ESS 714: Center for Access to Engineering Excellence

Laura Vogt:
Hello, and welcome to The (Not So) Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer. I’m your host, Laura Vogt. I’m the Associate Director for marketing and communications for the college of engineering. And as part of the Podcast, I’ve been introducing students to resources across campus. This week, we’re focusing on what I think is one of the best resources right in our own backyard, and that’s the Center for Access to Engineering Excellence. Or the CAEE.
Here to tell us more about the CAEE are Luis Castillo, Aracely Chavez, Dylan Steury and Rushil Desai. Thank you all so much for being here today. I really appreciate you joining us. Let’s start off with some introductions. Luis, can you tell us more about yourself and what your role is for the Center and Engineering Student Services?

Luis Castillo:
Yes. Hello, everyone. I’m Luis Castillo. I am associate director at ESS. My title is Associate Director of Student Development and I manage the team of student assistants that work at the CAEE and all of the tutoring that goes on there.

Laura Vogt:
Excellent. Thank you. I know you’re here today more to fill in if there’s any gaps or anything like that, but we really want the students that are here to tell us their experiences and what the CAEE means to them. Aracely, why don’t you start and tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Aracely Chavez:
Hi, everyone. My name is Aracely Chavez. I’m an incoming second year this year. I’m a mechanical engineer major. My home is kind of the CAEE, so I don’t do anything else really. I’m always there. I don’t know what else to say. Sorry.

Laura Vogt:
No worries. I’m glad that you found a place that can be your home on campus. I think that’s pretty good. Dylan, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dylan Steury:
My name is Dylan Steury. I’m going into my senior year, which is crazy to say out loud. I’m a bioengineering major. I’m originally from a small little city in Indiana. Coming here is way different. For fun, I like exploring around the Bay. Just taking a random bus ride to wherever and trying to find something new.

Laura Vogt:
Thank you. And Rushil?

Rushil Desai:
I’m Rushil Desai. I’m also a fourth year bioengineering major, which is also crazy to think about. When I’m not at the CAEE, which is not a lot of the time, but when I’m not there, I am usually in some bioengineering clubs that I’m a part of. Either shout out to the Biomedical Engineering Society or the Bioengineering Honors Society.

Laura Vogt:
Well again, thank you all for being here today. Like I was saying, there’s no introduction to being an undergraduate for the College of Engineering without a discussion about the Center for Access to Engineering Excellence. What is the CAEE?

Dylan Steury:
So the CAEE is the Center for Access to Engineering Excellence, but what we really want to do is facilitate a good community around academic excellence. Not just academics, but also social wellbeing, mental wellbeing, because we understand that’s part of the student experience as well.
Your mental really affects how well you can do in school. We really try to focus on that aspect. This is a big school. We try to make it seem as homey as possible, so you can find a community of people that you can be with and you’re not just out there in a sea of 40,000 other students.

Laura Vogt:
Aracely, I know this has changed a little bit this year, because we’re having some construction on campus. Where is the CAEE located and what are the hours?

Aracely Chavez:
The CAEE is currently now located in 325 Davis Hall. You can either get here coming from Hearst Avenue in between Cory Hall or Davis Hall, or as well, there’s some stairs leading up to Davis when you’re going through the engineering center.
Or there’s also a little longer route through Sutardja. It takes a little longer. You have take a little detour. But our hours are Monday through Friday 9:00 to 9:00. And then, on Fridays we do close at 5:00, but still open at 9:00.

Laura Vogt:
How can students learn more about the CAEEE? Because I know we’ve got tutoring schedules, there’s events that are coming up.

Rushil Desai:
On the Berkeley engineering website, there is a page for the CAEE. The URL is coesandbox.berkeley.edu/caee. There we have details on all the events we’ll be hosting. You can actually get an introduction to the student assistants and the tutors and see what courses they cover if you’re interested in that.
Also, just general guidelines on where we are, what we like to do. More of an introduction along with it. You can definitely find out more about us on there. You can also go to our social media on Instagram @CAEE_Berkeley if you’re interested in that too.

Laura Vogt:
Excellent. And I have to do a plug for the newsletter that I write every week. We definitely talk about hours and events on that newsletter. Dylan, can you tell us more about the tutoring? Who is it for? What courses are covered?

Dylan Steury:
I can definitely tell more about that. We offer a huge variety of courses. We offer a lot of the lower divs. I like to think that we have most of the lower divs covered completely, because those physics courses … Those are hard for everyone. Physics, math, chemistry, all of those introductory courses.
But also, we have a lot of operatives. When I say a lot of upper divs, I mean a lot of upper divs. I think we have quite a bit more upper divs than we do lower divs actually. We like to cater to every single major in engineering, but also at the same time, we understand that a lot of other colleges have overlap with us. So we also provide those services for them. We are an open space for anyone who wants to come in and join us.

Laura Vogt:
How does tutoring work? What’s the process of it?

Dylan Steury:
Basically, we want to make this as simple as possible for them. We don’t want to make this a hard experience on the student. All you do is you come in, say, “Hey. What’s up?” Ask for the class. You sign in on our tablet that we have at the front, which is just putting in your ID number.
And then, you say, “Hey. Do you have, let’s say, Math 54?” We look up if we have anyone on there, and then we point you in their direction, give them a heads-up, and they help you. We have drop-in tutoring, so it’s not like you have to sign up for a time slot or anything. We just want to make it as stress-free as possible, so the student can come in at whatever time suits them the best.

Laura Vogt:
If a student is coming in for tutoring, is there anything that they need to do to prepare for coming into tutoring? Or is it something that they can come and just say, “Help?”

Dylan Steury:
They can say, “Help.” However, it is beneficial if you have some questions prepared and stuff. It’ll help them direct the conversation and the learning experience better. But our tutors are great regardless of if there is just a sudden concern that you have to go in for. You’re just like, “I really need help. I’m stuck.” They’re great all around.

Laura Vogt:
And tutoring in general isn’t something that you need to do just at time of a test. Right? It’s something that you should do throughout the semester.

Dylan Steury:
Yes, absolutely. I think every student goes through at least a semester where they’re like, “I can push everything off to the back.” Now, as a senior, I can tell you. Get ahead of the curve as soon as possible. It’ll make it so much easier on you. And the CAEE is a great resource for that.

Laura Vogt:
Aracely, were you going to add something? I cut you off.

Aracely Chavez:
No. You’re fine. I was going to add something about the tutoring and dropping in when you have a question. Also, I think what I found really helpful my first year was knowing that the tutoring hours were there and just being there at the time they tutor, completing an assignment.
When the questions arise, I was able to just have help on-hand right there and get help. Ask a question that I needed, and it was answered. It helped me with my homework and assignments. Smoother, easier process.

Laura Vogt:
Excellent. Thank you. Also, part of the tutoring. I didn’t have this as a question listed, but who are the tutors? Or how do you become a tutor?

Rushil Desai:
Well, they’re students just like us. We interview them based on what we assess to be their ability to connect with students and how well they’d actually be able to teach as well as support. They get hired. There’s the applications on our website, if you’re interested.
If you’re interested, feel free to go to the website and apply and fill out the form if you’re interested in being a tutor. But they’re all students just like us. Just like the student that’s listening to this podcast. They’ve been through it. They’re going through it. You can find support like that as well.

Laura Vogt:
I know we’re taping this before the semester starts, but what kind of events can students look forward to?

Rushil Desai:
One of my favorite events that we host is during Dead Week. We have Alive Week, which is a full slate of events that we’ll do Monday through Thursday. One of the things we do have are study jams, which are at night, when we would give dinners. So we’ll cater food and just provide a space for students to come get food, relax. They can also get some studying done. It’s a more focused session.
But we also have de-stress events earlier in the day, which are things like a Just Dance party or arts and craft stations or a movie. Those are just things that will help students relax, and then they can have a more productive study session later maybe at our study jam.

Laura Vogt:
And that builds into the mental health that Dylan was talking about earlier.

Dylan Steury:
Absolutely. Like Rushil was saying with the tutors. We’re students too. We understand what students go through. So it really gives us a good perspective on how to plan events, what to get for events, because we are the students that we’re trying to serve at the same time.
It gives us really good insight into what we need to bring into our events in order to make it a nice, not stressful space for the students. Just being there for a little bit, and then all of a sudden, you’re rejuvenated for studying later on.

Laura Vogt:
We talked about this a little bit earlier about the tutoring. I think you’re going to find out about the events basically the same way that you find out about the tutoring. Right, Aracely?

Aracely Chavez:
Yeah. A lot of the events and other information that you can find about the CAEE is on our website, which you can look up under, I believe, Academic Support or under Berkeley Engineering as well. Those link to the website, but we as well have … Sorry.
We have our social media, which is our Instagram, which is @CAEE_Berkeley. Through there, we have been posting more where we put more of our events, any events that we’re going to have. Tutoring. We as well have our deep dives. We will be posting more on there as well.

Laura Vogt:
Excellent. I like the social media because then you don’t have to wait for the once-a-week newsletter. You could check it out a little bit faster.

Rushil Desai:
No one is going to click the newsletter though.

Laura Vogt:
I’m really fond of the newsletter. I spend a lot of time on it. More time than I should.

Dylan Steury:
I enjoy the newsletter too. It’s great. It has in-depth information, but if you do just want a quick bite, quick information really quick … Also, it’s the most up-to-date, because we can post really fast on it. The Instagram is a great place to get to know that.

Laura Vogt:
And the newsletter, you can check out archives if you really wanted to, which comes in handy when you want to see what events happened before. Or what resources that you might’ve missed out on. So that’s on coesandbox.berkeley.edu/essnews.
But the same thing with the Instagram. You could go back and check past events and things along those lines. We talked a little bit about student positions. Do you want to talk any more about student positions, if students are looking for those, Luis?

Luis Castillo:
Sure. If anyone’s interested to join our team here at the CAEE, we also post positions. We usually hire either at the beginning of the semester, so this upcoming fall, or late into the fall for the spring semester. If once you experience the CAEE, you like what we do, you want to be part of it, you want to contribute either as a tutor or as a student assistant, we’ll open positions at the end of the semester.
Right now, currently as we move into the beginning of the fall, we will be recruiting for tutors. So if you have any previous experience as an incoming transfer student, or if you’re going into your sophomore or later on in your years, let us know. We welcome you to apply and to join us and our team.

Laura Vogt:
Someone was reminding me the other day of all the different services that are in the CAEE, that it’s not just based around tutoring. You have a lending library, I believe?

Dylan Steury:
Yes. We do. The services that are highlighted usually are the tutoring center, because that’s first and foremost, but we also have a bunch of other things that we do. The events, of course, but we also have the lending library.
What our lending library is essentially … If you have, let’s say, an interview and you need a formal suit coat, pants, a shirt. We’ll provide that for you. You can check it out, tell us when you need it until when you can get it back to us, and it’s yours. Or a conference. There’s the whole conference season that happens.
And then, on top of that … I guess that’s more a success closet, but lending library is calculators. If you need a calculator for a test or something, we can provide that for you. Also, green books, blue books. We have those just to give out. Those you don’t have to return. Various school supplies that you would need to be successful academically.

Aracely Chavez:
Also, through the lending diary, we as well have things like textbooks, which can get very expensive. A lot of items you can find there, which you can either use in our space or as well check them out and take them home. And then, you could use them for as long as you need them. For the semester or for the year. And then, they’d be very useful to have a physical copy.

Laura Vogt:
I feel like one of the big resources in the CAEE is your student staff, because you’ve all been students, you know other resources on campus. You’re definitely somebody that students can come to and ask questions. Correct?

Rushil Desai:
Absolutely.

Dylan Steury:
Yes. For sure.

Rushil Desai:
I think one of the best aspects of the CAEE is the community. The emphasis that all of our staff places on connecting with everyone that comes in and trying to really get to know people. That’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the CAEE, and also one of the benefits of coming and talking to the staff and getting different experiences of different people in engineering.
Another perk of that is that you can check out our snack closet. That’s also one of my favorite parts of the CAEE is we have a curated that list of snacks that we like to get. They’re open for anyone to take as long as you sign in and let us know what you’re taking out. But that’s definitely one of my favorite parts is getting snacks and getting to talk to everyone.

Dylan Steury:
We also take suggestions.

Rushil Desai:
We do take suggestions as well, as Dylan said.

Dylan Steury:
No. Like you were saying …

Aracely Chavez:
Aside from the snacks …

Dylan Steury:
Oops. Go ahead.

Aracely Chavez:
Sorry. No. I was going to say, aside from the snacks, we also have fresh coffee in the morning, which I think is a win.

Dylan Steury:
Just to continue on the student aspect, it’s great. It’s peer to peer interactions. It’s not like it’s someone older than you checking you in or something. This is someone who is a student just like you. I know, for me, I try to get to know people as much as I can when they walk through that door.
Some people I’d seen around or had in classes, but I genuinely become friends with them when they come to the Center. Because then, I get to see them and stuff. And then, you get to know them and it is just great. You get to exchange information, other resources that you have on campus. It just makes it a better experience for everyone.

Laura Vogt:
So let’s start with Aracely. Can you tell me one story about the Center that’s meant the most to you?

Aracely Chavez:
One story. I wouldn’t say I have a specific story, but I guess since last year was my first year at Berkeley, I started working there my first semester straight off the bat. I kind of just created a community in there. I don’t know.
I created a lot of moments with a lot of other student assistants and have created, how do I say this, great relationships with them. Great friendships. They’ve become some of my closest friends. I feel like overall, the environment and the community and overall the help there has been really great and helpful. Being my first year.

Laura Vogt:
And Rushil, what’s one of your stories? Or what’s been one of the most meaningful things about the Center for you?

Rushil Desai:
One of my favorite things about the Center has definitely been seeing people over your shifts. You have the same tutors on your shifts and oftentimes students will start coming to those hours, because they identify with a tutor and they want to keep learning as much as they can. Or they feel it’s a situation in which they can grow in.
One of my favorite things has been observing over the course of this semester … I’ll see a student come in that’s having trouble with gen chem. I don’t know. They’ll have trouble with dimensional analysis and converting grams to moles and whatnot, but then they’ll pick it up. And then, they’ll keep growing and they’ll keep growing.
I have this story of a student who came in towards the end of closing and they were really struggling. They had a homework assignment that was clearly misgraded. They went through it with the tutor and the tutor talked them through approaching the professor and trying to build that relationship through office hours and saving their academic success in that class.
And then, I see that same student coming back week after week. By the end of the semester, they’re on track to get an A in the class, because they’ve worked hard and they’ve been able to use the CAEE as a resource to improve. So that’s one of my favorite stories to tell.

Laura Vogt:
That’s awesome. Dylan, what about you?

Dylan Steury:
Well, okay. I’ve been here I think the longest besides Luis, so I’ve got quite a few stories. There’s so many. I think some of my favorites are the events that we host. And then, after the events, just the staff coming together and being like, “We did it.”
It’s always a great experience hosting the events. It’s fun for us and it’s fun for the students who come in. We get benefit from both sides. And then, just hanging out with the staff, because the other people on staff are my friends. Those are the people that I hang out with and it’s really become a place that I love to go, which is awesome.

Laura Vogt:
Luis, do you have one that you want to share?

Luis Castillo:
Not necessarily a story, but I just want to highlight what all the students are mentioning about our resources that … Yes, our main service that we provide is tutoring, but as Dylan and Rushil and Aracely already mentioned, the goal of that is for you to meet other people that are taking the same courses as you.
To build community with them, to come in and study with them, and to use our space not only as a tutoring space, but as a study space and a community space in which you can create links with other students that are taking the same courses as you. Or are taking different courses, but may have similar interests as you.
As Dylan mentioned, we try to make it as homey as possible. We try to see what your interests also are outside of engineering to cater both the snack closet and our events to you. So I welcome you to come into the space. Give us feedback. Let us know what you want to see. Let us know how we can improve, how we can become better, and how we can make the CAEE your home.

Laura Vogt:
It’s interesting that you talk about the community aspect of it so much, because so much of what we’ve talked about on the podcast this summer has been how to create that new network of friends and new network of tutoring partners. Or not tutoring partners, but study partners and things along those lines.
I just really like that the Center, the folks that are behind it and making it work … That’s your goal. That’s what you want. Is there anything that we haven’t talked about today that we want to add?

Dylan Steury:
I don’t think so. Can anyone else think of anything?

Rushil Desai:
Personally, I want to highlight one of the other kind of resources that our center offers that I’ve definitely had a personal hand in trying to run. Especially, this past semester. So it’s a slight plug, but we have an emergency laptop lending program as well, which I love. Because it is a huge part of trying to lower barriers to access or to success and just really helping any student achieve academic success.
So it’s on our website, which again, coesandbox.berkeley.edu/caee. There’s a form where you can fill out to request a laptop if you are in urgent need. Obviously, we can’t accommodate every case, but apply and we’ll reach out to you if you can get a laptop. It’s one of my favorite programs that we have, actually.

Laura Vogt:
No. That’s great. I know there’s a couple of things on campus that try to definitely help. Because if your laptop goes down, that could be just so much more stressful. I can’t even imagine.

Dylan Steury:
I’ll just add onto that laptop lending program. For me, especially in the beginning … Especially during COVID, it was really hard. We understand that things happen. There’s been some cases where it’s just like, “Dang.” There’s nothing that you can do and you’re searching, because so many of our classes rely on software now. Having this program and having capable laptops, which is very important. Capable laptops that can actually run these programs and stuff is so important to student wellbeing.
Because we understand things happen. There was a previous employee at the Center a couple of years ago, and he set his laptop down on a desk and it just slid right off and broke. And then, he had to use the laptop lending program for a while. We understand. Stuff has happened to us too. We understand stuff happens, so we like to make it as easy as possible for you to, if you need it, get a laptop in order to be successful.

Laura Vogt:
And if anyone has questions or wants to get in contact with anyone before the school semester starts, is there an email address that they can reach out to anyone? I’m testing you on if you remember your email address.

Dylan Steury:
Yeah. It’s thecaee@berkeley.edu.

Laura Vogt:
And that’s thecaee … You have to do T-H-E-C-A-E-E.

Dylan Steury:
Yes. Yes. That is very important. Those three letters are very important. You can reach out to us there. Or you can DM us on Instagram and we’ll try to get back to you as soon as possible.

Laura Vogt:
Well, thank you so much, Aracely, Luis, Dylan, Rushil. I really appreciate your time this morning and telling us more about the CAEE and the community that you could build there, along with all the resources that are available.

Dylan Steury:
Of course. Thank you.

Aracely Chavez:
Thank you.

Rushil Desai:
Thank you for having us.

Laura Vogt:
And thank you all for listening today to The (Not So) Secret Guide to Being a Berkeley Engineer. I look forward to podcasting with you next week. Bye.