BESAC Communication Officer's Message
In this issue of the BESAC digest we look African American students who were some of the first to attend Cal. We remember those who came before us, made sacrifices, and paved the way.
Rori Abernethy
BESAC Communications Officer
Cal Alumni Association Update
CAA Multicultural Chapter Alumni Yield
On April 18th 2021, BESAC participated in the CAA Multicultural Chapter Alumni Yield virtual event to encourage admitted African American STEM students to attend UC Berkeley. This was a very informative event where we learned about some of the potential barriers, expectations, and questions students were considering. One things that stood out that some students were not fully aware of the post Cal graduate earning potential and were considering Cal State Universities instead because they were "cheaper". Another takeaway was that Alumni could do outreach to potential students to encourage them to attend the Alumni Yield Event. We hope to use this information next year to recruit more Black Stem Cal undergraduates.
CAL Black History Highlights
by Cal Alumni Association Executive Director Cloey Hewlett ’76, J.D. ’79
Graduation Portrait of Annie Coker — who went by Virginia Stephens at the time taken in 1929 — when she graduated from the UC Berkeley law school.
Essay by Gia White
Cal Alumni and Administrative Director, Global, International and Area Studies
BESAC Highlights
Dr. Kamau Bobb
Kamau Bobb is founding Senior Director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech. He is an engineer and science and technology policy scholar whose work focuses on the relationship between equity in the STEM enterprise, large educational systems, and the structural conditions that influence contemporary American life.
He has a wealth of experience as a former Program Officer at the National Science
Foundation (NSF). At NSF he was responsible for $30 million annually of investments targeted on improving computing and STEM education. In that role Dr. Bobb worked at the highest levels of the federal government to help shape the national research agenda for effective means of delivering equitable and quality computational education to all students. He has worked with members of the Office and Science and Technology Policy in the Obama Administration to set the national strategy for STEM education at both post-secondary and secondary school levels. He was selected as a member of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper STEM + Entrepreneurship Taskforce to help U.S. cities craft strategies to engage young men and boys of color in the STEM landscape. Prior to his federal appointment, Dr. Bobb was the Director of the STEM Initiative for the University System of Georgia, a collaborative effort with the governor’s office to improve STEM education across the 30 public institutions serving approximately 325,000 students in the state.
Dr. Bobb holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Policy from Georgia Tech and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
BGESS Highlights
Go to the Berkeley Black Graduate Engineering and Science Students Facebook page for highlights and updates.
BESSA Highlights
Go to the Black Engineering and Science Student Association website for highlights and updates.
BESF Highlights
Featured Panelist : African American Professor, Jelani Nelson, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
Black Engineering and Science Faculty (BESF)
There is currently a historic number of Black Engineering and Science Faculty at Cal. Learn more about Black STEM faculty by checking out the Black Engineering and Science Faculty slides