Finding My Belle Family

Bruin Belles is such a great organization for so many reasons, one of which is the incredible relationships that it produces. By bringing girls together based on their values and shared passion for service and women's leadership, Bruin Belles creates so many valuable lifetime friendships. While all of these friendships are important, and I do consider all 89 other Belles my friends, sometimes you connect with a person and know almost immediately that they will be a friend for life. This is what happened when I met Nicole, who would later become my big Belle, at the Disneyland social in my first year in Belles. We immediately hit it off and were inseparable throughout the whole day. Though I didn't see Nicole much in the next month (I blame finals and winter break for keeping us apart), I was ecstatic at our Winter Retreat when I learned she was going to be my Big Belle. Since then, I've gotten to know her so much better and she's become one of my closest friends that I know I can talk to about anything.

Big Belles and Baby Belles is one of my favorite Belles traditions because it makes our organization seem a little smaller by connecting you to your Belles "family," who are chosen by executive board every year. This year, I got to add to my family with my Baby Belle Faith, a perfect addition to our cute little family. What you do with your Belles family is up to you, but Nicole, Faith, and I have family dates a few times each quarter in which we eat yummy food and talk for hours. While it may not seem like much, the connection that I and many other Belles have with our families is really special, and the Big/Baby reveal during winter quarter is how many of us find our best friends at UCLA. I am so grateful to Bruin Belles for bringing me together with my Big and Baby Belles, and for helping me create some of the best friendships in my life thus far.

Katie Gilliland
Distinguished Belle
Second Year Bruin Belle

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What I Didn't Know

What I didn't know The morning after I got the highly anticipated call that I got into Bruin Belles, I found this bell (figure 1) on my dorm door: a door belle…get it? I can still very clearly remember the few weeks surrounding this moment. I wanted it SO BADLY! When I saw the Belles tri-fold at the enormous activities fair, I knew immediately that I needed to be a part of that community. On paper, it sounded like everything I wanted: a group of likeminded passionate women who did community service together and other social events. I worked tirelessly on my application and was so nervous for my interview that I signed up for the very first slot (Monday at 8am… yikes). I got the long-awaited call late on a Friday night. Yashvi, the public relations director at the time, told me that I had gotten in, and while still on the phone I screamed “I GOT IN!” to my roommate. My heart was beating so fast. However, I think if I had known what was to come, my heart would have beat so fast it ...

Finding My Home

My time as a Bruin Belle has been incredibly transformative. This exceptional group of empowered women has not only enriched my college experience but also inspired me to make a lasting impact on the world. Entering UCLA, I was eager to find a community that aligned with my passion for service and personal growth. Joining the Bruin Belles provided that and more—a warm embrace within the vast UCLA landscape. At the core of our experience is our dedication to service, from local volunteer work to impactful fundraisers. We take action, build connections, and create change within our community. Being a Belle has given me the opportunity to volunteer for initiatives such as dog adoption, environmental activism, food insecurity, education advocacy, and houselessness. Through volunteering in various areas of our community, I have found purpose and a newfound passion for advocacy. Additionally, BBSA is more than a service organization to me; we are a sisterhood that fosters leadership. T...

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Spring Retreat 2023 was by far one of the highlights of my BBSA experience, for reasons I never expected. Throughout my second year in Belles I served as a Social DB, and for this retreat, was tasked with the job of heading the Activities Committee. A couple months of planning and preparation later, I was wracked with anxiety about being so in charge– what if nobody had fun? What if we planned too much? Too little? What if someone gets hurt, what if I screw up as a host, what if quite literally anything negative happens? It was a very rigid, unforgiving feeling, and I was then left with the personal expectation that I was going to get there and not be able to enjoy myself because of this pressure. I was terrified of letting anyone down, especially so because this was the first weekend retreat Belles has hosted in years. If anything went awry, I felt fully unprepared to handle it, but at least I could say I had considered the worst. I tried to take solace in that semblance of control, ...

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