Senior Weekend

Welcome to Cal, Freshmxn!

bridges Senior Weekend is a free 4-day, 3 night program for newly admitted high school seniors from historically marginalized, underrepresented backgrounds. If selected for this trip, newly admitted high school seniors will travel for free to UC Berkeley for the weekend and experience student life by stating with current undergraduate students from the various Recruitment and Retention Centers (RRCs) in off-campus housing and in some cases, residential halls.

During Senior Weekend, prospective Cal students will participate in multicultural programs, workshops, and cultural events that will give these students the opportunity to engage and interact with other prospective high school seniors and current UC Berkeley students. This weekend is an opportunity for these students to establish essential social networks before they enter UC Berkeley.

Did you know that in 2018, 75% of Senior Weekend attendees chose UC Berkeley after participating in the program, in comparison to the 49% of students who SIR, but do not attend the program.

Transfer Weekend

Welcome to Cal, Transfers!

bridges Transfer Weekend is a free 3-day, 2-night program for newly admitted transfer students from historically marginalized, underrepresented backgrounds. If selected for this trip, newly admitted transfer students will travel for free to UC Berkeley for the weekend and will be hosted in pairs at a local hotel, historically the DoubleTree Hotel in the Berkeley Marina.

During Transfer Weekend, prospective Cal students will participate in multicultural programs, workshops, and cultural events that will give these students the opportunity to engage and interact with other prospective transfers and current UC Berkeley students. This weekend is an opportunity for these students to establish essential social networks before they enter UC Berkeley. TW is also a great opportunity for students to learn about about all 7 Recruitment & Retention Centers; Black Recruitment & Retention Center (BRRC), Indigenous & Native Coalition (INC), the Middle Eastern & North African-RRC (MENA), Mixed at Berkeley-RRC (MRRC), Pilipinx Academic Student Services (PASS), Latinx, Recruitment & Retention Center (RAICES), and the Asian & Pacific Islander Recruitment & Retention Center (REACH!), that will be able to support their retention while as students at UC Berkeley. Students will also learn about campus partners and diverse resources; such as CE3 programs, EOP, Housing that will help demystify higher education at UC Berkeley, and further help with successful retention while at Berkeley.

Did you know that in 2018, 77% of Transfer Weekend attendees accepted their offer of admissions to UC Berkeley. This year Transfer Weekend is on Friday, May 3rd to Sunday, May 5th.
Please be on the look-out for the application that can be found on UC Berkeley applicants, My Application Portal (MAP) under Events.

bridges

Graduate Tour

Explore Graduate Schools

A tour of East Coast graduate schools that takes place during Spring Break. A cohort of 16* undergraduate students are selected to partake on this tour geared towards setting students on the right path to picking the appropriate graduate program. The trip consists of campus visits to Harvard, Boston University, UPenn, NYU, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Yale. The trip allows students to experience some of the most elite universities in the nation all the while informing them of the opportunities that await them at these schools. Students meet with college representatives; including professors, faculty, and different minority organizations on the campuses. Most expenses are covered by bridges.

* this number is subject to change depending on funding for the program

Study Jams

Come Study with Us!

bridges Study Jams occur in the Multicultural Community Center each RRR week. During the week, there is a place for students to study, have access to free green books and scantrons, sexual health products as well as have free lunch and dinner.

It’s important for students to have a safe study space that recognizes the different struggles each community, especially when it comes to retention. Retention has always been a concern for communities of color and this bi-annual event attempts to provides students with resources to help them in their own retention. whether that be academic, social, professional, health, etc…

TRAIN

Good Luck New Staff!

In order to address challenges that often arise for bridges leadership, the 2017-18 bridges Executive Committee developed a three part program in Spring 2018 to support the transition of incoming leadership. Over the Spring 2018 semester, the Executive Committee developed TRAIN (Transitions, Resources, and Addressing Internal Needs) which included the first bridges Coalition Transition in April 2018 and collaboration on each RRC’s internal transitions. TRAIN is the result of years of brainstorming and conversations from previous leadership about supporting the coalition in the best ways through the yearly transition process.

The goal of the program is to best prepare bridges leadership in their term through effective and efficient transitions. Hxstorically, the leadership challenges have been due to lack of documentation, lack of consistent coalition-wide structure, and timing (academics, finishing up programming, and securing new leadership).

TRAIN

Good Luck New Staff!

The bridges Fellowship is a semester-long commitment available year long which provides an overview of the bridges Multicultural Resource Center, its hxstory, and relevant issues affecting students of color on and off campus. Fellows will engage in work that pertains to the Center’s mission, which includes supporting the RRCs in their programming which will ultimately increase the number of marginalized students in higher education. The fellows will have an opportunity to work alongside one of the bridges staff members for the semester. Fellows have the option to take the fellowship for 1-3 Ethnic Studies Field Studies Pass/No Pass units each semester.