Times are a-changin’

Jamie Lauren's picture
Posted June 21, 2008 - 9:00pm by Jamie Lauren

 This two week period is overflowing with packing, moving, studying for finals in the gorgeous California sun, preparing to graduate, savoring my last few weeks as an undergraduate, saying goodbye to friends, and getting ready to leave my hometown of 9 years.

There are so many transitions that are about to take place – in just over a week, I will be a UCLA alumnus, not a student.  I no longer live in Los Angeles, but rather study medicine in the middle of Manhattan. I will exit the phase of my life where people ask, “what is your major?” and enter a chapter in which they will want to know, “what do I do?”

I suppose, before I can answer their inquiries, I need to first figure out the answer to that question myself.

However, for just this moment, I am trying not to think about any of that.  Although our future lurk in the distance, composition unknown, like clouds on the horizon, my fellow seniors and I are doing our best to live in the moment, and enjoy every last day, hour, and SECOND of the our lives as college students!

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About the Blogger

Jamie Lauren Zimmerman is a current senior at UCLA, majoring in Anthropology and pre-medicine.  Her goal is to serve as a physician and public health official in developing countries, while continuing to utilize the medium of film as a catalyst for social change.

During the summer after her freshman year, Jamie spent two months living and working in the Amazon Basin of Peru, where she collaborated with a health education non-profit organization.  It was that experience that helped her discover her passion for international work, and sparked her interest in pursuing a medical education. Last December, she received early acceptance to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she plans to begin her medical studies upon graduating from UCLA in June.

During Summer 2007, Jamie spent several months in a refugee camp in Zambia, where she collaborated with an operating partner of the United Nations to create a documentary film about refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Jamie later served on the U.S. Campaign for Burma’s delegation to the Thailand-Myanmar border and collaborated with Pulitzer Prize winner and Professor Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel) to develop a course entitled, “Multimedia Exploration of the World’s Refugees." 

Jamie will graduate Magna Cum Laude from UCLA, where she has received the Charles E. and Sue K. Young Award, the UCLA Distinguished Senior Award, and was elected into Phi Beta Kappa.

Before entering college, Jamie worked as an actress, performing on such shows at 7th Heaven, Family Law, The Practice, and Boston Public.  Nominated twice for Young Artist Awards, Jamie served as spokesperson for Recording Artists, Actors, and Athletes Against Drunk Driving and was the first teenage producer for Voices in Harmony, an organization that utilizes the arts to empower at-risk youth to share their stories.