Student-athletes across Cal's 30 athletic programs have responded to calls to action in the aftermath of the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, marching in protests, raising money to expand awareness and participating in other forms of community service.

For example, numerous Golden Bear football student-athletes, coaches and support staff have stood in support of Black Lives Matter.

"My experience protesting in Berkeley has been both inspirational and uplifting," said Kuony Deng, who has attended several protests, including one organized by UC Berkeley's Black Student Union that was attended by nearly two dozen Cal football affiliates. "It is refreshing to be able to find community and fight for justice in trying times." 

Senior Cameron Goode was on hand for Floyd's public funeral at The Fountain of Praise Church in their shared hometown of Houston.
 
"It was a very surreal moment to attend the public funeral of George Floyd with everything going on in the country starting from his tragic passing," Goode said. "We felt it was important to pay our respects in the best way we could."
 
Sophomore Zach Angelillo co-organized a protest in his hometown of Fresno that was attended by a diverse crowd of many backgrounds and ages.
 
"I see the issues our black community is facing and want to be a part of the change in any way I can," said Angelillo, who is studying American public policy and its impact on race, class and social inequality. "I've been educating myself in school and on my own, and using what I learn to educate others, as well as listening to the experiences of my black friends and teammates. I care deeply about changing how race is treated in our country."
 
Senior Camryn Bynum helped clean up stories that were looted in Long Beach, the hometown of fellow Cal defensive back Elijah Hicks.
 
"I am in complete support of the push to justice and fight against racism, and I am very happy to see peaceful protesting all around the country," Bynum said. "But when the protests got a little out of hand and the looting began, I felt bad for people I knew that lived in those areas. I wanted to do my part to impact others with my actions and not just words." 

Bynum, Deng, Jake Curhan, Nikko Remigio, Chase Garbers and Zeandae Johnson also appeared in an impactful video expressing their thoughts on improving the black community.
 
Field hockey junior Morgan Peterson sparked her team's interest in Athletes4Chnges when she was contacted by Hannah Wendelken, a friend of hers who is a women's soccer student-athlete at UC Santa Barbara.
 
Wendelken asked Peterson for her program's support with a cause that centered on calling upon NCAA student-athletes across the nation to bring awareness and financial support to the racial and social injustices recently brought to light by the deaths of Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
 
Athletes4Chnges featured an event on June 8 consisting of a call to run, bike or walk 8.46 miles with donations going towards Black Lives Matter.
 
The event is considered a tremendous success. An original goal of $1,000 reached almost $80,000 in less than a week.
 
Connections like Peterson and Wendelken allowed word to spread quickly through the student-athlete network. Peterson added that Cal Athletics' robust international base of alumni and supporters gave them a larger platform to reach people from all over the world.
 
"The biggest success was seeing the overwhelming amount of contributions through donations, physical participation and social media posts," Peterson said. "The student-athletes in the NCAA compose such a large community, it was really amazing to see people from all over the world wanting to participate in a necessary call for change."
 
Other Cal teams that participated in the June 8 event included women's gymnastics, lacrosse and women's water polo.
 
A pair of Cal women's rowers also took action shortly after Floyd's murder. Rising sophomore Nyah Morgan joined forces with her former Oakland Strokes club teammate, Kelly Chung, to form "Rowers for Black Lives Matter." The duo is putting on a fundraiser Saturday in which people sponsor a rower and donate funds based on how many miles each runs or does on the erg machine. All the proceeds are going directly to one of four racial justice organizations.

"We wanted to start a conversation because a lot of people in the rowing community don't have to worry about these kind of things," Morgan said. "We were so distraught with what's going on that we wanted to protest and do everything we can to make sure our community recognized that we needed to start talking about it."

Rising senior Mika Allen also took it upon herself to raise funds for Black Lives Matter, soliciting teammates, family members and the greater Cal rowing community to amass over $4,000.

"I just really wanted to be a part of something that could really promote change," Allen said. "The rowing community is not that diverse but I wanted to let people know we support you and see you. We want to make that message clear."

Baseball rising senior Darren Baker stepped up to the plate for his local community of Sacramento, raising money through a GoFundMe campaign to help rebuild small, black-owned businesses that have been victims of looting.

Since creating the fundraiser on June 2, Baker has raised over $11,000 with the help of 170-plus individual donors. The money raised will be given directly to the Sacramento small businesses attempted to rebuild.

Baker, a native of Granite Bay, Calif., hasn't shied away from assisting those in need since his junior season was canceled in early March. The second baseman donated 1,000 meals to Feeding America to help families that were struggling financially during the initial stages of the coronavirus pandemic.