Casual Astronaut

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Director’s Chair

A Letter from the Executive Director | Spring 2020

Dear Cal family, We know that the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a tremendous impact on the personal lives of all those in our global Cal community. Your ongoing connection and collective support is invaluable as we face challenges together during this time of uneasiness and unpredictability. We must demonstrate our commitment to uplift all […]

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Career

Life After Sports: A Conversation with Dusty Baker

Dusty Baker is one of the greatest baseball managers in the Major Leagues. A California native, Baker was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 1967, and over the course of his All-Star career played for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, and Oakland Athletics. In 1993 he began his managerial career with […]

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Director’s Chair

Director’s Chair: Spring 2020

At UC Berkeley’s winter 2020 commencement, I celebrated Maria Smith ’20, who I had the privilege of meeting and mentoring when she worked as a student assistant for the Cal Alumni Association’s Alumni Scholars Program.

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News

Share a Memory from Berkeley

We have many kindred memories of Cal, such as lounging on Memorial Glade with friends or eating Top Dog. We each have experiences from Berkeley that are just ours. Whether you once ran to class in your slippers to make it to a final on time, or met your college sweetheart handing out flyers on […]

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News

Dr. Marvin Poston ’39: UC Berkeley’s First Black Optometrist

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.” When Poston’s father, Paul Walker Poston, developed heart […]

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News

Cris Gomez ’15: Veteran Continues to Serve at Cal

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. Cris grew up in Hayward, […]

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News

The Cal Alumni Association Transfers Ownership of Pinecrest Chalet to 2014 Matthew Trust

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. Pinecrest Chalet is located in Pinecrest, California, in the Stanislaus National Forest. The town of Pinecrest is […]

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Scholars

Access to Opportunities

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 […]

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News

Remembering Shirley Conner ’48, Cal Alumni Association President 1981–1983

We are saddened to announce that Shirley Conner ’48, a changemaker and leader in the Cal community, passed away on October 4, 2019. Conner’s loss is felt deeply by all those who were lucky enough to cross paths with her, as she touched the lives of countless Golden Bears throughout her service to UC Berkeley. […]

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Scholars

Bridging the Gap Between Home and Cal

As an introvert on a campus as large as Berkeley’s, Itzel worried about finding community—until she connected with her peers through TAAP. When the senior students welcomed her, Itzel thought, “This is a real community, and they’re here for me.”