Cal Alumni Association - UC Berkeley

✊🏾 This Juneteenth, Alumni House becomes a gathering place for history, reflection, and community.

On June 19, the Cal Alumni Association invites you to an evening that honors the ongoing legacy of freedom, starting with a screening of Epicenter: The Struggle for Black Studies in the Bay Area, a documentary tracing the movement that transformed higher education in the Bay Area and beyond. Filmmakers Brian Spencer and Doug Harris join Professor Ula Taylor, one of Berkeley's foremost scholars of Black women's history, for a panel discussion following the film.

The evening begins with wines from Brown Estate and Okapi Winery, two Cal alumni-owned, Black-owned wineries, and catering from Rob Ben's Restaurant, founded by Cal's own Marshawn Lynch. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Program begins at 5:15 p.m.

Presented in partnership with UC Berkeley African American Studies, the Cal Black Alumni Association, the UC Berkeley Black Staff and Faculty Organization, University Development and Alumni Relations, and HBCU-Berkeley Environmental Scholars for Change.

🗓️ Friday, June 19 | 4:30–8 p.m.
📍 Alumni House, UC Berkeley
🎟️ Register now: https://bit.ly/4x8RdQ9

🎓 Apply for The Leadership Award — now open!

The Cal Alumni Association supports incoming Berkeley students who lead with purpose. Incoming students may receive up to $11,600, plus holistic student success programming.

Eligibility:
• Open to all in-state & out-of-state incoming first-year or junior transfer students
• Are Pell Grant eligible
• Have SIR'd to UC Berkeley

📅 Deadline: June 7, 2026
🔗 Apply here: https://calalumni.awardspring.com/ — don't wait!

📧 [email protected]

Cal alums, this one’s for you: Oski’s California Gold, the Official Craft Beer of Cal with Bear Republic.

Crisp, refreshing, and brewed with Cal pride.

Now pouring all season long—and in tall cans. Grab yours at the games and rep Cal the right way.

Not at the game? Find it across the Bay Area and on campus.
https://bit.ly/oskigoldenale



This post has been sponsored by our partner, Bear Republic Brewing Co.

When Wendy Marie Ingram, Ph.D. ’15, stepped to a podium in Japan to accept a public service and advocacy award, she opened with a line that has become the compass for her life's work: "Action is my coping mechanism."

It wasn't an applause line. It was a confession, and a commitment.

What began in the wake of tragedy at Berkeley has become a model for institutional compassion: evidence-based training, peer connection, and cultural change that aims to prevent crisis. Wendy lost classmates at Cal. She asked what to do, and when no one had answers, she decided to find them herself.

As Mental Health Awareness Month comes to a close, we're revisiting her story. Because the work she started in a lecture hall at Berkeley is now reaching academics around the world, and it's far from finished.

🎗️ https://bit.ly/3JcDq72

Attending Cal is a place where you can thrive academically, but mentally, school can be taxing. May is mental health month and as students and alums, it is important to prioritize your mental health, not just in May, but every day.

Here are some of the clubs and resources on campus that aid in helping the mental health of everyone. Even without the campus organizations, you can take a break for your mind by taking a walk around campus, sitting by the creek or just going to the glade and taking in the sun.

In 1992, veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team planted a redwood sapling in Oakland's Roberts Regional Recreation Area. It was Armed Forces Day, and they had gathered, as they did every year, to honor the men from their unit who never made it home. The 442nd was a segregated Japanese American unit from World War II, and the most decorated in American military history.

The sapling has grown into a towering tree. The veterans have kept returning. Except for the year the pandemic canceled everything, and one Cal alum, Brian Shiroyama ’66 decided he couldn't let the ceremony go unobserved. He talked his way into the park, stood beneath that tree alone, and held the vigil himself. No band. No speakers. No scouts to perform military honors. Just a Golden Bear, and a promise kept.

This Memorial Day, his story is the one we want to share.
🎗️ https://bit.ly/4tMSfyq

California Magazine

Robert Merriman was a Berkeley economics Ph.D. student with a classroom full of students and a dissertation to finish. In 1937, he left campus to command American volunteers fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War.

He was wounded, returned to the front, and disappeared in the Ebro Valley on April 2, 1938. His body was never found.

His classmate John Kenneth Galbraith called him "the most popular of my generation of graduate students at Berkeley. Later, he was to show himself the bravest." Ernest Hemingway met him in Madrid and was so moved he partly based the hero of *For Whom the Bell Tolls* on him. Robert Merriman was 28 years old.

This Memorial Day, we're remembering a Golden Bear who gave everything.

🎗️ https://bit.ly/4nEeZio

California Magazine

Through her novels, essays, speaking engagements, and advocacy work, Amy Tan (Ph.D. student ’74–’76) has contributed profoundly to her profession, her community, and the world.

Born in Oakland in 1952 to immigrant parents from China, Tan attended five colleges, including UC Berkeley. She received her B.A. in English and linguistics, and her M.A. in linguistics from San Jose State. She also took courses toward a doctorate in linguistics at Berkeley in the 1970s and later worked in the field of developmental disabilities.

Her debut novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” transformed American literature by bringing Asian American narratives to a global readership. That book, along with her other works, gave voice to millions who had rarely seen their own histories reflected in mainstream culture.

Beyond literature, Tan has served as an outspoken advocate for literacy programs, youth writing education, mental health awareness, bird and environmental conservation, and Lyme disease research. In addition, she has supported emerging writers through mentorship, lectures, and participation in literary festivals worldwide.

Last year, The Bancroft Library became home to her archives, providing the university with an extraordinary record of her career and personal life.

Tan is this year’s recipient of the Alum of the Year Award, which honors a prominent alum who exemplifies the very best of Berkeley. The award will be presented at this year’s Berkeley Charter Gala.