Community

Sydney Roberts: New ASUC president shares her goals, inspirations

From a young age, I participated in the Los Angeles Women’s March and read Audre Lorde religiously. The summer before my senior year I took part in Girls State, a week-long immersive summer program that teaches 500 young women from different corners of the nation how to govern imitation cities and states.

Published

3 years ago

October 3, 2023

Oakland Post

In high school, before she became involved in student government, Roberts played varsity volleyball and soccer. “It was through my teamwork on the court and field that I learned how to be an effective leader,” she said. Brandon Sánchez Mejia/UC Berkeley

Her first goal is to increase students’ sense of belonging on campus, especially for those who are underrepresented.

By Gretchen Kell
UC Berkeley News

I’m from Long Beach, California, an incredibly diverse and urban coastal city. It is truly a melting pot of cultures, with a large and vibrant settlement of Filipinx and Hispanic people. My friends throughout middle and high school came from these backgrounds, among others. They taught me how beautiful of an experience it is to foster close relationships with people from different backgrounds.

I grew up in a household with my single mom and twin sister. My father joined the Marines right after high school and now works for the U.S. Postal Service. My mother went to college and nursing school and is a public health nurse for the city of Long Beach, specifically working with houseless senior citizens. She is a strong feminist who always encouraged us to pursue higher education and instilled in us that education is key to personal development and professional opportunity.

Growing up in a female-led household also taught me the value of independence. My mother sacrificed a lot to ensure my sister and I had myriad opportunities. Her selflessness shaped my idea of leadership. She went above and beyond to give others more and create joy.

In the Long Beach Unified School District, I found my passion for research. Although underfunded, like most public systems, I was able to take an AP seminar and AP research capstone. I focused my research on racial profiling after 9/11 and the different opinions about patriotism among baby boomers, millennials and Generation X.

The murder of George Floyd at the end of my senior year was a real turning point for me. People’s reaction to the Black Lives Matter Movement that resurfaced during the summer of 2020 changed my perception of politics and society. I was consumed by grief, but soon turned my emotions into political passion. I wanted to revolutionize how people learned about injustice. I used my social media presence to educate people on the prevalence of anti-Blackness and how to have tough conversations with family members with different ideologies.

I visited UC Berkeley the summer before my senior year of high school. It was my dream school. I was in awe of Cal’s history and culture. Learning that members of the Black Panther Party spoke here, and that the Free Speech Movement ignited here, inspired me. I wanted to be surrounded by changemakers and in a city with a strong culture.

I was on campus to attend the Berkeley Summer Experience, a weekend-long program that paired low-income or underrepresented students with admissions counselors to receive advice on their UC college applications. Although my test scores and leadership roles made me a competitive applicant, I was a student from an underfunded public high school and a family with only one college graduate. I attribute that program to why I was accepted to Cal.

I began attending Berkeley in the fall of 2020. My first year at Berkeley was characterized by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a struggle to find community, but the ASUC and my sorority, Alpha Phi, aided my endeavor to make personal relationships.

In the ASUC, I served as chief of staff to Chaka Tellem, student body president for an unprecedented two terms. We created an environmental justice education program, sending students to local middle and elementary schools to teach younger generations about sustainability.

We negotiated the biggest discount with Princeton Review for students to receive 20% off all pre-professional test prep review materials. We designed a mentorship program for first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students with the Cal Alumni Association thats fully funded and staffed and has hundreds of participants.

I became chapter president of Alpha Phi in 2021. I aimed to increase involvement, diversify membership and foster belonging. Knowing what it was like to be a Black woman in a predominately white space made me determined to implement initiatives that would transform our chapter into a more inclusive space.

We celebrated culturally significant holidays like Juneteenth, Latinx Heritage Month, Diwali and more. I started an international night, where members decorated a part of our chapter room with items or foods special to their heritage. I also made financial and housing decisions that enabled flexibility for members in need.

This year, I’m a senior, graduating in the spring of 2024, and I feel very honored to be in the role of ASUC president. The presidential race was heavily contested, with five candidates. I ran on platforms of multiculturalism, environmentalism, career readiness, student wellness and campus climate.

My first goal as president is to increase students’ sense of belonging on campus, especially students who have historically felt excluded from higher education. Black students on this campus need more Black students, faculty, and staff.

It’s extremely hard to be the one or one of few Black people in your class, to have no professors who look like you or understand your background, or to know that there are few people within university administrative roles who share the experiences of the Black community.

I took a public policy course during my sophomore year where a small cohort of students went to the Alameda Probation Office to interview formerly incarcerated individuals and probation officers to research re-entry resources.

I also spent the summer before my junior year participating in the SURF SMART program as a research fellow for Caleb Dawson, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Education. A snippet of our research focus was understanding why Black students, faculty and staff pursue higher education or a career at Cal, and if they felt they had adequate support systems here.

Another goal as ASUC president is to increase pre-professional and academic opportunities on campus. I want all students to feel career-ready before graduation. A final goal is connecting students with the abundance of organizations and departments on campus that assist with their basic needs. Some of the biggest struggles facing students are financial stability, housing security and food security.

This past summer, I gained additional skills in politics working for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in Wash., D.C., as a research intern in our Cal in the Capitol program. After graduation, I hope to work on a political campaign for the 2024 election or intern for a political consulting or research firm or committee. Later in life, I’m interested in returning to school for a master’s in public policy or/and a J.D.

The most popular question I get today is what my biggest goal is, now that I’m student body president. As a Black woman, I know this university wasn’t designed for me, and there are people in this world who don’t want me to succeed. So empowering others who look like me to take on positions of power and mentoring them in a meaningful and impactful way so they may go on to lead is my greatest hope.

Younger students, many other Black women, have come up to me and expressed how inspiring it is to see a Black woman at the forefront of this university. I tell them, “You’re next.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Legislative Black Caucus Chair ‘Extremely Disappointed’ by Gov. Newsom’s Veto of Child Gender Identity Bill

Don't Miss

Cultural Racism Worsens Health Inequities Between Racial Groups

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

1 day ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

1 day ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

1 week ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.