The whole point of our USA Summer Camp is to give students the feeling of what it’s like to live in a university, and a big part of college life are student activities on campus and the traditions continued by students. At Berkeley, one of the most famous traditions involves rolling down a hill just outside the faculty club, in the belief that this will gives students good grades. The legend goes that long ago, students who wanted to petition their professors for better grades would try to get their professors’ attention by standing on the hill and shouting at them while they dined at the faculty club. Most likely, some students who were less careful must have taken a tumble, which is probably what inspired the legend. It was great to see the Methodist Girls’ students getting into the spirit of things, and most of them were happy to do a roll down the hill.
In addition to beloved traditions, there are some monuments which are favorites among students. From certain locations on the Cal campus, if you look up at the hills that flank the university grounds, you will be able to see a big, yellow ‘C’ up on the hills. The Big ‘C’, as it is known, is a giant concrete block built into the Berkeley Hills overlooking the university. It’s a very well known symbol that is mentioned in a number of school songs and celebrates over one hundred years of athletic and academic excellence at the university. It has a history of over one hundred years, being constructed by the classes of 1907 and 1908.
The Big C is a site of many ‘fights’ between the students of UC Berkeley and their rivals from further down south at Stanford University. Stanford students have painted red over the original yellow paint, red being the color of Stanford University, and have even rearranged the concrete to make the letter ‘S’ instead. With so much history at this iconic site, we definitely had to make the hike up the hills to take a look, or at the very least, to enjoy the wonderful view that the high vantage point the hills would give us.
Here we are starting up the hike:
Half-way there!
Someone tied a swing way up here!
Group shots at the Big C!
