Our Mission

UTeaLA is a student club devoted to the study and practice of the Japanese Tea Ceremony (aka. Chadō).

As part of our mission, we hope to:

1. Introduce UCLA students to the Japanese Tea Ceremony and associated practices (e.g., kadō flower arrangement, shodō calligraphy, wagashi sweet making)

2. Provide regular practice space and instruction in the Japanese Tea Ceremony

3. Introduce club members to Los Angeles area sites of Japanese cultural engagement (e.g., museums, archives, gardens, tea houses, and additional Japanese cultural heritage groups)

4. Engage the broader UCLA student body and local community through various outreach events, presentations, and workshops.

Leadership

Faculty Advisor / Instructor

Michelle Liu Carriger

Michelle Liu Carriger, PhD has been studying the Urasenke tradition of chado (“tea ceremony”) since 1999, in various locations including Los Angeles, Colorado, Kansas, Boston, London, and in Kyoto during a yearlong Midorikai fellowship at the Urasenke Gakuen Professional College of Chado. She holds a second degree Urasenke teaching license and chamei (tea name) “Somi.”

Additionally, she researches and writes academically on tea practice and theory and spent two years in rural Ehime prefecture, Japan, studying in the Omotesenke lineage.

Assistant Instructor

Kaoru Kuribayashi

Kaoru started to practice Chanoyu at the age of 10 and has been practicing in various tea schools including Urasenke, Omotesenke, and Edosenke. In 2014, before graduating from Sophia University, she founded Nippon Collection. Since then, she has been engaging with organizing exhibitions, workshops, product development, and interviews in the field of traditional arts and crafts, in order to explore spirituality and lifestyles that are unique to Japan.

She has worked in a cultural foundation, an apparel company, and a global consulting firm. In 2020, she graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London with a degree of Msc in Marketing and Technology. From 2021, she is pursuing a second master's degree in East Asian Studies at UCLA.

President

Nanami Ozaki

Linguistics and Psychology, B.A.

UCLA Class of 2026

Secretary / Webmaster

Ryota Matsumoto

Mathematics of Computation, B.S.

UCLA Class of 2026

PR Manager

Marina Niland

Computational and Systems Biology, B.S.

UCLA Class of 2027

Event Planning

Andrea Li

Chinese, B.A.
Comparative Literature, B.A.

UCLA Class of 2026

Finances / Fundraising

Ashley Osterhout

Psychology, B.A.

UCLA Class of 2027

Vice President

Yu Nishihiro

International Development Studies, B.A.

UCLA Class of 2026

PR Manager

Joshua Meyer

Human Biology and Society, B.S.

UCLA Class of 2026

Event Planning

Faith Valencia

International Development Studies, B.A.
UCLA Class of 2026

Finances / Fundraising

Nagisa Kudo

Linguistics and Psychology, B.A.

UCLA Class of 2026

Alumni

Founding President

Aldo Schwartz

Aldo Schwartz is a San Francisco-born writer, artist, and filmmaker, who completed a B.A. in Film (Cinematography and Documentary Production) at UCLA in 2023.

He has directed, produced, and photographed projects across genres – including narrative shorts, documentaries, music videos, and multimedia installations.

Along with helping at UTeaLA, Aldo is currently making a documentary about Tea Ceremony in Southern California.