"I love BSP! To me it stands for a place where you can meet a community of fun and great students who are in similar circumstances as me and who help each other out. The tutors and study groups are great and really help me retain and understand information that I wouldn't have understood. The students, faculty and staff of BSP really make Cal feel like home and not feel as isolated as I did before BSP."

~ Junior, Intended Integrative Biology/Premed Student

"BSP is the support and love we all need in a school that does not give it. It's the crutch you need in a school that tries to sweep your legs out from under you. It is hope for those who might fall through the cracks. It is places to reach one's potential and absolutely shine. It is one's college experience. But most of all, BSP is family! NO ONE gets left behind and it is in working TOGETHER that that we become unstoppable."

~ Sophomore, Intended Molecular & Cell Biology/Premed Student

"BSP is a family. Whenever you're not feeling great about something, BSP opens its arms to you. It's a place where you'll always be welcome. It's a place that never shuts you out. Also, besides being a family, BSP offers the greatest opportunities. Connections to internships, alumni, community service, tutoring... everything! I'm so happy to be a part of BSP."

~ Sophomore, Intended Integrative Biology Student

"When I came to Berkeley, I thought there must have been a mistake. I didn't think I was smart enough and I thought I got in because I was part Hispanic female and that the campus wanted to fill some kind of diversity quota. I didn't know if I could compete with the other really smart, driven classmates I had, or if I could deal with all the stress that came along with my first year here. When I entered BSP and I attended the course, Studying the Biological Sciences and for the first time, I felt like the professor was reading my mind. This organization knew about all the dark aspects of being a student in this university and knew how to overcome them. The honesty, support and community BSP gives helped me embrace my college experience. I felt that I had a place where I could belong on this vast campus. I have to say that I am very proud of the organization I belong to and am grateful to be a member in of a group that is so compassionate, dedicated and connected. I wouldn't be an IB major, or studying abroad, or more involved in outside interests if it wasn't for this program. I am allowed to be more than just a science major. I feel like I can move past my worries of inadequacy and the insecurities that were based on the stereotypes of my sex, and race, social status. I have since dismissed the thought that I am incapable of achieving great things. I can now believe in my abilities and know that I really did and still do earn the right to be here."

~ Junior, Integrative Biology Major

"The adjustment to Berkeley has been a challenge - living in the dorms, the work load, and the size of my courses and the campus. I don't know how I would have done it without BSP. Just knowing that I'm a member of this program and having a place to go to ask my questions and get support, makes me feel confident I can succeed here."

~ Freshman, intended Integrative Biology

"I appreciate the program activities where I can ask counselors my questions about course requirements and the different majors, meet and talk with graduate students and faculty, and find out more information that will help me choose my major."

~ Sophomore, undeclared, pre-medical student

"The Biology Scholars Program is amazing. There are many great opportunities at Cal, but none of which would offer me a family like environment. BSP does. In only a short period of time, BSP has already made a difference in my life. It is the core light that shines on my pathway toward my future."

~ Freshman, Intended Psychology/Premed Student

"It is very hard to feel good about yourself at Berkeley. Everyone in your classes appears to understand the concepts and get good grades while you are still struggling with the material and no amount of studying seems to help. BSP showed me that there are students out there like me and that with the proper help we could succeed. I know that if it had not been for BSP I would have left the sciences and maybe even Cal."

~Sophomore, Intended Integrative Biology Student

"BSP is a family whom I can rely on for any type of support I may need while attending Berkeley. I know that I can stop by the office and there is always someone there to greet me with a smile and help me through whatever conflict that may arise. I feel confident and cared about when around my fellow BSPers and our advisors. It is not based on competition; rather it is based on helping one another in achieving our short and long term goals. Therefore, BSP is a support group that helps me in my everyday life while at CAL."

~ Sophomore, Intended Public Health Student

"As both an undergraduate student and a youth, the gifts BSP has given me far exceed my GPA. Too often others on the Berkeley campus have treated me as a number, rather than as an individual. More than supporting me, BSP has provided me an environment to grow and mature without worrying about others thinking less of me for being myself."

~ Senior, Molecular Environmental Biology Student

"BSP is about sharing knowledge and learning between peers. It is also about socializing and having someone to relate to. There is not only educational support, but also moral support. The advice I've received from fellow students and program coordinators about the ins and outs of college, the goods and bad about professors/courses have been helpful and have helped me stay in college. THANKS A BUNCH, BSP!!"

~ Senior, Molecular & Cell Biology Student

"To me, BSP means support and guidance, both academically and personally. Without BSP, I'd be lost; BSP guides me back onto my path to reach my potential. It is a source of great social support that has a great impact on the way I think about academics and my personal life."

~ Freshman, Intended Molecular & Cell Biology Student

"BSP is a supportive environment where I am able to grow, find meaning, and explore my direction(s) and passions within myself and beyond academics. BSP is a vibrant hub of people from all life experiences, coming together in support of each other. When Berkeley gets rough and wears down on my spirit, I trudge head down into the BSP room. Instantly I am met with a bright bubbling atmosphere of human exchange. People giving real experience based advice, study groups busy in the works, people chatting over a quick lunch, but there is always time and someone reaches out, sits me down and we work things out until I am with a plan, renewed, heart soaring once again and ready to beat Berkeley triumphantly."

~ Senior, Integrative Biology Student