In this Alumni Spotlight Q&A, JD Slajchert shares his journey from UCSB student-athlete to award-nominated author and passionate nonprofit leader. A former member of the Men’s Basketball team, JD reflects on how UCSB shaped his personal and professional life—from the community that supported his early writing to the lifelong friendships built on and off the court. During high school, JD formed a powerful bond with Luc Bodden, a young boy battling Sickle Cell Disease, who later became his biggest fan and inspiration. After Luc’s passing during JD’s college years, JD channeled his grief into writing MoonFlower, a novel that honored their friendship and sparked his broader mission as an advocate and storyteller. Since graduating in 2018 with a degree in Sociology, JD has published multiple works, joined the leadership of the LucStrong Foundation, and spoken across the country to raise awareness for Sickle Cell Disease. His story was recently featured in an Emmy-nominated segment, and he’s preparing to take the TEDx stage this fall to speak about the healing power of handwriting. Through it all, JD continues to credit the UCSB community as the foundation of his journey—and remains committed to inspiring the next generation of Gauchos to dream big and lead with heart.
What drew you to UCSB for your undergraduate years?
I grew up in Thousand Oaks, California, just outside of Los Angeles. To be honest, UCSB was always my dream school—I really didn’t look much further. I think a lot of people can relate to that. You know, just being on the beach and having such a great athletic program and basketball team, I really thought it was the most amazing fit.
My high school coach, Aaron Shaw—who was my coach at Oak Park High School—actually went to UCSB as well. I remember sitting in the gym with him after practice, listening to him talk about his time in Santa Barbara. I just remember sitting in the gym with him after practice and him telling me about his time in Santa Barbara and just daydreaming about how it'd be like a dream to play there.
And, you know, I think staying close to home, too. I'm very close to my family and I used to go to UCSB games when I was in middle school and high school. So when I got that call from them saying that they wanted to recruit me to come play basketball there, I really didn't even think twice. It was like—I went from getting that phone call to committing in less than 24 hours. And that was it!
Can you tell me about your experience as a student-athlete playing basketball at UCSB? How did it shape your college years?
Yeah, I mean, I would take it a step further and say my time as a UCSB athlete not only shaped my college years, but my professional and adult life as well—and still is continuing to do so. I mean, example A: I’m literally on my way there today, as we speak, to give a talk to the UCSB Men's Basketball Team.
I mean, UCSB is the beginning of everything for me. You know, as an athlete there specifically, I met my closest friends there. They are the people I’m still in touch with on a daily basis. They’re kind of my foundation. All my teammates in college that I played with there, and all my coaches as well—you know, they’re kind of like my biggest support system too.
And obviously, I don’t want to jump too far ahead, but when I went on to pen my debut novel, MoonFlower, Santa Barbara really rallied around me as a community, city and family. It was like, “Oh, we’re gonna help JD Slajchert get this book out there in the world.”
My first ever TV news interview was in Santa Barbara. My first speech I ever gave was in Santa Barbara. And it was all a result of the athletic department and the UCSB community. You know, I never forgot that.
And now, as I look forward to this Emmy Award and everything that I’m doing today, it just feels right to give back to the place that I love—and that I’m sure you love too—and just make them a part of my journey forever. That’s really something I’m passionate about, Isabella, just remembering where I came from, remembering the people that supported me. And it all started with my athletic career at UCSB. That’s kind of what drove me there was sports.
And then, you know, in the education department, there were tons of different inspirations—like Mashey Bernstein, for example. He was my writing professor when I was at the University of Santa Barbara, and I’m still close to him to this day. I just saw him less than a month ago. So there are a lot of people in my life still from that university that I cherish greatly.
How did your time at UCSB prepare you for life beyond college–such as in writing, public speaking or nonprofit work?
It really did prepare me in more ways than I could imagine—as a student and as an athlete. But I think the main thing I would say I took away from UCSB was to be kind of the calm in the storm.
I feel like, on a daily basis, I jump from doing interviews on national television to giving speeches to hundreds or even thousands of people, to days where I’m totally alone, just writing a new book, a new story or scripts. I have a lot of variety in my days. And I have things that come up at the very last minute, but I feel like my time at UCSB helped prepare me to remain forever calm, stoic and sort of even keel through all of the dips, high stress and low moments in a lot of different ways.
I think that’s a mindset I’ve seen in a lot of people who went to that school. I meet Gauchos out in the wild, and I feel like they can relate. It’s just such a mellow, chill sort of mindset. But I feel like what I’ve also learned is: don’t underestimate how you can still be an animal, go after the things you love and dream big—while doing it in an artistic, kind of stoic way.
I felt like I learned that sort of mindset capability at Santa Barbara. And I would say, furthermore, just the sense of community, again, I mean, I can’t emphasize it enough. I talk to the administration at UCSB almost daily still, and I’ve graduated what—five, six, seven years ago—and that’s never going to change for me.
So it’s a pretty surreal thing to think about how close I am to the university to this day.
You first met Luc Bodden while you were still in high school in Thousand Oaks, yet he went on to attend all of your UCSB games and became a defining figure in your life. Can you share how that friendship began, and what made your bond so special?
My goodness. I mean, I could talk about Luc for hours. Simply put, Luc Bodden changed my life. He was the first real person, aside from my family, to believe in me. You know, I met Luc when I was just a senior at Oak Park High School in Thousand Oaks.
He used to attend all my games when I was just a high school kid. His sister—when I was 17, and she was 15 at the time—came up to me and said that her little brother wanted to meet me and play basketball with me.
I sort of shrugged it off and said, “Sure, you know, I’ll get around to it when I can,” saying I was pretty busy or whatever excuse I made. And she said, “No, it has to happen next week.” I asked, “Why?” And she said, “Well, because my little brother is six years old, and he has Sickle Cell Disease and the last thing that he wants to do before he has to go into the hospital for a full year of isolation for a bone marrow transplant is to meet you and play basketball with you.”
And yeah, I mean that moment as I recall it and describe it, Isabella, I can still see it clear as day. I just couldn’t believe someone was so inspired by me. At the time, I was plenty confident in who I was, but I was 17, I was just a kid as well.
For him to believe in me at that age meant more to me than I think he even understood. And so, when I committed to UCSB—and I knew it was not very far from where we grew up—he was actually the first person I told.
I actually went down to see Luc in the hospital. He was there for that year of isolation, and I brought him a UCSB hat. It was way too big for his head because he was seven years old. Since he was undergoing a bone marrow transplant they actually had to have one of his nurses take the hat, clean and sanitize it, and make sure there was no risk of infection, no germs or anything from the outside world. It had to be really thoroughly cleaned. But yeah, it was a UCSB hat and for the rest of the time I knew Luc until he passed, he never took that hat off. He became the biggest fan of UCSB I’ve ever met.
You know, I get emotional thinking about it. But it really changed my life. It showed me how much love and support can mean to people. And when he passed away, I was devastated, of course—I was pretty lost. But again, that’s when I felt the UCSB community stick by me. That was when I started writing. And yeah, everything I’m doing today is a result of that relationship, truly.
MoonFlower is such a personal and emotional story. What inspired you to turn your experience with Luc into a novel?
You know, it's a pretty simple answer, to be honest. It was just the idea to preserve the legacy of someone I felt deserved to be preserved.
I knew how much Luc had impacted me individually, how much he inspired me. The things he told me, the lessons—like being grateful for every day you're alive and not in a hospital room, never giving up. I mean, Luc never complained, despite every surgery and operation and procedure he had to have. And I watched all this, you know? It changed my life. I felt like I was applying his lessons personally, but I also felt like I had to write a book to tell other people. I felt like I owed him that.
And also, to be honest—it’s not as pretty of an answer—but I was really sad. I mean, I would probably even go as far as to say I was depressed. When I lost Luc, I just needed something to help me hang on. Writing MoonFlower was my attempt at just finding a way to cope.
And I think what’s amazing about that discovery, Isabella, is that I had never written anything of length before. I wasn’t an English major. I didn’t get good grades in high school or even really in college. But I knew I had a story, and I didn’t care who laughed, who made fun of me or who thought it was crazy. I was writing a book. I actually handwrote the entire first draft with just pencil and paper, and I just wouldn’t let anything stop me.
And yeah, eventually MoonFlower was published, and the rest is really history. And I think that decision came from just this idea that I owed it to Luc.
Your work with the LucStrong Foundation has clearly become a passion. Can you share more about your role there and the mission of the organization?
Yeah, so I'm the Director of Relationship Development for the LucStrong Foundation, which is a nonprofit that supports children diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease. My role is to fundraise and help get the word out, not just about my story with Luc, but about how he impacted me and changed my life.
Sickle Cell Disease is a predominantly African American disorder. Luc was African American, and it's very tragic that the illness isn’t spoken about or talked about more. A lot of people feel that’s because it doesn’t affect all races equally.
So, as a Caucasian person, I’ve kind of taken it upon my shoulders to say, “You know what? I'm going to bring this disease into my community and the people I know.” Before I met Luc, I had never even heard of Sickle Cell Disease, and now I talk about it almost daily.
Luc’s mom, Stacy—who’s one of my closest friends—always says, “What better person to advocate for an illness than someone who could never get it themselves?” And so it’s become a real mission of mine to speak about Sickle Cell, especially to people who look like me and don’t know anything about it. Because although I never had it, it really changed my life.
So with LucStrong, that’s sort of my role: to help our team with fundraising and getting the story out there. That’s why the speaking events I do—and obviously the TEDx Talk I mentioned—will be huge opportunities to share the platform, our story, in a way that will hopefully help a lot more people.
In what ways do you think storytelling, whether through writing or public speaking, can be a tool for advocacy?
Yeah, I mean, I think storytelling is probably the easiest one word to describe what I do.
Storytelling applies to my nonprofit work. It applies to my speaking career. It applies to my writing career. I think the best way to convey any message to anybody is to tell a story. And that’s always what I’m attempting to do in every single outlet and medium that I’m involved in, in my life and career, it’s storytelling in different ways.
I always joke with people—I actually had an interview this morning with a media outlet—and I explained to them that I feel like good storytelling is like sneaking the vitamin into a piece of cake and feeding it to someone. They don’t even realize they’ve just learned a really important lesson. They just enjoyed the story you were telling them, and then they walk away, maybe being a better person, or a better parent, or father, or husband or wife. And I feel like in my writing, that’s what I’m always trying to do: take what’s a real-world issue, right? Like Sickle Cell Disease, it happens in the real world and real people are affected by it.
But I wanted to write a novel that was fictional to appeal to the masses, to people who maybe don’t know anything about Sickle Cell Disease. But now, because they’ve read this book, they know a lot more than they did.
So I think storytelling is an incredible vehicle to achieve getting important messages across to a lot of different people.
Your journey with MoonFlower has now led to an Emmy nomination and an upcoming TEDx talk. What can you tell me about these milestones and the projects you’re most excited about right now?
Yeah, so the Emmy nomination was 100% completely out of the blue. I had no intention of that ever being a reality of mine. I have a big board in my office where I write down my long-term, like five- or ten-year goals, right? The Emmy nomination was never anything I ever put on there.
So that was a shocking reality. And to be honest, it’s been quite an adjustment in my life to even get comfortable saying that I’m nominated for an Emmy. And now, in 11 days from now, I might even win—which would be even wilder. So yeah, it’s an exciting time.
I think what’s been really amazing is—even like this phone call today—getting to connect with the place I love so much, like UC Santa Barbara, and share that with them. This wouldn’t have happened without my university behind me, and so I’m very grateful for that.
But on the contrary, on the flip side, the TEDx Talk, that had been a life goal and dream of mine for a long time. I would say for five or six years, I’ve been trying to land that stage and that megaphone. I’m very excited now to be speaking at Unity Park, which is in South Carolina, this fall—November 19th, to be exact.
What I can share with you about what my TEDx Talk will be about is that it’s going to be centered around the idea that handwriting changed my life—and not only changed it, but saved it. I’m going to be talking about my story with Luc, but also about Sickle Cell Disease. And then more specifically, how the practice of handwriting, even if you’re not an author, is an incredibly cathartic and healing exercise and how we can all do a better job of getting away from technology, and social media, and emails and TVs to just simply write, and do it by hand. Get back to that basic, primal sort of expression.
I mean, everything that I’ve done is built around that concept of handwriting, and my TEDx Talk is going to be focusing on that, which I think is a really exceptional truth.
What advice would you give to current UCSB students who want to make a difference?
I would say if there’s anything people take away from my interview with you today, I hope it’s that they realize they have power in themselves to change the world.
A huge reason I’m so passionate about sharing my story specifically with UC Santa Barbara is that I want other Gauchos who are in my shoes to feel like they can see what I’m up to and believe they can do it too—and maybe not just do it, but do it even bigger and even better. Win Emmys. Write books. Give TEDx Talks. You’re not crazy for thinking you could do that, or for doing it at a young age.
I wrote MoonFlower while I was at UCSB. It was published the same year I graduated. I want other Gauchos to realize they have the power in themselves to change the world. I was once in their shoes—and it’s all out there for you.
You just have to work really hard, take every opportunity that comes your way and be patient. But don’t mistake patience for hard work and work ethic because those things are definitely important and necessary. You may be called crazy. People may think you’re dreaming too big. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in just the last couple of months, it’s that you can't dream big enough.
The more you put yourself out there, the more you can be rewarded for it. And I really think that’s important to share with a place that has supported me so much. If there’s anything I can ever do to support anybody from UCSB, I promise I will do it.
It's very important to me what this community is and what everyone here has done, and continues to do, for me, and I just want to inspire the next generation of Gauchos. Simple. And that means a great deal to me to be able to do that!
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To learn more about JD and to watch the Emmy Nominated feature, please visit his website: www.jdwritesbooks.com