Thank you for visiting our Berkeley Changemaker courses page.
We'd love to hear what you think and what future courses you might like to see: changemaker@berkeley.edu.
Photo credit: Jim Block
Photo credit: Jim Block
Summer 2021
Course 12: "The Berkeley ChangemakerTM"
L&S C12 Class #10651
2 units
Faculty Lead: Alex Budak
Contributing Instructors: Laura Hassner, Brandi Pearce, and Mariana Somma
You could have gone almost anywhere and you chose UC Berkeley—we’re so glad you did! For generations, people like you have come to Berkeley to leave their marks on the world, questioning the status quo as they think, and act, beyond themselves. Our Course 12 will activate your passions and help you develop a sharper sense of who you want to be, providing the tools you’ll need along the way. Whether you want to start your own company, launch an NGO, discover your passion, or learn how to effect positive, lasting change from wherever you are, our Berkeley Changemaker community has a place for you. By taking this asynchronous online course you will meet incoming Berkeley students from all around the world before you arrive on campus. You can engage with our lectures, assignments, and readings at the time of day which works best for you. Our class is taught by an all-star team of 22 UC Berkeley faculty members, representing 16 diverse departments and 7 schools across our campus. Our guest faculty includes Chancellor Carol Christ, former Federal Reserve Chair & Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and 9 Distinguished Teaching Award winners. This is the only course on campus that introduces you to how more than 20 of our most distinguished faculty think about changemaking and leadership, and how to put all of that into action. This course includes an optional "live" one-hour weekly session featuring guest speakers and opportunities for you to build your Berkeley Changemaker network.
Spring 2021 Courses
UGBA C12 "The Berkeley Changemaker"(link is external) and L&S C12 "The Berkeley Changemaker"(link is external)
Class #33085 and 33048
2 units
Coordinating Instructor: Alex Budak
Contributing Instructors: Laura Hassner, Brandi Pearce, and Mariana Somma
This course is rooted in the belief that all Berkeley students are in the process of becoming Berkeley Changemakers. Changemakers make their impact everywhere on the campus intellectual landscape – through scientific breakthroughs, artistic imagination, social action projects, and entrepreneurial ventures. It is a course for entering students, who will learn to employ creative and critical thinking to imagine better futures, and then develop leadership skills to mobilize others to help create them. The ultimate goal of the course is to help incoming students discover their own identity as Berkeley Changemakers through shaping their educational experience at UC Berkeley.
This special 8 week course runs from March 1 - May 2. By taking this course which features all asynchronous lectures (and lots of optional but highly recommended synchronous group office hours), you will meet fellow Berkeley Changemakers and you can engage with lectures, assignments and readings at the time of day which works best for you.
Note that students can elect to enroll in either the Undergraduate Business Administration or Letters & Sciences course sections.
IND ENG 95/195 A. Richard Newton Lecture Series: A Berkeley Changemaker Course
Class #28409/19947
1 unit
Instructor: Victoria Howell
As part of the Berkeley Changemaker, the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) hosts the A. Richard Newton Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series: A Berkeley Changemaker Course. The newly relaunched Series will highlight a diverse set of changemakers who have made breakthroughs in entrepreneurship, innovation, artistry and social impact. During the course, keynote speakers will share their insights on critical thinking, communication and collaboration as it relates to innovation and entrepreneurship. They will focus specifically on success and failures around crafting their business idea and story, building a team, creating the trust necessary for investment/collaboration and breaking boundaries to create change.
Political Science 198: Berkeley Changemaker: Topics In International Ethics(link is external)
Class #23807
1 unit
Instructor: Amy Gurowitz
As Berkeley Changemakers, how do we apply ethics to critical policy questions? Designed for students who have had, or are currently taking, PS 124C Ethics and Justice in International Affairs, this 1 unit course allows a small group of students to select and engage deeply with a critical policy question that emerges from the course. Working in groups to develop a specific question, you'll craft solutions grounded in the ethical theories of the course while gaining a new perspective on how to lead change by engaging with the practical implications of implementation. This course also features practitioners in areas such as humanitarian intervention, international criminal justice, etc. who provide their perspectives on both the ethics and courses of action required for implementing change.
The Berkeley Changemakers' inclusive curriculum activates your passions and helps you to develop a sharper sense of who you want to be, while providing you the tools to take those next steps. Our curriculum focuses on critical thinking, communication, and collaboration complemented by an emphasis on creativity, community, and belonging.
In conjunction with PS124C, the two courses meet the following requirements:
- Meets International Studies, L&S Breadth
- Meets Philosophy & Values, L&S Breadth
- Meets Social & Behavioral Sciences, L&S Breadth
- Meets the Human Rights Course Thread
COLWRIT R4B 016: Berkeley Changemaker: Writing the Change We Seek(link is external)
Class #25292
4 units
Instructor: Ryan Sloan
U.C. Berkeley has long been a place for innovative ideas and creative, out-of-the-box discovery. What role might you play on campus, in your communities and beyond as a passionate writer and thinker?
In this special R4B course, in collaboration with The Berkeley Changemaker™ series, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and get into the thick of some of the most interesting and complex issues of our time. We’ll explore the extraordinary opportunities and ethical quandaries of CRISPR and bioengineering. We’ll look at big tech and social entrepreneurship in the Bay Area, balancing connectivity and access against privacy and the flood of misinformation online. We’ll learn about social justice in a time of polarization; environmental threats and opportunities for impact; public health and the rebuilding of trust in science; internet culture and personal identity; street art and social change; distance learning and the rethinking of what a liberal arts education can be.
Most importantly, this course is increasingly choose-your-own-adventure: what are the issues and ideas that most motivate you? We’ll engage with an array of inspiring and provocative talks by thought leaders across U.C. Berkeley. We’ll play with new tools and practice some vital skills: gaining confidence as a writer; learning to navigate digital resources; mapping ideas with visual thinking; learning to flexibly listen while interviewing others; persuading and engaging peers with public speaking; designing dynamic slides and an interactive writing website of your own. We’ll return to this core question: what does lasting change look like — and how might your own writing serve as a means to enact it?
This Reading, Research, and Composition Course satisfies Part B of the College of Letters & Science's Reading and Composition Requirement(
XL&S C12 "The Berkeley Changemaker: A Discovery Experience"
Fall 2020
2 units
Instructors: Alex Budak and Laura Hassner
Fall Program for Freshmen
This course is rooted in the belief that all Berkeley students are in the process of becoming Berkeley Changemakers. Changemakers make their impact everywhere on the campus intellectual landscape – through scientific breakthroughs, artistic imagination, social action projects, and entrepreneurial ventures. It is a course for entering students, who will learn to employ creative and critical thinking to imagine better futures, and then develop leadership skills to mobilize others to help create them. The ultimate goal of the course is to help incoming students discover their own identity as Berkeley Changemakers through shaping their educational experience at UC Berkeley.
This fully-online and aysnchronous course exceeded maximum enrollment and led to a waiting list.
UGBA 157: Becoming a Changemaker(link is external)
Fall 2020
2 units
Instructor: Alex Budak
This course inspires, trains and equips participants to convert raw energy and enthusiasm for creating a better world into real leadership skills and mindsets which will empower you to create positive change at an individual, organizational and societal level. Anchored in change leadership and bringing together the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership & social impact, the course is focused on moving from ideas to action; gaining inspiration from diverse changemakers across roles and sectors; learning how to navigate, shape and lead change in highly-dynamic environments; and helping you become the kind of leader our companies, our communities and our world need right now.
Managing Turbulence: A Berkeley Changemaker™ Workshop
February 24, 2021 | 1-2:30 p.m. | Zoom
How might you lead by setting culture? Whether you are a team member or leader, this dynamic workshop will introduce you to the levers you can use to shape culture at UC Berkeley. Together, we'll spend the first hour exploring strategy and tactics that set and shape culture. The optional additional half hour will enable you to explore these concepts in greater detail in small breakout sessions while you meet and engage with your colleagues across campus.
200 UC Berkeley staff members enrolled in this workshop.
You are a Berkeley ChangemakerTM!
October 28, 2020 | 1-2 p.m. | Zoom
Regardless of role or title, we can all lead from where we are. When we recognize opportunities for impact and agency, we have greater power to be intentional, to affect our culture and the world around us. This is the concept of the Berkeley Changemaker. Values like impact beyond oneself and questioning the status quo have drawn people to Berkeley for generations — this narrative doubles down on those values and is part of a suite of new courses being taught to UC Berkeley students. Our faculty are expanding these offerings through a customized workshop for staff. In this 60-minute workshop you will discover what it means to be a Berkeley Changemaker, learn how to build the changemaking skill of resilience, and leave inspired by stories from UC Berkeley faculty and staff.
Over 120 staff members from across the UC Berkeley campus registered for this workshop.