Celebrating Two New Schwarzman Scholars!

Two Cal students have been named as 2024–2025 Schwarzman Scholars and will be heading to Tsinghua University in Beijing in Fall 2024 to enroll in a fully funded one-year M.A. program in Global Affairs. They will join a highly selective and diverse cohort of 150 students eager to learn about Chinese culture and commerce and its role on the global stage and to develop their leadership skills. Peihang “Marshall” Li (’23, Political Economy) is currently pursuing his MPhil study in Economic and Social History at the University of Cambridge in […]

Celebrating Cal’s First Voyager Scholarship Recipients!

Juniors Drexler Madamba (’25, History/Public Policy) and Jon Sullivan (’25, Sociology) have been selected as Cal’s first recipients of the Voyager Scholarship. This honor – also known as the Obama-Chesky Scholarship for Public Service – was created by Michelle and Barack Obama and Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. The $50,000 scholarship, which is only in its second year, aims to support 100 young leaders to bridge divides and help solve our biggest challenges. The program provides students with financial aid to alleviate the burden of college debt, meaningful travel experiences to […]

Three Cal Bears Selected as Yenching Scholars

We are thrilled to announce that three Cal Bears have been selected to join the 2023-2024 cohort of Yenching Scholars! Camille Chabot (Global Studies, ’23), Edgar Hernandez Gallegos (Asian Studies & Linguistics, ’23), and Ian Wong (Sociology & Economics, ’22) will be heading to Peking University in the fall to begin a fully-funded M.A. in China Studies. Camille was born and raised in France. Her interest in China first developed at age 11 when she started to learn Mandarin and became fascinated by Chinese culture and politics. While attending Berkeley […]

2022-2023 Scholarships Wrap-Up

We would like to wrap up 2022–2023 by congratulating all of the current Cal Bears and recent alums who received nationally competitive scholarships this academic year, as well as those who submitted strong applications for the more than 30 scholarship programs our office supports. This year’s recipients are: Astronaut Scholars – Nitish Dashora (‘24), Cooper Jacobus (’25) Beinecke Scholar – Bryce Wallace (’23) Boren Scholar – Benjamin Davis (’25) Critical Language Scholars – Sara Ahlich (’24), Julian Martinez-Garcia (’23), Clio Smith (’23), Kyle Terrizzi (’23) Goldwater Scholars – Samuel Alber […]

Alumna Freja Ekman (’18) Honored with Soros Fellowship

Freja Ekman (’18, Chemical Biology) has been honored as one of this year’s 30 recipients of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a highly competitive merit award that provides up to $90,000 for two years of graduate study in the U.S. Freja will use her award to continue working toward an MD-PhD in genetics at Stanford, where she is engaged in developing new genome editing tools for the treatment of hematological and rare genetic diseases. Although Freja is finishing up her second year of medicine on The […]

Transfer Student Bryce Wallace Honored with 2023 Beinecke Scholarship

In Fall 2021, Bryce Wallace (’23, English & Linguistics) was still stunned that he had gotten into Cal as a transfer student from Irvine Valley College, when more UC-related honors started pouring in. He has since received the merit-based Sharer and Gilman Scholarships and was granted a College Corps Fellowship for his strong commitment to community service, especially in the areas of literacy and DEI work on campus. He has participated in URAP and was recently named a Haas Scholar. Then, last month, Bryce gained national recognition when he was […]

Five Berkeley Students Receive Critical Language Scholarships for Summer Study

Five Berkeley students have received Critical Language Scholarships thanks to a U.S. State Department program aimed at expanding the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are considered critical to national security and economic prosperity. The scholarship funds overseas summer language and cultural immersion programs for students planning to use their language skills in their future professional careers. This year’s recipients – four undergraduates and one graduate student – will be studying in Kyrgystan (Russian), South Korea (Korean), Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia), Brazil (Portuguese), and Taiwan (Mandarin). Sara Ahlich (’24, […]

Maji Yaje Kwanza (“Water is the first of many things”): A Strauss Scholarship Recipient’s Life-Changing Experiences in Kenya

When Ashley Miller (’15, Interdisciplinary Studies) transferred to UC Berkeley as a junior in Fall 2012, she had two goals in mind: to study abroad (despite the tight timeline) and to go somewhere entirely different than anywhere she had been before. She chose Kenya. With funding from UC Berkeley’s Miller Scholars program, she planned to research the effects of Kenya’s 2003 free primary education policy. Unfortunately, a national teachers’ strike in 2013 made interviewing teachers and families difficult. As a result, she spent more time, on and off campus, befriending […]

2021–2022 Scholarships Wrap-Up

We’d like to wrap up 2021–2022 by congratulating all of the current Cal Bears and recent alums who received nationally competitive scholarships this academic year, as well as those who submitted strong applications for the more than 25 scholarship programs our office supports. This year’s recipients are: Astronaut Scholars – Nitish Dashora (‘24), Arun Johnson (’23) Critical Language Scholars – Amarpreet Kaur (’22), Ransom Miller (’24), Kristie Moore (’25), Maurice Ruttimann (’22), Satyam Sharma (’25) Gates Cambridge Scholar – Anjali Kantharuban (’22) Goldwater Scholar – Mrunali Manjrekar (’23) Knight-Hennessy Scholar […]

2022 Berkeley Grad Named Yenching Scholar

Updated: March 16, 2023 Only a few months after graduating from Cal, Alexandra Feldman (Political Economy, ’22) will be heading to Peking University to start an M.A. program in China Studies as fully funded Yenching Academy Scholar. She will join an interdisciplinary cohort of 120 other students from around the world who are interested in thinking about China – past, present, and future – from both Chinese and international perspectives. Alexandra, a native of Southern California, first visited Beijing during a four-week Chinese language immersion program after her sophomore year in […]