— Bridget O'Brien, from a column published in the UCLA Daily Bruin, 2003“The more of the world I see, the better I am as a journalist. … And the more I work as a journalist, the more analytically I view the world as I travel.”
Bridget O’Brien was a talented young photojournalist who led a life dedicated to storytelling. While at UCLA, her work represented student journalism at its very best — ambitious, enlightening, captivating. After graduation, she pursued her passion across the globe.
For those who knew her, she is a reminder that we can change the world through a little bit of adventure and a whole lot of honesty. It’s a lesson none of us will soon forget.
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The fund will be administered by the Student Media Foundation, which is currently in the process of obtaining status as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
Thanks to everyone who already donated. Google has asked that we no longer process credit cards until we obtain non-profit certification. We apologize for the inconvenience, but please send all donations via check for now.
We've raised $21,793…
Please donate now and spread the word to friends, family and colleagues. We are working hard to ensure this fund can support ambitious student journalism in Bridget’s memory for more than a lifetime.
Contributions can be made through Wells Fargo, either directly at a branch or by mailing a check to:
“Bridget O’Brien Daily Bruin Scholarship Fund”
c/o UCLA Daily Bruin
118 Kerckhoff Hall
308 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90024
The Fund’s Ambition
In broad strokes, it will finance the type of work that Bridget focused on: Journalism with a global reach and local consequence. Student journalists at Bridget’s alma mater, the UCLA Daily Bruin, will be eligible to apply for project-based grants to report on stories that are above and beyond the resources of a student newspaper.
With this money, staffers could go to all corners of the world to track the work of UCLA researchers. They could report on student movements at campuses in Europe or Asia. They could visit villages in Africa or Latin America where UCLA basketball and soccer stars learned to play. We’re confident they’ll imagine story lines even more ambitious.
This endowment will be the first of its kind at UCLA, dedicated to funding original reporting by student journalists.
A group of Bridget’s family, friends and colleagues are still finalizing the fund’s logistics, specifics will be posted soon. Send comments and questions to info@rememberingbridget.com.
About Bridget
Bridget Colleen O’Brien was born in 1981 in Las Vegas. She was the oldest of three children. In her 26 years, she lived in Las Vegas, San Jose, CA, Denver, CO, Tucson, AZ, and briefly in Reno, NV before moving to Carmichael, CA. Aside from living in Los Angeles while attending UCLA, Bridget also lived and worked in Valparaiso, Chile; Managua, Nicaragua; Washington, DC; New York; Paris, France; and Melbourne, Australia.
She graduated from Rio Americano High School in 1999 and attended UCLA, where she majored in geography and worked as a copy editor, reporter, photographer and photo editor for the Daily Bruin. She won numerous state and national photography awards, and was voted Most Valuable Staff Member for two years in a row in 2000-01 and 2001-02. Before graduating in 2003 she became a campus legend by living mostly out of her 1988 Toyota pickup, foregoing the relative comfort of an apartment in Westwood in order to save money for travel.
In Central America, she reported on the fair trade coffee movement while living with coffee farmers. The story was published in USA Today and The Bruin. In her professional career, she covered a gamut of events and issues all over the globe as a freelance photographer for Newsday and the New York Times.
On the morning of Thursday, October 18, 2007, Bridget and her husband, Hayden Sweeney, died in a car accident when she swerved to avoid a deer on a highway near Cleveland. She had been traveling cross-country with Hayden’s band from Australia, Electric Jellyfish, who were touring the U.S.
Obituaries appeared in the Daily Bruin, Sacramento Bee and Newsday.