Season in Review: Intriguing People

We're looking back at some of the highlights from Season 6 of "SoCal Connected." Over the past year, our team captured and shared the stories of many fascinating and influential people from Southern California. Here are some of our favorite profiles:
Radio Personality Art Laboe
Esteemed radio host Art Laboe has spent decades taking song dedications and creating a space for inclusion and diversity. This award-winning profile by reporter Nic Cha Kim looks at Laboe's life and legacy.

Surf's Up for Muslim American Females
They are a small but dedicated group of Muslim women who love the waves, but also want to dress modestly on the beach. Reporter Dija Dowling finds out how these young women surfers and a Muslim swimwear designer make water sports easier for observant Muslim women.

Luis Rodriguez and the Gift of Words
For Luis Javier Rodriguez, the pen is mightier than the sword. It's what ultimately saved him from being swept away by the drug and gang scene in Los Angeles. When he was a juvenile in prison, Rodriguez channeled his experiences into words and later became a community activist and mentor for at-risk youth. Rodriguez was recently honored as poet laureate of Los Angeles.

Clare Graham's "Warehouse of Wonders"
Artist and collector Clare Graham is an expert at transforming recycled material into art reminiscent of fractal designs and elaborate patterns found in nature. He draws from millions of buttons, soda pop pull tabs, jigsaw puzzles, yard sticks, Scrabble tiles and more. Reporter Nic Cha Kim pays a trip to Graham's studio in Highland Park for a closer look at his craft.

Robotic Exoskeleton: The Future is Now
In 2012, Marine captain Derek Herrera was shot and paralyzed from the chest down after leading a special operations task in Afghanistan during his third deployment.
Doctors told him he most likely would never walk again. Determined to prove his diagnosis wrong, Herrera discovered ReWalk Robotics, a motorized external prosthetic skeleton that gives paraplegic individuals the chance to walk again.
