Welcoming Berkeley Students to Meta
This August and September, I helped welcome two groups of UC Berkeley students to Meta’s San Francisco office: 65 students from CS Kickstart and 70 students from PREP, T-PREP, and CS Scholars.
The students were at different points in their Berkeley journeys, but both visits created space for something valuable: asking people working in tech what their jobs actually look like.
For CS Kickstart, the day included lightning talks, a panel, and small-group conversations about career paths. Having participated in the program as an incoming freshman and later helped run it, welcoming the next cohort felt especially meaningful. I remember how much it mattered to meet people a few steps ahead of me and start imagining myself in their shoes.
The September visit brought together students from programs supporting first-generation and historically underrepresented students. We opened with two questions: What does your work look like day to day? And what did you learn in college that carried into your career?
Then students joined smaller conversations with Metamates across engineering and other disciplines. Those breakouts were my favorite part. The room was full of thoughtful, honest questions.
These conversations feel especially useful as AI changes how engineers work. Students are making decisions about their futures while the industry is changing around them. Hearing directly from people doing the work can make that future feel a little more tangible.
I’m grateful to the Berkeley organizers and everyone at Meta who shared their time. Communities like these helped me find my place in computer science, and I’m glad to help extend that welcome.
