On Oct. 23, the Los Angeles chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association hosted its annual Trivia Bowl at the Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo. Loyola Marymount University’s AAJA chapter attended for the first time, placing third amongst college teams. Local newsrooms, Southern California colleges, and media companies competed to win the Rice Cup and Grasshopper Cup.
Each team could have up to 10 members at their table. The competition included five rounds, with 12 questions per round. Categories ranged from 2026 current events, politics, history, literature, pop culture, science, technology, geography, sports, and California living.
AAJA LMU was approved as a registered student organization in Dec. 2025 in an effort to revive the chapter. After attending AAJA conferences for more than two years, Sam Molitor, co-president of AAJA LMU, wanted his peers to have the same connection.
“When I came to find that the [journalism] department was revamping some of the journalism orgs last year, I realized there weren’t any plans to restart AAJA, so I jumped at the opportunity to start it myself,” Molitor said. “AAJA LMU offers community, connection, and networking opportunities that are usually harder to get in a classroom.”
For LMU’s relatively new AAJA chapter, attending the Trivia Bowl gave students a chance to engage with the broader journalism community in a different and diverse environment.
“I was very proud of the team that Sam and I built, and everybody’s competitiveness really showing,” Cieara Briones, co-president of AAJA LMU, said. “It really fed into a good night and meeting new people.”
Ryan Menezes, a former journalist at the Los Angeles Times, returned to complete this year’s event as an opportunity to reconnect with the journalism community. To settle a tie, every team had to guess the total goals scored in the 2026 World Cup at the very end.
“It feels good that both of our teams tied for first,” Menezes said. “This [win] is kind of shared between our two teams, which feels really good.”
Despite the competitive nature of the event, Menezes attributed the teams’ success to their collective knowledge.
“It was definitely a team effort,” Menezes said. “Everyone contributed something.”
College students also had the chance to test out their knowledge. Although it was his first time playing, David Mei, a student from California State University, Long Beach, took home the Grasshopper Cup with his team.
David Ono, an ABC7 Los Angeles journalist who emceed the event, said the Trivia Bowl’s tallying gets more efficient every year.
“To do it with the delays that we had, and still get people completely done by 9:20 is super awesome because we want people to enjoy their Friday night,” Ono said.
AAJA LMU plans to connect with local chapters, attend conferences, and network with members.
“I want AAJA LMU to be a bridge that helps students find community with each other while growing into the wider network,” Molitor said.
