To promote deeper learning and fairer outcomes, many education systems have moved away from traditional in-class exams toward lower-stakes, more flexible forms of assessment. Yet despite the growing popularity of this shift, we still know little about its long-term consequences. What began as a single in-class exam has evolved into a mix of midterms, finals, take-home tests, re-takes, problem sets, and participation-based grading. In some cases, assessments now depend more on whether students complete their work than how well they perform. This trend has extended beyond the classroom: many...
UC Berkeley’s influence traverses the globe, and thanks to the Judith Stronach Travel Seminar, its creative scholars can as well.
This past November, art history professors Zamansele Nsele and Ivy Mills led a group of six graduate students to Senegal for an immersive, nine-day trip to the 2024 Dak'Art Biennale — a major art exhibition that showcases contemporary African art every other year.
Karla de la Cruz’s path to UC Berkeley was neither linear nor easy. For much of her life, she didn’t even think going to college was a possibility for her – let alone walking the stage at the world’s top public university. She was raised by a single mother who worked long hours as a farmworker in rural Northern California, and few students in her community had the support necessary to go to college.
She beat the odds this week by graduating with a degree in sociology after completing the honors thesis program. During her time at Cal, she also...
This I’m a Berkeleyan was written as a first-person narrative compiled from a UC Berkeley News interview with student Daniela Guadalupe Castellanos, who’s graduating this May.
This is my third year at Berkeley, but I’m graduating already. I am from northeast Sacramento, a really small town, Cameron Park, where there’s nothing really there except McDonald’s.
When I first arrived at Berkeley, I was overwhelmed by impostor syndrome. Back home, every passing smile felt like a reminder that I belonged somewhere. But here, I felt invisible. I could walk across campus, and...
There’s a word UC Berkeley comparative literature Ph.D. student Frank Cahill will never forget. He misspelled it as an eighth grader in the second round of the live televised Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.
Porwigle. Yes, you read that correctly. The word was p-...
Nihar Nuthikattu’s initial interest in Section 230 was kindled by following U.S. congressional hearings that included testimony from CEOs at major technology companies. A junior majoring in data science and economics at UC Berkeley, Nuthikattu said he was struck by “the stark asymmetry in technical acumen between lawmakers and digital platforms.”
Since arriving at UC Berkeley from China in the summer of 2021, Yuqi Tian has made an indelible impact on the campus community through her leadership, advocacy and research.
Tian will graduate this semester with three bachelor's degrees in geography, comparative literature and Italian studies. She has also earned a minor in gender and women's studies and a certificate in new media. Overall, Tian has completed 190 units at Cal — often taking 25 units a semester — and will graduate with a 3.991 GPA.
But her brilliance goes far beyond her grades. A wheelchair user herself, Tian...
OURS Student Spotlight: Cathy Kenderski (Fall ’25) | Molecular and Cell Biology 
There’s a word UC Berkeley comparative literature Ph.D. student Frank Cahill will never forget. He misspelled it as an eighth grader in the second round of the live televised Scripps National Spelling Bee finals. 
Nihar Nuthikattu’s initial interest in Section 230 was kindled by following U.S. congressional hearings that included testimony from CEOs at major technology companies. A junior majoring in data science and economics at UC Berkeley, Nuthikattu said he was struck by “the stark asymmetry in technical acumen between lawmakers and digital platforms.”