taap

Everyone Needs a Hand
Kruttschnitt Aspire Scholarship Program (KASP) scholar Pedro Flores, Jr. took the non-traditional route to UC Berkeley. An admittedly disinterested high school student, he hung out with gangs in his South Central LA neighborhood. “I had trouble staying away because my friends were gang members,” Pedro explains, who attributes much of his success to his mom. […]

Making Your Own Berkeley Way
Running and cycling. Both are fitting leisure activities for Phi Beta Kappa Cal graduate Glenn Kelman ’93, who operates at warp speed. Now the busy CEO of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage, Glenn chose Cal because “it was the best public university in the world, my best friend in high school attended, it had […]

Bringing Past and Present Together
The Cal Alumni Association (CAA) named the Bowles Hall Foundation as the recipient of the 2017 Loyal Company Outstanding Volunteer Group Award. The award honors a CAA alumni chapter that has maintained a meaningful relationship to Berkeley while successfully engaging its members through events, programs, and philanthropic opportunities. In 2005, a group of former residents established […]

Cal Alumni of Los Angeles Are on the Move
Cal and Stanford—besties? Yes, according to CAA’s Los Angeles chapter president Gerald Nicdao ’08. “We reached out to Stanford alumni with an invitation to join our Big Game viewing party, and a couple hundred Golden Bears and Cardinal fans got together for the Big Game. We want to broaden and deepen our connection to a […]

KASP Scholar Ups Her Cal Game
Accepted to all twelve colleges where she applied, including UC San Diego and Loyola Marymount, Frida Hernandez always had Cal in her sights. “I was used to being first in my class,” she says. “At Cal, everyone is, and some of my lectures are bigger than my entire graduating class. It means I’ve had to […]

Former Leadership Award Scholar Gives Back
Steve Sulack ’03, M.S. ’05 isn’t new to leadership. As an undergraduate, he was an outstanding Leadership Award scholar and treasurer of the Pi Tau Sigma Mechanical Engineering Honors Society. Now, he gives back to the community that supported him as a young student through the Sulack Family Leadership Scholarship he established with the Cal […]

Cal Corporate Committee Keeps Alumni Connected at Work
Wells Fargo Cal Corporate Alumni Committee Chair Richard Zhu ’09, a graduate of the Haas School of Business and a classical pianist, believes in building community. “We know there are at least 400 Cal alumni working at Wells Fargo and we want them all to join us.” Richard and others encourage new Cal alumni hired at […]

TAAP Scholar Dreams Big and Achieves
Born and raised in Oxnard, California, an agricultural community of Hispanic and Filipino immigrants, Cesar Arroyo ’17 did not encounter the idea of a university education in his childhood. Yet, he never doubted his intent to go to college, and his sister helped pave the way. “She helped me to realize the possibility, and my […]

Cal for Life
Former Leadership Award Scholar Greg Haack ’99 recalls the first time an alumnus took him under his wing. “He really took care of me and advised me to never wear red at Berkeley,” explains Greg, who attended The Leadership Award Recognition Luncheon as a freshman at Cal. This long-standing CAA event illuminated for Greg the […]

A Letter from the Executive Director | Winter 2016
Dear Alumni and Friends, A new year marks new beginnings for me as Executive Director of the Cal Alumni Association (CAA), and exciting opportunities for Cal students, our ever-loyal Cal alumni and friends, and the University. I am delighted and honored to lead CAA into a future bright with change, challenge, and possibility. I attended Cal as […]

Apples for Students
“My biggest fear in coming to Cal was the fear of failure,” says CAA Alumni Scholar Wasseem Syriani ’19, a student in the new CAA Scholar Success Seminar enabled by iPad tablets and Apple software. “This class gave me confidence and the ability to believe more in myself.” Developed in partnership with Berkeley’s Centers for […]

CAA Alumni Scholars are Leading the Way
Born in Grass Valley and raised in Auburn, in the heart of California’s Gold Country, Isabel is one of three siblings who studied within the UC system. Her sister is a junior at Cal, while her brother studied engineering at UC Davis. College was always part of Isabel’s life plan, but Berkeley seemed a distant […]