Students

Seeing the Other Side

January 23, 2026
Daniela X. Sandoval, M.J. ’26

United we stand. United, we are not.

As tensions have flared over events ranging from the 2020 murder of George Floyd to the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, our nation’s divisions seem to grow more and more stark. Against that backdrop, Berkeley’s new course “Openness to Opposing Views” aims to foster dialogue across ideological divides.

The asynchronous, self-paced course launched in the summer with just 50 enrollees. Since then, it has grown to roughly 700 students, with thousands more Cal faculty, staff, and alumni taking advantage of the free, non-...

https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/2025-fall-winter/seeing-the-othe…

Economics and cognitive science student discusses AI startup to solve global blackouts with UC Regents

January 20, 2026
By Jessica Ballardo

For millions of people, reliable electricity is not a guarantee. In many communities powered by solar mini-grids, evening demand surges routinely trigger blackouts, pushing operators to fall back on costly, polluting diesel generators.

Evardi Energy, a startup co-founded by economics and cognitive science student Diva Bhartesh Shah, aims to transform this broken system into one with reliable power that is resistant to blackouts. Their solution involves using AI to predict demand surges before they occur, allowing operators to adjust usage as needed.

Shah co-founded Evardi in...

From ‘too much’ to just right: How one student found a home at Berkeley

January 7, 2026
Yesenia Ochoa

Growing up in Sonoma, California, Victoria Hernandez Padilla always felt like she was too much. Too curious, too loud, too bold. She was always asking questions. As a toddler before she’d learned English, she’d spend hours arranging bright magnetic letters on the fridge, asking her mom again and again if it spelled a word.

In school, her classmates would whisper about her, saying she talked too much. She felt she couldn’t ask questions, otherwise she’d be cast into the “loud Latina” stereotype. But Victoria wanted answers and would push until she got them.

“I never felt...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/01/06/from-too-much-to-just-right-how-one-student…

For 20 years, this UC Berkeley program has helped students who've been in foster care succeed

December 17, 2025
Lila Thulin

Tristan Lombard’s first interaction with what was then known as the Cal Independent Scholars Network was to call the Better Business Bureau and report a scam.

It was 2006, and Lombard’s pre-college years had looked different than most of his peers: He’d attended four different high schools, sold drugs, had brushes with law enforcement and experienced periods of homelessness. So, as what he terms a “very bitter 17-year-old,” he saw an invitation to create a wish list for move-in day dorm products and assumed it was a con.

It wasn’t. Rather, it was part of a fledgling program...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/16/for-20-years-this-uc-berkeley-program-has-h…

Not everyone reads the room the same. A new UC Berkeley study examines why.

December 16, 2025
By Jason Pohl

Are you a social savant who easily reads people’s emotions? Or are you someone who leaves an interaction with an unclear understanding of another person’s emotional state?

New UC Berkeley research suggests those differences stem from a fundamental way our brains compute facial and contextual details, potentially explaining why some people are better at reading the room than others — sometimes, much better.

Human brains use information from faces and background context, such as the location or expressions of bystanders, when making sense of a scene and assessing someone’...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/16/not-everyone-reads-the-room-the-same-a-new-…

Should homelessness interventions target housing or mental health treatment?

December 2, 2025
by Sydney Costantini

The debate over homelessness solutions has raged for decades: Should policy prioritize housing or mental health treatment? New research tracking nearly 300,000 veterans for three years provides compelling answers—just as the federal government prepares to change course.

The number of unhoused individuals in the U.S. reached a record high of 770,000 at the end of 2024 (Porter 2024). Homelessness policy remains a source of vehement partisan debate. Some argue that homelessness is, in fact, a housing problem, with permanent housing solutions required to help those most in need...

https://econ.berkeley.edu/stories-interviews/should-homelessness-interventions-t…

Seeing Differently: Kelly Chuang on Vision, Speculation, and Unreliable Narrators

December 1, 2025
Lucille Lorenz, Arts & Humanities writer-in-residence

Kelly Chuang is a third-year English and Rhetoric double major and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. She has a strong interest in speculative fiction, the uncanny, and narratology, and she jokes that she can connect almost anything she reads back to cyborgs, Carl Sagan’s Contact, or sci-fi.

Kelly chose English because of her long-standing love of literature and the teachers who encouraged it. She added Rhetoric after discovering how much she enjoyed the department’s interdisciplinary approach and the energy of its faculty.

Firstly, I would love to hear you introduce...
https://artshumanities.berkeley.edu/news/seeing-differently-kelly-chuang-vision-…

For 50 years, she recorded her Pomo language. Her voice is helping this student reclaim his culture.

November 16, 2025
Anne Brice, Jason Pohl

Tyler Lee-Wynant grew up hearing stories about his great-great aunt, Edna Campbell Guerrero. Born in 1907 in Mendocino County, she was a native speaker of Northern Pomo, one of seven languages spoken by the Pomo people who are Indigenous to Northern California.

“She was a no-nonsense person,” says Lee-Wynant, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student in linguistics. “She was an amazing individual. She cared so deeply about passing on what she knew.”

For more than 50 years, Guerrero worked with Berkeley linguists to document her language and culture. These recordings are part of the campus...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/06/berkeley-voices-s2e1-california-language-ar…

"Put Yourself Out There": Brandon '18 on Finding Your Career and Community at UC Berkeley

October 29, 2025
L&S Alum Spotlight:
Brandon Weiss '18 (he/him) Major: Integrative Biology: Ecology, Evolution & Organismal Biology

"College is just as much about figuring out who you are as a person as it is learning in the classroom," shares Brandon Weiss '18. From discovering a passion for veterinary medicine in the Pre-Vet Club at Berkeley, to meeting and proposing to his fiancé on campus, and now thriving in a meaningful career in emergency and critical care medicine for animals, Brandon has built a life full of joyful community and enduring connections.

UC Berkeley and East Bay Consortium Host College Information Day for Future Scholars

November 3, 2025

On Saturday, October 25, 2025, UC Berkeley partnered with the East Bay Consortium to host College Information Day, an annual on-campus recruitment event. This year, prospective middle school, high-school, and transfer students travelled to UC Berkeley for a day of exploration and guidance. Despite the rainy weather, the event’s energy remained high as students connected with representatives from Berkeley, other UC campuses, the California State Universities system and other universities.

Staff and students from the College of Letters &...