Berkeley students are engaged and engaging. One quality that strongly defines our campus is the degree to which our students uphold the ideals and practice of public service. Through the knowledge they help create and disseminate, and through direct leadership and volunteerism, they truly are reshaping our world by their efforts.
These advances continue to enhance Berkeley’s reputation. Using measures of social mobility, research, and public service to rank universities, Washington Monthly found that, “By our yardstick, University of California, Berkeley is about the best thing for America we can find. It’s good by all of our measurements.”
Involved in an incredibly diverse array of projects, from rebuilding the Gulf Coast to developing cell phone games that teach English in rural India, the Cal community — including students, alumni, faculty, and staff — has heeded the call to serve others with intelligence, conscientiousness, and compassion. In a recent poll, 46 percent of undergraduate students said that they had been involved in community service in the previous year. Berkeley has the largest number of volunteers — 3,236 — throughout Peace Corps history. Last year, more than 4,000 students participated in projects through the Cal Corps Public Service Center, including working for after-school literacy programs, summer internships in Washington, D.C., and clinics that provide medical and legal services for the homeless.
We are proud of Berkeley’s rich tradition of activism and public service, and I am energized by the prospect of using our tremendous breadth of expertise and resources to partner with people in need to help them change their lives for the better.
