Bay Area
Winter Commencement 2023 Lessons: Embrace UC Berkeley’s Values, Pursue Audacious Goals
Jade Amor-Shannan Johnson and Cerenity Bush stood under the bright winter sun on Dec. 16, 2023, proudly waiting to process into UC Berkeley’s Haas Pavilion and wearing personalized caps bedecked in glitter, illustrations and motivating phrases. Johnson’s cap said, “The marathon continues,” and Bush’s quoted Maya Angelou: “Success is loving life and daring to live it.”

By Amy Cranch
UC Berkeley News
Jade Amor-Shannan Johnson and Cerenity Bush stood under the bright winter sun on Dec. 16, 2023, proudly waiting to process into UC Berkeley’s Haas Pavilion and wearing personalized caps bedecked in glitter, illustrations and motivating phrases.
Johnson’s cap said, “The marathon continues,” and Bush’s quoted Maya Angelou: “Success is loving life and daring to live it.”
The wording suited the two friends, who were among some 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students participating in Winter Commencement 2023. Approximately 6,000 guests cheered as graduates’ names were called.
Johnson had majored in legal studies, with a minor in African American studies. She graduated in three years. Her secret? “I know how to have fun and show up for my studies. I’m happy I worked hard,” she said.
Bush’s major was psychology. As a transfer student from Georgia, she said she’d initially had a hard time finding her place at Berkeley and “felt a heavier weight in getting used to the university, with much less time.” But she prevailed.
Another graduating transfer student, Vanessa Reyes, credited Berkeley for having “broadened my horizons.” As a Mexican American, she grew up in a small town and said she had felt “culture shock coming here.”
Reyes was selected to sing the national anthem at commencement but decided to keep it a surprise for the nearly 30 family members there to honor her. “Graduating from college is a big deal to my family,” she said. “I was taught to be proud of who I am and where I grew up. It’s an honor to sing this song.”
Professor Jennifer Doudna, 2020 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her development of CRISPR-Cas9, a genome-engineering technology, gave the keynote address to several rounds of applause. The week before commencement, the federal Food and Drug Administration approved the first-ever therapy using this technology for sickle cell disease, a painful, debilitating blood disorder.
“I’m particularly proud that this therapeutic came from fundamental research here at UC Berkeley,” Doudna said. But, she said, much work remains to make the treatment more widely and globally available. “We can do this by forging the right partnerships,” she said. “And we need to explain our work and invite discussion and debate.”
Comparing the winter graduates’ journey to Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Doudna said, “Like the world of ancient Greece, the world you are entering is dynamic. Embrace it with open arms and a resolute spirit.”
She encouraged students to pursue audacious goals with passion and determination. “But never lose sight of your values, integrity and empathy,” she said. “Success is measured, in large part, by the positive impact you have on others.”
Yael Hacohen held the hands of her 7- and 3-year-old daughters, both wearing tiny graduation robes, when she approached the stage to be hooded for a Ph.D. in rhetoric. A fourth-generation Berkeley graduate and a published poet from Israel, Hacohen said it took a village to get to this day. “I had the best faculty members, who supported every aspect of my writing, every question,” she said.
When asked about juggling her studies and parenthood, Hacohen said, “It matters to be a woman, a mother, and to know that it is possible to achieve anything.”
In her remarks, Chancellor Carol T. Christ acknowledged that political and ideological divides — and, most recently, opposing perspectives about the conflict in the Middle East — are straining the ties that bind the campus community. She encouraged graduates to carry with them Berkeley’s values, including freedom of expression and respectful dialogue.
“I urge you to try to understand views different from your own,” Christ said. “Be skeptical of those who would divide the world into simplistic categories of good and evil, black and white — if only because the reality of our world is often far more complex in its shades of gray.”
Following her address, Christ presented the Elise and Walter A. Haas International Award to Damir Arnaut, who received his undergraduate degree from Berkeley in 1997, his master’s in 1998 and his J.D. in 2002. The award annually honors one of Berkeley’s alumni with a distinguished record of service to another country.
Elected to three terms as a member of Parliament in Bosnia and Herzegovina and recently appointed ambassador to Germany, Arnaut has dedicated his life to strengthening democracy and human rights. He was the first public official to support Bosnia and Herzegovina’s first LGBTQ pride march.
In his remarks, Arnaut said a Berkeley degree gives graduates both humility and audacity. “Berkeley teaches you what is right, provides you the skills to bring it about,” he said, “but also gives you that healthy dose of arrogance that makes you unwavering in your quest.”
Arnaut is currently working to dismantle ethnic divisions that keep individuals like his son — who Arnaut said was born into a “mixed marriage” (Arnaut is Bosnian, and his wife is Croatian) — from holding public office. “I won’t quit in this endeavor. I wouldn’t be worthy of this school, or this award, if I did,” he said.
Graduate Pearleen Wang, who double-majored in data science and music, was chosen to speak as the student representative. She told a story about her mother, who grew up in rural southern Taiwan and poured everything she had into providing a better life for her daughters, including nurturing artistic activities she had not experienced herself. One day, however, she decided to learn the art of cake decorating.
“The more she studied and practiced, the more fantastic her creations became,” said Wang, describing dreamy flower gardens and scenes painted with edible watercolors. “She unlocked an incredible artistic side that had lain dormant since childhood. My family showed me that learning is a lifelong journey, and it’s never too late to discover something new about yourself.”
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

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Bay Area
Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System
While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

The Richmond Standard
Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.
The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.
“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”
While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.
“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”
The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.
Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.
“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.
Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.
Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.
For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.
Activism
Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing
According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

By Magaly Muñoz
The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.
In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.
The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.
According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.
Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.
City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.
“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.
In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.
In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.
Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.
City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.
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