No matter where you live in the world, a return to campus can be something of a pilgrimage rather than a simple homecoming for UCLA alumni. In an effort to maximize your experience, we’ve laid out a hypothetical itinerary for you to see what you can do in a day at UCLA.

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9 a.m.
After getting your parking pass at the kiosk on Westwood Blvd. and finding a spot in Lot 8, start your day by coming in to the James West Alumni Center where you can enjoy its redesigned galleria and enjoy enhanced, concierge-quality customer service. Our front desk staff will be happy to help you with any membership needs, answer all of your questions, bring you up to date on campus happenings and help you chart your path for the day.

9:15 a.m.
Next, you should head over to Bruin Plaza to snap a picture with the Bruin Bear and share it with the alumni community on social media using #BruinProud and #UCLAalumni. Remember to rub the bear’s nose or paw (depending on your generation) for good luck as you head out for your adventure around campus.

9:30 a.m.
Walk over to the new Court of Sciences Student Center (formerly “the Bombshelter”), where you can grab freshly brewed coffee, specialty drinks and a bite to eat. You will pass the California Nanosystems Institute, which UCLA opened in 2007 and features an innovative resource for graduate students and entrepreneurs in their Technology Incubation Program.

10 a.m.
Since we know UCLA alumni believe in lifelong learning, you’ll want to pop into a lecture and audit a course for the day. Neil Garg’s organic chemistry class, Chemistry 14D, comes highly recommended. He has won UCLA’s prestigious Eby Award for the Art of Teaching and was chosen as BruinWalk.com’s Professor of the Year in 2013. You might even get to catch a peek of one of Garg’s optional extra-credit assignments, in which students create music videos detailing the various chemical reactions they’ve learned.

10:50 a.m.
After lecture, catch a breath of fresh air and take the short walk over to the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, which was recently given a new, more visible entrance as part of a series of ongoing renovations. Stroll through the seven-acre botanical garden that was created in 1929, and marvel at the thousands of species of plants, including many that cannot be found anywhere else in California.

11:15 a.m.
Since Bruins are curious creatures and you have not yet had your fill of South Campus, head to the UCLA Meteorite Gallery in the geology building. You can see California's largest collection of meteorites, including a 357-pound iron chunk of an asteroid that crashed into Arizona some 50,000 years ago – visitors are even allowed to touch it!

11:45 a.m.
Next, head north past Franz Hall to the Inverted Fountain where you will come face to face with the brand new Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center. You might come across some students rehearsing and appreciate the value that alumni, such as Mo Ostin ’51, can provide for faculty and students when giving back to the campus and its future generations.

12:15 p.m. While your stomach is starting to grumble, you might wonder what they are serving up in the residential dining halls these days; you might even want to see what your future Bruin might be eating someday. Therefore, you should walk over to “The Hill,” where you will find yourself marveling at the farm-to-table freshness of Bruin Plate - which has won a sustainable food service award - and the diverse offerings of FEAST at Rieber - which is one of the only university residential restaurants in the nation to specialize completely in Pan-Asian cuisine. It will be a tough decision, but either will fill you up and get you ready for the rest of your day.

1:15 p.m.
As you walk back to campus along Bruin Walk, you will notice several major changes along the way. The track at Drake Stadium has been renovated and now features a new blue hue, and the same type of surface that was used at the 2012 London Olympic Games. As part of UCLA’s ongoing sustainability goals and immediate efforts to save water during California’s historic drought, the Intramural Field is being upgraded to synthetic turf – a move that is expected to save 6.5 million gallons of water annually, and decrease both the costs and downtime from maintenance. Finally, you will walk past the new statue of Coach John Wooden that overlooks the portion of Bruin Walk that runs by the north side of Pauley Pavilion. Coach Wooden will forever stand there encouraging students, student-athletes, faculty, staff and alumni to “do our best to become the best that we are capable of becoming.”

2 p.m.
While you’re in the area, take the short walk across Bruin Plaza and visit the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame. You can take pride in a number of accolades that have been bestowed upon our athletes, including Gary Beban’s Heisman Trophy, Ann Meyers Drysdale’s Honda-Broderick Cup and all of UCLA’s 112 NCAA Championship trophies, including the two most recent ones for women's tennis (#111) and men's water polo (#112).

2:30 p.m.
As our next chapter of the day continues on a more North Campus trajectory, you’ll want to visit the Fowler Museum at UCLA and see what sort of remarkable exhibitions and events are happening that day. Enjoy opportunities to explore global arts and cultures, including works from Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Americas, from both past and present.

3 p.m.
It’s time for another enriching experience so you should make your way to a North Campus lecture to diversify your learning for the day. We recommend one of professor Olga E. Kagan’s heritage language lectures. A gifted teacher and a prodigious writer of textbooks, she has been teaching at UCLA since 1981 and recently received a lifetime achievement award from the Modern Language Association.

4 p.m.
Since you’re in North Campus, you can’t skip the opportunity to stroll through the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, one of the most distinguished outdoor sculpture installations in the country, featuring more than 70 sculptures by renowned artists. You might also walk by the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall and check out the upcoming film screenings that are presented to the general public for free as part of the Melnitz Movies series. While in Melnitz, take a look at the new state-of-the-art Darren Star Screening Room, which was funded by a gift from the alumnus and famed TV series creator. You could also stop by the Charles E. Young Research Library and check out the renovations that were completed in 2011, which led to doubling its usage.

4:45 p.m.
As the day begins to wind down, you will want to walk up to Royce Quad to take in the original four buildings of the campus at sunset. Be sure to get your obligatory Royce, Powell and top of Janss Steps photos and take a moment to ponder how the campus has evolved from its humble beginnings in 1919.

5:30 p.m.
No trip to campus is complete without a stop at the UCLA Store in Ackerman Union to pick up some BearWear or a book from the BookZone - remember that UCLA Alumni Association members are eligible for a 20% discount off of both of these sections. The store is constantly bringing in new collections of seasonal apparel and offers a selection of 25,000 titles ranging from academic to gift books.

5:50 p.m. While in Ackerman, you will want to go see a piece of history that was recently uncovered next to Panda Express on the first floor. The Black Experience" is a 10-foot-by-27-foot mural created in 1970 by a group of seven black UCLA art students. A false wall erected during renovations in 1992 had kept the mural hidden for two decades, but the project to repair and restore this important visual piece of UCLA history was completed last summer.

6 p.m.
It’s dinner time, and adjacent from the mural there is one new option that was likely not available when you graduated. Wolfgang Puck Express now offers UCLA patrons a more upscale option for dining in Ackerman Union. The menu features artisanal pizzas, salads and sandwiches, as well as other Wolfgang Puck classic recipes. Also, this restaurant offers most visitors their first chance to enjoy a glass of beer or wine on the historically dry campus.

6:45 p.m.
As you walk out into Bruin Plaza, it’s a common sight to see one or more student dance groups, varying from hip-hop modern to salsa clubs, practicing their moves on the stage or near the Bruin.

7 p.m.
If you’re a sports enthusiast, head over to the newly renovated Pauley Pavilion to cheer on either the UCLA Men or Women’s Basketball game or catch a UCLA Gymnastics meet. Or if your visit happens to fall on a Wednesday, you can head back down to the Mathematical Sciences Building and enjoy one of the UCLA Planetarium and Telescope Shows.

8 p.m.
Finally, you can end the day in Royce Hall with an inspiring performance from CAP UCLA (formerly UCLA Live), which features dynamic examples of contemporary dance, theater and music, in addition to emerging genres.

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While this itinerary presents a full schedule for a day at UCLA, it demonstrates only a slice of the activities, events, programs and landmarks alumni can engage with when coming back to campus. We hope you will stop in and see your UCLA Alumni family at the James West Alumni Center whenever you come back to campus so that we can offer you every possible service and resource to enjoy your visit. If you don’t have a trip planned in the near future, mark your calendar for UCLA Alumni Day on Saturday, May 16. More than 2,000 alumni will be back at UCLA to reconnect with each other and the university, and to learn about all of the remarkable transformations that both the campus and our community of Bruins are experiencing.