Welcome to CalSO Postscript
This newsletter features stories for and by Berkeley undergraduates. If you've attended CalSO, you've already learned a bit about the campus. Postscript hopes to expand your knowledge about some of the opportunities and advantages available to you.

Postscript Fall 2006 Stories
Welcome to Cal! | Peer Education: GenEq Resource Center | I "heart" consent | Writer's block: a Berkeley tutor's experience | Campus Politics: the ASUC and me | Community Service: Hurricane Katrina

Postscript Fall 2005 Stories
Dear incoming freshmen | Diversity in Berkeley | Drinking 101 | Research: Expand your undergraduate experience | Paris, France: Fall 2003

Anthony and a BRRC officer catching up in the Black Recruitment and Retention Center Eshleman Hall office. Photo by Jenne Mowry.

More about community service at Cal
Anthony learned about his service opportunity through the Black Recruitment and Retention Center, one of the student groups sponsored by the Berkeley’s Cal Corps Public Service Center. The New Orleans service trip that Anthony participated in is called an alternative break. Berkeley’s Alternative Breaks program offers short and intensive service commitments during winter or spring breaks, or even a weekend. For more information about these programs and others such as the Cal in the Capital and Cal in Berkeley internship programs, and BUILD (Bears United in Literacy Development), visit the Cal Corps website at: http://calcorps.berkeley.edu

Retention activities
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~bridges/
involved/involved.html

Other local nonprofit agencies
The University YWCA has service opportunities to help non-native speakers improve their English, fight racial discrimination and violence, and mentor middle school kids.
http://www.ywca-berkeley.org

Stiles Hall involves Cal students in programs that reach out to the elderly and local youth.
http://www.stileshall.org

Berkeley School Volunteers enlists hundreds of Cal students and community members each year as tutors in local schools.
http://www.bpef-online.org/volunteers.html

Cal students are making a difference in many ways. Whether through a one-time project cleaning up a park, tutoring a high school student, or playing music for the elderly, there are thousands of service opportunities available. Every student can get involved in Berkeley’s tradition of public service.

Hello everyone, my name is Anthony. I’m a sophomore, thinking of majoring in Molecular & Cell Biology. As an Afro-Latino student on campus, I have realized that I have the responsibility to give back and uplift the community so that more people of color can have the same opportunity to create change in the world.

Very early into my first semester here at Cal I got heavily involved with the Black Recruitment & Retention Center (BRRC), one of the various recruitment and retention centers on campus. The aim of BRRC is to impact and improve the conditions of underprivileged youth in America. Through my efforts in trying to create a more unified Black community on campus, I stumbled upon a great opportunity to help people. One day, a person came to our BRRC meeting to make an announcement about a community service project in New Orleans, Louisiana during spring break. She told us that we would spend the week aiding victims that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

My friends and I jumped at the chance, because we knew that the horrendous damages of the hurricane had left thousands of people displaced and homeless throughout the South.

The day we left California, I became very uneasy. I did not know what to expect nor had I ever ventured so far outside of the state. When we landed in New Orleans my uneasiness grew. Once we actually got to our destination in the Ninth Ward, which was the most destroyed area, I was in total shock over how anyone could live in such a place. It looked like a battle zone; there was little to nothing still in existence. This city was a reality check for me. I was immediately humbled and in awe of the horrible conditions that the people of New Orleans had to persevere through in the wake of such a catastrophic natural disaster.

Throughout my week in the ghost town of a city, I got a chance to both feed the homeless and gut the homes. The few residents that still remained were very grateful that there were people that had given up their time to help them through their struggles. By the end of the trip I was exhausted by all the hard work, but I felt that I had helped in giving people the chance at a better future.
Community Service at Cal, or anywhere, is something well worth the time and effort, because if we do not stand up and uplift our communities then who will?
My advice…Get involved.

--Anthony Trochez, Sophomore
Intended Molecular and Cell Biology major
From Pasadena, California

Postscript Fall 2006 Stories
Welcome to Cal! | Peer Education: GenEq Resource Center | I "heart" consent | Writer's block: a Berkeley tutor's experience | Campus Politics: the ASUC and me | Community Service: Hurricane Katrina

Postscript Fall 2005 Stories
Dear incoming freshmen | Diversity in Berkeley | Drinking 101 | Research: Expand your undergraduate experience | Paris, France: Fall 2003