杜君薇，物质学院2014级
2014年院长奖学金，2015年B类暑期奖学金
The trip to UC Berkeley is the best experience I have ever had. In this summer session, I studied, appreciated beautiful scenery as well as had fun with classmates from different countries and various cultures, which made up an unforgettable and exciting summer of my first year in university.
Having walked out of the San Francisco airport, the first thing that came into my sight was the blue sky. The soft and clean color made me forget my jet lag to be nothing. In the following 21 days, the fascinating sky accompanied us wherever we went.
What impressed me most was the UC Berkeley campus. Unlike a traditional Chinese university, UCB has no gate. I was surprised to find that campus was part of the city of Berkeley. Buses went straight into campus and people of any occupation could go in and out of the campus freely. I even saw homeless people sleeping beside the school buildings when I walked around the school. UCB is completely open to society. I fell in love with the university when I saw its splendid and well-preserved ancient school buildings, which have witnessed history and have seen the development of UC Berkeley. I felt like wandering around the big campus, enjoying the bright sunshine, appreciating the old towering trees and seeing the students lying on the lawn or reading under the tree. Oh, squirrels would jumped out from time to time...UC Berkeley met all my requirements for a university campus.
The other thing I want to talk about is the class. To be honest, I was not very interested in the class called PACS-Peace and Conflict Studies at first. But there weren’t any alternative for me in session E. However, it proved to be a good choice because of the good teacher and active classmates. The professor was a kind older woman, who was an expert in mediation and international conflicts. The journal and final essay she asked us to write helped me learn a lot about mediation and the nationality issue in China. We had several foreign classmates coming from America, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Yemen. We discussed some international topics, such as Tibet, death penalty, nuclear issue, and global warming. Talking with them was interesting because we came from different cultures and had different, even opposite, views on the same topic. Besides, they were patient to listen to our awkward spoken English and would break the silence in case of embarrassment. On the whole, the $1380 school fee wasn’t a waste.
Anyway, UC Berkeley deserves visiting!
