This feature originally appeared in the Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.




Chen Yue's dream was feeling more like a nightmare.
 
Since she was 12 years old, Yue, from Beijing, China, had fantasized about earning a women's basketball scholarship to attend college in the United States, where she would be able to pursue high-level academics and athletics.
 
Her dreams never included sitting in Cal's Academic Study Center, crying to her tutor and academic staff less than two weeks into her arrival to Berkeley.
 
"Literally, it felt like I was crying every second in my first two weeks, thinking, 'I can't really do this,' and 'I just want to go home so badly,'" Yue said. "It was a really strange environment."
 
The psychological strain of moving halfway across the world had quickly caught up to Yue, an only child who was close with her family and used to her support system in Beijing. She was still working on building a relationship with her women's basketball teammates while learning how to assimilate with American culture. Grueling summer basketball workouts were made even more challenging for Yue because she shared a position with fellow freshman and future WNBA Draft pick Kristine Anigwe, leaving Yue to question her confidence in her basketball ability.
 
In the classroom, where Yue had always excelled, she was also grappling with the shift from being a top student at her high school to struggling in three intense reading classes in the Summer Bridge program.
 
She considered dropping out of college to return home.
 
"When I came to Cal, it was kind of a nightmare. I not only wasn't the best – I was the worst. The worst student. The worst basketball player," she explained.
 
Cal's coaching staff helped Yue get counseling at the Tang Center and she adjusted her summer classes so that she would be able swap a reading class with a math class, a subject in which she always shined.
 
"I wanted to give up, but once I saw the people around me that were the same age – they were so independent and really cool," she said. "They handled their lives so well, and I felt like if I went back home at that time, back to my parents and back to my mom, they would take care of me and handle my life, but with that I would never grow up and really be an adult."
 
Yue embraced her opportunity for growth and soon adjusted to her new life. She began hanging out with her teammates during their free time and joined Chinese clubs on campus, where she connected with new friends who helped her celebrate shared cultural traditions, such as the Moon Festival and Lunar New Year.
 
"I did feel a lot of love and care during that time," Yue said. "The people around me really supported me a lot … It's because of them that I think I could really get through that hard time and keep going and make my way. All of those things helped me to get more and more used to campus and build those connections to those people. After Summer Bridge, I felt like this was the place I was looking for and this is my second home."
 
In five years in Berkeley, Yue flourished as she found not only a second home, but a second family who helped her excel in areas beyond her dreams.
 
She befriended Dave Kao, Cal's Assistant Athletics Director of Ticket Sales, Service & Operations and a Chinese American she first met on her recruiting visit. Kao, who speaks Mandarin, has helped serve as a mentor for Yue, counseling her with advice that was at times culturally specific.
 
As the first Chinese woman to play NCAA Division I basketball, Yue grappled with the additional expectations of representing her culture well, something she was able to share with Kao.
 
"She was a 6-7 center from China. In terms of all eyes on you, it was really all eyes on you," Kao said. "Having to learn the language, having to be successful academically, and then having to compete … there's a lot riding on you when you're the first of anything. There are unspoken expectations – whether it's good or bad – even within herself. She didn't want to be the first and fail on the court, be the first to fail academically, to fail her team, or in her mind even fail her country."
 
Yue's collegiate career was anything but a failure. Despite breaking her foot as a freshman and taking a redshirt year, she appeared in 75 games for the Bears, including 28 of 31 contests in her final season, and helped Cal to three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
 
She was accepted to the Haas School of Business and also became a tutor to help her fellow student-athletes. Yue took advantage of her connections through women's basketball and in the Bay Area, interning at NBC Sports Bay Area and job shadowing at Levi Strauss & Co. She even interned for Kao in the Sales and Service department, using her interest in statistical data to analyze financial reports as well as attendance trends for women's basketball and other Cal events.
 
"The key message from my coaches and all of the people I've met was to focus on myself and better myself as the most important thing," Yue said. "Sometimes it's really hard to see our self-improvements when we compare ourselves to others, but everyone is unique by themselves. No one will always be a superstar, but you can be your own star and help in different ways, and see your own self contribute."
 
After embracing her starring role as a trailblazer for Chinese basketball players, Yue's contributions have extended across the globe. During the men's basketball team's trip to China for the annual Pac-12 China Game in 2018, an experience Yue considers pivotal to her development and her collegiate experience, she traveled along as an ambassador and also served as a featured speaker at the fourth annual China-U.S. University Sports & Education Summit in Shanghai. There, she shared the stage with NBA star Yao Ming and Alibaba Group founder Joe Tsai, offering insight on how sports can foster individual growth and exchange between the two countries.
 
As a panelist, Yue shared her experience in pursuing excellence academically and athletically concurrently.
 
"It feels like I did something cool, but at the same time I was trying to show any international teenagers that there's really great opportunities here in America, and we can handle both," Yue said. "It's not contradictory. Some people may feel like you can only handle one thing – that you must choose between athletics or academics. I feel like those are not independent of each other. Together, they actually help you to become better in each area."
 
During the summit, Yue also connected with Amy Brooks, president of Team Marketing & Business Operations (TMBO) and Chief Innovation Officer for the NBA. Brooks helped open Yue's eyes to career opportunities in sports business.
 
Now, after earning degrees in both business administration and statistics from Cal this spring, Yue has set her sights on a new dream: to use her passion for both basketball and business to represent China while working in the NBA front office.
 
"To pursue a career working in sports after being the first Chinese person to play NCAA Division I and to be a business major is a really cool thing," Yue explained. "It really combines both of my interests. I've really had fun with basketball, and from a different angle it's really cool. There are a lot of business opportunities, and not only is the NBA front office male-dominated, it also doesn't have a lot of Asian females."
 
First, Yue, who is one of Cal's two recipients of a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship, plans to play professional basketball in China before returning to the U.S. to pursue her master's degree. It's no surprise that she hopes to pursue it at her second home.
 
"I had a lot of fun at Cal, and that's what made me really want to come back for a master's degree. I have unfinished business," she said. "There's so many things about Berkeley, but the thing that summarizes it are that there are so many opportunities."