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University Medalist Margaret Chow says sharing the "sad, profound moment" of 9/11 with others on campus changed her life. "It opened my eyes to the social and political consequences of what we--as individuals, and as a University, state, and country--do or fail to do." Disputing Cal's cutthroat reputation, she found an atmosphere of camaraderie here that helped her assert herself. "Eventually, you develop this very confident, unshakable attitude that is all part of being a Bear," she says. She'll miss strolling the lively streets of Berkeley, enjoying the sun and the local characters, and the food. "Within five minutes of campus, you can get Thai, Indian, Japanese--you name it!" This summer, she'll join a theater program in Italy before settling down to law school--unless she takes a break to help her mother start a business in Shanghai. Raquel Kops-Jones, America's top-ranked collegiate women's tennis player, credits her dad, a Fresno judge, for the discipline she brings to efforts on the court and in the classroom. She says he woke her at 4:30 a.m. to run before school--by tossing water on her if necessary. In her senior year, even under intense pressure in tennis competitions, she buckled down in a course she feared she'd fail. "I got a B, but I worked hard for it," she says. Among her victories: she's the first African-American woman to win an NCAA tennis title, and the first Cal woman to win the Pac 10 tournament. But meeting her boyfriend rates as the high point of her Berkeley years. "He's encouraged me through the good and the bad," she says, including her mother's cancer. After graduation, she plans to turn pro and play fulltime, "as long as I'm having fun and being successful."  Margaret Chow, Raquel Kops-Jones, Camilo Romero, and Eric Shewe. (Photo by Leslie Hirsch) Credit Camilo Andres Romero for the clear conscience many Berkeleyans feel drinking their morning brew; he helped bring fair trade coffee to local cafes. Winner of the Kenneth Priestly Award for leadership and contributions to student welfare, this son of Colombian immigrants led the busy extracurricular life of an activist, organizing prisoners at San Quentin and reviving an undergraduate sociology association, among other efforts. Characteristically, he wishes he'd done more, especially to ensure that more "deserving members of underrepresented communities" attend Berkeley, and wants the University to do more on that score. Romero plans to pursue a doctorate in sociology, but this summer he is headed to New York to campaign against sweatshops. A salsa musician, he also looks forward to playing his accordion, which may be aided by a secret talent: "I'm double-jointed in some places," he says. Daily Cal editor-in-chief Eric Shewe says his most memorable moment at the paper wasn't a breaking story, it was discovering that booked ad revenue and collected ad revenue weren't the same thing. "It was like all of Business Administration 101 crammed into a single night," he says. Scholastically, he counts himself lucky to have attended the last semester ever of Professor Irwin Scheiner's History H102 seminar. "We read such luminaries as de Tocqueville and Burkhart. Since only one other student enrolled, it was intense and intimate." This summer, besides picking up his trombone again, Shewe is psyched about traveling and teaching English in the Middle East before grad school (in history). But he'll miss the organic cornucopia at the Berkeley Bowl, including "house peanut butter powerful enough to turn saltines into gourmet treats." |
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