1. What drew you to UC San Diego for your undergraduate and graduate education?

Kogan: I think my original two motivations for coming here were a combination of wanting to get away from home, and to continue to be close to good friends. If I had gone to Berkeley — my other choice as an undergraduate — I probably would've lived at home, and I had several very close friends that were going to UCSD, or who were already here.

For graduate school, it was a tougher decision. One of the main reasons I came back is that there just aren't very many universities that study state and local politics — which is what I'm interested in — in the same scientific, empirical way. We have people like political science professor Thad Kousser, who is one of the best in the field. One of the thoughts I had, and many people at the schools I visited brought up, was whether coming back to the same institution for grad school would mean I would miss out on working with more people and getting to understand more perspectives. I guess at the end, it was a balancing act. I had really good relationships with some faculty here, but I felt like there was a lot more I could still learn at UCSD.

2. What were your first impressions of UCSD?

Kogan: One vivid memory I have is from my senior year of high school, when I came down to San Diego to visit in April. The mass of students walking down Library Walk was overwhelming. I went to a pretty big high school — about 2,500 people — but it was nothing compared to here. I think that's why some of my friends went to private schools; they thought it would be a more personal experience.

The other impression, and I think this one I've formed more in retrospect, is that UCSD is certainly less social than what most people expect from a college campus. Part of it is the location in the suburbs, but part of is also choices that we as a campus have made, things like the policy on alcohol and such.

3. What was your major/minor and what graduate degree are you pursuing now?

Kogan: When I was a sophomore in high school, my history teacher made an off-hand remark that was something like, "Look at Vlad, he's a future political scientist." So when it was time to apply to college, and I had to pick a major, I remembered that remark and that's what I put down on my application. So from my first day here, I was a political science major, and that's what I graduated as. Now, I'm a political science grad student.

4. What sparked your interest in political science?

Kogan: I was always good at history in high school, and given my history teacher's comment, I thought it would be up my alley. I also really enjoyed science in school, but my first quarter here, I took the honors chemistry class and it put the end to my science career, even though I did pretty well. It was the last science class I ever took.

I think when a lot of people think about political science, they think of history and the humanities. But political science, at least at UCSD, is really scientific — you design tests, measure variables and test hypotheses. So it's a perfect combination of the things that I loved to do in high school.

5. How did your experience at The Guardian prepare you for your first job out of college and your second job as a reporter for Voice of San Diego, a local daily news online source?

Kogan: My first job was at the daily paper in Santa Barbara. Then I came back to San Diego to work at Voice. At both places, I used very much the same skills that I got to practice at The Guardian — writing stories; talking to sources; editing; and other things like that. I think one major difference is that The Guardian was less of a job than a social niche — my best friends today are people I worked with at The Guardian, even though many of them have moved.

6. How did your work experience prepare you for graduate school?

Kogan: When I started working, I knew I wanted to go back to school in a year or two to continue with political science, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. In fact, my senior year here, I applied to some public policy schools, and I visited the University of Chicago, and a faculty member there said to me: "You had a very good application, but one thing I still can't figure out is what you're interested in studying." And working in Santa Barbara, where I covered City Hall, and Voice, where I covered local education, really got me interested in state and local politics. A lot of people who study American politics study Congress and the presidency, but very, very few people use those sophisticated tools to study politics at the local level. And that's where most of the policies that really affect people are either made or implemented, and that's what I got to see as a reporter.

7. How have you stayed involved with UCSD as an alum and graduate student?

Kogan: When I was at Voice of San Diego, I continued to follow what was going on here, and I even wrote a few articles about it. (One of them, about the Preuss School, won me my award from the San Diego Press Club.) Since I've come back, I still stick my nose into undergraduate business, sometimes through letters I write to the editor in The Guardian. I think it's one of those things, once you know how the sausage is made, it's hard to not get upset or excited about it and try to change what's going on.

8. What advice would you give to a new student about succeeding at UCSD?

Kogan: One thing I tell all of my undergraduate friends is that it's all about finding your niche on campus, and for a lot of people, that's a lot harder to do here than at hyperactive places like Cal. For me, it was The Guardian — that was really my UCSD family. For other people, it's things like sports or A.S. Council. I think the students that do have the least enjoyable time are the ones that spend all of it on academics, in their room or at the library studying. I had a chemistry teacher who once said something that I think was very profound, and something I still remember: Successful people are always juggling too many balls, and when one is about to hit the ground, they reach down and grab it at the last second. The lesson is that successful people are always involved in a lot of things, and a lot of different things.

9. What are some "outside the classroom" life lessons you learned as a UCSD student?

Kogan: I think writing for The Guardian taught me a lot about how large groups of people, and large organizations, function. And I learned a lot about informal politics, I guess, because there is certainly a lot of politics in running a university. In class, we learned a lot of theories about how the world works, and at the paper, we actually saw how the world works, and it was interesting to see how those differ sometimes.

10. What is your favorite memory of being a student at UCSD?

Kogan: I think it's hard to narrow it down to just one thing, it was more a single class of things: hanging out with my friends at The Guardian. We'd produce the paper twice a week, and sometimes we'd finish early the next morning and go to Denny’s afterwards, and just sit there at 4 a.m. talking. Sun God festival is also a quintessential UCSD experience, which is why I think a lot of people are upset about talk of changing it. Every Sun God, The Guardian staff wake up early in the morning and go to breakfast in Pacific Beach at 7 a.m., and then spend the rest of the day taking part in the Sun God festivities, and all that it entails. My senior year, we got a group of people together and went around classes — the classes where professors were insensitive enough to still hold class on Sun God — and blasted German techno music, before running away. It probably didn't add to the educational experience, but it's a very vivid, very fun memory.

11. What are your favorite spots on campus?

Kogan: Well, the spot that I know the best is The Guardian office. We spent a lot of late nights there, so it's kind of like a second home to me. Another great spot is the 9th floor of Tioga Hall at Muir College — they have the best ocean view — and the Cliffs off La Jolla Farms Road. And the bunnies at the patio behind Earl's Place at Warren College are great too.

12. What do you do to unwind?

Kogan: That's a tough one, as I like to stay busy, so I don't unwind all that much. I read a lot of news and I like to go the gym every day. Every weekend, my friends and I try to go out at least once, to go to a club downtown or to the movies, or something fun like that.

13. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Kogan: Well, hopefully, I'll be teaching at a great school somewhere, with a few publications under my belt. Moving to Kiribati and becoming poet laureate of that island atoll, as one quack managed to do in the 1990s, is my backup plan.