CWP Student Spotlight

Current & Former CWP Student Profiles, Presentations & Publications

Approximately 4,000 students per year take courses in College Writing Programs.  Find out what current Cal students and recent Cal graduates are doing now and how the interactive, inquiry-driven seminar classes in College Writing Programs impacted them as readers, writers, researchers, and thinkers at the university – and out in the world.

COLWRIT R1A

Ruth Christie

Ruth Christie, a student from Senior Lecturer Michelle Baptiste’s CW R1A (Spring 2026), had her art accepted and published in Peregrine Volume 2.

Ximena Flores

Ximena Flores, a student from Lecturer Matthew J. Parker’s CW R1A (Spring 2023) and Eric Longfellow’s CWR4B (Fall 2023) won first place for her creative nonfiction essay “Designing My Yogurt Cup” published in Peregrine Volume 1.

Jolin Shao

Jolin Shao, a student from Lecturer Matthew J. Parker’s CW R1A, earned third place and had her work “When Bamboo Grows Up” published in Peregrine Volume 1.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Im

 Jacqueline “Jackie” Im, a student from Michelle Baptiste’s CW R1A (Spring 2018) wrote a blog post titled “Why Writing Matters FAQs” – to support future students in R&C courses.  Jackie entered UC Berkeley as a student athlete (diving), and she later studied abroad in Sydney, Australia.

View her blog on "Why Writing Matters" here

Jacqueline's Testimonial

Post-graduation, Jacqueline returned to Berkeley in Summer 2023 to pursue an architecture program. Today she works in interior design, a career she reached through a winding path.  

In her own words, “After graduating from UC Berkeley, I started my career in market research and People Operations before eventually finding my way into interior design. While my work has evolved, writing has remained a constant—and an important one. I use it every day to communicate with clients and vendors, coordinate countless details, and keep projects moving forward. I’ve come to appreciate how much thoughtful, clear writing can build relationships, solve problems, and bring a project together.”

COLWRIT R4A

Sydney Lei

Sydney Lei, a student in Instructor Becky Hsu's College Writing R4A (Fall 2026), self-published a book of poems titled Plague(link is external) and also was just selected to be an editor for Peregrine! Sydney, along with a friend taking a course in the English Department, was awardeda fellowship through the Inquiry Across Traditions (IAT) Initiative at The Berkeley Institute to start a reading group that will be co-sponsored by College Writing Programs.

Asher Cohen

Asher Cohen (Class of 2025) is a second-year medical student at Yale. 

In his own words, he shares, “I had the privilege of taking Michelle Baptiste’s College Writing R4A (Fall 2023) when an undergrad at UC Berkeley. On top of writing essays about Frozen River, Crip Camp, and the book-turned-movie Killers of the Flower Moon, the skills I gained in CWR4A helped me apply to medical school and eventually become UC Berkeley's 2025 University Medalist.” 

View this video and article where he describes his openness to learning, gratitude to his mentors, and desire to give back to the community.

Abigail Corcio

Abigail Corcio (Class of 2025), who earned a minor (now offered as a certificate) in Teaching English to Multilingual Students, took five classes in CWP–from Fall 2021 through Summer 2024 with Senior Lecturer Michelle Baptiste, Senior Lecturer David Wiese, and Continuing Lecturer Peter Vahle: CW R4A: Language & Power, CW R4B: Modern Love, Ancient Brains, CW 121: Issues in Teaching English Internationally, CW 142: Grammar for English Language Instructors, CW 143: Foundations of Teaching English as a Second Language, CW 145: Creating Materials for English Language Education.

She is now back on campus earning a teaching credential and a Masters degree through the Berkeley Teacher Education Program–all while still teaching in a first grade dual immersion language classroom in San Leandro.

View her video testimonial on the CWP Teaching English to Multilingual Students online summer certificate here!

Juana Penalosa

Juana Penalosa (pictured on right), a student in Michelle Baptiste's College Writing R4A (Fall 2023), was one of three mini-essay winners, along with Victoria Fan (pictured on left),who had her 300-word reflective review(link is external) of the 2020 Jim LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham documentary(link is external)Crip Camp(link is external) printed in a 'zine for the 2023 College of Letters and Science On the Same Page contest(link is external).  In addition, 8 of the 10 student writers whose mini-essays were published online were also students in CWR4A (Fall 2023): Tabasom Barkzai, Asher Cohen, Susana Diaz-Francisco, Gavin Eddy, Niki Jacquin, JungHo Kim, Jake Lee, and Nicholas Martinez. Congratulations to all! 

Read Juana’s and Victoria's mini-essays here

Read the other students' mini-essays here

View the film Crip Camp for free here

COLWRIT R4B

Chris O' Keefe

Chris O’ Keefe presented a condensed version of his CWR4B Fall 2025 Capstone Project from Senior Lecturer Dr. Caroline Cole’s course at the American Nuclear Society (ANS) Student Conference at Texas A&M, alongside others from the UC Berkeley ANS Chapter. He highlighted that he has been learning not just about the field of nuclear science, but also about the discourse conventions in nuclear engineering. 

Chris explains, “It would not have been possible or have even crossed my mind that I could've done this without [Caroline Cole’s] R4B class. As the only freshman from Berkeley and one of few freshmen at the entire conference, it was definitely a pivotal and rare experience that will set me apart in terms of not only the technical writing skills [Dr. Cole] taught, but also networking, collaboration, and professional development. Thank you so much [to Dr. Cole] for putting me through the struggle of learning how to write and conduct research in my field, it has definitely helped me earn ‘A Seat at the Table."

Danielle Tran

Danielle Anh Tuyet Tran, a student from Continuing Lecturer David Wiese’s CW R4B and Senior Lecturer Michelle Baptiste’s CW 143 (Summer 2023), is the only student writer to have their work published in both Peregrine Volumes 1 and 2: “A Killing Lullaby: Personification and The Poetic Burden” in Vol. 1 and “Folding” in Vol. 2!  They have an interest in multicultural education and plan to pursue a PhD in English

Ashwin Kannan

Ashwin Kannan, a student from Senior Lecturer Margi Wald’s CW R4B (Fall 2025), expanded his research project into an article "Narrative Quotient: A Core Competency for Person-Centered Care”(link is external) published in the May 2026 Medical Science Educator. 

Ashwin reports, "I’ve [also] expanded the paper on narrative discontinuance that grew out of my CWR4B class — the one arguing that narrative medicine structurally excludes migrant populations. The manuscript is currently undergoing a second round of peer review at BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics after receiving a major revisions decision, and I'm hopeful it will be accepted. I don't think I would have ever discovered my passion for bringing the benefits of narrative medicine to migrant patients without my CWR4B class."

Miya Rosenthal

Miya Rosenthal, a student in Pat Steenland’s CW R4B (Fall 2022), won the Undergraduate Immigration Project Prize in the Creative Projects category for her final research project: a documentary film based on interviewing her grandmother: "Oral History of Yuriko Kamiya: A Year in Infamy," a project she completed as a student in Pat Steenland’s CW R4B. A University Medal Finalist, Mia graduated in 2025. 

View Miya’s film here

Yazzie Suleiman

Yazzie Suleiman, a student from Senior Lecturer Kim Freeman’s CW R4B (Spring 2022), published the piece “Falling Far Behind: Insufficient Climate Education in the U.S.” Berkeley Political Review. October 31, 2022.

Saffanat Sumra headshot

Saffanat Sumra

After completing Margi Wald's R4B class in 2020, Saffanat Samra took her project on narrative medicine a step further and conducted a qualitative analysis of 24 "A Piece of My Mind" essays in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The poster of her study, "Proposing Narrative Medicine as an Outlet of Expression for Physicians Suffering with Moral Injury," was accepted at the 2021 Global Health Conference at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine.  She has since gone on to win a URAP grant to help create pipelines for the recruitment and training of students from underrepresented backgrounds to be health navigators at UCSF.

Ciang Festival Banner - Decorative

Chiang Research Festival

Visit our webpage highlighting the Chiang Research Festival. Hosting more than 450 College Writing R4B students during RRR Week of each term, the festival provides a forum in which students can test and refine their ideas before submitting their final research portfolios. In small groups, student present across sections--both receiving and giving feedback on their research.

On Writing

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot."  — Stephen King

Creative Writing 

Rashika Singh

Rashika Singh, a student from Senior Lecturer Michelle Baptiste & Senior Lecturer Kaya Oakes’ CW 131 Creative Nonfiction (Spring 2024), had their piece “Beauty Mark” published in Peregrine Vol 1

Rashika shares, “Since graduating, I've submitted a lot of writing to literary magazines, and one of my stories ‘Redwoods Dark as Blood’ even got published online in Dominique Lit Magin April 2026! I'm also currently a writer at Stupendium Softworks, a new independent video game studio, working on our debut project.”

Read ‘Redwoods Dark as Blood’ here

Macy Wang

Macy Rayshing Wang, a student in Senior Lecturer Ryan Sloan’s CW 132: The Craft of Short Fiction, became the first student editor-in-chief of the Peregrine journal in 2025 when founding editors Continuing Lecturer Joe DeQuattro and Lecturer Matthew J. Parker transitioned the journal over to a board of student editors.  Macy took the lead in publishing Peregrine Volume 2 in Spring 2026 along with support from the rest of the student editorial board: Jackie Huang, Kyrstin Nicole Knight, and Erin Hailey Weitzman!

View photos of the release party here.

Skylar Yifei Li

Skylar Yifei Li minored in Creative Writing and took CW 130: Introduction to the Craft of Creative Writing (Fall 2023) with Senior Lecturers Michelle Baptiste, John Levine, and Ryan Sloan.  Skylar graduated in 2024 as a University Medal finalist and later received her Masters degree in History of Art from the University of Oxford. 

Skylar explains, “I’ve always been passionate about storytelling. One of the most meaningful classes I took at Berkeley was CW 130. I decided to combine visual and written storytelling for my creative nonfiction piece, culminating – to my own surprise – in a project which became a fundamental and invaluable point in my growth as a person and as a writer.”

Skylar's work

Skylar explains, “I’ve always been passionate about storytelling. One of the most meaningful classes I took at Berkeley was CW 130. I decided to combine visual and written storytelling for my creative nonfiction piece, culminating – to my own surprise – into a project which became a fundamental and invaluable point in my growth as a person and as a writer.”

Jihoon Park

Jihoon Park, a student in Senior Lecturer Kim Freeman’s CW 132: The Craft of Short Fiction (Summer 2016), has had several pieces published in noted literary journals: “The Midtown Jazz Cats” in The Fiction Pool. (24 July 2020),“The Zookeepers Guide to Animals” in New World Writing (4 November 2020),“Van Gogh and the Lego Man” in Split Lip (14 February 2022), and “Sketches of My Father” in The Columbia Review Vol. 103.1 (Fall 2021).

CWP Student Film & Journalism Prize Winners

Miya Rosenthal

Undergraduate Immigration Project Prize in the Creative Projects category, 2022

"Oral History of Yuriko Kamiya: A Year in Infamy," a documentary film 

Miya and fellow prize winners were honored at the UC Berkeley Immigration Prize Awards Luncheon, March 17, 2023 pictured here. From left to right: Helina Li, Computer Science and English,  Personal Essay Prize, "A World Without Borders”; Mariana Garcia, Political Science, Current Affairs Prize, "Title 42: Stories of Migrants in Search of the American Dream," created for CalTV; Miya Rosenthal, Media Studies, Creative Project Prize, "Oral History of Yuriko Kamiya: A Year in Infamy," a documentary film based on an interview with her grandmother completed as her final research project in Senior Lecturer (Emerita) Pat Steenland’s CW R4B: Images of History course.

In awarding the prize the judges explained they "were impressed with the thoroughness of Miya’s research, the sensitivity of Miya’s interviewing, the clear structuring of her narrative, and the creative ways she incorporated historic images and sound into her project."

View Miya’s film here

Sage Alexander

First Place in Writing Award from the California News Publishers Association,  California Journalism Awards, 2020

“Grave robbing at UC Berkeley: A history of failed repatriation,” Daily Cal 

Sage took Pat Steenland’s CWP/HUM 196, “The American West: Myth, Wilderness and Sacred Place."

Read Sage’s award-winning article here

Jenna Cavelle

Judith Lee Stronach Baccalaureate Prize, 2012

“Recovering Cultural Memory: Irrigation Systems  of The Owens Valley Paiute Indians,” a project undertaken in Pat Steenland’s CW 50/150AC, “Researching Water in the West”

Jenna Cavelle then worked to create the documentary film Paya, featuring Harry Williams--a revered Paiute water rights activist, elder, and first officially recognized American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) community scholar. The documentary won Best Short Documentary at the Red Nation Film Festival in 2015 in Los Angeles and aired live on HBO. Jenna presented the award to Harry in front of everyone, and when he spoke, he dedicated the award to Pat Steenland, Victoria Robinson (Continuing Lecturer, Ethnic Studies & American Cultures Program Director Department), and American Cultures.

View the film trailer here

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