Golden Bear Orientation - Bear Foundations 2026

It's important that we take the time to celebrate these key moments of beginning. We've spoken about your place in the Berkeley community. We now want to take time to dive deeper into what it means to be a part of such a dynamic, diverse, and engaged community. We hope your time here provides many opportunities to engage with those different from you. And we recognize that differences can also bring challenges. The university is committed to maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application, and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence where all people who participate in university programs and activities can work and learn together in an atmosphere free of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Creating that atmosphere takes work and education. In July, you were given a Cal Central task that links you to a resource with a focus on how free speech can be exercised in a healthy, diverse community without infringing on the civil rights of others. This resource dives deeper into how discrimination based on individual identities, including but not limited to discrimination and harassment based on race, color, or national origin, includes things like anti-lack or anti-Asian racism, anti-semitism, or islamophobia, or any bias motivated conduct based on shared ancestry or ethnicity. We encourage you to take the time to engage with that resource before you begin your classes. The next portion of our time together is called bare foundations. Our shared principles of community require buyin and action by all of us. You will learn tools that will allow Berkeley to be a community of belonging rather than othering and hear how current students see Berkeley through their eyes. Now, I want to introduce the new student services student coordinators to help us all learn more about what makes the first year class of 2030 and transfer class of 2028 so unique. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you so much for the introduction, Dr. Day. Hi everyone, my name is Anna, one of your 2026 new student services student coordinators. I am joined by Saba, Janae, and Lily. While not here at convocation with us right now, we wanted to recognize Lias, the fifth member of our student coordinator team, who you saw in the video earlier in the program. We all graduated this past May and are concluding our time as Berkeley students by welcoming you to this incredible campus. Thank you all for being here today. I and my fellow student coordinators will be moving into an activity called stignify if a reflective moment that offers us the opportunity to see the breadth and depth of identities and lived experiences represented in this space. This activity is simple. We will read a series of statements. If a statement resonates with you, if it reflects your lived experience or that of someone close to you, I invite you to silently signify in a way that feels authentic and safe for you. That might be raising your hand, nodding, or another gesture that communicates your connection. Due to our large numbers, we won't be asking you to stand today. We recognize that while there is celebration in many of the identities and experiences we share, there can also be fear or uncertainty, especially as you are new to campus and still understanding how you feel included. Again, you only have to engage in a way that feels authentic and safe. Let's begin. Please signify if you are from Northern California. >> [applause] >> You are from somewhere other than Northern California. [applause and cheering] >> You are a transfer student. [cheering] >> [applause] >> You are the first in your family to attend college. [cheering] [applause] >> You or someone you know was adopted. [cheering] You or someone you know has been impacted by the foster care system. [cheering and applause] Your first language is something other than English. [cheering] [applause] >> You speak more than one language. You identify with a religion, spiritual practice or belief system. [cheering and applause] identify as mixed race. >> You identify as a person of color. >> You are a student parent. [cheering] You are a veteran. >> [applause] >> You have [clears throat] been discouraged from pursuing a specific academic or career field because of your gender. [cheering] [applause] >> You were ever told to be a man or to be more ladylike. [cheering] [applause] you or someone close to you identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. [applause] You have ever tried to change your appearance, behavior, or mannerisms to feel accepted. [cheering] you or someone close to you has a hidden or visible disability. [applause] You or someone you know has experienced anxiety or depression. You have experienced impostor syndrome. [cheering] You have ever felt scared to stand up for what you believe in? [cheering] [applause] >> You have faced significant challenges before arriving at Cal and have overcome them. >> [applause] >> Deep in your heart, there are gifts you want to share with the world and you believe Cal can help you do that. [applause] >> You are nervous about the semester ahead. You are excited to engage in new meaningful conversations with your peers. [applause] >> You are ready to build a new community and spark new relationships here at Cal. [applause] You are a golden bear. >> Thank you everyone for participating. That felt electrifying. We hope that over the course of GBO and your time at Berkeley, you will see how your unique identities and experiences add value to this community. I would now like to introduce Ashley Gyos on behalf of the Othering and Belonging Institute. She will be showcasing the frameworks of othering, belonging, and bridging which we can all use as actionable tools to live out the principles of community. >> Thank you. Thank you. Well done. Thank you. All right. Hey everybody. I am loving the vibe that's alive in this room. Welcome to Berkeley. Thank you for making I don't know every form of sacrifice and joy evoking action that it took for y'all to get here. So, let's give it up one more time for yourselves. [applause] As shared, my name is Ashley Gyos and I work here at UC Berkeley at an amazing institute we call the Othering and Belonging Institute. And if it has not been said this far, I want to put on every screen, on every rafter, through every word and every action the message that you and you and you and us belong here at this university, in this city, in this state, and everywhere we go thereafter. Yes. >> [applause] >> So let me tell you a little bit about the institute. We are based here in Berkeley but we work all over the globe and partially because we're on a mission a big goal to make belonging without othering a global norm. Wow. It's a big goal, but it t it starts place by place by place in rooms filled with people just like yourselves. And before I go on the journey of telling you what our research is, what our findings are. And trust me, this isn't going to be your first class. I'm gonna only spend about 10 minutes talking about that. So, you can come along with me. But I wanted to bring into the room this little being, little Ashley and her family because much like me, you all have a little being who you brought here with you and your support system who gave a lot to ensure that you could be here and are probably missing you dearly in this moment. So, I just want to celebrate each of us and our networks of care in any and all shapes and forms that help us to get to this place to help not only make Berkeley a place of belonging, but to ensure that we, our peers, this city becomes better because we are here. So, this beautiful image is a picture. Yeah, you can clap anytime I'm here. [cheering] [applause] Thank you. Thank you. So, this beautiful image is our version of depicting what belonging without othering looks like. Yes, y'all. Um, and before I go into what that means via definition, we're going to bring it to life in person. We're gonna embody a little bit of it in this room together. Now, you might be asking, "How does that look, Ashley? There's a million of us." I'm going to ask you to find a partner. Find somebody who is close to you in proximity that you can talk to and who can hear you, who can listen to you. And I want you to discuss these two question. Wait, wait, wait. I like the enthusiasm. And um I want you to discuss these two things. What does belonging mean to you? There is no wrong answer. And also, how do you know when you have it? How does it feel? What does it look like? We're just going to take a couple minutes in pairs, taking turns to discuss that. and you're going to do me a favor and listen for when I'm trying to bring you back cuz this whole place is going to turn into a bit of a roar. Okay, we in for it. Let's go find a partner and have a little talk. Okay. If you can hear me, clap once. If you can hear me, clap twice. If you can hear me, give it up again for yourselves. Yes. [cheering] Thank you all for engaging in that. Thank you for considering belonging for yourself and for each other. So now in this next part, I want to demonstrate that there's a couple of themes that are consistent for belonging to live and live well across spaces. And I want you to help me demonstrate if some of these topics came up in your conversation. So stomp your feet, clap your hands, use your voice, let some of the energy out if any of these things came up in your conversation. I or we were included. [applause] I or we experienced connection. Yep. How about it felt like home or a familiar place? I was seen for who I am. Yes, I or we had our needs met. And the last one, my voice mattered and I could contribute. [applause] Yes. And just like that in this room, you can already start to see the contours, the shape of what it takes to build for belonging for yourself, for each other, for groups. And what I'll get into next is for structures and systems that make up our lives or contribute to them. But before I go there, I'm going to introduce a a beautiful student, Haven Anazi, who's going to join us. [cheering] [applause] You got it, Haven. Come on, Christian Hall. >> Wow, there's a lot of y'all. But I heard that the class of 2030 is in the building. [screaming] [cheering] But then I heard the transfer class of 2028 is in the building. [cheering] [sighs] Hello. Hello there, y'all. My name is Haven. And when I first got to Berkeley, there was so much going on in my head. I was nervous. I was excited. I was overwhelmed and hopeful. I was missing my friends but making new friends. But out of all the things, I was terrified because I came in with a 4.0 and kept hearing about this grade deflation thing. All I'm going to say, office hours are free. Like many of you, before coming to Berkeley, I was the one. The one who got the good grades, the one who the teachers liked, the one who led the clubs. And then I got here and suddenly everyone was the one. I remember walking into Hos Pavilion for the first time and I'm sitting next to app builders, artists, entrepreneurs, researchers and I slowly started to wonder in a sea full of extraordinary people whether there was anything special about me anymore. Then I got into the lecture halls and I was one of maybe 10 faces that look like mine. So the question wasn't just whether I could keep up. The question became whether a place like this was built with someone like me in mind. [applause] So I did what I thought I was supposed to do. I played the game. I beefed up my resume. My calendar filled up. My LinkedIn looked great [laughter] and yet I still felt behind. I still felt like I needed to perform to belong here. Looking back, I don't think I was just chasing accomplishment. I was chasing reassurance. I wanted to know that Berkeley had made the right choice. So, I armored myself with the greatness that I saw in others, thinking that it would make me feel like I belong. But the irony was Berkeley didn't feel like home because I suddenly accomplished enough to earn my place here. It became home when I stopped treating everyone around me like evidence that I wasn't enough and started becoming curious about them. I found people who celebrated me when I won. People who sat with me when I didn't. People who challenged how the way I thought and introduced me to worlds I would have never entered on my own. If I'm being honest, in a place where accomplishment got you here, it is really easy to make those accomplishments your your identity. But now going into my third year, I realize that the most interesting part about my accomplishments isn't the accomplishment itself. It's the story of the person behind it. People have told me that I'm adaptable. But what they don't know is that my parents weren't together. So I learned very young how to balance two environments. People have complimented me on the way I can walk into a room and talk to anyone. But what they don't know is that I transferred schools mid semester. So I had to learn how to build community when friend groups had already formed. People have told me that I'm a good speaker. But they don't know that I grew up around pastors and some very opinionated friends who love to debate. So I've had a lifetime of practice. spent so much time. We [laughter] We spent so much time. [applause] We spend so much time letting our accomplishments shape how we see ourselves. But how often do we stop and ask, "How are our accomplishments shaped by who we are?" Look at your hands for a second. Those are the same hands that filled out your Berkeley application to get you here. [cheering] Those are the same hands that did homework at an hour you you probably should have been sleeping at. Okay. The same hands that practiced, created, competed, and worked. Berkeley has gotten to see some of what those hands have accomplished, but it didn't get to see nearly as much as what those hands have carried. Maybe they helped care for a younger sibling. Maybe they wiped the tears of someone you loved. Maybe they worked after school. Maybe they're currently creating something that nobody in this room even knows about yet. Your accomplishments have told us what you've done, and you should be proud of them. But your story tells us something about the person who did it. Berkeley admitted an application, but a whole person showed up today. And if that's true about you, it's true about every single person sitting next to you. My sophomore year roommate studied nutritional science, and at first, that's pretty much all I knew about her. But living together gave me the opportunity to know the person behind the major. It meant trying homemade Chinese food and trying bing soo for the first time. I was eating good. Okay. It meant learning how her family's experiences shaped how she wanted to spend the rest of her life. Getting curious about her world expanded mine. Now multiply that by every person in this room. thousand people, thousands of accomplishments, thousands of stories you can't even see yet. And I would have missed so much if id stopped at what I could see. So, here's my challenge to you for the next five days. You're going to ask a lot of people what I like to call the Berkeley trifecta. What's your major? Where are you from? Where are you living? And those are good questions. Ask one more. Ask them what they're passionate about. Ask them what they miss about home. Ask them what they hope these next four years will become. And while you're at it, go beyond what's familiar. Talk to someone who is doing something that you know nothing about. Talk to someone whose experiences are different from yours and then share your own. And while not everybody here will become your person, one of them might. If I could go back and sit in those overly hotos pavilion seats, I'd tell Freshman Haven this. You don't need to prove that you belong here. You are going to meet people who blow your mind. Let them inspire you, but don't allow don't allow that to make you forget your own hands and everything they've carried to get you to the seat. Let yourself be known beyond the accomplishments and take the time to really know the people around you. You are blessed to be at Berkeley, yes, but >> [applause] >> But Berkeley is blessed to have you [applause] shine your light here. Welcome to Berkeley. [applause] Beautiful [applause] [cheering] job, Haven. Give it up for Haven. [applause] Wow, y'all. So, we've seen the incredible band. We've heard from the chancellor. We've heard from amazing students here at Berkeley. Are y'all feeling like you made the right choice? [cheering] I know I am. Okay, pause. Okay. So, one thing I'm taking away from what Haven shared is I really heard a call for curiosity. Y'all are coming from all over the US and some of us coming from international locations all to this, I don't know, four square miles of geographic space. You're going to meet new people. You're going to be in different spaces. You're going to live in a place you've probably not lived before. This is a prime time of change that is happening in your life. And ironically, what we say as an institute is we look at the way change is happening at a global scale. And we call this phenomena when we're looking at change at local individuals all the way through a global change a glo phenomena and othering and belonging are gloal phenomena. So I'm going to share more definitionally if the remote will work. There we go. Okay. So this is the part where I need you all to stick with me because this is where we flex a little bit of Berkeley academics. So please ride with me. This definition is something that we share with folks from all over the world and it's really introducing our institute and the two key concepts we represent and socialize. One is othering, one is belonging. They're in relationship to each other all the time. But the first part is othering. This is the part that really isn't that much fun to discuss. It makes people's face go blank. It makes us uncomfortable. But it's the part of our world that actively causes harm, marginalization, inequality. And it's not only a US-specific phenomena. This is a global issue as well as a local issue. So othering as we define it is a generalized set of common processes. So there's a repeatable pattern happening that produces marginality and inequality across a full range of human differences. What are those human differences? Those bubbles on the screen above me. So in the US they're commonly race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age, your education, your class. Any of those parts of our identity, we could be otherred on or multiples of them stacked. And how do we know if othering is there? We call these mechanisms. I like to talk about them as if they're smoke signals. If we see any of these things, it is likely that othering and harm is happening. The most the biggest and most prevalent form of othering is violence. We also have deniialism, assimilation, when you're asked to be something other than yourself to fit in to the thing you want to be a part of. There's big harmful acts like dehumanization, also segregation, separation, harm, and I'm talking at a big scale, but these exist at the micro level. how we treat each other, how our groups that we're a part of are either included or excluded. And so we study this as a global phenomena. And our institute believes that othering in itself is the problem of our time and that belonging is in fact the solution. So what is belonging? Belonging is something near and dear to my heart and to this university. And while maybe it's the first time or fifth time you're hearing about it today, I hope you interrogate its meaning as an individual and as a part of this institution the whole time you're here. So what belonging is, it means that we have the right to participate and cocreate the world we live in. That means we're not just bystanders in the world going around us. We are an active contributor and participant to the world we want to be a part of. It means that our stories are seen, they're valued, and that we have the right to make demands on systems and structures. And last but not least, it means we're treated and treat each other with full human dignity. I like to slow show this slide because it demonstrates the evolution of what we're calling belonging. Our society has gone from a time where many folks were excluded. You can see above that gray circle. If that's a structure, the dots on the outside are not allowed in to a place of inclusion where the structure itself, that shape doesn't change, but it allows more folks into it. It's good, but it's not that good. What is better? I would advocate when you belong to a place, you change the entire structure of the place. It flexes because you are now there and were not there before and you have a chance to have your voice have an important say in it. Honestly, this is one of the things I see Berkeley students taking away with them is this spirit and perseverance that takes on the responsibility of bu building a better world and building a better institution. Okay. So our next slide on belonging is just a simple distillation if you will of what it is. People are like, "Yeah, Ashley, belonging is a big concept. You've studied it. yada yada yada. What is it really? How do I know when it's there?" These elements are what I would look for and encourage you to look for and explore as you're spending your first weeks on campus. It's inclusion. Am I included? Is there space for me? Second, more relational. Can I connect? Am I being recognized for who I am and hearing who other people are? Just like we demonstrated in that parent share. And last but not least, do I have agency? Is there a place for my voice, my feedback, my say to make an improvement on what was previously there? Okay, I'm wrapping up here. So, are you still with me? [cheering] >> Okay, so if there's a few things I want you to take home, it's this one. Only you, each of you, myself included, knows if I'm experiencing belonging. No one can force it upon me. I know it. If it's here, I know when it's not. Belonging can be offered. It's not just something we're given. It's something we also extend to other people. So, if you see someone who's having a hard time making friends or connecting, you might offer an extra minute of a listening ear or reach out to them, invite them to something. Hold each other through this change process you're in. Lastly, individuals are a part of belonging. We also approach it as groups. All 9,000 of you can help each other have a greater sense of belonging. And lastly, the system, the structure, the organization you are all now a part of. You can use your voice to make Berkeley a place of belonging. Okay. Yes, my friends. Thank you. [applause] So, we all have a role to play in building for belonging and you're not alone. the team of um that has planned for you has programmed sorry I'm trying to get to the next slide has programmed some offerings to make uh reaching out learning meeting people across difference connecting to local groups on campus more accessible to you so mark your calendars or check your Cal apps event Monday in the evening from 4 to 5:30 in all kinds of places across campus. There's going to be a whole lot of groups across a v variety of interests that y'all can come to check out, get involved in, and start making this place feel like the place you belong. So, with that, thank you and go Bears. [applause] Thank you so much, Ashley and Haven. Like Haven, we are three of more than 50,000 students, not including faculty or staff on Berkeley campus. We each have our own story to tell and I encourage you all to take the time both to learn and share your story during GBO this week. Now that you have experienced the spirit of cow with chancellor rich lines during convocation, heard about the resources available to us on campus from Dr. Day, been inspired to engage from Margaret, learned how to bridge across differences from Ashley, and empowered to shape your own experience at Cal from Haven. We now turn the focus to you all. You will have the opportunities throughout Golden Beer orientation to connect with peers, learn about resources, and engage with the local community. We are so excited to show you all that Berkeley has to offer. That being said, you all are you all are a part of the largest incoming undergraduate class in Berkeley's history by hundreds. We ask for your [applause] we ask for your patience over the next few days and beyond as our physical campus didn't grow with you. And GBO is a complex program intended to serve all of you. I mean, three meals a day for over 9,000 students at multiple venues is definitely complex. Lines may be a bit longer, but we know your orientation leaders are doing their best to get you from program to program. Questions? Check the Cal events app and do not hesitate to stop by the GBO help desk on upper sprawl from 8 am to 6 p.m. daily through Monday. Please now exit HO pavilion with your orientation leaders and head over to your bare layers. Orientation leaders, please move away from the venue so that we do not create bottlenecks exiting HOS. And don't forget to send one O to retrieve your bag after exiting HOS pavilion. Thank you so much and as always, go [screaming] Bears. [cheering]