how I got here

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...

The Truth About Being A Transfer Student

April 19, 2024
Madison K.

With my first year at Berkeley and my junior year about to end, here is an overview of the reality of what it was like coming to Berkeley to finish the second half of my undergraduate studies.

Right off the bat, I’m going to tell you that I love being a transfer student.

Going to community college out of high school was definitely what was best for me. For a bit of background, when I was a senior in college, I applied to ten schools: five UC’s and five Cal States. Out of those ten, the few that I got accepted into were schools I didn’t really...

Pre-Cal Day Excitement – The Seasoned Campus Ambassador’s Perspective

April 12, 2024
Ethan C.

I didn’t get a Cal Day. The admitted first-year class of 2025 and transfer classes of 2023 were the resilient classes, the transitional classes, as we entered a new sense of normalcy with the pandemic. I came to Cal without the Cal Day experience, no tour of campus, no committing on the Glade or Sproul Plaza with newly-made friends, none of that. Cal Day was new to me when I became a Campus Ambassador. The first time I heard about it was when I was in a staff meeting, and our Leadership Team began to talk about the Day’s festivities. It was a Cal Day in this new normal. The first Cal...

Designing a Four Year Plan: How Triple-Majoring Helped Me Find My Academic Niche

April 5, 2024
Rohit J.

The release of enrollment time is one of the most dreaded moments in any Berkeley student’s semester. Walking out of Moffitt Library, I often overhear the same conversations every year: “Is April 24th Day 1 or Day 2?”, “Why aren’t they offering this class next semester?”, “Yo, what are you taking next fall? After many semesters of bad enrollment slots, I finally got the coveted early enrollment time I’d only heard fables of my freshmen year.

Putting the novelty of it all aside, it’s difficult to find classes that are currently offered, fit within your time/major...

Changing with the Season(ing)s

April 3, 2024
Nichelle W.

I never learned how to cook on my own until this year, my sophomore year of college. Before, it was always my parents guiding me through the steps – let the pan heat up before adding the oil, add meat before vegetables, understand when it’s fully cooked. The base seasonings I use in my apartment are the same ones: onion powder, garlic powder, paprika. But as I’ve made food at Berkeley, I’ve found myself adjusting the flavors slightly, adding my own dash of perspective.

I think growing up is a lot like cooking. If you're cooking raw meat, the first seasoning gets...

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...

[Re]Finding My Academic Passions

March 8, 2024
Ethan C.

Coming into Cal, you’re thrown into a university with much to offer. With six undergraduate colleges, there’s definitely a lot to choose from for your academic pursuits. In the College of Letters and Science alone, there are over 80 different majors to explore and 500 courses you can take alone. Constantly, new majors and minors are being unveiled, and students can engage in a wide variety of different academic departments and programs. When I started at Cal in 2021, I came in as a pre-law student interested in a whole bunch of majors. I switched around a lot (and I mean… A LOT)....

Why I Chose to Boycott Advice During My First Semester

March 1, 2024
MJ S.

If you thought this was a blog providing advice on political boycotting, you would be woefully mistaken. Let me take you on a journey of failure, revelation, and self-actualization – as Maslow would have it.

I started what I thought would be my first of four years at Cal with great anticipation for future achievement, like I was inching up a black diamond knowing that momentum would release me into a good life once I have earned a sizable academic spread. But four semesters later, I have accumulated a snowball that has brought me further down than up and...

The Breadth Class That Took My Breath Away

February 28, 2024
Melina T.

Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science has a unique requirement called the Seven-Course Breadth. Essentially, L&S students must take at least one course in several distinct subject areas, regardless of their major. The hope is that through taking a diverse course load, students will be exposed to more perspectives and areas of intellectual curiosity. As a humanities student to my core, I can’t say I was thrilled about fulfilling the Biological Science requirement. Taking a semester-long class completely irrelevant to my major seemed like nothing but a waste of time and energy...

Fitting In Is Not a One-Size-Fits-All

February 23, 2024
Anna H.

On September 4th, 2003, estimated to be one-day old, I was abandoned at a bus station in a large city inside the People’s Republic of China. Due to the strict One Child Policy, there were no traces of my birth parents or ties to any identity except for a small red envelope filled with dirt and seeds. On the front and back of the envelope were illegible Chinese characters which seemed to be quickly scribbled. After an unknown amount of time in the harsh Chinese summer heat, a young woman found me and brought me to the Xinhua Social Welfare Center. There, they called me Xīn Yǎpíng. For...