# @ucberkeleyofficial on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DJW6IqoJsFX
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68356982-ucberkeleyofficial-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/aaea21f31d.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-05-07T15:48:32.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Berkeley (@ucberkeleyofficial) — https://gondola.cc/ucberkeleyofficial

## Caption

“I grew up one of five kids in a very conservative Mormon family in a small town in Utah. By the time I realized I was queer as a teenager, I didn’t have the belief in the religion anymore. I was in love, and didn’t want to be a part of something that wasn’t OK with that.

When my parents found out, they didn’t take it well. I was also doing a lot of other things that were scary for them — you know, teenager things. They sent me away for my senior year of high school to a wilderness therapy program. I spent three months backpacking in southern Utah in the snow without a tent. When I left at 18, I came out a completely different person. 

I transferred to Berkeley in 2020 from Long Beach City College. For the past five years, I’ve lived at University Village with my wife and two kids. A big reason we chose Berkeley is for the parent resources. The Student Parent Center is phenomenal. We felt so safe and stable that we decided to have another baby. I turned in my final for one of my film classes while I was in labor, then gave birth the next day.

At Berkeley, I spent a lot of time working with the Art of Writing program in the Townsend Center for the Humanities. Last summer, I attended the Consortium of the Humanities Centers and Institutes and got to meet scholars from all over the world, like Judith Butler, which was the highlight of my Berkeley experience. 

I’ll be starting a Ph.D. program in film and digital media at UC Santa Cruz in the fall. My wife and children are native to that area, they’re members of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. I’ll be spending a lot of time with the tribe and my wife, learning about stewardship and rematriation of the land. 

Through Indigenous leadership, as well as my own experiences and research, I’ve learned how Americans gravitate toward this idea of “the wild” as this daunting, unknown place, whereas Indigenous people don’t see it that way. It is all home. We’re all part of an ecosystem that we either steward or destroy. These are things I’ve been thinking about, and hope to think more about in grad school.”

#ImABerkeleyan #UCBerkeley #CalGrad

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 3,316
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 37

## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Diego | @diegonmoran | https://gondola.cc/diegonmoran | Photographer |
| Diego | @diegonmoran | https://gondola.cc/diegonmoran | Social Media Intern |

## Tags

ucberkeley, imaberkeleyan, calgrad

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