At UCLA football home games, the Rose Bowl crowd sees UCLA’s only featured baton twirler, Olivia Pacheco, sparkle under the stadium lights. What most fans don’t see is the same student in a lab coat and goggles, immersed in research and coursework as a fourth-year Public Health major and undergraduate researcher in Professor Steven Clarke’s group.
For Pacheco, twirling and science have always gone hand in hand. “I can be in sweatpants and goggles and a lab coat, or I can be in rhinestones in front of 60,000 people,” she says. “For me, they’re both fun.”
Pacheco’s dream of twirling for UCLA started early. She even captured her passion in a childhood poem she wrote at 8 years old:
Spectacular by Olivia P.
Twirling, twirling in my hand
Listening to the marching band.
Finger twirls, solo’s, dance and more,
The crowd is cheering galore!
Strutting down the field I go
Giving them a spectacular half–time show.
Dazzling costume, makeup and hair,
Twirling and dancing like Fred Astaire.
Feature twirler at UCLA
It’s my dream to go there one day.
The competitive side of twirling built the foundation, but performing is what Pacheco has always loved most. Every practice, every competition, and every performance from that moment on was aimed at earning the iconic role. The journey wasn’t without obstacles, as she auditioned her freshman year and the position went to someone else. Instead of giving up, she came back stronger, auditioning again as a sophomore and earned the spot she had worked toward for more than a decade.
Olivia turned her childhood dream into reality. As UCLA’s twirler, she performs pregame and halftime shows at every home football game and brings the same energy to Pauley Pavilion during basketball season. She even introduced twirling on the sidelines, a tradition that has since become a fan favorite. For Pacheco, the highlight is the shared experience of the Bruin community she builds. “The best part is interacting with current UCLA students, faculty, alumni, and especially little kids who are fans like I was,” she says.
Off the field, Pacheco has distinguished herself academically. She is a 2025 recipient of the Charles A. West and Daniel E. Atkinson Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship in the Clarke laboratory. Here she continued her research on the role of the PCMT1 protein repair methyltransferase in potential targeted degradation of age-damaged proteins. Clarke says that “she is an outstanding addition to my laboratory and has all of the intellectual gifts, passion, golden hands, and hard work ethic to be a successful scientist.” With aspirations of medical school, she sees her training in public health and biochemistry research as the next step in a journey defined by dedication and discipline.
That same dedication and discipline underpins her performances. “People see the bright performing aspect of twirling,” Pacheco explains, “but there’s a lot of discipline that goes into doing what I do.”
Pacheco is also a second-generation Bruin, making her role on the field even more meaningful. She recalls her most treasured memory: stepping onto the Rose Bowl field for the first time. “I realized all of my dreams had come true, and I thought about everyone who had gotten me there and listened to me at 8 years old.”
From rhinestones to research, Olivia Pacheco embodies the UCLA spirit—driven, versatile, and dedicated to excellence both on and off the field.
Article by Kelsea Valerio ’19 (English), UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Twirling photos by Shirley McCombs Swayne.
