Through a crowdfunding campaign, six Cal Alumni Association (CAA) alumni chapters raised $16,056 for the Golden Bear Express, a program that covers transportation from Southern California to Berkeley on Move-In Day for low-income students.
Since 2014, UC Berkeley’s New Student Services (NSS) has paid for buses to bring Educational Opportunity Program—first-generation, low-income, underrepresented—students from Southern California up to campus in time for the fall semester. In 2017, CAA partnered with NSS to help finance these buses.
This year, alumni chapters from San Diego, Orange County, Long Beach, South Bay, Los Angeles, and San Gabriel Valley tapped into their networks to raise enough money to send 147 students by plane to campus for Move-In Day on August 13. The funds will fully cover the students’ travel expenses, including plane tickets, shuttle fees, luggage overages, and refreshments along the way.
While the active fundraising has ended for this year’s Golden Bear Express, Cal students, alumni, friends, and family can still get involved by helping send off new students from five different airports in Southern California, welcoming students at the Oakland airport, or even helping students move into residence halls on campus. Moving into the residence halls is one of the most exciting and memorable times of a student’s life. In addition to unloading and transporting suitcases and boxes up to students’ dorm rooms, volunteers can help new students navigate the process of checking in to their respective housing buildings.
In addition to sending students to campus, CAA is also participating in several other events to welcome incoming students to campus during Golden Bear Orientation, including:
- Big Night, an evening-long gathering with food, games, and movies at Alumni House
- Transfer Tours, campus tours for transfer students to get their bearings around campus
- First Year Student Resource Fair, a tabling event where freshmen can become acquainted with on-campus services
- Alumni–Student Mixer, a casual event on Memorial Glade for transfer students to network with Cal alumni
- Welcome Wednesdays, a pop-up breakfast café at Alumni House where students can chat with CAA staff and pick up breakfast on their way to class
CAA is grateful to all of the generous donors who made our Golden Bear Express Crowdfunding campaign a success this year and encourages alumni to remain involved as the fall 2018 semester begins. Alumni can still volunteer to network with transfer students at the Alumni–Student Mixer on August 19. To hear about future volunteer opportunities, subscribe to our volunteer newsletter.
