we evolved because it’s what we can do
it’s what we should do
hello everyone my name is Jordan
Killebrew and I’m a Gaucho yeah all
right we got some people that know what
that is for those that don’t know it’s
the mascot of UC Santa Barbara but it’s
also something so much more to me so in
order to talk about UCSB I have to talk
about Isla Vista Isla Vista is right
next door to a UC Santa Barbara and it’s
a vibrant and rambunctious community
full of UCSB students SBCC students
families and businesses as you can see
it’s right next Sara so when we talk
about the academic year of 2013 and 2014
Isla Vista was a little bit more
rambunctious than normal
we saw spikes and lots of crime sexual
assaults and theft that year also made
national news with a riot that happened
right on Del Playa it’s really sad so as
we thought you know we’re waiting for
the summer to come and the academic year
to end you know nothing else could
happen but then May 23 2014 happened
that night I received called from calls
from my residence I was a Resident
Assistant for a long time at UCSB and
select connections with residents that
lived in Isla Vista and they called me
said Jordan something’s not right in
this community I told them please come
down to my house in Santa Barbara please
just come stay with me I want you to be
safe and so we looked that night on the
internet for any type of news of what’s
going on in our community and that
morning we found out and we learned
about Elliot Rodger this young man had
written a manifesto one that was really
dark and when I read it I really
understood that this young man had
rejected any semblance of community it
broke my heart and so in his anger he
had injured quite a bit of people this
night killed his three roommates two
young sorority women and an innocent
bystander that was just trying to eat
the response that I got was overwhelming
I received calls from Gauchos near and
far who just like Jordan how could this
happen
not our community and when I talk about
this special community of being a gaucho
every conversation that I had with my
fellow Gauchos ended with please be safe
I love you I was overwhelmed overwhelmed
with so much emotion feeling helpless
and just needing to do something and so
I felt compelled and I created Project
IV love out of this stuff I have the
time I worked at a business that sold
websites and so they had given me a
website and said we love your cause and
what was that cause to create some type
of artwork or symbol for this community
in Isla Vista and UCSB to never let this
happen again so I started selling
t-shirts with Gaucho strata on it and
created a nice little logo for IV love
and sold t-shirts with that as well this
organization also gave me money to print
flyers and I went door-to-door to
businesses in Isla Vista and said please
help me with my cause I got a call from
Isla Vista Woodstock’s and they said we
want to help you I was like all right
let’s do it
they had planned a day and reached out
to deckers in appFolio and local
businesses in Goleta and said let’s have
pizza parties for for this cause we
raised seven thousand dollars that day
and really that turned my cause into a
community cause I then received a call
from Katia Armistead I laughed because
we’re close now after this whole
situation and she said Jordan what are
you doing what are you trying to do and
I explained to her I explained to her
just exactly what I wanted to do help
our community heal and so she quickly
connected me with Rodney Gould of Isla
Vista parking racks he’s right here and
he was like Jordan I have an idea I have
this undeveloped land right in south of
people’s Park and I would this sir right
in the center let’s make a garden
let’s do it so we got to work we started
digging up land making a pathway we had
boulders delivered because you can get
boulders delivered and set up cones and
really got to work isla vista wood
stocks continue to help us fundraise and
we continue to just build momentum for
our cause local nurseries heard about
what we were doing and they said please
we have native plants that we want to
help with this as the next academic year
started isla vista open lab was a class
that my old art professor Kim Yasuda was
teaching students had heard hey I heard
that you want to create some type of
benches for the victims and so we had
connected with the parents of the
victims and asked them for just a quick
synopsis of who their student their
child was so we worked with students you
can see me there working with the class
and we use reclaimed wood on the western
edge of Isla Vista to create the tops of
the benches and then a sleek still
design to create the bottom right here
we have Veronica Weiss she was a water
polo player and as you can see we
included her initials right in there
Chris Michael Martinez was all about Zen
and tranquility so we did our best to
honor him with a nice little Zen garden
James Hahn was engineer and loved you
know tinkering with motherboards and
stuff like that so we created this
design for him Katie Cooper loved
hummingbirds and butterflies and being
in nature and we did our best to honor
her
George chin loved to volunteer and loved
math so we tried to put as many math
equations on there for him as possible
and David wing this is actually the
bench that I got the design he found he
loved basketball as I do and so as you
can see the little bumps make up the
shape of the basketball we then said we
need the community to own this so we
asked the community to come out for many
planting days community planting days
and we took those native plants and we
taught people how to take care and ten
this garden and within a year we created
Isla Vista love and remembrance garden
it took our community to come together
it was a sad thing that happened but we
all rallied together to raise $50,000 in
our inaugural year and the Isla Vista 11
remembrance garden stands today in Iowa
V in Ivy and I just want to say to you
my name is Jordan Killebrew i’ma Gaucho
that’s one part of my community what is
yours [Applause]
it’s what we should do
hello everyone my name is Jordan
Killebrew and I’m a Gaucho yeah all
right we got some people that know what
that is for those that don’t know it’s
the mascot of UC Santa Barbara but it’s
also something so much more to me so in
order to talk about UCSB I have to talk
about Isla Vista Isla Vista is right
next door to a UC Santa Barbara and it’s
a vibrant and rambunctious community
full of UCSB students SBCC students
families and businesses as you can see
it’s right next Sara so when we talk
about the academic year of 2013 and 2014
Isla Vista was a little bit more
rambunctious than normal
we saw spikes and lots of crime sexual
assaults and theft that year also made
national news with a riot that happened
right on Del Playa it’s really sad so as
we thought you know we’re waiting for
the summer to come and the academic year
to end you know nothing else could
happen but then May 23 2014 happened
that night I received called from calls
from my residence I was a Resident
Assistant for a long time at UCSB and
select connections with residents that
lived in Isla Vista and they called me
said Jordan something’s not right in
this community I told them please come
down to my house in Santa Barbara please
just come stay with me I want you to be
safe and so we looked that night on the
internet for any type of news of what’s
going on in our community and that
morning we found out and we learned
about Elliot Rodger this young man had
written a manifesto one that was really
dark and when I read it I really
understood that this young man had
rejected any semblance of community it
broke my heart and so in his anger he
had injured quite a bit of people this
night killed his three roommates two
young sorority women and an innocent
bystander that was just trying to eat
the response that I got was overwhelming
I received calls from Gauchos near and
far who just like Jordan how could this
happen
not our community and when I talk about
this special community of being a gaucho
every conversation that I had with my
fellow Gauchos ended with please be safe
I love you I was overwhelmed overwhelmed
with so much emotion feeling helpless
and just needing to do something and so
I felt compelled and I created Project
IV love out of this stuff I have the
time I worked at a business that sold
websites and so they had given me a
website and said we love your cause and
what was that cause to create some type
of artwork or symbol for this community
in Isla Vista and UCSB to never let this
happen again so I started selling
t-shirts with Gaucho strata on it and
created a nice little logo for IV love
and sold t-shirts with that as well this
organization also gave me money to print
flyers and I went door-to-door to
businesses in Isla Vista and said please
help me with my cause I got a call from
Isla Vista Woodstock’s and they said we
want to help you I was like all right
let’s do it
they had planned a day and reached out
to deckers in appFolio and local
businesses in Goleta and said let’s have
pizza parties for for this cause we
raised seven thousand dollars that day
and really that turned my cause into a
community cause I then received a call
from Katia Armistead I laughed because
we’re close now after this whole
situation and she said Jordan what are
you doing what are you trying to do and
I explained to her I explained to her
just exactly what I wanted to do help
our community heal and so she quickly
connected me with Rodney Gould of Isla
Vista parking racks he’s right here and
he was like Jordan I have an idea I have
this undeveloped land right in south of
people’s Park and I would this sir right
in the center let’s make a garden
let’s do it so we got to work we started
digging up land making a pathway we had
boulders delivered because you can get
boulders delivered and set up cones and
really got to work isla vista wood
stocks continue to help us fundraise and
we continue to just build momentum for
our cause local nurseries heard about
what we were doing and they said please
we have native plants that we want to
help with this as the next academic year
started isla vista open lab was a class
that my old art professor Kim Yasuda was
teaching students had heard hey I heard
that you want to create some type of
benches for the victims and so we had
connected with the parents of the
victims and asked them for just a quick
synopsis of who their student their
child was so we worked with students you
can see me there working with the class
and we use reclaimed wood on the western
edge of Isla Vista to create the tops of
the benches and then a sleek still
design to create the bottom right here
we have Veronica Weiss she was a water
polo player and as you can see we
included her initials right in there
Chris Michael Martinez was all about Zen
and tranquility so we did our best to
honor him with a nice little Zen garden
James Hahn was engineer and loved you
know tinkering with motherboards and
stuff like that so we created this
design for him Katie Cooper loved
hummingbirds and butterflies and being
in nature and we did our best to honor
her
George chin loved to volunteer and loved
math so we tried to put as many math
equations on there for him as possible
and David wing this is actually the
bench that I got the design he found he
loved basketball as I do and so as you
can see the little bumps make up the
shape of the basketball we then said we
need the community to own this so we
asked the community to come out for many
planting days community planting days
and we took those native plants and we
taught people how to take care and ten
this garden and within a year we created
Isla Vista love and remembrance garden
it took our community to come together
it was a sad thing that happened but we
all rallied together to raise $50,000 in
our inaugural year and the Isla Vista 11
remembrance garden stands today in Iowa
V in Ivy and I just want to say to you
my name is Jordan Killebrew i’ma Gaucho
that’s one part of my community what is
yours [Applause]
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