board members
Cailey Niandrea Pasco
President, Editor-in-Chief
Cailey Niandrea is currently a fourth year pursuing majors in English Literature and East Asian
Cultures with and a minor in creative writing at the University of California, Irvine, which is based on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples. As an avid writer and reader, Echolalia has provided a space for Cai to pursue her passion for both writing and aiding others in creating a community for them to share their own art. Outside of school, you can find Cai tending to her mini garden, spending time with her friends, or watching her favorite movies cozied up with her current craft project (currently scrapbooking and knitting sweaters!).
Ryan Aleksander Meadows
Print Head, Social Media Manager, Events Coordinator
Ryan is in his third, and hopefully final, year as a Game Design & Interactive Media major with a Creative Writing minor. He considers himself a creative person and loves making and consuming visual art, music, and writing. He hopes to use one or more of these fields in any future careers, in the games industry or otherwise, as he has worked as a caricature artist and enjoyed the break from more “traditional” work. Ryan is looking forward to dedicating time to Echolalia for one more year, hopefully getting to explore more creative fields like previous years.
Ella Wu
Managing Editor
Ella Wu is a third-year student double majoring in Comparative Literature and Literary Journalism at University of California, Irvine. She is passionate about reading, writing, and editing, and is excited to help build a community for writers and editors in Echolalia this year. Outside of school, Ella enjoys watching shows, scrapbooking, cooking and is recently getting into crafts like crochet and embroidery.
Jessica Lee
Events Coordinator
Jessica is a fourth year double majoring in French Studies and Anthropology at UCI, which is based on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Acjachemen and Tongva peoples. She loves to snack and finds joy in giving other people snacks. When she finds the time, Jessica tries to read, embroider, or work out. She is excited to get to meet you all!
Colette Lin Lichtsteiner
Treasurer (Winter & Spring)
Colette is a third-year public health policy major with a minor in English. She is passionate about women’s health and hopes to pursue a career in healthcare administration/management. Her hobbies include singing, baking, and nerding out over musical theatre. She is excited to meet and work with fellow readers and writers through Echolalia!
Cynthia Wang
Treasurer (Fall)
Cynthia is a graduating English major at University of California, Irvine. Typically seen at home on her laptop grinding out her latest hyperfixation through writing, when she’s not doing that, she’s probably out on a walk in the park on call with one of her friends, and in the case that she is doing neither, she is most likely on the bus to somewhere in Irvine where she can make an impulse purchase or get a “sweet treat”. Cynthia hopes that through Echolalia this year she will be able to improve her writing and get to know more people like her, and continue to grow in the community.
apprentices
Safa Ahmed
Print Head Apprentice
Safa is a third-year Informatics major specializing in Human-Computer Interaction. She is passionate about creative writing and design, and is hoping to publish fantasy and sci-fi novels while working in UI/UX design in the future. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with friends, trying out different cafes and restaurants, and going to the movie theater.
Bernice Kwong
Print Head Apprentice
Bernice is a first-year Urban Studies Major. She loves trying out all types of creative things (except for anything related to sewing/knitting/crocheting…she doesn’t have the patience). In her free time, she loves volunteering and exploring new places in Irvine by bike.
Alexandro Lopez Guzman
Managing Editor Apprentice
Alex is a third-year student majoring in English and Education Sciences. He writes short fiction, primarily in realism, exploring the subtle complexities of life. Outside of writing, he can usually be found at the ARC playing basketball or at home with video games. He joined Echolalia to improve his craft and to be a part of a creative community that shares his passion for writing.
Halli Thompson
Managing Editor Apprentice
Halli is a first year International Studies major who might minor in Linguistics. She came to Echolalia out of an interest in art and literature. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and crochet, as well as sometimes watching old movies. Some of her favorite media genres are fantasy and historical fiction.
Melissa Hernandez Gonzalez
Social Media Manager Apprentice
Melissa is a third year English major with a Creative Writing minor here at UCI. In her free time she enjoys signing, writing, going out with friends, and watching new movies/ shows. This is Melissa’s first year in Echolalia. She joined Echolalia because she wants to work in a group where she can learn more about editing as that is something she wants to do in the future. She also wanted to step out of comfort zone and submit one of her poems to the Echolalia journal, where she was excitedly met with the news that her poem was accepted. Melissa is very glad to be a part of this year’s editing+contributor team and hopes to meet other people in the writing community.
editorial team
Allie Dean
Allie is a first year criminology, law, and society & biology double major. She is often found debating about global politics, playing wordle, and consulting with her sisters about basic decisions. During her first year as an editor, she hopes to help contributors feel confident in their writing and comfortable to share their work.
Annika Lee
Annika is a third year Environmental Science and Policy major at UC Irvine who primarily writes short stories and poetry. Their works are mostly character-focused, and they love exploring the dynamics between characters. They joined Echolalia to be a part of a supportive community for creators, and are super excited to see what people create! When not writing, they can be found baking, rock climbing, or falling into a three-day long reading frenzy. If not at home, you are most likely to find them staring longingly out to sea.
Arisha Anne Bhattacharya
Arisha Anne Bhattacharya is a second-year double major in Criminology, Law & Society and Psychology with a minor in International Studies at UC Irvine, on a pre-law track. On campus, she is a writer for the Anteater Law Review, the PR chair for Phi Alpha Delta, and a Moot Court competitor. She enjoys reading, travelling, playing with her golden retriever, trying new cuisines and exploring fashion in all its forms. Outside of academics, Arisha is a published author working on her second novel, and she’s passionate about storytelling in all its forms, which inspired her to join Echolalia. From fiction to journalism, her interest in editing stems from her love of writing, which stems from her desire to push emotional and social boundaries through literature. She looks forward to reading this year’s entries and hopes you will enjoy it!
Ava Katianna Garcia
Ava Garcia is a first-year student pursuing a major in English at University of California Irvine. She is passionate about reading literature, writing, and film and media analysis. Her hobbies include listening to the Hadestown album on repeat, watching video essays on Youtube, and scrolling on Pinterest. She is excited to learn more about collaboration and community in the creative writing process through Echolalia.
Averin (Jingyi Cheng)
Averin is a 1st year student currently majoring in Game Design and Interactive Media at UCI, and is an editor at Echolalia.
Jayna Miller
Jayna is currently a second-year English major with a minor in Literary Journalism. She joined Echolalia because of her interest in pursuing editorial work more in the future. She also hopes that editing others’ works will inspire her to write more frequently herself. In her free time, she enjoys thrifting, reading murder mysteries, and watching Instagram reels.
Joshua Canela
Yo Echolalians! My name is Joshua or Joshi and I’m a 4th year sociology major. This is my second and final year at Echolalia and it has been an amazing journey! Echolalia has been a wonderful space and community to not only improve my writing skills, and cultivate my love for writing, but also to make wonderful friends and lasting relationships! Having said that, fantasy is my favorite genre, and I view our creativity, the stories and messages we convey as raw unfiltered magic. In a world increasingly enshrouded in darkness and evil that seeks to destroy our magic, In this ongoing epic, I’m glad I got to fight alongside you Echolalians. Per aspera ad astra! Huzzah!
Kasper Owen
Kasper is a fiction writer, editor and literary journalist. A self described “video camera firmly trained on the unspoken”, their approach to editing likes to ask the question “What does the work need and what shape does it want to take?”
Mia Yen
Mia is a second year Public Health Sciences and Political Science major. She likes writing magical realism, ghosts, and hallucinations, with a fun added bonus of yearning. She also occasionally dabbles in philosophical thought (with herself mostly) and has a love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with her hobby of being an overly-invested bystander to online discourse. Echolalia has been a very much appreciated and much needed escape from awful things like chemistry, and she hopes to get to know everyone and have lots of fun this year.
Neveah Medina
Nevaeh is a first year majoring in Criminology, Law and Society. She tells everyone that she chose her major because she enjoys Criminal Minds and Law and Order, but she actually just finds the field of criminal psychology fascinating and wants to help people with her work. Through Echolalia, Nevaeh hopes to reconnect with writing as an art form, instead of just through homework assignments. In her free time (if she ever has any) she enjoys dancing, crocheting, and reading!
Riley Schnittger
Riley is currently a third year student majoring in English and minoring in Literary Journalism. Starting out with formal AP editing, Riley got her start in Copy with newspaper publications. However, as she enters her third year of UCI and second year exploring the school of Literary Journalism, Riley wants to experience editing all types of writing: starting with the creative expression and various styles that Echolalia brings. In her free time, Riley can be found rewatching Victorious, drinking a Coke Icee, or blasting Clairo at any given moment.
Ryan Grogan
Ryan is a third-year English major and Creative Writing minor. She joined Echolalia because of her passion for editorial work and desire to engage in a writing community that uplifts student creativity. Outside of Echolalia, you can find Ryan taking a walk or pretending to study at a cafe.
Yen Nhi “Leyna” Hoang
Leyna is a 4th-year Civil Engineering Major. She is a firm believer that one of the greatest act of love and expression is the act of creation, and she joined Echolalia as an editor to play a part in the sharing of peoples’ creative endeavors. She is a very big collector of books, manga, albums, DVDs, various trinkets and would like to think of her time in Echolalia as a way for her to expand her collection as she makes new memories and experience the works of its amazing contributors.
board members and apprentices working as editors:
Cailey Niandrea Pasco
Ella Wu
Ryan Aleksander Meadows
Alexandro Lopez Guzman
Halli Thompson
Melissa Hernandez Gonzalez
print team
Acacia Ngo
Acacia is a second year Biological Sciences major & anticipating a double in Psychology. She has been in Echolalia since her first year winter quarter and has done some graphics for Echolalia‘s print team. When it comes to creative writing, poetry stands as one of her creative outlets. Acacia also loves to draw+paint and collect trinkets of food miniatures.
Anna Le
Hi everyone!! I’m a fourth year Psych B.S and Bio Sci Double Major with a minor in Humanities and Law. I’ve always loved art and writing since I was a kid but put it on the back burner since I was focusing on getting into medical/law school. But I decided in my junior year that I wanted to have hobbies that extended outside of professional pursuit. Which is where Echolalia comes in. The club so far has been a great outlet for me to read more writing and also be creative. Besides writing, I love drawing, watching crime shows, and sewing.
Caspian Sachdeva
Caspian is a senior Criminology major who writes short stories and novels. His works usually consist of urban fantasy and sci-fi elements and are more worldbuilding-focused. Aside from his passion for writing: he enjoys reading, running, baking, videogames, voice acting, sketching, and TTRPGs. He hopes to enter into law school and practice either immigration or international law.
Paula Ellen Marie Cea Lozada
Paula is a second-year Bio Sci major with a minor in Archaeology. She likes to dabble in and try all sorts of creative mediums, though digital art and creative writing are her favorites. In her free time she loves to write, play video games, and read fantasy and sci fi.