About the Berkeley Project
The Berkeley Project (BP) began in 2006 as a giant, one-day service event held on Saturday, November 11th. Over 1000 students gathered from all over Cal to work together with our community partners at 43 service project sites all over the City of Berkeley (See the Project List for 2006). We are setting out to permanently change the relationship between the students and residents of Berkeley. Our ultimate goal is to create a network of service activities which will a.) serve the needs of Berkeley and its residents and b.) forge a positive relationship between the campus and the community.
Because the campus population is so large, Cal students have a big impact on the city of Berkeley. The Berkeley Project was created with the idea that the dynamic energy in the student body has the power to effect ongoing change in the community. BP is closely modeled after our sister organization The Detroit Project at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Detroit Project has successfully been established as a link between students and their community, and we envision the same for Cal and Berkeley.
The History of the Berkeley Project
The group's origins trace back to March 2006 with Andrew Rowland and Peter Do, then third and fourth year undergraduates at the University of California, Berkeley. They set out to put together a group of students who, like themselves, wished to increase the level of social conscience and service within the student body. The initial idea for The BP can be credited to a similar program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor called The Detroit Project. Members of the initial BP Planning Team all felt the need to have an organization like The DP on Berkeley’s campus. Such a group would work to develop an effective and convenient venue for student service while also strengthening the relationship between the school and the neighboring community.
The group set out in April of 2006 to organize BP’s first large service event, BP Day, in which over 1000 Cal students would join together to participate in a vast number of community service activities throughout Berkeley on that single day. Nearly half a year later, a team of 50 planners had coordinated the largest community service event to ever hit the Cal campus. Now, it was up to the students to come out and demonstrate that the they were able and willing to unite together for purposes of effecting positive change in their very own community. On the morning of November 11th, 2006, despite rumors of T-Shirt shortages and heavy rain, 1000 students awoke, trudged out into the wet and cold, and served their city at 43 worksites throughout Berkeley. The day was a resounding success from the perspectives of students, administration, city staff, and residents alike.
