Life was turning around for Dean Tanioka in 2016 — or so he thought.
As an incoming transfer student at UC Berkeley, he looked forward to jumpstarting his academic life, which had sputtered over two years at an out-of-state private college. Returning to California was something of a homecoming for the former Los Angeles local. Stepping onto Sproul Plaza for the first time, surrounded by people who were changing the world, felt like a dream come true.
But stress soon followed. In an era before new housing was available for transfer students, Tanioka couchsurfed with a family friend while scrolling Facebook ads for a place of his own. Then came the feeling of playing catch-up with brilliant peers who seemed to handle heavy course loads with ease, well-versed in the ins and outs of networking with strangers and competing for professional opportunities. He likened it to “a pressure cooker.”
“I felt overwhelmed and kind of lost, literally and figuratively,” Tanioka said. “I kind of felt like I was missing something, like I was a step behind everyone else.”