University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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TWENTY YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG . ' ;cr- ' - ;? -:g ::- Students take a break from their studies. The OASES program sought to help Asian immigrant youths in the Oakland Unified School District. A volunteer partakes in some classroom clowning. The majority of OASES volunteers w ere students from UC Berkeley. It started ordinarily enough, like any other commumrv ' service club at UC Berkeley. In 1983. a group of 1 5 Berkeley students with the common goal of hclpmg strugglmg Asian immigrant youths in the Oakland Unified School District began combining their efforts. First they registered as a student group through the Office of Student Lite. Then for three hours a day, two to three days a week, they carpooled to the neighboring city of Oakland to tutor grade school students in the cafeteria of Lincoln Elementary School. Two decades later on the eve of its 20 anniversary, the Oakland .Asian Students Educational Services (OASES) had grown into a 400-volunteer strong registered non-profit organization, empowering more than 400 students each year to achieve their full potential through a wide slate of educational and social programs. Stacy Fat. former lead coordinator of the elementary school program, credited the organization ' s success to a variety ' of factors. She said. It ' s almost impossible to attribute the success of OASES to any single factor because there are so many... the enthusiasm and dedication of our volunteers, the efficiency and organization of the program, and most of all, because ever -one is working towards a common goal — to help the youth of Oakland. The program has expanded beyond anyone ' s expectations. The organization grew rapidly during its first several years as more and more volunteers, primarily students from the Berkeley campus, dedicated their time to help students in need. It was not until the early 1990s, however, that the organization started to truly expand beyond Berkeley and become fully established. The original student volunteers who had long since graduated remained active and assisted the then-current staff in making the transition from a campus club to a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit organization. Soon afterwards, they leased a nearby building and established the OASES Community Center, a thrce-stor - complex featuring staff offices, a flexible classroom and meeting space, and a pilot technolog - laboratory. The technology laboratory was especially important because the local schools and community centers lacked computer facilities. 00 3 o 3

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, ■ Phillip Angert Started a bit of m ' own passion and eyes on viliat Id cill rclcvTuit computer science. I- ' inally. UPE also helped with :omniunit ' outreach. In the past, UPE Tiembors have helped at Berkeley Meighborhood Computers, a nonproht organization that Iniilt computers from ■ccvcled parts and distributed them to ow income families. During C.al Dav, JPE members were loiind at .Soda Hall speaking to prospective ct)mputer science itudents and their parents, giving tours ■ f the lacilil les. and answering questions It the student panel. Chris Loer, a senior n computer science and Community service officer for UF ' E, played the itcrcot pical CS student and pretended o sleep on the floor of Soda Hall. Jrandishing a sign that read, .Ask us ibout sleeping in Soda Hall vs. the Dorms. When asked by parents of a orospeciive student, Loer replied, It ' s •asier to sleep in .Soda Hall since it ' s juietcr. With ihe increasing; number of tudents attending Berkeley due to Tidal tVavc II. a term dubbed b - administrative itficials referring zo the University ot -alifornia pl.uis to accommodate 63,000 nore students s stem v ' ide in the next iccade. 4,000 of which will be at ierkelex ' , the EECS department will indoubtcdly grow as well. Student )rganizations such .is L ' PE will become ven more essential to students who may ind themselves hclplessK ' swept away by he sheer m.ignitude ot the increase in tudents at Berkele -. Soda Hall is a familiar sight for computer science students. Known for their donut run, UPE distributed free donuts to hard-working students cramming late at night In Soda Hall ' s computer lab. A UPE officer greets awaiting members during their member induction day. In 2003, UPE was named tfie ASUC Hardest Working Academic Club for their efforts in helping tfneir fellow undergraduate students. A UPE member tables at the induction ceremony. UPE hosted a number of activities and programs to bring the, computer science community closer together, such as the CS EECS yearbook. lichael L. Yang is a graduating senior in omputer science and Spring 2003 iresident of UPE n ■ n D D ro

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Dakland Asian Student Education Services by Daniel Song The added classroom space allowed for ,i Imo.kI ipansion of the OASES programs. 1 he general itorial program expanded to include middle and igh school students, offering not only academic itoring, but also extracurricular enrichment orkshops, such as dance and painting classes. In idition, New lmmii;rant Services (NIS) provided lOre intensive language support for students ruggling with English, and Asian Youth Promoting dvocacv Leadership (AYPAL) began i raining 3uth to become community leaders. laking vantage of the in-house computing facility, two Iditional programs: Kids Technology (KATs) and ids Into Computers (KICs) were established that ught students computing skills ranging from basic licrosoft Office programs to HTML prograintning id JavaScript. The Inspiire Mentorship program was so established, matching; hit;h school students with mited resources to collc£;c students to aid them in jrsuing higher education. In 2003, OASES was served by a full-time staff 10 which included tour AmeriCorps members, 13 bo.ird members, 20 general coordin.itors, a number oi interns, and hundreds ot student volunteers. All these proijrams and the tremendous volunteer support resulted in iicarK- 40.000 hours ol service that year. The results were more than evident, when compared to 100 similar socioeconomic schools around the state, the sHulents ot Lincoln Elementar - ranked second. Ihrough the steadfast initiative and persistence shown by a handful ot Berkeley students in 1983, in .iddition to the support ot hundreds of other student volunteers, OASES tar exceeded the expectations ot the tvpical campus group. It had become a pillar of support tor the Oakland (-hinatown cominunity, recoi;nized many times over bv a myriad ot affiliates and sponsors from Clorox to Sun Microsystems, as well as with numerous community awards, such as the 2001 Spirit of Mentoring Auard. Although there were no immediate plans for further expansion of its proijrams, OASES hoped to continue doing what it had done so well — helping the communirj ' s youth and in the process, demonstrating what was possible when students work together toward a common goal. Homework is made easy with the help of an OASES volunteer. Tfie OASES program supported more than 400 volunteers a year A student shoots the camera a wry smile. With the help of OASES, Lincoln Elementary was ranked second among 1 00 similar schools in the state. D D U D P