Art of Writing Courses
Art of Writing cultivates and supports the craft of writing at UC Berkeley. These seminars, workshops, tutoring programs, and events build a collaborative writing community across the disciplines, and approach writing as a teachable art.
Berkeley Changemaker Courses
The Berkeley Changemaker® is a visionary leadership training program built for those currently leading strategic change or aspiring to do so. This unique and specialized course is rooted in UC Berkeley's core principles—including questioning the status quo and going beyond yourself—and in its longstanding association with thought leadership and innovation.
From inspiring change to stimulating action, the Berkeley Changemaker provides a wealth of new knowledge and hard skills to help you apply strategic thinking to your change management processes, discover new sources of purpose, and leverage your vision to spark action in others. You’ll learn how to embody an entrepreneurial spirit to spot new opportunities, galvanize high-impact teams, overcome obstacles, communicate with clarity, and fully step into your role as a changemaker.
Berkeley Connect
Berkeley Connect provides undergraduate students with their own personal graduate student mentor, introduces them to other students who share academic interests, and helps them to build relationships with professors and alumni.
Each semester of Berkeley Connect includes:
One-on-one advising sessions
Small-group discussions
Special events
Field trips
Berkeley Connect welcomes all undergraduates, regardless of major or year. The only requirement is an interest in one of these fields of study:
African American Studies
Architecture
Comparative Literature
Computational Biology
English
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Ethnic Studies
History
Integrative Biology
Math
Music
Philosophy
Physics
Sociology
Social Welfare
Big Ideas Courses
What happens when you bring together two (or more!) outstanding professors, from completely different disciplines, and one big idea? Add a room full of bright Berkeley undergraduates and let the spirited discussions fly. These courses are some of the most inventive and exciting options on campus, in part because the faculty members are stretching and growing along with their students. Offerings appear on the Big Ideas Courses website.
Course Threads
Course Threads provide a way for Berkeley undergraduates to explore broad topics that require multiple approaches from the arts, humanities, social sciences, engineering, and physical sciences. To complete a Course Thread, students take three designated courses in two different departments, and they may choose to give a presentation at the end-of-semester symposium to receive a certificate. To learn more, visit the Course Threads website.
DeCal Program
DeCals, short for Democratic Education at Cal Program, are an aggregate of Academic Senate-approved 98 or 198 courses that are proposed, designed, and led by Cal undergraduates under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. Offered through over 60 departments, these 1-2 units P/NP courses provide students the opportunity to experience the power of peer-led facilitation, and collectively, the DeCal program adds over 300 student-run courses to Cal’s curriculum on a yearly basis. Students looking to develop their DeCals can find start-up training and facilitation support resources through the Undergraduate Course Facilitator Training & Resources (UCFTR) Program at the Student Learning Center.
First-Year and Sophomore Seminars
First-Year and Sophomore Seminars arose from the conviction that early intellectual contact with faculty members would greatly enhance the undergraduate experience at Berkeley. Professors from nearly every campus department join together each semester to offer an impressive array of seminars. The courses numbered 24 (and in some cases 90) bear one unit of credit; they are limited to 15 students and first-year students are given priority for enrollment. The courses numbered 84 bear one or two units of credit; they are limited to 15 sophomores. The courses numbered 39A-39Z are limited to 25 first-year students and sophomores.
Seminars, which emphasize interaction and discussion, provide a counterpoint to the learning experience in Berkeley’s large lecture halls. These seminars also offer lower-division students an unprecedented opportunity to explore a wide range of majors and even fields of study usually reserved for graduate students. As you browse through this Guide, you will find lower-division seminars sponsored by Letters and Science departments, as well as by the professional schools and colleges.
Descriptions of all the seminars scheduled for the upcoming semester can be found in time for course enrollment registration on the program’s website, which also contains other useful information and features for undergraduates. If you have any questions about theFirst-year and Sophomore Seminars, contact the program office at fssp@berkeley.edu.