Students arrived on campus at Berkeley eager to begin an exciting two-week pre-college experience. We started the program off with an orientation and some teambuilding and ice-breaker games to get to know one another. We were delighted to see the students connecting so quickly and excited to discover what the students will learn in the next days!

During the mornings we broke out into small groups based on the student’s Academic Tracks. During this time the students got a chance dive deep into the subject area of choice with engaging professors and professional experts.

Medicine & Public Health and Psychology track students engaged with volunteer staff from the Suitcase Clinic, a humanitarian organization offering free health and social services to the underserved in Berkeley. Communications students met with UC Berkeley social media directors and learned how the university communicates online with the public. We also had the director of admissions from Haas, UC Berkeley’s leading business school, share about her experiences and about pursuing an MBA and a career in business.

Law & Government students engaged with officials from the city and federal levels, including an Assistant US Attorney, a Deputy District Attorney for San Francisco, and Katy Tang, Board of Supervisors Member for San Francisco’s fourth district. Our Technology students heard from a Mulesoft director about career strategy and how the company uses its technology to help global businesses connect to data and devices.

Afternoons consisted of either a “The True You” session or a guest speaker together as a group. These are a series of insightful seminars that allow teens to look inward and discover their unique definition of success and give them the tools to achieve it and big ideas that are practical, impactful, and easy to apply to everyday life.

Speakers included Elizabeth Weingarten, associate director of the Global Gender Parity Initiative at New America Foundation, a public policy think tank. Nick Corman, an entrepreneur and former Google executive also met with students and discussed insight from his time as a student at Harvard and career in Silicon Valley. The students were engaged with their peers and prompted questions for the experts that led to some insightful and intriguing conversations!

On the weekend we explored the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, volunteered at the Oakland Zoo and even took a San Francisco city tour on a restored cable car!

Every night we planned fun activities for our students. Some of the highlights included trivia night, arts & crafts, karaoke and an ice cream social! Happy, healthy and making friends from around the world at Berkeley. These fun times with students and staff made for an unforgettable summer!

The program wrapped up with student presentations. Each group presented what they learned about their potential majors and academic areas of interest.

Medicine & Public Health students developed an in-depth presentation on the topic of vaccinations. Technology students developed and presented their own mobile applications. Law and Government students had a mock trial with the students serving as the jury. Communications students presented news articles they had written and held a press conference with live Q&A. The Psychology students presented in depth analysis of some of the most famous historical experiments. And our Business and Entrepreneurship students presented their own business models, complete with financials and market research for potential investors.  

Pictures, hugs, smiles, and some tears happened as goodbyes were being said. We were thrilled to see the strong friendships that were made among the students and excited to see what the future holds and to be able to continue in sharing their future successes!

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