We know that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a tremendous impact on our personal lives and on the well-being of our families and loved ones. Today, I am reaching out to you, our Cal alumni community, to encourage our ongoing connection during this time of uneasiness and unpredictability. Our collective support is invaluable as we move forward and face the challenges together.
Posted on March 16, 2020 - 4:30pm
In response to the continued evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cal Alumni Association (CAA) is taking steps to help protect the health of our UC Berkeley community. While our offices remain open, many of our upcoming alumni and chapter events are cancelled or postponed.
Posted on March 16, 2020 - 10:24am
Posted on March 1, 2020 - 3:00pm
Growing up in Canada, Dr. Marvin Poston ’39 says he did not experience much racial discrimination. In his words, “There weren’t many blacks, very few. That may have been one of the reasons why they didn’t have a lot of discrimination, because there were so few blacks.”
Posted on February 27, 2020 - 8:00am
In the early 20th century, Berkeley Law was considered a leader in legal education for women, as the school has admitted female students since its inception in 1894. However, the barriers women faced persisted, decades after the law school’s founding. Well into the 1960s, each Berkeley Law class included about only one or two women.
Posted on February 21, 2020 - 8:00am
Cris Gomez ’15 never considered going to UC Berkeley a dream of his. Attending Cal just seemed out of reach to him—until he connected with people who showed him that Cal provided resources for non-traditional students, and that a bustling community of people from all walks of life awaited him.
Posted on January 3, 2020 - 11:17am
Earlier this fall, I traveled to Mississippi to support our Cal football team members, some of whom are from the South, at their game against Ole Miss.
Posted on December 16, 2019 - 8:00am
Effective December 2, 2019, the Cal Alumni Association’s Pinecrest Chalet will operate under new ownership. The Chalet will continue to operate as a year-round mountain resort. All current bookings and reservations will be honored under the new proprietorship.
Posted on December 2, 2019 - 10:00am
Four years before Omotara Oloye ’21 was born, her parents immigrated from Nigeria to the United States. “They moved in hopes that they could give their children a better life,” Omotara says. “My parents knew that in order for their children to have a better life, for their children’s children to have a better life, going to college would level the playing field.”
Posted on December 2, 2019 - 8:00am
On Tuesday, November 19, the Cal Alumni Association’s Berkeley Network program invited alumni and students to Alumni House for an evening of networking, discussion, and empowerment at Striving to Thrive: The Resilience of the Sisterhood. This event, part of The Berkeley Network’s Alumnae Career Advancement Series, aims to provide a space for Cal women to pursue professional development, discuss career advancement, and build meaningful relationships.
Posted on November 27, 2019 - 10:00am
Aaliyah Karunaratne ’21 got her first taste of Berkeley when she was a high school student in Pittsburg, California. Her school’s cross country team often ran through the UC Berkeley campus for practice, and Aaliyah fell in love with the city.
Neither of Aaliyah’s parents attended college. “There weren’t expectations put on me to go to college,” she recalls. While her aunts invested time taking her on college tours and campus visits, Aaliyah recalls that the pressure on her to attend college was predominantly self-made.
Posted on November 25, 2019 - 8:00am
By her own standards, Alishba Sardar ’23 isn’t from the most typical Pakistani family. Born in Pakistan as the youngest of six daughters, Alishba remembers her parents impressing upon her the importance of college from a very young age. “My parents wanted all of their daughters to go to college,” Alishba says. “It was expectation for us to go.”
Posted on November 18, 2019 - 8:00am
On Sunday, October 6, the Cal Alumni Association Chinese Chapter partnered with the Berkeley Chinese Alumni International Association (BCAIA) and other UC Berkeley alumni and student organizations to co-host the Berkeley China Summit. The Berkeley China Summit 伯克利中美峰会 (“BCS”) is an annual all-day conference held on the Cal campus to build relationships between business leaders and investors in China and the Bay Area and encourage innovation in technology, engineering, and business.
Posted on November 15, 2019 - 8:00am
The TAAP program circa 2019 is remarkably similar to the program as initially envisioned.
Posted on November 11, 2019 - 8:00am
Growing up in Los Angeles, Xavier Serrato ’04 knew that going to college might be a long shot. He was raised by his mom, who emigrated from Mexico and cleaned houses to support Xavier and his two sisters. Beginning at age 14, Xavier worked to help put food on the table for his family.
Xavier was an excellent student, but the cost of a college education was daunting. “College seemed impossible,” says Serrato, who is now the founder of two tech companies. “The question was always on my mind—how am I going to pay for college?”
Posted on November 4, 2019 - 8:00am
