Sarah Juckniess

Ashneel Pratap’s “let there be light” moment

At 15, I realized that my grandmother was completely illiterate, my parents didn’t have a proper education, and that we had slavery in our family. I began to learn about how Indian slavery occurred up until the 1950s and how my own grandmother was in bondage all the way up to this time. I learned about how political strife led to the deaths of thousands of my ancestors. And finally when I was 20, did I realize the impact my ancestral history was having on me this whole time. I felt as though I couldn’t attend a prestigious university like Cal, that maybe I should just work in a labor profession, just like my parents and those before me. All of this changed when a cousin of mine said, “Why don’t you apply to Cal? Why don’t you try for Cal?”

Good News from Berkeley: October 23, 2020

Berkeley remains world's No.1 public university; NFL head coach Ron Rivera ’83 supports Cal softball in a big way; archivists chronicle Disability Rights Movement's rich history.

Becoming a Berkeley Changemaker™

UC Berkeley is introducing Cal alumni and student communities to the groundbreaking, interdisciplinary Berkeley Changemaker™ curriculum. Haas faculty member Diane Dwyer ’87 interviewed Rich Lyons, Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer at UC Berkeley, and current student Noah East ’22 to learn more about the exciting new Berkeley Changemaker program. What is the Berkeley Changemaker? Berkeley […]

Former NFL Running Back C.J. Anderson Returns to Cal as Volunteer Offensive Coach

Cal alum and former pro football running back C.J. Anderson will return to Cal as a volunteer offensive assistant coach for the Golden Bears. A transfer student from Laney College, Anderson played college football at Berkeley from 2011–2012 before beginning what would become a seven-year NFL career.

Good News from Berkeley: October 9, 2020

UC Berkeley adds two Berkeley professors to its lengthy list of Nobel Laureates this week. Professor Jennifer Doudna received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing the win with Emmanuelle Charpentier “for the development of a method for genome editing.” Doudna and Charpentier are the first women to win together in the sciences. | UC Berkeley […]

Who Are You Now? Maria Smith ’19 Asks Us to Look Inward

During the early weeks of the COVID pandemic, many of us hoped the pandemic would quickly pass and we could resume our lives. But Maria Smith ’19 believed this is a time to take stock of things that matter to us. This thought led her to create Who Are We Now?, a series of conversations with Cal alums that challenge us to think about how the pandemic has changed us. The first episode was released in July, and we talked with Smith about the series.

California Magazine Wins Highest Honors in 2020 CASE Circle of Excellence Awards

The Cal Alumni Association (CAA) is proud to announce that California magazine has won highest honors in the 2020 CASE Circle of Excellence Awards. The quarterly publication claimed the Grand Gold for alumni magazines published 4x/year or more. Other winners in the category include the magazines of Dartmouth (Gold), Notre Dame (Silver), and the University […]

A Message from Our Executive Director: Let There Be Light

“Oh Freedom!”—the song you just heard—was what my mother sang with the Freedom Riders. She trained in Philadelphia and traveled to the South to engage in nonviolent resistance alongside Martin Luther King Jr. As an eight-year-old girl, I marched in the March on Washington. So, I speak to you today not only as Cal Alumni Association’s executive director, but also as a wife, mother, sister, aunt, and grandmother who comes from a family involved in the fight for civil rights in the United States of America.

Cal Alumni Coloring Pages

Campanile in Springtime A familiar scene framed by iconic blossoms. Oski’s Party Our sturdy mascot greets you with a hearty “Go Bears!”

How We Can Support Students During the Pandemic

Many concerned alumni have asked what the university is doing to help our students as well as how alumni can get involved. Here's where to start.

LGBTQ+ Living History at Berkeley

In a six-part series, we highlight a few of the moments, movements, and people that made their mark on Cal’s LGBTQ+ history. We move through the decades, beginning in an era of secrecy and continuing through today. The Early Years For much of the 20th century, many people felt they couldn’t admit they were anything […]

Cal Bears, Three Generations Deep

“Kirk is going to Cal,” Thomas Tramble ’71, C.Esing ’72 says, from the moment his son Kirk was born; setting in motion a new legacy of Trambles at Cal.