academics

My Biology Story

August 5, 2024
Jordan S.
My Biology Story

My biology story starts all the way back in freshman year of high school. As I was preparing to register for classes for my first year of high school, it was announced that my school would be removing Honors Biology and would only be offering AP Biology as an advanced option. My mom had me sign up for AP Biology and I was quite worried about it. I heard the class was extremely hard and the idea of taking a scientific AP class as a freshman was unsettling to me, yet I signed up for it anyways. Moving forward, the class was difficult but manageable until...

So you want to be an Education major?

July 11, 2022
Ethan Collier

Guess what? Did you know that UC Berkeley’s School of Education will be unveiling a new undergraduate major in Education? That’s right! Starting in Fall 2023, students will be able to declare Education as a major! This is a huge milestone for students who are interested in all things related to public education. Let me give you a quick low-down on the history of being an “Education student” at Cal!

Beginnings: School of Education, Education Minor, and CalTeach

Studying Education at Berkeley begins with our undergraduate Minor in Education....

How to Stay Focused During Quarantine

February 28, 2021
Vincent Ooi

Taking classes during quarantine is already hard enough…you also want me to stay focused?! This request is absurd for some folks. Today, I’ll show you a few ways in which you can not only stay concentrated in your work or studies for long periods of time, but you can also voluntarily shift your focus at anytime you want.If you want to see how, then read further! I will show you the steps in which you can do this as simple as possible.

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Being Undecided: How I Found My Major

March 6, 2021
Juliana Roper

“What are you studying” is a familiar tune to all those entering college. While this question does not exceed words, it carries a weight with it. Upon entering Cal, I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to study.

I want to preface this by saying in high school I didn’t envision life beyond it. Come college application season, I thought that college was just a glorified version of high school, I mean, what the heck was a major anyways? At the time, I loved that school gave us a taste in every subject, so imagine the shock I received when I was told I could only pick one to two...

From Small Town to Big City

April 1, 2024
Anna H.

Taking the 215 to San Diego or LA, you will see a suburb of Riverside County called Menifee, CA. This little city was established in 2008 and now has a population of just over 100,000. It is about 30 minutes southeast of UC Riverside, an hour north of San Diego, or an hour south of Los Angeles. There is a really good chance you may not have heard of it.

I grew up in the small, quiet town of Menifee, California. My mom was an elementary teacher, so I was enrolled in the school she taught at up until I was in 5th grade. From there, I went to a public K–12 charter...

A Semester in Washington, D.C.

December 23, 2022
Sydney Hilbush

As I stood inside the Capitol Rotunda, offering a tour to a group of constituents, suddenly a huddle of U.S. Senators emerged from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and quickly breezed past me to make their way to the Senate floor. As they traveled past me, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity to work inside our nation’s capitol and intern for the U.S. Congress. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity would never have been possible without my involvement in the University of California, Washington D.C. (UCDC) program. ...

Dancing My (Blue & Gold) Heart Out

December 1, 2023
Ethan C.

Prior to coming to UC Berkeley, I danced throughout my childhood. Beginning when I was eight years old, I used to dance in an after-school program with the YMCA. I was a hip-hop dancer until I was 13 when I entered middle school. I took a break from dancing for two years, then came back to it when I was in high school. My school offered Mexican folklórico dance classes as electives and I took it for fun. I ended up sticking with it all through high school as it was a very significant part of my cultural identity. Now in college, I dance for group on campus and through our school’s...

Day in the Life of an English Major

November 17, 2023
Holly Q.

All throughout high school (...and middle school) I would watch countless amounts of “Day in the Life of a…” videos. Heading into my college years, I especially loved to see videos about college students and people who were studying what I wanted to study. Rather than film a video, I’m going to be sharing my day in the life as a Berkeley English major!

From a recent Friday (08/27/23) in the Fall 2023 Semester:

8:30-9:00 am – Waking up! Honestly, sometimes the hardest part of my day. But it is Friday!

9:30 am – Grabbing a...

How Trial & Error Helped Me Find My Passion

March 6, 2024
Madison K.

I’m an English major, but how did I get here?

When we are young, there are a plethora of things that we want to be, but as we get older, dreams change as we do. What I wanted to do when I was younger is vastly different from what I want to do now, but to get where I am, I went through what I like to call phases, until I found something I truly wanted to pursue.

You see, when I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a fashion designer. Although that idea died as quickly as it was formed. Not only was I a terrible artist, my ideas were...

Constructing Educational Resiliencies: My Education Capstone & Attending AERA's Conference

April 15, 2024
Ethan C.

This semester, I embarked on a journey to complete my Education Research Capstone Project, a requirement for the new Educational Sciences major on campus. You have to two take two classes to fulfill this requirement: a core field research class and an elective. This semester, I took EDUC 150: Advanced Seminar in Education – Teachers of Color in the United States. Initially, I took this class as a research elective. However, it has been approved as one of the core requirements for the capstone project. Taught by Dr. Travis J. Bristol, this course taught me more about all the modern...