
Big Hungry, one of Isla Vista’s most successful rising bands, began with a spontaneous connection during UCSB’s 2022 summer orientation and has since electrified local music lovers with over 60 shows and a recent festival debut at Shabang on the Central Coast of California. Lead singer Nolan Guss credits UCSB’s vibrant music scene and ethnomusicology program for inspiring his artistic journey and shaping the band’s distinctive sound.
Anthropology major Manniah Harrison reflects on her childhood love of dance—a passion she rediscovered through a UCSB Dance Department intermediate class. Dance, writes Harrison, unites mind, body and spirit and is a worthwhile elective for students of any major.
UC Santa Barbara Biology student Maritza Ramos Leon is proving that science and art don’t have to live in separate worlds. While pursuing a STEM degree, she wrote and directed a short film that explores a tender queer relationship, drawing from personal experiences and a desire for authentic representation. Ramos’ journey reflects the power of following all your passions—even when they seem to pull in opposite directions.
The Center for Middle East Studies recently held a graduate panel to highlight student’s research, a part of the center’s Spotlight Series. Camilla Falanesca, Giovanni Vimercati, and bridge mcwaid all presented their research, spanning from the film distribution in Beirut, to the fish market in 1950’s Palestine, to the oilfield in El Borma, Tunisia.
Student journalist Rosie Bultman channels her passion for social justice into powerful storytelling through radio and film, using platforms like KCSB’s People’s Program and her award-winning documentary The Takeover to spotlight historic and ongoing struggles for equity. With a background in the History of Law and Public Policy as well as Black Studies, she weaves activism and media together to educate, inspire, and mobilize change on campus and beyond.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won first place in the prose category.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won second place in the prose category.
This spring, UCSB’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted a creativity contest to highlight the work of creative students across the UCSB campus. The following story won third place in the prose category.
This spring, UC Santa Barbara’s Humanities and Fine Arts Division hosted an annual contest to highlight creative student voices across the campus. The following are winning submissions in the Poetry category.
At 41, Jose Alejandro Mendoza represents a growing wave of non-traditional college students navigating higher education after decades in the workforce. His journey—marked by resilience, mental health battles, and creative achievements—challenges traditional timelines and redefines what it means to belong on a college campus.
The 2025 winners of the UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts Division’s Give Day Creativity Contest joined HFA faculty and donors at a lunch last week to receive awards for their original work in writing, photography, art and music.
Selene Kalra is an Environmental Studies exchange student from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom who found her passion in the Jazz program in UCSB Music Department.
UC Santa Barbara music student Donavan Walker’s senior recital, Layers, was an immersive performance blending original compositions, live music, and set design to explore the connection between dreams, nightmares, and creativity. Centered around a bed symbolizing his restless mind, the show built to a breathtaking ensemble finale, capturing the exhaustion and rewards of the creative process.
Dian Zeng’s experience providing music therapy during the Covid-19 pandemic led her to explore the broader impact of music on well-being, from supporting overwhelmed doctors to working with cancer patients. Now a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at UC Santa Barbara, she researches how elderly Tai Chi practitioners in Los Angeles use music to enhance both their physical and mental health . At the same time, she works as a teaching assistant in Music and Asian American Studies.
The newly opened exhibit Creative Currents: Student Expression in the Arts at UC Santa Barbara’s Sara Miller McCune Arts Library showcases decades of student creativity, spanning from 1960 to 2017. Curated by graduate student Carlyle Constantino, the exhibit highlights emotionally resonant works while exploring themes of identity, belonging, and the evolving role of curation in amplifying historically overlooked voices.
