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International students attend Berkeley summer sessions

BERKELEY, Calif. — Every summer, UC Berkeley students leave campus to visit hometowns, travel and work summer jobs. As they leave, undergraduate and graduate students coming from all over the world take their places on campus to participate in summer study sessions administered by the university.

Berkeley Summer Sessions offer international students an opportunity to learn at a well-regarded educational institution — UC Berkeley was ranked the No. 1 public university in the country by US News in 2018 — alongside intelligent, like-minded people from every corner of the globe.

Morten Fels and Liu Peng are both participants in the political science session. Fels, a 25-year-old from Denmark working on his master’s at the University of Copenhagen, and Peng, a 23-year-old working on his master’s at Peking University in Beijing, have become good friends despite coming from completely different places.

“Even though you’re from China _ totally different political system than we have in Denmark — we still actually think very much the same way,” Fels said to Peng.

Hyeonjoo Seo is an international student from South Korea taking summer courses in psychology and statistics at Berkeley.

Berkeley summer sessions also allow students to pursue interests unrelated to their majors. Hyeonjoo Seo is a 19-year-old chemistry major studying at Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea.

“My university doesn’t give us too many different fields, so I wanted to take different classes at UC Berkeley,” Seo said. “I’m a major in chemistry but I wanted to study statistics, mathematics, and biology or psychology.”

A high percentage of international students are Chinese, and almost every country imaginable is represented at the summer sessions. Seo has met people from China, Japan, France, Korea, Italy and more.

Gene Guo, a 20-year-old from China studying electrical engineering, appreciates the wide-ranging backgrounds of Berkeley summer students.

“Here you can make friends with people from all over the world,” he said.

Fels also enjoys how diverse students studying in summer sessions at Berkeley are.

“You really get to meet a lot of people from throughout the world. That’s amazing, that’s very unique,” he said.

From bottom left to top right: Bill Yuan, Samuel Tseng, Gene Guo

Though roughly 3,000 international students study at Berkeley in the summer, being given the opportunity to do so is not easy. International applicants have to demonstrate a proficiency in English, and their grades and test scores often have to meet certain requirements. Guo, Samuel Tseng and Bill Yuan, all of whom are from China, had to be in the top 20 percent of their classes to apply to their sessions.

Once students arrive at Berkeley, they have to get to work. While classes do not typically exceed three hours in length, many students attend multiple sessions, and the homework load can be heavy.

“Six weeks is not a lot, so it’s quite intensive,” Fels said. “We have a lot of stuff to do.”

Being a student in a foreign country can be a useful, formative and eye-opening experience, but it does not come without challenges. The language barrier, in particular, can be difficult to navigate. Peng and Seo agree that speaking English has been the toughest obstacle they have faced at Berkeley.

Other troubles include having to use different types of toilets than those at home and not having much to do at night in dorms. On the whole, however, the experiences of international students attending Berkeley summer sessions are positive and constructive.

Even though they have had varying experiences while staying at Berkeley, Fels, Peng, Guo, Tseng, Yuan and Seo all agree that coming to Berkeley to study during the summer was a good decision.

“It was worth it,” Seo said.  

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What an apothecary has to offer over a dispensary

BERKELEY, Calif. — In January of 2018, the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana was legalized in the state of California, opening a new market for potential users. Many people walked into apothecaries looking for cannabis, only to realize that apothecaries do not sell marijuana but instead offer a variety of non-psychoactive herbs targeted toward healing instead of getting high.

Twisted Thistle Apothecaire stocks many different herbs.

What these people who wanted to get high recreationally needed to be going to was a dispensary. Dispensaries sell cannabis: a psychoactive drug which, although legal, is still regulated in the state of California.

The natural remedy world has been around for ages, and cannabis isn’t the only herb around. Apothecaries sell various herbs besides tobacco and cannabis. These herbs are often unregulated by the FDA.

“There are herbs than can be used for pain, that can be used for digestion, for your immune system,” said Ruthie Elizabeth, an employee at the Twisted Thistle Apothecaire.

In fact, most people walking into an apothecary are an entirely different niche than the people who walk into a dispensary.

The only thing that both stores sell is CBD, but it is important to know that hemp-derived CBD, which can be found at an apothecary, and marijuana-derived CBD, which is found at a dispensary, are different.

Although both plants are members of the cannabis family, they contain different amounts of THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis. Marijuana can contain up to thirty percent THC whereas hemp contains no more than three-tenths of a percent THC.

Herbs on display at Twisted Thistle Apothecaire.

The experience of intaking herbs can also be very different than the intake of marijuana. Herbs can be smoked, mixed in tea, or added as an extract, depending on the needs of a person.

“Smoking herbs is really more of a quick cerebral experience… and depending on the herb, drinking herbs as a tea can be very beneficial in a lot of different ways,” Elizabeth said.

Digestive issues and urinary tract infections may benefit from drinking tea because herbs in the tea will coat the mucous membranes of the body. Lobelia can open up your lungs so it’s an herb that may be better smoked.

There are also concentrated droplets of herbal extract called tinctures.

The tinctures that Twisted Thistle Apothecaire offers.

Elizabeth said, “Extracts are going to be a lot stronger and more concentrated and have a quicker onset. You take them sublingually under your tongue so they go into your bloodstream, or you can put them in water and drink them.”

When walking into an apothecary for the first time, the staffer will often listen to what is going on, and provide personal anecdotes or historical facts about certain herbs she or he feel would help. They will not recommend a certain herb, but instead offer the consumer enough background knowledge to make their own educated decision.

As the popularity of recreational marijuana is on the rise, the popularity of plant medicine has seen an upward trend, too. However, these trends are not correlated, and the user base remains entirely different.

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How one dancer broke out of his shell

BERKELEY, Calif.— Gizmo responds to his opponent with a series of sharp hand movements to a fast-paced beat. He incorporates contractions and twists of different limbs to articulate his intention. 

Tariq “Gizmo” Witherspoon, 23, is the cofounder of The Aspects, the only street-style dance group in Berkeley. The group draws from various styles, including flex and turf dancing, which creates a unique mode of expression.

Their style is a fusion of dance styles from both the East and West. Flex dancing is a dance style sometimes called bone breaking because of its rhythmic contortionist movement and incorporation of waving, tutting, floor moves and gliding. It has origins in Braco, Jamaica,and took off in Brooklyn, New York. Turf dancing is an American style of street dance that originated in Oakland, California, in the late 1990s. Witherspoon describes the dancing as more of a “feeling.”

A Berkeley dance group, The Aspects. Witherspoon on the far left. (Photo by Algerion Bryant)

It started with the friendship between Witherspoon and his best friend, James Palmer. Witherspoon would often watch his friend’s dance performances.

“I just thought it was really cool,” he said.

When he was 17, he tried it himself.

“I was a pretty shy and reserved person,” he said. “And I literally sat in my room and watched these videos and practiced for a whole year.”

Dancing has created an outlet for him to express himself, allowing him to open up in a way that would have been difficult to do without it.

“It’s really therapeutic, to be honest,” he said.

Witherspoon works full-time at Urban Outfitters in Berkeley and finds time afterwards everyday to practice.

“If I hadn’t become a professional dancer, I probably would have been a lot more shy,” he said. “And it definitely helped me come out of my shell.”

In the last year, The Aspects have gained recognition performing at Mission in the Mix at the San Francisco Dance Mission Theater.

The group is  working on new choreography for the International Hip Hop Dance Fest, which will take place this year from Nov. 16-18.

“They fly people in from all over the world,” he said, “and do a couple days of shows. It’s one of the biggest venues in the area. I did it in another group called TURFinc. This is the first year we’re going to be by ourselves.”

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YouthWorks program provides jobs for Berkeley youth

BERKELEY, Calif. — She was almost going to be cleaning up feces, cages and animals at the animal shelter, but instead Myisha Kemp spends her Saturday mornings at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market in Downtown Berkeley.

Myisha Kemp, 17, works for the city of Berkeley in the YouthWorks Program. The YouthWorks program is a year-round program offered by the Housing and Community Services Department that provides youth living in Berkeley with part-time paid jobs. Jobs range anywhere from Graffiti Abatement to Biotech.

Myisha Kemp, 17, working the YouthWorks booth at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market on Satuday. (Photo by: Natalie Wu)

Kemp spends her weekends working a booth at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market. This is her second year working for the YouthWorks Program. Last year, she had the same job heading into her senior year at Berkeley High School. This coming fall, she will be interning at the YouthWorks office while attending Berkeley Community College.

Kemp has multiple jobs at the Farmers’ Market during the summer. This includes running an info booth about eating healthy, being environmentally conscious and explaining programs that the City of Berkeley offers.

She also takes over for vendors who are in need of a break and don’t have someone else available to man their booth.

Outside of the Farmers’ Market, she helps plan events that YouthWorks is hosting and promotes YouthWorks on social media.

Along with working for the Farmers’ Market, Kemp also attends Roots of Success workshops on weekdays, which are required for her job at YouthWorks.

Roots of Success is an environmental education organization which prepares impoverished youth and adults to be part of the workforce while living environmentally-friendly lives. They do this through various educational classes including financial literacy and healthy cooking.

Kemp has also been on many trips through the Roots of Success workshop. One week ago, she was at the shoreline doing a beach clean up. Last year, she went to St. Anthony’s in San Francisco to serve meals to people who could not afford one, and her team is planning to go again this year.

The Roots of Success workshop has also changed her perspective on nutrition. By offering cooking classes, the workshop teaches students how to eat healthier while still having delicious meals.

Before attending the class, Kemp’s favorite place to eat was McDonald’s. She now enjoys cooking healthy foods and experimenting with spices.

“Next paycheck I’m excited to buy some fruits and vegetables,” Kemp said.

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Kite festival keeps them coming back

Berkeley’s two-day kite festival showcases huge kites flying over Cesar Chavez Park at the city’s marina. (Photo by Lynne Perri)

BERKELEY, Calif. — On your way to the festival, you observe the plethora of cars, buses, bikes and countless other modes of transportation snaking their way down toward the marina. People visiting with their families, friends and others pour in and out of the festival..

This is free Berkeley Kite Festival, now in its 31st year, which serves as a communal gathering point featuring food, families and dogs.

Alongside the long row of vendors at Cesar Chavez Park stand the booths for the Berkeley Police Department, where officers are directing traffic, passing out stickers and fielding questions.

Maggie Burciha, a San Francisco native, attended the festival for the first time last year and she was back again on opening day in 2018. She said came because of  “just how family-friendly it is.” She has two young boys “and we really enjoy kites,” she said. 

Although the kite festival showcases kites of all sizes and colors both for fun and for competition, there are also dozens of vendors — selling soaps, trinkets, T-shirts and other clothing (and kites) — and activities for younger children, including a playground full of inflatables, a petting zoo and pony rides.

 “We like the vendors,” Burciha said.

Like Burciha, Sandra Braddock arrived with her family in the afternoon. “This is great,” she said.  You get to see a lot of different people here, and different kites, too.”  

Her son was flying a kite and her daughter was sitting next to her with a blanket wrapped around her while Braddock talked about what a wonderful time they had last year.

“It’s windy,” she said, “but perfect for kites.”

 

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Vendors present culture through food

Andy and Cindy’s Thai Cuisine specializes in cooking with organic ingridients. (Photo by Kim Lamparello)

BERKELEY, Calif.–The produce from the Berkeley Farmers’ Market has been drawing customers in for years. The many vendors fill up the entire street, creating an inviting community.

The Berkeley Farmers’ Market has been a diverse community with a rich history. For more than 30 years, the farmers’ market has been showcasing a variety of produce and attracting new customers.

Throughout the years, the farmers’ market has received many awards. For instance, SF Gate named the farmers’ market as the Best Farmers’ Market in the Bay Area in their Baylist Best contest.

Here’s a closer look at five of the vendors who sell their products at the farmers’ market.

Andy and Cindy – Ethiopian Food Thai Cuisine 

This is Andy and Cindy’s Thai Cuisine menu. (Photo by Kim Lamparello)

Andy Szachnowicz is a forty-one-year-old man from Poland, Europe who has been making Thai food professionally for 13 years. In 2001, he moved to the United States and started his commercial restaurant in 2005.

He uses seasonal, organic ingredients and free range chicken for most of his dishes. Over the years, Szachnowicz’s business has grown to four other locations.

He also expressed how rewarding it is working independently and how he is “not overseen.”

One of his main focuses is to keep the customers happy. His favorite recipes are Thai noodle dishes.

Lone Oak Ranch – Home of Farmer and the Dale
Cayoa Harang is a thirteen-year-old girl who has been helping her family with the business for years. Dale Simmons, who has been a grandfather figure for Harang, works as a farmer and maintains the business.

Simmons has been farming for approximately 27 years. The business has been passed down through his family for generations, but will stop when he retires. Harang said the most rewarding part is seeing the customers’ surprised faces when they try the fruit. Her favorite foods from the business are the white peaches and grapes.

Savory Crepes
Pete Trembois’s business is considered a “Mom and Pop” family business. His business is called Tony’s Crepes and Kettle Korn and they make custom crepes for customers and pop specialty popcorns. Trembois also has drinks such as lemonade, iced tea and makes his own version of Arnold Palmer iced tea.

His business has several locations and has been selling at 10-20 different farmers’ markets for 25 years. His business in Downtown, Berkeley is there every Saturday. He uses organic ingredients whenever possible and French vegetables. He likes to support one of his favorite farms, Happy Boy Farms, but overall, enjoys supporting all of the farms in the market.

“The customer’s always right…they usually leave with a smile on their face,” he said.

Trembois is very loyal to his customers and his livelihood depends on them. The top-selling item are the crepes.

Kaki Farm in Gridley
The Kaki Farm is a family owned business, and Jessica and Daisy Sifuentes have been helping their uncle for almost nine years. The family has owned the Kaki Farm for over 25 years.

The Kaki Farm is seasonal and their business depends on what produce is growing during each season. Generally, the farm tries to grow different varieties of same product. The Kaki Farm grows blackberries, boysenberries, five different kinds of figs and seven different kinds of tomatoes.

The most challenging part of being in this business is keeping everything in stock for the customers. They also have a two-and-a-half hour drive from Gridley.

Jessica said, “It’s a handful because I do have my job to do outside of this, this is more like a hobby.”

Bariani Olive Oil
The Bariani family moved from Italy to the United States in the 1990s and started their family business after they immigrated. Sebastian Bariani and his family started making olive oil for themselves and eventually expanded into a business.

Bariani makes the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and travels back to Italy to study for two weeks. The olives are handpicked with care rather than being mechanically picked. The family makes other products such as honey, balsamic vinegar and table olives. The balsamic vinegar is made in Italy close to where the family came from.

The family participates in farmers’ markets located in Berkeley, San Francisco and Sacramento.

Tom Dawson helped Bariani for fifteen years and has learned many techniques from him. He introduced the recipe for table olives to the business.

While the main draw for the Bariani Olive Oil business is the oil itself, they also make soaps and skin creams from beeswax and olive oil.

To learn more about the Ecology Center, visit their website.
To learn more about the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, visit this website.

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Market builds community

Tom Dawson (left) has been involved in Bariani Olive Oil for 15 years and Sebastian Bariani (right) for 28 years. (Photo by Kennedy McDermott)

Berkeley, Calif. –– When customers step into the Farmers’ Market on a Saturday morning, they embrace the bustling activity and purchase a variety of green vegetables, enjoy tangy Thai noodles or sample Italian delicacies. On the left and right are numerous stalls of bread and pastries, flowers and greenery and a mix of tantalizing aromas.

In downtown Berkeley, the Farmers’ Market on Center Street at M. L. King, Jr. Way allows people to find fresh and organic products. It works in alliance with other Berkeley farmers’ markets under the Ecology Center. Its mission is to provide sustainable and healthy products. Each shop owner or farmer arrives before the sun rises to unload its products and start the day. Locals depend on this market, which operates from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. all year long.

Customers can buy anything from organic honey-based skin products to savory breakfast crepes stuffed with bacon.

One common thread found in the market is the commitment to producing organic goods. The shops are all dedicated to delivering the top quality products for each other, their families, their culture and their customers.

Tony’s Kettle Korn and Crepe

Tony’s Kettle Korn and Crepe is a mom-and-pop business, renowned for its popped corn and variety of crepes. They operate in 10 different locations across the state.

“You give the customers what they want, “ Pete Trembois, one of the sellers whose entire family plays a role in the business, said. “You know the customer’s always right. You give them what they want. You make them happy, and they usually leave with a smile on their face.”

They are loyal to not only their customers but also to their farmers and fellow family businesses.

Trembois adds that they “use premium ingredients so we’ll have premium products.”

They do their best to support all the farmers and rely especially on Happy Boy’s farm, another family-owned farm, for their fresh produce. Through supporting each other’s businesses, these shops build deep connections of community.

The Lone Oak Ranch

Dale Simmons and JoLaVonne ViDeaune run the Lone Oak Ranch located in Reedley, California. It has run for more than four generations. One worker, Cayoa Harang, who is 19 and a student, said selling the fruit is her favorite part of the job.

“The surprise on their face when [customers] eat the fruit for the first time and stuff like that is great,” said Harang.

Kaki Farm

Nicasio Soria runs the Kaki Farm in Gridley, California, with the help of hired hands and five family members.

“We get a better relationship with our customers here in the markets than in said a grocery store,” said Jessica Sifuentes, a financial analyst at Chico Medical Hospital who helps out with the business on the side.

Family-run shops also have an environment that big grocery marts do not have. Families often come in to enjoy a weekend at farmers’ markets. Mothers come in buy groceries for the week to feed families. Young adults swing by to have a taste of the organic and fresh coffee and pastries. These regulars said they come for the quality products and the trust.

Their goal is to offer as many varieties as possible for one product.

Sifuentes said, “We have early grills, beef steak, roma, heirlooms, cherry tomatoes, sweet 100s and sun gold.”

Bariani Olive Oil

Farmers’ markets are not limited to only fruits and vegetables. Customers can enjoy cuisines and products of different cultures at the Farmers’ Market in downtown. Bariani sells all products related to olives.

Tom Dawson, an employee of the shop, said “It’s a family that moved from Italy to the U.S. in the ’90s. They started making olive oil for themselves and turned that into a business.”

From olive oil to honey to their most popular item, olive pate, this shop celebrates its Italian roots.

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From professor to musician and adults to tiny tots

BERKELEY, Calif.— With fire trucks, planes, trains and over 120 songs in his repertoire, you name it and Grandpa Clyde will sing it.

Clyde Leland, known to many as Grandpa Clyde, began singing to kids around 41 years ago when his children were born. Now that he’s retired, singing has become his full time job, going to preschools, day cares, and special events.

Kids stop and listen to Grandpa Clyde sing on Saturday. (Photo by: Natalie Wu)

Accompanied by children and their parents who would intermittently pass by, he sang at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market this past weekend promoting Freighter Tots: a Saturday Morning sing along for kids at the Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse.

When asked about his favorite part of his job he said, “I like it all.”

“Firetruck”, is a crowd favorite song among kids. Every so often teachers at daycare will send Grandpa Clyde videos of their kids singing the song after a visit.

Leland, originally from San Francisco, was a professor of law at University of San Francisco. Upon retiring, he turned to singing for kids full time. He now lives in Berkeley.

“All the years I taught law school, no one came up to me after class to give me a hug, and now it happens everyday,” he said.

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Farmers’ Market includes the homeless community

BERKELEY, Calif — Laughter in the crowd of people buying fuzzy peaches rises on a early Saturday morning. Children accompanying their parents sit down to sing along with a guitarist. This is a Saturday at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market.  

But amidst all the chatter and laughter homeless people surround the 1947 Center St, where

the market takes place on Saturday, they are either participating in the market, sleeping on the benches in the nearby park, or walking around.

On average 972 homeless people sleep on the streets of Berkeley each night. Homelessness in Berkeley progressively got worse after the 1970’s, due to policy changes in the federal government and economic downturn.

Around 71 percent of the homeless population originally had stable jobs before becoming homeless. Homeless people gravitate toward San Francisco under the assumption that it has more benefits for them. Especially with the amount of shelters and markets provided.      

The homeless population in San Francisco publishes Street Spirit,  a newspaper that aims to shed light on struggles homeless people face in the Bay Area. Street Spirit has been around since 1997.

Arrous Lamberet, a seller of the Street Spirit Newspaper, is at Berkeley’s Farmers’ Market every Saturday. (Photo by Lesley Rodriguez)

 Arrous Lambert, a Street Spirit newspaper vendor, greets and enthusiastically encourages everyone that walks by to purchase the newspaper. Lambert started selling paper in order to financially support himself when he retired back in 1997.

Lambert has been selling papers at the farmers’ market since the paper’s inception in 1995.

“Not trying to get rich, not gonna get rich unless I win the lotto. I love talking to people,” Lambert said with a smile on his face.

Looking in from the outside, vegan oats vendor Nazim Elahi, is familiar with the homeless people that frequent the market. He is keen on helping them and thinks that market does a good job of being inclusive to people of all backgrounds.

“A lot of homeless people come and get full on free samples and some vendors donate to the homeless. As long as everyone is good the day goes well,” he said.

Deneise Jones is a homeless woman who is a mother of four. She went to high school at Berkeley High School across the street from Saturday’s event.

Her main source of income is selling papers at the farmers’ market.         

Deniese Jones, a homeless women who sells the Street Spirit Newspaper to earn a living is regular at Berkeley’s Farmers’ Market. (Photo by Lesley Rodriguez)

“I’m an African American young women striving, selling, looking for food. Out every Saturday selling homeless papers to eat and sleep,” she said. “I have a lot of spirit a mother of four…it’s not easy.”

Her faith in God also helps keep her from hitting rock bottom mentally. “I’m one of those strong survivors,” she said, her smile is wide and beaming as she continues, “ If the man above me keeps me going, if I have faith in him, I’ll be alive.”

Since Jones is out at the farmer’s market every Saturday, she is familiar with most of the other homeless people who frequent it, as well as the vendors who have become her friends.

As she glances around the market full of bustling adults and children alike, she glances back with a smile. “Everyone is a day away from being homeless,” she says. “Anything can happen. Remember that.”