Co-opcast

Lixuan Tai is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at UCLA. He has been at the coop since June 2020. His PhD research focuses on material growth, like topological insulators, anti ferromagnets, and more.

Alberto Pena, more known as Mojo tells his magic story! You literally SHOULD check it out! Nothing motivates more than healthy smoothies, good movies and this guy. He has his own tricks for dealing with life and he shares them in this interview!  Mojo pursuing a film career and education. He is currently enrolled in UCLA’s Professional Program for Screenwriting and TV Writing, with plans to hop onto the directing and acting program next.

On this Episode, the last of the 2nd Season Winter 2021, Ksenia interview Loren Blazek to talk about career in Filming. Don't miss out! After this we will take a break for finals and will be back next quarter.  "Loren Blazek is a 18 year old filmmaker originally from Santa Cruz, California, and now based in Westwood. He is currently majoring in Film Production at Santa Monica College, with hopes of transferring to AFI.  Loren has been making videos and short films since he was a kid. After attending the highly selective UCLA Digital Filmmaking Institute in Highschool, he has gone on to work on numerous projects as a writer, director, editor, or cinematographer. He went on to write and direct "The Mark", a ~20 minute dystopian/suspense Short Film. The Mark has seen selection at numerous film festival, garnering many awards including the title "Best Young Filmmaker" at multiple festivals.  He recently wrote and directed a music video for the song "Sun Days", the opening track to hip-hop duo The Vine Tree's newly released album, "T.C.V.1.D." The music video explores the underlying toxicity that rots away beneath the happy façade of a relationship.   His greatest filmmaking inspiration is Stanley Kubrick, and his favorite contemporary director is Alfonso Cuaron. His favorite films are 2001: A Space Odyssey and Children of Men. He aspires to a future career in filmmaking, and hopes to someday be a writer, director, or cinematographer for feature length film."

Bailey Kobelin is a freelance photographer & videographer who primarily works with musicians documenting live shows, creating album covers, as well as shooting and editing music videos. During the pandemic, she has been offering people photo and video shoots  virtually as a part of her Projector Portrait Project.

Hey, y'all ! Co-opcast is back with special alumni guests: Anthony Waite and Kathy Mesa. Enjoy this story full of fun facts and curiosities about these two Coop personalities!  "Hey I’m Kathy. I moved into the co-op right after I graduated high school in 2014. I was an SMC student then transferred to CSULA. I’m now 24 and living in Hollywood. I love to travel and hang out with friends in my free time." (Kathy Mesa) "My names Anthony I joined co-op in 2016. I was the cleaning crew crew chief and the facilities crew chief. The most meaningful thing I did with my time at the coop would be trying to save the 3rd grace quarter and I started my event Big Gay Party in room 202." (Anthony Waite)

Chris Ochoa is a 2nd year PhD student in UCLA’s Molecular Biology Interdepartmental Doctoral Program (MBIDP). He is a member of Dr. Sanaz Memarzadeh's lab here at UCLA where their research focuses on gynecological cancers such as ovarian and endometrial cancer. Their overall goal is to make discoveries that will improve the lives of patients with these types of diseases.

On this Episode, Grace Canning interviews Danielle Bongiovanni. Danielle Bongiovanni studies Acting at the UCLA school of theater, film, and television, although she is mainly interested in pursing a music career as a singer, writer, and multi-instrumentalist. The co-op provided a creative community in which she fostered her talents by performing often and with other co-op members!

We have two amazing guests on this Episode – Carrie Park and Rohan Dutta. Carrie is from South Korea, Rohan from India and they met each other here at the Co-op. Carrie studied Political science and paralegal studies at UCLA and UCLA Extension and Rohan doing his master’s in electrical and computer Engineering. They moved in and out of the Co-op several times due to different circumstances, but they always came back. Now they are about to leave the Coop again so we caught them before to listen to their coop/love story and to wish them to be back again!

Joseph Murphy is a second year PhD student of sociology at UCLA. He  joined the co-op in the Summer of 2020 and is currently working on his master's thesis studying the effect of institutional agents on college enrollment and completion. He joins us to tell us about his journey from undergrad to grad school and his research interests which include the sociology of education, stratification and race.

As we start the Winter 2021 quarter, we arrive at our 2nd Season of the Co-opcast. We will have many novelties for these Season, starting with a new host: Adrian Acosta.  He is originally from Mexico, grew up in Arizona. He moved to LA for grad school at UCLA where he studies nanoscale magnetic and magnetoelectric materials for his PhD research. He has been at the co-op since Summer 2019, and he has been a part of the Kitchen and mailroom crew. Play now and listen to Rodrigo Lara interviewing Adrian and know more about his great ideas!

On this Episode, Ksenia Riasnianskaia interviews Melanie Marentes for the last Episode of Season 1 - Fall 2020, and last of the year.  Melanie is from El Paso, Texas and moved to L.A. two years ago to start college. She is studying Political Science at UCLA and she was elected for Board of Directors last quarter. She is also part of the Store Crew, where she helped improve the service for members, and she was responsible for the Year Book 2020. Play now, and listen to this inspiring story!

This is the 5th Episode of the Co-opcast: on this Episode Rodrigo Lara interviews Grace Canning, student from UC Berkeley at the Comparative Literature major, she arrived at Co-op, at first, when she was only 17, to start her studies at Santa Monica College. She moved to Berkeley but returned to COOP after the pandemic started.  Play now to know more about this intriguing story! 

On our 4th Episode of the season, our host Ksenia Riasnianskaia interviews Jacobo Fe Gismera.  Currently, a UCLA graduate student in Screenwriting, and the youngest published author in the historical genre in Spain (at the age of 19). He has been awarded the top Artistic & Writing Scholarships from his homeland, as the Faro Program, the Fullbright Singular Award or the MMF Prize (2017,18,19), after completing three study fields (Film, Business Administration and Law) in five countries (Spain, Italy, India, Thailand & the U.S.). Besides his facet as a screenwriter, he has developed varied professions, especially fashion modeling (accumulating experience and publications in 12+ countries).

On this Episode Ksenia Riasnianskaia interviews Rodrigo Lara from Brazil, Business Fundamentals and Marketing Student at UCLA Extension and member from COOP since Winter 2020. Play it now!

On this Episode, Rodrigo Lara interviews Ksenia Riasnianskaia from Russia, Interior Architecture student at CalPoli Pomona UCLA Extension. Play it now!

This is the official Podcast for the University Cooperative Housing Association - Co-opCast! On this first Episode we will talk about COOP's History and Structure.  Play it now!