# @ucberkeleyofficial on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdcL-WoAUF4
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70721083-ucberkeleyofficial-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/97722c7400.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-18T19:28:30.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** UC Berkeley (@ucberkeleyofficial) — https://gondola.cc/ucberkeleyofficial

## Caption

“I was admitted to Berkeley, but I was shaped and formed by my degree in rhetoric.” 🏫🐻

For uscgouldlaw Assistant Professor Terry Allen (terrytakeyourtime), UC Berkeley wasn’t just a school he attended; it was a place he could feel. From getting lost in Dwinelle Hall to leading DeCal courses on social media and theater, Terry’s time on campus was an intellectual and social awakening.

“Berkeley gave me a sense of mission that has never left me,” he shares. “Success by itself felt too small. You had to be excellent in service of something bigger than you.”

After Berkeley, Terry’s mission took him from interning at the White House to earning a PhD and a JD. Today, he is a professor at USC Gould School of Law, where his research, including work that helped stop the arrest of children under 13 in LA schools, is proving that scholarship belongs in the community, not just the ivory tower.

Now a mentor to over 1,000 students, Terry is paying forward the “yes” he received at Cal. 

When asked what advice he has for current Golden Bears looking to create social change, Terry’s answer is simple: “The way you honor what has been given to you is by giving it to someone else. Don’t treat your gifts like something you should hoard. Let what you’ve learned become someone else’s opening.”

Terry left Berkeley with a responsibility. And in the present day, he is ensuring that the doors of opportunity stay open for everyone following in his footsteps.

“I am obligated,” Terry says, “Not as something I think about in the abstract, but as something I live. It is my responsibility. Someone once answered that call for me when I needed it most. So I try, in every way I can, to answer it again and again and again.”

Full profile linked in our bio: https://bit.ly/4rDV1Xr

#UCBerkeley #CalAlumStory #FluentInTheFuture

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## Tags

ucberkeley, fluentinthefuture, calalumstory

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