Students from Dr Laurence Lavelle’s 14B classes thoroughly enjoyed a fun “Karaoke Night w/ DJ Lavelle” virtual event and contest on March 6th.
Students from Lavelle’s Winter 2021 Chem 14B class attended the free online event, which was organized by six students in his class. Gift cards were awarded to the top contestants whose scores were based on votes by all participants. “There were many contestants with high scores who were worthy of prizes,” Lavelle said.
The winners – Charlie Russell; Mahi Kabra, Samaya Joshi, Olivia Monroy, and Noelle Merino; Adrienne Chan.
Congratulations to the the winners!
Charlie Russell won First Place ($40 gift card) for his rendition of “My Funny Valentine” by Frank Sinatra.“Charlie is talented and has a heart of gold!” Lavelle said.
Mahi Kabra, Samaya Joshi, Olivia Monroy, and Noelle Merino won Second Place ($20 gift card) for their rendition of “Dark Horse” by Katy Perry ft. Juicy J.“They impressed everyone with their choreographed dancing and singing!” Lavelle said.
Adrienne Chan won Third Place ($10 gift card) for their rendition of “When She Loved Me” from the animated movie “Toy Story 2”, “Adrienne’s smooth voice and song transfixed all!” Lavelle said.
“The event was terrific,” said Lavelle, who was dubbed “Dr. DJ LL” by his students who created his image above. “It was a great way for students, undergraduate assistants, teaching assistants, and me to relax and have fun. I declined singing a duet (maybe next time) but I did have fun!”.
“Everything being online has been extremely taxing on all of us, and we wanted to create something for everyone to look forward to!” said the event organizers Adila Ahmed, Andre Fabian, Mackenzie Van Valkenburgh, Alette Eide, Shrinidhy Srinivas, and Melody Wu.
Event student organizers: Melody Wu, Adila Ahmed, Alette Eide, Mackenzie Van Valkenburgh, Shrinidhy Srinivas, and Andre Fabian.
After the event Lavelle gave an additional prize ($20 gift card) to Alette Eide who played keyboard/piano and sang, twice, but couldn’t receive a prize because she was an organizer.
Students thoroughly enjoyed the event as indicated by the many smiles, laughs, and comments:
Laura – “There were so many great performances!”
Ryan –
“Thank you to all of the organizers! That was a great idea and executed very well.”
Bethany – “Thank you to all the people who planned it, participants, judges, etc! I know a lot of time and effort went into it, so I hope you know it did not go unappreciated :)”
Sable – “That was so great! For the first time I felt part of a class at UCLA. Thank you for planning that.”
Aydin – “This was definitely the coolest event I’ve participated in over Zoom! No questions about it!”
Giselle – “Thank you so much for organizing! The only online class that has tried to make interaction as close to as normal as possible!”
Katelyn – “AHHH so Fun! I am so happy I attended!”
Joel – “This event was really cool, especially that it was planned out by fellow classmates and supported by our professor and UAs/TAs. Hopefully, this becomes an annual tradition for Lavelle’s 14 series courses, I’m sure future students would find as much fun as we did.”
“My Fall 2020 Chem 14A and Winter 2021 Chem 14B classes were and are terrific,” said Lavelle. “During my decades of teaching 800-1,000 students in my Fall/Winter classes, this was one of the strongest groups of students I have ever had, in all aspects (academically, maturity, supportive, etc.). They have determination, grit, worked hard, supporting each other, respectful, mature, and good natured. They are the future and have my respect. Their parents must be proud of them. Well done students and parents!”.
Lavelle and the organizers supplied the gift cards.
Lavelle’s students dubbed him “Dr. DJ LL” and created this image for the event.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
