One of the perks of our USA Summer Camp is that participants get to stay on the beautiful campus of the University of California, Berkeley. That’s right, participants will stay in the same dormitories that are reserved for full-time students, so that they get the full college life experience. So this is the sight that greeted us as we approached the university right after leaving the airport:
A bit of history about the university. The University of California was founded in 1868, born out of a vision that it would “contribute even more than California’s gold to the glory and happiness of advancing generations. Today, there are many other campuses that are part of the University of California system, but as Berkeley is the oldest, it has the distinction of being called Cal for short.
Here are some numbers related to the university:
It is home to 184 academic departments and programs, so there is major for everybody.
It boasts a student to faculty ratio of 18 to 1
There are 7 Nobel Prize winners currently on the faculty
Despite being more than 100 years old, one of the original buildings from when the university was first established still stands today. Of course, there are many more modern buildings on the campus as well, and the dormitory that we stayed at for the summer camp was one such example. Instead of talking about it, here are some photos of the Unit 1 Residence Hall, and the spacious dining hall where we had all our meals:
So, that was about all we had time see on the first day of summer camp. Everyone had just taken a long 19 hour flight, and now to adjust to a 15 hour time difference. The students had an early night and got ready for the first day of class the next day.