2025 UCLA Gen Z Mental Health and Wellness Summit (and my Sunday)
This Sunday, I went with a friend to the UCLA Gen Z Mental Health and Wellness Summit.
I discovered this event through the weekly Oak Park High School emails, and signed up; I want to be a UCLA student and the activities caught my interest.
Before the event
My friend met me at my house around 8:30 AM, and we arrived at about 9:00 AM (right when check-in opens.)
We exited the parking structure having no idea where we were or where we needed to go (other than the “Ackerman Union”). However, a volunteer for the event
immediately approached us and directed us to a staircase nearby. By coincidence, we were right where we needed to be. We make our way through the building, following the sides, and check in at a table of student volunteers.
The venue was very nice, with large windows providing all of the light. Despite having opened 10 minutes ago, a good deal of guests waited in the breakfast line. My friend and I waited there as well. It was worth it, the continental breakfast tasted delicious.
The first half (Koch & Harris III)
At 10, we sat at a table with a family and the event started.
The first session was part of the general session, called “Perception Box” by Elizabeth Koch. “Explore your Perception Box™—a framework developed by Elizabeth Koch, visionary leader and founder of Unlikely Collaborators, to help describe the beliefs, experiences, and biases that shape your perception and interactions” - UCLA website page
Elizabeth Koch uses the perception box analogy. Her presentation style reminded me of my English teacher, a friendly, primary school teacher energy. She was a good way to open the morning.
She introduced the idea of the perception box or the lens in which we view ourselves, others, and the world. Hence, perception. Box, because it is limited to us. Then, she had all of the “perception box adventure” stands around the room unveil their veils, to reveal a bunch of little goodies at each stand. She said to “grab five items that stand out to you, or trigger some emotional response.”
I grabbed:
There’s not a whole lot of deep meaning behind any of it, but at least a little. We then shared what we chose with our table. The family was nice, although I didn’t know how to talk to them well. The main takeaway I got was the story we we tell ourselves about the world is in our hands and everyone may have a different perception and a different story but that doesn’t make them any less valid. She did clarify that just because it is valid that doesn’t mean it is true. Nonetheless it was a very eye-opening and inspirational talk by Elizabeth.
Magician and public speaker, Harris III, did the next segment “Learning to Start with Wow™- Storytelling and Resilience.” On Eventbrite, it is described as “Harris III will help awaken your wonder and curiosity to reimagine the story you are meant to live and lead others to do the same. Award-winning illusionist, creative entrepreneur, and best-selling author Harris III will show you how to use your creativity to win in life and create a better future for yourself and our world. Harris is the host of a top 1% podcast in the world, The WOW-Level Life.”
Harrison III certainly surprised me. He began his story from when he received a magicians tool kit at a young age as a gift from his grandmother. He then went around doing magic shows, and eventually he began getting paid for it. In fact, he worked his way up to a point where he was very well known for his magic tricks. he had gotten about $1 million from this expedition by his early 20s. However, a year later, all of it was gone.
he said “I had gotten lost in trying to be what I felt I should be or needed to be. I constantly needed it and craved the approval and validation of that crowd, even when I wasn’t on stage. I tried to live the life by driving the right cars, and living the right places, and talking into the right people.”
He had lost his sense of self and identity within the fame that had to take time in order to recover that.
One day he was going to do a magic show in some high school and some gymnasium on some day. It didn’t feel any special to him except when the principal asked him to tell his story and not just do magic tricks. On how Harris III broke out of that “perception box” or how Harris turned his story around.
Harris was not particularly enthusiastic about this idea, but he went on stage and did it anyway. He broke out of a straight jacket and said that straight jacket was what his mind was like. His perception box, limiting him and his abilities.
after the show, he was packing all his stuff up when a girl came up to him with something in her hand. Harris did not know what it was and held his hand out. The girl dropped her razor blade, and sheepishly walked away. she told him that what he said changed her life, and that the razor blade was her straight jacket. he didn’t get to catch her name.
what happened with her? Kind of called to me in a sense. It’s true. I don’t have a razor blade, but I do have incredible limitations. I’ve put on myself in my own mind. That harm is my mental health. Hearing her and her story even in just the small portion inspired me to want to continue my mental health journey to its fullest. To keep trying to break out of that straight jacket because at the end of the day, we know it’s possible.
he told us that later on that girl messaged him on Instagram, thanking him and telling him how her story ends- she never picked up under the razor blade again.
The takeaways are in the text, but I found his story interesting because it really confronted the ugly side of fame and the sad parts of mental health. as a sidenote, his talk and Elizabeth’s tied together very nicely, so maybe that was planned or it was the theme of the morning half.
Ishrad Manji
This portion may sound like an afterthought, but I mean nothing behind it. I was exhausted already from the first part of the day and I didn’t connect with the presentation of this speech as much as the other two.
Ishrad is a woman who wanted to release a book criticizing a religion. She went into it, knowing she was going to be attacked and lives like it. She told herself “because I’m queer, because I’m a woman, because I’m young, I’m going to be attacked.”
she told us that this put her in defense mode, or fight mode. Every discussion she turned into debate at every debate she turned into practically a fight. For the longest time she was trying to make pushes in this movement, but wasn’t really getting anywhere.
One day, she stopped to listen more to the other side and took to looking for discussion. That day, the religious leaders who attended that conference, confronted her and told her “we agree with a lot of of your ideas and what you want for changes in this movement.”
she was confused. “After all of this time and all of us efforts I am finally being recognized for what I’ve been pushing for this is what I’ve been looking for, what is different?”
The priests and the Popes and the leaders all told her “because we know we won’t be boosting your ego.”
she then shared with us a story about a flag. But not just any flag. It’s the confederate flag. That is a part of the Mississippi state flag. A black woman feels this is a misrepresentation of her and her people who live in the state. A white man whose family fought in the confederacy feels it’s important to their culture and their history. The video emphasizes how it ends with the man supporting the woman’s decision, even if he doesn’t agree with it.
From Ishrad, I drew the importance of understanding and not just learning when it comes to debates, and to look for discussions in debate.
Lunch
It’s time for lunch break! It was a buffet lunch and I had half of a chicken, chipotle sandwich, some chips, and some fruits. I was very lucky to be served lunch for free and that it was in the venue so I didn’t have to go far or anything like that to get food.
Em Beihold
I was incredibly excited about this segment. To be frank, she’s the main reason I signed up for this event in the first place. The UCLA Eventbrite described it as:
“
For singer-songwriter, Em Beihold, music opens a conduit to all those emotions we think about constantly but are often too nervous or afraid to say aloud in everyday conversation. With a sharp pen and infectious voice, she takes all the awkwardness, anxiety, stress, hesitancy, and uncertainty of everyday life and turns it into pretty, yet punchy pop music. It’s like she’s making sense of her mental health in real-time, layering diary-style lyrical confessions over sunny piano and bright beat-craft.
“
This section of this post will be super biased. I was introduced to her music my sophomore year, with her song “Too Precious”. However, she’s most well known for her song “Numb Little Bug,” having blown up as an audio on TikTok.
A psychiatrist talked to her about her experience with clinical depression, medication, seeking help, and her sudden rise to fame.
Exploring the Campus
Ackerman Union
The Ackerman Union is where the event was initially hosted, and where the iconic Bruin bear lives. The architecture was really nice and I don’t have too much to say on it as it was our first stop and I was preoccupied mentally with the event however, I will say that it was a very pleasant way to be greeted by the campus and it felt very safe and very green.
The Dorms
We wandered around for a bit initially and ended up at the dorms. The dorms reminded me a little bit of a neighborhood as there are people relaxing out on the front and it was very quiet. It was tall and the structure felt more homely rather than a block homing many students.
My friend was a very good photographer :)
The Fields & Stadiums
We, on our way to Royce Hall, stopped right by the fields and the stadium. there was a soccer field, a track field football field, tennis courts and more. It is very clear UCLA values their athletics.
Royce Hall
We ended up at Royce Hall, which was a beautiful structure, probably the most gorgeous one I’ve seen on campus. The spires at the top and intrigued me. However, it was closed, so we couldn’t explore the inside.
Fowler’s Museum
Fowler’s museum was noticeably quiet and it was a little unnerving. However, exhibits were really interesting. I found the one about the wildfires the most interesting as we reside in California and we are no strangers to wildfires. what scared of the both of us as we walked around where the people who resided in the darkness to watch over the exhibit. You wouldn’t notice they were there until they made a shuffle or movement. However, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this part of UCLA and it’s really nice that it was free entry for all.
Libraries
we visited a range of libraries. A couple were closed, but a couple were also open. Often times they transitioned into classrooms and most students in there if not every student in there was in their own world, studying for chemistry or engineering or more or something else one or two of the libraries we visited were completely quiet with every person in there wearing headphones very different from libraries. I visited at community colleges, for example. something interesting I noticed was that one of the libraries had an entire floor dedicated to Anderson business masters students.
Going home
The drive home was nice. I typically hear about how much of a nightmare Los Angeles traffic is, but it went okay for us. I actually ended up falling asleep funnily enough.
The rest of the day
The rest of the night we had chicken sandwich sandwiches and we went out and played beach volleyball at our park and just talked and hung out. it was the most enjoyable evening or day of my entire February and I look forward to the opportunity to attend another UCLA event again. :-)
Takeaways
there are many takeaways I can draw from the varying different things I saw and did that day. I included the takeaways from each speaker in the section about them to keep this part size.
from walking the campus, I learned that it is a very nice campus most likely the most serene ones I’ve visited where everyone seems to have a goal in mind from the families that visit to the students that study.
from the event itself, I took that everyone is very committed to volunteering and value mental health and wellness for all more than I have ever seen before. I greatly admire the staff, students, and parents that put on this event, and I commemorate the effort they put in to hosting.
Thank you for reading!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gen-z-wellness-summit-2025-tickets-1100186400139?aff=ebdsoporgprofile