“I felt overwhelmed and kind of lost, literally and figuratively.”  In 2016, Dean Tanioka was ready to drop out of UC Berkeley. Now he helps nontraditional students find their place.  As a transfer student, he looked forward to jumpstarting his academic life. He thought he wanted a career in medicine. His family called him Dr. Dean.  But Tanioka was quickly buried under the weight of a science-heavy courseload. He also struggled to navigate college’s unwritten rules — the “hidden curriculum” that shapes who finds educational, research and career opportunities and who does not.  He nearly dropped out. But a temporary job far from campus gave him the distance he needed to see things clearly.  He realized his experiences of growing up in a working, middle-class family still impacted by the legacy of Japanese internment camps and mental health struggles could affect his ability to move forward. They could also be tools for helping others. “It felt like a fresh start. It gave me persp...