Chancellor Carol Christ gave the following remarks during the 2019 convocation ceremony to welcome new students to UC Berkeley:
Welcome!
Welcome to the transfer students, the Class of 2021!
Welcome to the freshmen, the Class of 2023!
My name is Carol Christ, and as chancellor it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the University of California, Berkeley, and to the next chapter of your lives.
Each of you has a different story about how you came to this place at this moment in time, and your lives and experiences add so much to Berkeley’s rich mosaic. So I’d like to begin today by telling you a little bit about yourselves.
Meet Berkeley’s new students
Learn more about the incoming classes
First, there are roughly 9,000 of you joining our campus this fall—about 6,400 freshmen and 2,600 transfer students. The youngest of you is 15; the eldest is 72…making clear that it is never too late to invest in your education.
Members of your classes come from nearly every county in California, 50 U.S. states and territories, and 70 countries from around the world.
Eighty percent of the new undergraduates in your class join us from public high schools. 94% of new transfer students come from California’s exceptional community colleges.
119 of you come here having served your nation in the armed forces.
Nearly a third of you are the first in your families to attend college.
Among those sitting in this room today are:
- A student who won a host of engineering awards for inventing a device that helps people perform CPR more effectively
- A person who co-founded a non-profit organization dedicated to providing more enriching science education for young people
- A student who has traveled to Turkey annually over the last few years to help give Syrian refugees dental and medical treatment
- A rock climbing national champion
- A person who founded a software start-up that helps those with learning disabilities build their social circles
- A person who was homeless for the first 12 years of life, but who went on to intern in a public defender’s office and then win a fellowship to work in state senator Nancy Skinner’s office before being admitted to Cal
- A student from Oakland who created a popular app that educates users about the amount of sugar in various drinks, as well as the effects of excessive sugar consumption; and
- A student who led his national team at last year’s Rubik’s Cube World Championship
In sum, you are an extraordinary, as well as an extraordinarily diverse, group. And we are so thankful to have you with us.
UC Berkeley News: Carol Christ to new students: 'Shape Berkeley, even as it shapes you'