Episode Notes | Episode Transcript | AskTheGuest
Kaivallya Dasu is a senior at the University of California Berkeley and plans to major in Molecular Biology and minor in Creative Writing.
Although COVID interrupted her in-class experience, her passion for college life comes through.
Kaivallya is pursuing her high school interest in science and writing at Berkeley in the form of Molecular Biology and Creative Writing. She has been able to squeeze one summer internship working in a lab. On campus, she is a vocalist in the Indian Fusion music group.
Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:
Episode Title: Kaivallya Dasu on Berkeley: Molecular Biology, Creative Writing and Indian Fusion.
Episode summary introduction: Kaivallya grew up in the US and India. From an early age she had a passion for writing. She even published a book when she was in High School. While in high school, she also developed a strong interest in Chemistry, Biology, especially genetics.
Kaivallya Dasu is a senior at the University of California Berkeley and plans to major in Molecular Biology and minor in Creative Writing.
In particular, we discuss the following with her:
Topics discussed in this episode:
Our Guest: Kaivallya Dasu is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and minor in Creative Writing at the University of California, Berkeley.
Memorable Quote: “I've been telling stories as long as I can remember, even before I could read it, right. I like listening to stories, I like being read stories to, and talking about stories and making up my own.” Kaivallya about her passion for Writing.
Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.
Calls-to-action:
Transcript of the episode’s audio.
It's easy to get swept away know the craziness of the deadlines and social obligations and academic stress. But suppose you just sort of stop and think about it. It's pretty awesome.
Kaivallya Dasu is a senior at the University of California Berkeley and plans to major in Molecular Biology and minor in Creative Writing.
Kaivallya grew up in the US and India.
From an early age she had a passion for writing. She even published a book when she was in High School.
While in high school, she also developed a strong interest in Chemistry, Biology, especially genetics.
In addition to academics, Kaivallya was involved in Model UN, started the school newsletter.
Venkat Raman 1:15
Kaivallya joins us on our podcast to share her Berkeley story so far.
Before we jump into the podcast, here are the High-Fives, Five Highlights from the podcast:
[Overall Experience]
It is it's been sort of overwhelming, but in a good way. That would be the best way for me to describe it.
[Why Berkeley?]
I got a little bit older, I also discovered a passion for science. And Berkeley has an excellent science program. They have multiple science departments that are very good.
[Transition to Berkeley]
I actually opportunity my first semester at Berkeley to join a program for for program Freshmen, which is a way for Berkeley to sort of open up space on their main campus. But sort of help students like me, for example, ease into the academic environment in such a big university.
[Interesting Classmates]
People who are a military experience are people who have done other things and then come back, I had a classmate who, who was a PhD student who was taking an upper division undergraduate writing class just because she wanted to.
[Advice to Aspirants]
But I do think that a lot of the value in that comes from colleges partly, you know, actively seeking opportunities and resources.
Venkat Raman 3:08
These were the Hi5s, brought to you by College Matters. Alma Matters.
Venkat Raman 3:16
Now, without further delay, here is Kaivallya Dasu!
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Venkat Raman 3:21
Kaivalya. Welcome to our podcast, college matters, Alma matters, and great you could make the time to talk about your ongoing Berkeley experience. I know it's been a little interrupted by COVID. But I'm sure you have a lot to share that will be beneficial to our listeners. So with that,
Kaivallya 3:42
thank you for having me.
Venkat Raman 3:43
No Sure thing. Sure thing, I'm really looking forward to hearing about all your experiences so far. And maybe maybe the best place to start is if you could give us your overall impression so far, what it's been like to be at Berkeley.
It is it's been sort of overwhelming, but in a good way. Would be the best way for me to describe it. It is concisely it's college is far more and this is the thing that I found the biggest change from school to college but college is a lot more intense as in it's it's a new experience in every sphere because it is academically different. It is socially different. You're living somewhere else. So it was a lot of different things to get used to beyond just you know how college academics are organized differently from the way it was in school. And but it was really it has been very rewarding so far, so I'm looking forward to continuing it Hopefully in person.
Venkat Raman 5:04
Why did you pick Berkeley? I mean, you're, you're obviously a student from India. Why Berkeley?
Kaivallya 5:13
So I used to live in the US. So because of that I knew some people in the US have a fair few cousins who go there who have grown up in the US. And so I had heard a little bit more about US colleges as a child than you know, your average child who grew up entirely. I had actually heard about Berkeley when I was about eight years old, one of my cousins had gotten in. And that's when I first heard about it. And I heard that they had a good writing program. And I was quite obsessed with writing at that time, I still am. That time, that was my major passion. And I hadn't really, and then as I got a little bit older, I also discovered a passion for science. And Berkeley has an excellent science program. They have multiple science departments that are very good and well. And it I wasn't, I wasn't set on Berkeley, the way that you hear people are being set on Harvard, or Princeton, or Stanford. But I sort of imagined myself at Berkeley because I, I grew up partly in the Bay Area. And so it was a local college, I had seen photos itself, sort of accessible. And so I ended up getting into Berkeley, it was, it was kind of surreal, because it had been sort of something that had been imagining on and off for 10 years.
Venkat Raman 6:56
So what kind of extracurriculars or outside class activities did you engage in while in high school?
High school, it was very academics oriented just because the general school culture focused more on academics because attendant cloud models are very important. Yeah, but I participated in Model UN. And I wrote a lot. I was I found it the school newsletter, and I work in the press corps of my schools Model UN have quite a big one in the city. Yeah, writing and a new ones. And I wrote a book when I was younger. And so when I was in high school about the beginning of high school, I was editing it and I got it published.
Venkat Raman 7:55
Okay, so I kind of wanted to talk about your transition from India, to the US to Berkeley from high school to college. How was that whole thing?
Like I mentioned earlier, one of the most visible differences that I sort of had to adjust to was the class size, I actually opportunity my first semester at Berkeley to join a program or for program refresh, which is a way for Berkeley to sort of open up space on their main campus. But sort of help students like me, for example, ease into the academic environment of such a big university. The year I joined, there were 6000 new freshmen and transfer students. And so FTF basically was an off campus extension of Berkeley and we took classes from Berkeley professors, but in much smaller sections. So for example, my psychology class about 70 students, or my biology class would have 60 students. So it was it was a more gradual transition. And I got to know my professors because the classes were smaller, and it was easier for class discussions and sort of developing a personal relationship with the professor's so sort of helped me. But in certain ways that I still have trouble articulating. I feel that my my, my high school education was largely focused on academics and not particularly other things. So I gained skills in studying and writing papers. burns and like time management and things like that. But I didn't really have much opportunity to learn how to work with peers or approach my teachers for for like letters of recommendation, and I didn't really know how to sort of find what resources were available to me and leverage them just because it was fairly straightforward. And they know how to network very well to those are all things that I feel that people in maybe bigger schools or international schools or American high schools would maybe be better at, or more prepared for during high school. And so that kind of get used to teach myself once I got to college.
Venkat Raman 10:53
So how do you how'd you find your classmates? What do you think of your peers?
They're so interesting, they, it just, I did. Again, I went to very small schools. So the people I interacted with, for most of my life were fairly similar to me, like we lived in similar areas, and we spoke maybe similar languages, especially when I was in Hyderabad. Because I'm Telugu. But then I got to college and sort of everybody's had just such a different life experiences, and maybe not everybody is my age, like, I can take. I've taken senior level classes as their sophomore, and I've taken freshmen or sophomore level classes as a junior and, and not everybody's my age, I remember once I took a class, it was an upper division class. So it was mostly juniors and seniors, and I was a freshman. And my classmates were just so interesting. They were from different parts of the, of the US different parts of the world, I had a classmate, who I realized was somewhere about 25, I never figured out what and had been deployed to Afghanistan, and he had come back after his tour to sort of to now do his degree. And so there are people who are a military experience, or people who have done other things. And then come back, I had a classmate who was a PhD student who was taking an upper division undergraduate writing class, just because she wanted to do that doing a PhD in mechanical engineering, which is exploring. And so I find that really interesting, you know, people from all sorts of life experiences and, you know, there are so many people who want to fight through a lot to get here. And then there are some people who sort of came in in droves, there will be like, 20 people from the same graduating class from the same high school who arrived in Berkeley doing the same major. And so it's just such a variety of people, and all of them have interesting perspectives. So it's always cool to talk to people like that.
Venkat Raman 13:23
What did you, What do you think of the teaching? How are the professors? How are, you know, I know the classes are big. So how are the recitation sessions or smaller units that you guys have?
Yeah, so um, I think any school, in general has a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to teaching. Because teachers are hired for different reasons. And I've taken a range of class, I think the smallest class I've taken had 20 Students largest was 1000. So there are some people who aren't, you know, on the tenure track, and they're sometimes very interesting because they have a different sort of approach to teaching under their subject, and yeah, I've had some very good teachers. I've had some okay teachers, sometimes you can tell that the teachers are just sort of assigned an undergraduate class teach for the stir because they're, they're really there for for teaching grad students or for their research purposes. I've been taught by a Nobel Laureate, and while he was good, I've had I felt like some other professors, you know, word Nobel laureates were maybe more effective professors. So it's a bit all over the place, but For the most part, I've had some very good teachers. And even the ones who weren't, you know, spectacular or particularly memorable, they were still very good at their jobs.
Venkat Raman 15:15
So let's sort of move out of the classrooms and check about the campus, campus life and life in particular. So maybe we can start with the dorms. How did you find? And how do you find, I guess, the residential? living there?
Oh, wow. Um, Berkeley is one of those schools, right? Usually people only stay there for their first year and then move off campus. I actually on for my second year as well. But yeah, it is it is an interesting experience, I feel like it's, it's something that you can't really get elsewhere. Crusher was actually a little bit tough because I was in a triple. So I was sharing with two other girls in a fairly cramped space. So it was, it was kind of crazy that it was so crowded, and my entire floor shared one box, we had calls for a different shower stalls and further stalls. And there are still only like, there was one bottom for 30 and 40. Girls. That was That was interesting. That took some getting used to. Especially because you have to like walk down the corridor between the bathroom and your room. And it was something that I needed to sort of get over and handle. But um, but then I sort of bonded with the people on my floor, and I'm still in touch with some of them. I didn't get along with one of my roommates, but I did get along with each other. And we're still friends. And we came from different life experiences. And then my second year, I was placed in double. Then my room had family in San Francisco, and o'clock at noon that allowed her to visit very, very frequently. So it was effectively like being in a single room. Which was great. Because then when my earphones stopped working, I could still watch things without putting in my or, you know, I would just text her and say is it okay? If my friends come over? And she'd be like, Yeah, I'm not coming back to Tuesday said okay, cool. And then my friends would come over and we would watch a movie or something. So it was two very different types of dorm experience. But I think I enjoyed both. They were both valuable.
Venkat Raman 17:51
How about the cultural and social activities? What kind of things were you involved in?
My first semester, I joined a music group, Indian fusion, I'm a vocalist. And a keyboard. Yeah. But that has become one of the highlights of my social life, or act. I might even say the highlight. My most of my closest friends are in that group. And it is really cool, because it's a relatively small club, and it's become a tight knit group of people. And we enjoy that. And we put on we put we do our own performances, and we post lecture demonstration and concert. So I've learned a lot which I learned briefly when I was a child. And I've learned in college, which is I was also part of the yearbook, which was sort sort of functions as a time capsule, and every year at the end covered the different events across the year. Sort of preserve it, and that that was really cool, because that was a that's a very old organization on campus. It's been going on since almost the time, the University started like the late 1800s sort of being part of that tradition of history. And I'm part of a new organization, literary magazine that focuses on the life sciences. quite excited about it.
Venkat Raman 19:38
Let's talk a little bit about your summers. few summers now. What have you done? What what are you? What have you done in the summers? For your first, you know, freshmen and sophomore...
I only really had one summer because I came home In March of my sophomore year, and yeah, I was in quite a bad state. So I didn't really have the opportunity to set up and do an internship over the summer. Yeah, my freshman summer, well, I live, I go to college halfway across the world from my family is. And so I would come home. And I did. And I did an internship in a lab. And that was really cool. Because it was sort of perspective of what I am studying. And then I hadn't been get as an entry level. Or just a freshman, I didn't have as many opportunities to access research labs. And so I was just trying to build my lab career lab experience. And that's been put on hold for now, I'm taking a gap semester actually right now, because I'm not able to go to any lab. And I would like to get some lab experience and I needed to graduate.
Venkat Raman 21:15
Talk a little bit about the major. I, I know that, and you mentioned that writing was a big passion. And, but you are at this point, majoring in biology, or at least, molecular biology. So tell us a little bit tell us tell us a little bit about how you came to that.
I always enjoyed biology in school, um, interesting to learn about body. And genetics particularly was pretty interesting, just like drawing Punnett Squares and finding out how different genes affect each other. I was also fairly interested in chemistry, which sort of led me to the molecular biology side of things. And between 11th and 12th grade, I shadowed scientists at a biotech company. And I was sort of doing well, I was mostly following them around like a stray puppy. But I did little jobs around the lab, I would run the centrifuge and you know, count things to the count cells to the microscope, and I was taking notes and things like that. And so that, that gives me a look into an actual lab, which, as a 17 year old, I hadn't had an opportunity to understand before. And I really enjoyed it. So when I got to college, I was pretty sure that I wanted to do biology and some form of writing, I ended up picking creative writing as my minor rather than majoring in English, because I felt that writing was more my passion literature, which I would have had to do as an English major. And I'm happy with my choice. I didn't realize how tough my major is at Berkeley, is largely, my no MCB is the name of the degree of the department, molecular and cell biology. The most of my peers in the MCB department are headed for Med school. And so it's a it's like a very competitive environment that I'm not really a part of, and I'm sort of distanced from. It's also really tough. I have only taken one biology class, because I have to take so many chemistry, and physics and math classes in order to collect all the prerequisites for the higher level biology classes that I'll start to take next semester. And it was those tougher than I expected. But I still find it find biology really fulfilling and interesting.
Venkat Raman 24:15
Want you to share your interest in writing. You know, you mentioned that. How, How did that sort of come about? And I'm sure I'm assuming it's a great outlet for you. So, share your thoughts about writing.
Writing is much older, I don't really have an origin story for it. I've been telling stories as long as I can remember, even before I could read and write I like listening to stories. I like being read stories, and actually talking about stories and making my own. And so once I started writing once I learned to read and write it just sort of felt natural to write down those stories and ideas and thoughts. So I would write things, and it just sort of grew, I just kept reading and kept writing, you know, write myself a story, or I would write poetry. And as I got older, I got more serious about it, because I genuinely just enjoyed it. And I try to learn as much as I can. And now I get to learn from experienced people who are actively teaching me how to make myself feel better. Right. And I appreciate it's a lot of fun.
And, you know, also, one of the things with writing is that it, although it's, it's perceived as a solitary activity, and to some extent it is, can also be deeply meaningful when done and shared in a community. So I didn't really have that when I was writing in school very much. But in college, because there are so many people in my creative writing classes, my literature classes, where we're all interested in writing, and we all care about, we all have different perspectives and different experiences and different ways of writing. And so it's really cool to sort of read each other's work and give feedback and sort of understand each other's approach. And know, together, we come back, it sounds a little, it sounds a little trite and efficiently, but it's really the it's the reality of, of writing in communities really important.
Venkat Raman 26:52
So you mentioned that the molecular biology class, you know, those classes are very competitive. How do you find the creative writing classes? Do you find them?
Kaivallya 27:05
Taking a handful of them compared to, you know, the stuff that I have to take from a major, I don't have to take as many classes or minor, but I've had very good variances, and then there's smaller class. So I think that automatically makes it more discussion based, because there's fewer people is easier to discuss, rather than just to focus on learning the material and solving the problems. It's not like my bigger or my major required classes, or have a toxic environment where people carry each other down or sabotage each other, it's just that, you know, it's sort of individualized, it's everybody for themselves, just try and work through it. And with the smaller classes, it's just easier for people to work together because you see them more often. And you're able to sort of form a connection
Venkat Raman 28:08
What kind of advice you might have for students like you who might be looking to apply to the US or to Berkeley in particular, and who are international students.
Everybody comes at college with different priorities and different preferences in terms of what they want out of college education, maybe they want to be closer to somebody they know, or maybe a certain college has a really good reputation for a field that they're interested in. And, you know, the the things that people want are different. And so I thought, give specific advice about that would apply to everybody. So sort of think through, don't think brand names like Berkeley or Stanford or you know, big schools. Those are, those are cool, but I do think that a lot of the value that comes from colleges party, you know, actively seeking opportunities and resources, the cool things that you can do and more importantly, cool people you can meet.
Venkat Raman 29:29
Okay, so we are, we're kind of reaching the end of our podcast. So before we sign off, is there anything that you want to talk about that we haven't touched on here, any memory or tradition or something about that you want to share?
Berkeley's a huge school, there's so many different traditions and some of them are very niche I hope to participate in. I haven't been to a football game For example, I would like to go to one before I graduate. The the rallies for the football games that I never go to are always fun. In my freshman year, there would be the the band and the cheerleaders and the dance team would go to every dorm complex, and perform. They're even what it was like, before you know them or, and they've been there cheerleading outfits, and they're playing the fight song, and champion. And it was so great. It was really cool. And before the big game with Stanford, there was a bonfire at the Greek theater. So my friend and I climbed up the hills to get there, and just sort of sit there and enjoy. No one feel the school spirit. And it's a really nice campus. And then you can see the Golden Gate on a clear day. And we have a beautiful tower you have that has a great view from the top. And the there's an instrument at the top called the curl and one of my friends, one of my friends learn to play it. And so you hear the bells at certain times. One time I was walking through campus and I heard the Harry Potter theme playing with somebody else. So yeah, it's sometimes you just have to, it's easy to get like swept away and all the craziness of the deadlines and social obligations and academic stress. But you just sort of stop and think about it. It's pretty awesome.
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Hi again!
Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Kaivallya Dasu about University of California Berkeley.
Although COVID has interrupted her in-class experience, her passion for college life comes through.
Kaivallya is pursuing her high school interest in science and writing at Berkeley in the form of Molecular Biology and Creative Writing.
She has been able to squeeze one summer internship working in a lab.
On campus she is a vocalist in the Indian Fusion music group.
I hope Kaivallya’s spirit inspires you to look at the University of California Berkeley closely.
For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].
Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.
Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].
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Thank you!