Cylin Wang used her Bruin Bridge-Builders grant to attend a TED conference in Atlanta, harnessing her learning to revive TEDxUCLA in 2026. Photo courtesy of Cylin Wang.

By Hannah Park, Dialogue across Difference Student Intern

The Bruin Bridge-Builders Fund (BBBF) is a pioneering fund offered by the Bedari Kindness Institute (BKI). It supports UCLA undergraduate, graduate, and professional students who wish to deepen their engagement with the principles and practices of dialogue. Crucially, the fund encourages active listening, empathy, intellectual engagement, and curiosity across lines of difference on campus—values at the core of the Dialogue Across Difference Initiative.

Students have access to two types of grant opportunities: training and program grants.

• Training grants (ranging from $250-$2500) support students’ participation in opportunities that help them build the muscle to navigate differences or advance dialogue on campus.
• Program grants (ranging from $250-$5000) support student-led dialogue programs and activities promoting the values espoused by the BKI.

During the 2025-2026 academic year, BKI awarded 15 training grants and 5 program grants totalling $15,000, ultimately reaching a total of 241 students. You can see the full list of grantees in our 2025-2026 Annual Report (page 16).

Read on to learn more about how some of these students used their funds in creative ways to promote dialogue and kindness at UCLA and beyond.

Featured 2025-26 Bruin Bridge-Builders Fund Grantees

Training Grants

Dayanara Heredia: Interreligious Study Trip to Spain

Interreligious Study Trip participants at the ruins of Madinat al-Zahra in Córdoba, Spain. Photo credit: Miguel A. Márquez.

Dayanara Heredia was one of 11 students who received a BBBF training grant to attend the Interreligious Study Trip to Spain over spring break (March 2026), organized by the Academy for Judaic, Christian, and Islamic Studies. The students, who represented all three Abrahamic religions, presented their experiences to Chancellor Julio Frenk and were also featured in UCLA Newsroom in a May 2026 article.

“To merely tolerate others is cheap coexistence. Freedom is much more than that and requires love,” Heredia said. “If this trip and the history of Andalucia taught me anything, it is that we are stronger together and the ideal of ‘convivencia’ shows how we ought to live united.”

Cylin Wang: TEDNext 2025

Cylin Wang (center, in red) and the TEDxUCLA team. Photo courtesy of Cylin Wang.

Cylin Wang, a June 2024 graduate who studied Materials Engineering and Art History at UCLA, used a training grant to attend TEDNext 2025 in Atlanta. It was a three-day conference for emerging leaders focused on dialogue, communication, and global change. This opportunity allowed Wang to connect with TEDx organizers around the world and discover how to enact bridge-building on a local scale through the platform (Adamo, 2026, para. 9).

Wang used her learning to bring back the TEDxUCLA Conference in May 2026, “Renaissance and Revival,” which reached 300 people. You can read more about her revival of TEDxUCLA in this UCLA Newsroom article, published in May 2026.

“The benefits of dialogue can be described in many ways,” Wang said, reflecting on her experience. “There’s the social exchange aspect of creating understanding, the democratic political aspect of diffusing conflict, the preventative economic aspect of avoiding collective blindspots, and the basic humanitarian aspect of simply generating ideas and inspirations. It is the latter, the passion for ideas, that have a unique hold and resonance over me.”

Program Grants

Iman Kazah and Jared Weigand: 15th Annual Healthcare Ethics Symposium

Panelists speak at the 15th Annual Healthcare Ethics Symposium. 

In April 2026, Iman Kazah and Jared Weigand, third-year medical students at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, used their Bruin Bridge-Builders grant to host the 15th Annual Healthcare Ethics Symposium, called “Healing with Machines: Ethical Boundaries of AI in Medicine.”

Participants discussed real cases and scenarios to consider the effects of AI in healthcare and education. Students, staff, and faculty were all invited, leading to a diversity of ideas and lived experiences.

Reflecting jointly, the organizers remarked, “We aimed to create a space where people could talk openly about the ethical challenges of AI in medicine, gain a deeper understanding of the nuances from experts, and move away from more black-and-white thinking, all while bringing together individuals from different schools to learn from one another.”

Hannah Park: Stories of Light Interfaith Community Dinner

Attendees enjoy dinner and dialogue at “Stories of Light.” Photo by Hannah Park.

Hannah Park, a Dialogue Across Difference intern studying English and the pre-medical field, hosted “Stories of Light,” a community interfaith dinner for students, staff, faculty, and community faith leaders. This bridge-building event centered around illumination: it aspired to shed light upon the beauty of diverse faith practices, reveal common values, and combat misconceptions that often drive believers apart.

“We can drink in the wisdom of other faith traditions without compromising our own beliefs,” Park said. “Even with a single night of dialogue, stories linger on in hearts and minds.”

Ennyn Chiu: Bruin Political Review

The Bruin Political Review benefitted from a quarter of in-depth workshops centered around current events and dialogues across political difference made possible by a program grant.

Ennyn Chiu, a second-year political science and economics student and member of the Bruin Political Review, used the Bruin Bridge-Builders Fund to create a quarter-long “Deliberative Workshop Series” to enhance the Political Review’s general meetings. Chiu, along with Ben Hant, Tian Le Lim, and Abigail Fang, facilitated discussions of current events, strengthened writer-editor partnerships through pairings across different cultural, ethnic, and political backgrounds, and enhanced professional development for younger members. Overall, the 103 student writers and editors engaged in deeper dialogue and promoted understanding across students with different lived experiences.

“Since the Political Review is most notably a non-partisan publication, the writers’ ability to explicate their thoughts while understanding opposing views is extremely valuable,” Chiu said. “We aimed to strengthen this over the course of our workshop series…I have personally learned that being open about my point of view is more beneficial for bridging differences than saying what I think others want to hear.”

Bruin Bridge Builder Fund Grant Applications open each quarter. Learn more and apply here or reach out to bkiintern@ucla.edu with questions.