This week, thousands of new students arrived on UC campuses, full of butterflies and bold ambitions as they settled in for their first week of classes.

All told, UC welcomed about 54,000 freshmen and transfer students, from almost every background imaginable.

More than 80 percent are Californians. Roughly 40 percent are the first in their families to go to college. About a third are transfer students from community college. Many come from a home where English is not the primary language. Most are striking out on their own for the first time, having bid goodbye to family members across the state. Others already have children of their own.

As they settled into their dorms, met their new roommates and began gearing up for the year ahead, we asked a few of UC’s new arrivals to tell us what brought them to the university, and to share their hopes and dreams for the future.

Read what they had to say.

Photo: Mariana Soto-Sanchez Credit: Brittany Hosea-Small/UC Berkeley

About

View all post by