Born in the former Soviet Union, Sophia Sobko (she/they) immigrated with their family to the U.S. in 1991 on a Jewish refugee visa. Sobko was five at the time. Now a Ph.D. student in the Graduate School of Education, Sobko’s … Continued
Charles Dove, a second-year EECS PhD student and Berkeley’s 2021 Hertz Fellow, uses artificial intelligence to mold and interpret the complex physics of light. With new modeling technologies and a passion for understanding, Dove is reimagining the way light-based imaging … Continued
Talking about current socio-political issues is one of the tallest tasks an artist can tackle, from deciding whether and how to portray acts of violence or using images of family members and loved ones in works of art. MFA candidate … Continued
Valeri Vasquez, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley, thrives on creativity and exploring new frontiers. Her current research grew out of an interest in how computational models are designed, and the ways alternative … Continued
Monica De La Cruz is pursuing a doctorate in UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare with the goal of crafting policies that actively improve peoples’ economic health in the Bay Area. However, this wasn’t always De La Cruz’s goal. Describing … Continued
Daniela Medina, a second year master’s student in UC Berkeley’s Social Welfare program, dedicates her studies, work, and life to supporting formerly and currently incarcerated and system-impacted people. Within Berkeley, she works as a mentor with Berkeley Underground Scholars, a … Continued
Laura Belik, a fourth-year Architecture PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, looks at the spatial relations of memory and power within the migration patterns of Northeast Brazilian populations, specifically within the state of Ceará. Currently relocated to shelter in place in … Continued
Rivka Valérie Louissaint (she/they) a first year MFA student at UC Berkeley, makes art which is informed by their experiences as a Black, working class, immigrant, and queer woman. They are also inspired by liberation movements, such as the Black, … Continued
Margiana Petersen-Rockney, a 5th-year PhD student at UC Berkeley, was homeschooled on her mom’s diversified dairy goat farm in Massachusetts until she started college. Not many academics studying farming systems come from a rural or farming background, and that is … Continued
Jared Robinson, a fifth-year UC Berkeley English Ph.D. student, is exploring how the act of “looking twice” at our past can be an empowering form of self-definition, and even self-creation. On an individual level, looking twice at the past can … Continued
