The University of California, Berkeley has thousands of classes for its students to take, regardless of major and interest. As a third year at Berkeley, I have taken my fair share of classes at UC Berkeley and I would like to share them with you! As a brief introduction about myself, I am a molecular and cell biology major who is emphasizing in neurobiology, however, I have taken a good spread of classes in many different areas and will provide an even spread of classes in many different areas.
Biology 1B: General Biology Lecture and Laboratory
Biology 1B is a class that focuses on evolution, ecology and organismal biology. This class is a common prerequisite class that biology majors need to take. While this class tends to be a class that students take because it is required, I genuinely enjoyed the course content and the lecturers. The class opened my eyes to different fields of biology that I was not particularly interested in, yet managed to find a new appreciation for. I could tell the professors genuinely cared about what they were teaching and wanted to share that passion with their students. Plus, labs were applicable to the Berkeley community as we looked into the water quality of Strawberry Creek (a creek that runs through campus) as well as took a field trip to the UC Botanical Garden for a lab period. Overall, if you have any interest in the more ecological aspects of biology, this is a great introductory course.
Political Science 179: Undergraduate Colloquium on Political Science
This one-unit seminar course is an amazing opportunity for students to hear from accomplished leaders in politics, advocacy and public policy. This course is offered every semester and has a new theme each semester, allowing students to take this class every semester that they want while still having a completely new course! The class meets once a week for one hour and allows students to simply sit and listen to the week’s speaker and hear their story and the work that they are passionate about. Speakers that I have seen include advocates for end of life treatments, prison reform, restaurant workers’ wages and so many other topics; I’m particularly excited for our next speaker, United States presidential candidate Marianne Williamson. This class is a class I expect to take every semester.
Theater 10: Fundamentals of Acting I
Theater 10 is an amazing class for students who want to embrace their artistic side through acting. I used to do professional acting as a kid, and after a long break, I wanted to explore the field again. Berkeley afforded me the opportunity to get back in touch with acting while also learning more skills. Beyond simply acting, Theater 10 has given me life skills and even helped me better cope with anxiety and get out of my own shell more by pushing me to try exercises that I wouldn’t normally do. Moreso, this class allows for a break between my biology classes, allowing me to rest mentally and not have to worry about the intricacies of my major.
Comparative Literature R1B: English Composition in Connection with the Reading World of Literature
This was another class that I took due to needing it to qualify for a college requirement, however, I did genuinely enjoy the course and feel like my academic writing improved significantly thanks to this course. Every reading and composition class has a different theme to it and the theme of the course that I took was witches and fairy tales, enticing me as I correctly believed that analyzing fairy tales would be fun. Through this class, I made claims about classic fairy tales, like Snow White, that I never thought I would make (I claimed that Snow White harbored a hidden darkness) yet still piqued my interest. Overall, I am glad that I participated in this course as it improved my writing skills while also allowing me to dive into interesting topics.