The Cal Alumni Association (CAA) thanks all the alumni and professionals that attended this year’s Alumni-Student Mixer at Golden Bear Orientation. Approximately 150 alumni from a variety of industries and backgrounds welcomed new transfer students to Cal on Memorial Glade. Because of these volunteers, nearly 1,000 students received a warm welcome to campus, and were ready to start their first semester at UC Berkeley with clarity about the paths alumni took to get where they are now.
This year, first-generation students made up nearly 25 percent of the incoming transfer class. The 2019-2020 transfer class also includes several hundred student parents and veterans. Among the attendees were an alumna volunteer and her incoming transfer student daughter. Other alumni volunteers attended the first Alumni-Student Mixer in 2017 as transfer students, and now participated as new graduates.
The Alumni-Student Mixer provides many incoming transfer students their first opportunity to explore career paths in a variety of industries by networking with alumni. Alumni organize into industry-specific tents, where students can identify connections in their areas of interest. Industries represented included engineering, business, education, law, health and medicine, and public policy.
A pre-event reception gave alumni opportunities to network with fellow alums in their industries. Alumni in all career stages attended—from retirees to mid-career and even Class of 2019 graduates!
For this event, CAA’s The Berkeley Network career-development program partnered with several campus departments, including the Career Center, Transfer Student Center, and New Student Services. This year, the Cal Alumni Student Association also tabled to share resources and recruit new students to join their organization.
