Undergraduate Studies

Xanthia Lam, a senior student in the cognitive science program at UC Berkeley, was unsure of how she would afford some basic supplies for the coming semester. The Oakland-born daughter of two immigrant parents who have experienced homelessness, Lam had been thankful to receive some financial support throughout her undergraduate education, but even that support did not completely cover costs of living in the Bay Area.

“Even though the Cal Grant and the Pell Grant covered my tuition, it was not enough to cover basic needs like housing and food,” she said. “That’s why I was so grateful...

I’m a Southern California Native, born and raised in Huntington Park, a city with a Latinx population of over 95%. In 2013, I applied to work at UC Berkeley because my husband wanted to be closer to his younger brother, who doubles as his best friend. What better place to start a new adventure for our little family of three and to grow my career than at the top public university in the world, right?

Service, representation, and the draw of being in an...

Halfway through Anjika Pai’s junior year of high school, Donald Trump began his U.S. presidency. As one of the few Indian Americans in the pastoral community of Jamison, Pennsylvania, Pai braced herself for an onslaught of xenophobia.

“People’s bigotry around that time was out on full display, and there was nothing I could do to make them like me because of the way I look, as a brown person,” she recalls.

“At the same time, it was weirdly freeing, because I felt like, ‘I don’t need to try and please people who are never going to like me,’” Pai adds. “’I’m just going to do...