College of Letters and Science

Transcript

Next let’s head over to Hart Hall built in 1928 and meet Akshita. She’s a senior majoring in cognitive science. In 2019, she was just one of a thousand or so students named Forbes Under 30 Scholar and she’s gonna talk about her journey in raising awareness of the issues she cares very much about you might too, after you hear her story. Okay, Akshita this segment is all yours.

– Thank you, Alex. Hi everyone, I am so excited to share my college experience with you all. Coming to UC Davis was one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. I first enrolled as a biochemistry and molecular biology major in the College of Biological Sciences before in my sophomore year, I realized that my interest was most piqued by cognitive science and switched my major over to cognitive science with a computational emphasis in the College of Letters and Science. UC Davis is the most comprehensive university in the university of California system. This means that it has the most majors and minors available for students and the College of Letters and Science has 110 of them. This college specifically is such an intellectually diverse community with countless opportunities for mentorship, research and involvement available for students. The faculty is very experienced and was a great resource to ask questions to and reach out to as well as this great source of academic inspiration for me. I’ve always been passionate about women empowerment, equality, and human rights. After coming to UC Davis, I was able to immensely further my education about socio-political and cultural issues, advocacy and activism. I had so many conversations with people of incredibly diverse backgrounds which all opened up my mind and made me much more aware. Despite such diversity, I still felt like there wasn’t an adequate platform for underrepresented students, especially women. So I founded the Revival Zine, an intersectional feminist publication and college community. I put together a team of student writers, interns and officers, as well as faculty advisors. Together we grew Revival from a small website into a national movement with multiple university chapters, as well as hundreds of articles about important issues that had over 100,000 readers. And it wouldn’t have been possible without the support that I’ve gained here at UC Davis, especially from the student community that constantly uplifts one another. I also co-founded Davis Period, through which other students and I were able to reduce stigma around menstruation, hosted workshops about periods, hosted drives to collect period products, as well as worked with the university to stock campus bathrooms with free products for students that cannot not afford them or didn’t have access to them. I remember the day that I committed to go to UC Davis, I was sitting at one of the benches near a bike path watching students go pass me on their way to classes and I absolutely fell in love with that atmosphere. From the beautiful campus to the genuinely supportive student culture, there’s so much to enjoy here. At UC Davis whether you want to immerse yourself and delve deeper into your passions, or even just figure out what they might be, there’s so much opportunity. Go Aggies, Alex, what’s next?

– Akshita, your leadership is truly an inspiration. It’s incredible that you’re studying not only how we think, but also how to spread powerful ideas. Good luck on your way to making the world a more equitable and understanding place. Thanks again, Akshita.