CS Scholars Microsoft Industry Visit, Mountain View, CA. April 2024.

CS Scholars

The CS Scholars Program at UC Berkeley is a community in which students can learn and grow together. The EECS Center for Student Affairs (CSA) recognizes the unique challenges that students from under-resourced and low opportunity communities face at the university and in computer science therefore our goal is to provide a supportive network in which students can thrive.

Program Impact

Collaborative problem-solvers, innovators, and leaders, the CS Scholars Program at Cal is making waves. The CS Scholars Program has:

Served more than 800 students over 21 cohorts
Feastured guest speakers from noteworthy industry, research, and education organizations
Facilitated field visits to silicon-valley companies
Partnered with campines like EA, Microsoft, and Google to place student interns

Our Students

CS Scholars aims to provide equitable access to computer science education and support to a diverse student body. Our goal is to close t he gaps in preperation and provide opportunities for success.

Success

In the face of adversity, our scholars represent some of the most outstanding talent. We aim to attract and retain the brightest and diverse studentrs with tools to help them succeed.

Testimonials

“I have graduated my undergrad and am currently in the 5th year MS program at Berkeley! The CS Scholars program really helped me navigate my undergraduate CS courses and helped me develop the skill set needed to pursue research. Thank you so much!”
Iniyaal K.
“CS Scholars has been definitely instrumental to my success at Berkeley. I hope the program succeeds and continues to change lives! I don’t want to get too emotional but I’m very grateful! If there’s ever any events in the future, I would love to come out and speak about my experiences.“
Kevin C.
“CS Scholars has been a great opportunity for me to network with faculty and other students passionate about the CS Major. I have made connections on a more personal level with many of my fellow cohort members, which has allowed me to more effectively discuss my ideas, collaborate, study and grow in the CS field.”
Meg H.

Donate

Support CS Scholars

Your donation to CS Scholars supports our members by providing funding for academic opportunities such as tutoring and advising, community-building opportunities such as peer mentoring, and professional development, and funding for students to travel to attend national research conferences.

How to Donate

Make out a check:

to the “UC Berkeley Foundation”
put “CS Scholars” in the memo field
and mail it to:  ATTN: CS Scholars
  EECS External Relations
  231 Cory Hall MC #1770
  Berkeley, CA 94720

Thank you, CS Scholar Supporters!

Celebrating Diversity in Computer Science!

CS Scholars celebrating diversity at the BESSA and BGESS 50th and 30th year anniversaries event on Saturday, February 10th, 2018. Seen above chatting with Dr. Gary May, an EECS graduate from UC Berkeley, former Dean of Engineering at Georgia Tech and current Chancellor at UC Davis.

CS Scholars’ Program Alumni Spotlight

Nandini Agarwal (EECS, December 2023) has been admitted Fall 2026 to the Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation (MSAII) program at Carnegie Mellon University!

Meet Our Staff

Armando Fox

Faculty Advisor

581 Soda Hall, 510-642-6820

lgolds@berkeley.edu

Charlene Duncan

Program Director

349 Soda, +1 (510) 664-4436

cs-advising@cs.berkeley.edu

CS students: Book an appointment with CalCentral

Prospective students: Book an appointment with Lydia

CS Scholars Hillary K., Tunmise A., CDSS Dean, Jennifer Chayes and Kim H.
Attending the Richard Tapia Conference 2025.

CS Scholars attend Richard Tapia

Testimonial from Hillary K, regarding her experience at the Tapia Conference: “Over the course of 3 days I got to engage with almost all the grad schools and companies at the conference and met many wonderful people. I gained more insight on diversity in computer science and also attended a session on disabilities in tech. Getting to meet and chat with new people was great practice for recruiting/professional settings as well. Overall, it was an extremely valuable experience and I am grateful for your support.”

Dean Chayes was recognized at the conference with the 2025 Richard Tapia Award for efforts to diversify computing.

Learn More

Undergraduate student Wen-Rui Liao

Diving into Blue Waters

Wen-Rui Liao came from an area of the world that did not offer the computer science background he needed to face the challenge of CS 61A alone. This made him eligible to become a member of the CS Scholars program. He was recently selected to receive undergraduate research funding from the Blue Waters Institute and encourages others to look around and take the initiative to do something new and challenging.

Read Wen-Rui’s Story

CS Scholars Program:
Armando Fox

Genentech Industry
Visit Fall 2024

South San Francisco

Marvin Lopez presents
to CS Scholars

CS Scholars prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities and prohibits discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.