Tell us about yourself.
I’m from Oakland, CA, and I proudly embrace many identities, including being African American, a nontraditional college student, a Fung Fellow, a member of Stiles Hall, a RepresentEd Leadership fellow, and a transfer student. I’m also a recent graduate of UC Berkeley, Class of 2023, where I earned my degree in American Studies with a focus on Product Management and Design.
Can you describe a moment when you felt a sense of belonging on campus?
Stiles Hall and the Fung Fellowship are both programs that contributed to my sense of belonging. Stiles Hall is a program that focuses on helping BIPOC students feel a sense of belonging. They help out all students, but especially older transfer students. They provide a space where there are other transfer students, students with lived experiences, and understand the importance of their presence at UC Berkeley. Stiles Hall gave me a community of people who understood me while also providing me with resources like how to get financial aid, ask for letters of recommendation, and how to get internships. They showed me the hidden curriculum of UC Berkeley that is as impactful to your success as academics.
I would also say the Fung Fellowship was also critical and instrumental. Beyond just teaching me what it is to be a good designer and design researcher, they also gave me a community that was more specific to the field I am pursuing. They are really about promoting diversity, inclusion, innovation, open learning environment and really created a space that I was able to thrive in. I was able to get work opportunities, internships, and felt so inspired that I did my honors thesis on the Fung Fellowship.
These two main programs fed my soul.
Berkeley is a large campus that can be challenging to navigate. Can you share a particular experience or resource that has significantly contributed to your ability to find your way around the university community?
The biggest challenge that I faced is that I am a transfer student, older student, and am also pursuing a career in the design field. These identities added a particular complexity to my time at UC Berkeley. When I got to UC Berkeley I was 28. I was not the average 18 year old person, I did not know much about the design industry, and I did not know a lot about how universities work. I did not know how to advocate for myself, how to receive funding, and had limited knowledge about financial aid. Through Stiles Hall, I was a part of another program called NAVCAL. This program helps you secure financial aid, learn how to talk to professors, get letters of recommendation, secure housing, and navigate your SHIP health benefits. It really helps you get to know everything that students need to survive. For me, the academics were not the most difficult part, instead it was understanding the things that are outside of academics known as the hidden curriculum. Stiles Hall and NAVCAL particularly helped me with that. They helped me find resources and community. In addition to that, the Fung Fellowship helped me thrive as a designer. Design Thinking is a niche craft and through this fellowship I was able to get practical experience. I was able to get my name out there and really helped with my professional development. I entered the program as a person who wanted to do design and I left as a design researcher.
What does "thriving" mean to you personally, and how have you experienced this during your time at UC Berkeley? What could support your thriving even more?
Thriving means whatever goal that you set out to achieve, you're moving closer and closer to achieving that goal or in some cases you actually achieve said goal and start setting new goals. Thriving is a personal and intentional thing as it is a personal journey that you set out to accomplish. At UC Berkeley, my thriving experience was an evolving thing. I never believed that I could get into UC Berkeley as I was denied admission in 2018 and upon applying a second time in 2019 I was accepted. I was happy to be at UC Berkeley but it was not until I met a lot of mentors, places like Stiles Hall and the Fung Fellowship where my interests were constantly developing as I learned more and I kept moving forward. I think I was able to thrive at Berkeley by just setting out goals and finding people and community that helped me achieve those goals.
What advice would you give to new members of our campus community to help them realize their hopes / dreams / thrive on campus?
Join NAVCAL. So much of the advice that I can give has already been packaged and standardized by NAVCAL. They leave no stone unturned as it pertains to understanding what your needs are and what you need out of UC Berkeley. They take you through everything you need to know about financial aid, how to navigate SHIP benefits, advocating for yourself as a student and person, how to attain letters of recommendation and much more. They teach you the science of success at UC Berkeley. I constantly advise students to sign up for NAVCAL because the program continues to do amazing things. It is vital for every student, especially transfer students, to sign up for NAVCAL. NAVCAL will make you a successful student.
What is next on the horizon for you?
I will be returning to UC Berkeley as a Masters of Information Management Systems (MIMS) student. Particularly, I want to connect and enhance the bridges between the programs that made me successful at UC Berkeley. I want to connect programs such as NAVCAL, Stiles Hall, and the Fung Fellowship because of their overlapping intersections. I want to be a person that shepherds their connection as I am someone that has been a part of the programs and loves them all. I want to offer support because I can clearly see the value of these spaces and want to work more on the pipeline to connect them as a grad student.
