Berkeley

UC Berkeley Presents Public Service Awards

Published

9 years ago

May 9, 2017

By Public Affairs, UC Berkeley News

When she graduates in a few days, Ursula Kajani is headed to Rwanda to work with a maternal and child health program through the Peace Corps. As the new Mather Good Citizen Award winner at UC Berkeley, she knows that her experiences with the campus’s Public Service Center — as program assistant, Alternative Breaks leader and Student Advisory Committee member — have prepared her for her next stage, and a future in social justice work.

“I want to extend my appreciation to the PSC for helping us students find critical lenses while learning how to be ourselves. It was really a defining feature of my Cal career,” says Kajani, who, along with a dozen other Berkeley students, faculty and community partners accepted 2017 Public Service Awards at a joyful ceremony on Tuesday.

The annual Public Service Awards ceremony is a highlight of spring at UC Berkeley, which values public service. Chancellor Nicholas Dirks shook hands with the winners and congratulated them from the stage in the Krutch Theatre on the Clark Kerr Campus before a gathering of campus people and awardees’ friends and families.

In addition to Kajani, those honored are:

Thanh Mai Bercher, a graduating senior in public health. Thanh’s service has addressed human rights locally, nationally, and internationally, with a particular focus on sexual assault, advocating for better policies to deter it from happening, supporting survivors and helping raise awareness of the issue. She is a survivor herself, which has motivated her to take action on this issue. Thanh has also addressed many other human rights issues through her work with the campus’s Human Rights Center, and is completing field work with girls who have experienced trauma in the West Bank.

Jesús Guzmán, a graduate student in public policy who worked on immigrant labor issues. An immigrant himself, Guzmán was a founding coordinator of the DREAM Alliance of Sonoma County and an active member of the North Bay Organizing Project’s Immigrant Rights Task Force. He is working with Graton Day Labor Center serving day laborers who are largely immigrants.

Sarick Matzen and Joshua Arnold, graduate students in environmental science, policy and management. Working in the area of food security and land, Matzen and Arnold use a unique approach to their research, inviting community members and groups to participate in soil sampling for soil testing as well as empowering communities to take the lead in dealing with soils compromised by pollution.

International Refugee Assistance Project at Berkeley Law (IRAP-Berkeley). Students offer high-quality, compassionate legal assistance to some of the most vulnerable groups of refugees in the world.

AppCivist for Vallejo Participatory Budgeting, an app for democratic budgeting collaboration. In 2012, Vallejo became the first city in the U.S. to launch such participatory work, eliciting project ideas from residents who then vote on which to recommend to the City Council for funding. AppCivist, a new online collaboration platform developed by researchers at the Social Apps Lab at CITRIS, allows the community to develop proposals online, view developments and comments in real-time and submit proposals for the budgeting ballot.

Karen Chapple, a professor in city and regional planning, Chapple headed up the Urban Displacement Project, which provides policymakers with research and policy recommendations to counter displacement and promote affordability policies.

Two other students were honored with Birgeneau/Undocumented Student Awards:

Miriam Avilez, a leader in Borders and Bodies Collective, a graduate student organization that is raising awareness about the intersection of immigration and public health. She is also working with other undocumented graduate students and the Center for Latino Policy Research on a project responding to the Trump administration by providing support for the undocumented student community at UC Berkeley.

Juan Prieto, who has held positions in RISE, as a representative of UC undocumented student coalition, and in the Undocumented Student Program and Transfer Center. His writing was published on the New York Times during times of political tension on campus, giving undocumented students a voice in the media.

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UC Berkeley Named Top Public University in the U.S. and No. 7 in the World by ‘U.S. News’

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014. “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

Published

4 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Photo by Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley.

The 2026 Best Global Universities rankings evaluated 2,250 research institutions from more than 100 countries

By Lila Thulin

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Berkeley No. 7 in its 2026 list of the best global universities, which assesses more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide.

Berkeley also claimed the honor of top public university in the U.S.

Released on Monday, the list evaluates universities from more than 100 countries on 13 metrics such as global and research reputation (as reported by academics and peers) and number of highly cited scholarly papers.

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014.

“A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

The rankings also assess a university’s strength in various subject areas; these assessments are separate from U.S. News’ 2026 Best Graduate Programs rankings released in April.

This year, Berkeley was named in the top three nationally in seven subject areas – environment/ecology, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering – and in the top five for a total of 17 subjects. Subject rankings are based heavily on scholarly publications and citations as well as reputation.

In September, U.S. News also released its 2026 Best Colleges list, in which Berkeley was also named the No. 1 public institution among American universities.

That honor joins other accolades judging campus to be the best public university in the country, such as those from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education.

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Arts and Culture

Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh

The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Published

10 months ago

September 14, 2025

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Farwest Regional Director, Kimberly Usher, Mayor Barbara Lee, US Representative Lateefah Simon, and Farwest Regional Representative, Radiya Ajibade. Photo courtesy of Farwest Regional Photographer Vicki P. Love.

By Antoinette Porter

Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.

Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.

Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.

A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.

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Arts and Culture

Cal Performances Presents Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma in Sarabande Africaine at UC Berkeley Greek Theatre on Aug. 30

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the pair will debut the Bay Area premiere of Sarabande Africaine, joined by pianist Thierry Vaton, percussionist David Donatien, and special guest Sinkane. The program illuminates centuries of musical interplay between African traditions and Western classical forms, using the Baroque sarabande dance, and its African ancestor, the Congolese spirit dance Zarabanda, as a gateway to exploring the deep, interconnected roots of global music.

Published

10 months ago

August 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Angelique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma. Wikimedia photos.

By Carla Thomas

On Labor Day weekend two of the world’s most celebrated musicians and cultural ambassadors, Grammy Award–winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo and legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma join forces for an evening of music, history, and cultural dialogue at UC Berkeley’s historic Hearst Greek Theatre.

Both Kidjo and Ma have built careers not only as great performers but as passionate advocates for cultural understanding. Sarabande Africaine is as much a conversation about shared heritage as it is a musical performance, blending genres, geographies, and histories.

“Every day there are moments when all of us can feel we are on the inside of something and also when we feel we are on the outside of something,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “To be able to understand both at the same time and oscillate between the two gives us a larger perspective on the world.”

“If your mind is open, and there is no fear, it’s easier to listen, and to question yourself,” said Kidjo.

The upcoming performance is presented within Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Exile & Sanctuary” series for the 2025–26 season. The production explores exile as more than just physical displacement, but a disruption in identity and belonging, while sanctuary represents both refuge and the creative space where new connections and communities can take shape.

Cal Performances’ Illuminations bridges performances with UC Berkeley’s academic research, pairing the arts with conversations about urgent global issues.

Kidjo’s continued partnership with Cal Performances includes her 2021–22 artist-in-residence, premiering her music-theater work Yemandja, set in 19th-century West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade.

She also participated in the Bias in Our Algorithms and Society panel alongside campus leaders like Jennifer Chayes, and joined the Black Studies Collaboratory for a dialogue on music, diaspora, and the world.

She has since returned to Berkeley for multiple performances, most recently in 2024 at Zellerbach Hall.

Yo-Yo Ma’s history with Cal Performances spans decades, beginning in 1997. One notable project includes the 2018 performance of Bach’s complete cello suites at the Greek Theatre, a testament to his devotion to creating “transformative concert experiences in iconic spaces.”

For tickets and more information, visit calperformances.org.