2015 Spring Dropouts and Drop-ins
Anthropocene Now: Has the Human Race Created a New Geological Epoch?
There’s no question that humans have drastically altered the environment. But just how drastically? As a member of the Anthropocene Working Group, UC Berkeley paleontologist Anthony D. Barnosky works with an international team of geologists, archaeologists, biologists, and historians to determine whether humans have changed Earth’s geology and atmosphere enough to merit the establishment of […]
In Our Words: How It Feels Being the First in the Family to Make it to College
Unique Challenges: My experiences in pre-med courses weren’t the best during my first few semesters, however with the help of Biology Scholars Program, Undocumented Student Program and Educational Opportunity Program, I’ve slowly overcome and excelled in my courses. Although I felt that my high school background did not prepare me well enough, I’m grateful for […]
Back in the Game: Cal Program Helps Former Student-Athletes Graduate
When Keala Keanaaina came to Cal on a football scholarship in 1998, a career in the NFL was not on his radar. “I wasn’t one of those football guys that dreamed of going to the pros,” says Keanaaina. “I chose Berkeley because of its academic reputation. My goal was to graduate and get my degree.” […]
Oh, the Places You’ll Go: The Benefits of Taking a Gap Year Off Before College
When I graduated from my Midwestern high school, my German parents gave me a ticket for a passage to Europe. The moment I stepped onto that no-frills passenger ship, my maturity got a jump-start. For two weeks, I spent the days with strangers from all over the world. At night, I slept in a small […]
Out of the Gate: Hitchhiking Toward the World Cup
It is night when I set up camp on the beach of La Zona Hotelera in Cancún, away from all the hotels. I’ve just come in from Mérida and am sitting cross-legged in my sleeping bag, listening to the fall of waves about a hundred feet away. From that distance, they sound like measured breaths through the nose. In the morning I’ll see Aashik, my roommate from Berkeley.
Reverse Cycle: Inspired by Leaves, a New Invention Turns Sunlight and Water into Fuel
For the past ten years, Peidong Yang has been trying to make like a tree. Yang, a professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Chemistry, researches artificial photosynthesis, a process that mimics a leaf’s ability to convert sun, water, and carbon dioxide into fuel. But in his case, the fuel isn’t glucose—it’s gasoline. Last winter, Yang […]
Life Lessons from Cal Students Who Took 1-Year, 2-Year, Even 38-Year Breaks from College
Name: Brendan Shih-Chi LiuAge: 24Major/Minor: MusicClass: 2012Gap: 8 monthsWhen: June 2008-January 2009Why did you leave? A couple of months before finishing high school I was informed that I wasn’t going to have any financial support once I turned 18, so I worked for eight months after graduating from high school to save up enough money […]
Many Enroll, Few Finish, Moocs March On: How Online Courses Are Changing Higher Ed
When Damilare Oladapo looks back at his undergraduate years at UC Berkeley, he says that when it comes to his education, he only made one mistake. “I really wanted to focus on graduating,” says the Nigerian-born English major. “I saw school as a short-distance race instead of a marathon.” Oladapo still loves literature and considers […]
The Struggle to Be First: First-Gen Students May Be Torn Between College and Home
Currently, 17 percent of Berkeley undergrads are first-generation—a group that struggles to cope with the transition to college. When Gabriela Ledezma was accepted at UC Berkeley as a transfer student from Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier a few years ago, she was delighted. Her family, not so much. “My mom said, why don’t you […]
Myth of the Dropout: “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” Never Really Described Berkeley Ethos
Timothy Leary’s dead, but his legend lives on—albeit on life support. The acid guru died at his home in Beverly Hills in 1996 at age 75. By then he was no longer the Pied Piper he’d once been, the public figure whose most popular slogan, “Turn on, tune in, drop out,” made him the bogeyman […]
The Ballad of John and Helen: Berkeley-Based Meyer Sound Are Global Audio Pioneers
Drop out. It’s such a leaden term. Yes, yes, Helen Brodsky dropped out of UC Berkeley in 1968, dashing the hopes and dreams of her Cal alumni-laden family. Before even declaring a major (she was leaning toward Russian Lit), she and her new boyfriend, John Meyer, an autodidact with a gift for tinkering and engineering, […]
From London to Lynch: Take Our Gallery Tour Through the Berkeley Dropout Hall of Fame
OK, we know it’s unusual for an alumni magazine to acknowledge, let alone celebrate, its dropouts. Berkeley is different. And that uniqueness is part of what draws people here—not just students and professors, but folks of all walks, many of whom are distinguished in their fields or famous for their exploits. Here in this ad […]
From Ishi to Hillary: Take Our Gallery Tour Through the Berkeley Drop-in Hall of Fame
In countless ways, Berkeley is undeniably different. And that uniqueness is part of what draws people here—not just students and professors, but folks of all walks, many of whom are distinguished in their fields or famous for their exploits. The Spring issue of California magazine celebrates both Berkeley’s dropouts and its drop-ins with two ad […]
Learning to Listen: Why Better Health Care May Start with a Simple “How Are You?”
After her second above-the-knee amputation, Ms. G., a 56-year-old woman with diabetes mellitus, started refusing her dialysis and wouldn’t tell the medical team why. Jodi Halpern, hen just a trainee on the psychiatric service, was sent to investigate. On entering the hospital room, Halpern recalls finding the woman in agonizing pain. When Halpern sat down […]
Natural by Design: Next-Gen Robots Run, Flap, Crawl—and Talk to Each Other
Imagine a city in the near future devastated by a powerful earthquake. Rescue workers arrive and unleash hundreds of tiny robots. Some of these robots flap into the air with “wings,” sending images of the disaster area to the ground team—a swarm of insect-like devices the size of a matchbox that scuttle over the concrete […]
Researching Discontent: Here’s Why a Regime May Need—and Secretly Want—Protests
“Do you really want to have secret informants in every single village?” It’s a question Peter L. Lorentzen has pondered quite a bit. After all, he’s an expert in uncovering discontent among the masses within authoritarian regimes. Secret informants, he asserts, are expensive and not always accurate. So the world’s dictators are likely using other […]
Killing It in Berkeley: Richard Pryor Crushed His ‘Cosby’ to Become Comedy’s Top Badass
Richard Pryor was snoozing, draped across the back seat of a car driven by an erudite, bespectacled white man named Alan Farley. It was February of 1971 and Pryor was fleeing Los Angeles, trailing personal and professional casualties: three children with three different women, a few high-profile onstage breakdowns, two parents recently deceased, a flop […]
Silicon Valley’s Merry Prankster Put His Degree on Hold and Reshaped the World
The recipients of the Cal Alumni Association’s Alum of the Year Award are an impressive group, to say the least. The list includes decorated military officers, Supreme Court justices, Nobel laureates, leading industrialists, and renowned authors. None, as far as we know, ever dropped out of the University. That has now changed with the addition […]
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