While Dinners for 12 Strangers is a theme on its own, many alumni are taking their dinners one step further, giving a second theme to the gathering of UCLA students, alumni, and professors.

Our program gives Bruins of every generation the chance to unite for a fantastic dinner, whether home-cooked or picked up at a local store. (Not being able to cook isn’t an excuse!) As some dinner hosts have found, theme dinners can help young Bruins feel more relaxed while meeting alumni and faculty in an informal setting.

Some past themes have included:

Silly Socks, Beach BBQ, Mardi Gras for 12 Strangers, Hawaiian Luau

Make sure to speak with your Student Alumni Association Representative if you need help deciding on a theme and telling your guests prior to the dinners.

Dinner can be as casual as pizza and salad or as elaborate as a five course catered meal. As long as you cover the cost, our students will be excited to enjoy a free meal away from campus.

If you are hosting an in-person alumni gathering you can also choose a pot-luck style type dinner if this is a better option for you.

Or Download our 2022 D12 Cookbook for some great dinner ideas.

In partnership with US Wellness Meats: Use discount code ‘UCLA’ to save 15% on any order from their site.

“Two Truths and One Lie”

Each person takes a turn at introducing him/herself and then tells the rest of the guests three “facts” about themselves. Two of them are true and the third is a lie. The guests have to guess which “fact” is a lie.

Example

Hi, my name is Joe Bruin and…

• I’ve stood in the center of the Rose Bowl and led a UCLA eight-clap for the entire stadium at halftime.
• I’ve met President Clinton.
• I’ve never received a parking ticket on campus.

The guests unanimously guess correctly that the parking ticket scenario MUST be the lie. No one has ever studied or worked on campus and escaped the long arm of the UCLA parking office!

“I Want to Know”

Ask each guest to write down a question that they would like someone else to answer. The questions should be the type that would provide insight about an individual’s personality, tastes, values, etc. The host collects the questions and puts them in a container that is passed around the room. Then, as each guest introduces him/herself, s/he pulls a question out of the container that s/he has to answer.

Example

• When and why did you decide that you wanted to attend UCLA?
• What was your most memorable UCLA experience?
• Have you ever had a brush with a celebrity?
• Have you ever been on TV?
• If you could go back in time and make one decision differently, what would it be?
• If you could have lunch with anybody, living or dead, real or imaginary, who would it be?
• If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do?

“Celebrity”

This game can be played after dinner if time allows. Using scraps of paper, each individual writes down the names of 10-15 well-known figures. The assortment of names is put in a container.

The group is then divided into two teams. The first team selects one of their members to take a turn. S/he picks a piece of paper out of the container and tries to make his/her teammates guess the identity of the person whose name is on the paper. When his/her teammates have guessed correctly, s/he picks another piece of paper, describes the person, the other teammates make their guesses, and the process continues until a minute has elapsed.

At that point, the number of people that have been identified by the team equals the number of points the team earns. The second team then selects a teammate to take his/her turn, until all the players on both teams have had one time “at bat.” The team with the most points at the end is the winner.

Easy Get to Know You

This simply requires a few pens and paper.

Write questions on paper and have each guest draw one – have each person or every person answer the questions.

Sample: What is one easy thing about being a Bruin and one hard thing?

Still stumped? Reach out to your Student Alumni Association Representative to help you brainstorm some additional games!

Encourage everyone to cook a certain kind of food / make one recipe to replicate being together and enjoying the same food (make sure not to make it too complicated or require spending too much money).

Or Download our 2022 D12 Cookbook for some great dinner ideas.

In partnership with US Wellness Meats: Use discount code ‘UCLA’ to save 15% on any order from their site.