This feature originally appeared in the 2022 Spring 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.




Cal softball teammates and roommates Hope Alley and Amanda Kondo both aspire to enter a STEM field after graduation. Whenever one of them notices an opportunity that will help them advance toward their career goals, she shares it with the other.
 
So, when Kondo saw an offer of a mentorship with local biotech firm Genentech on a Cameron Institute weekly update, she made Alley aware. Both applied for a position and both were accepted into the program.
 
The Cameron Institute is Cal Athletics' system for developing student-athletes and positioning them to thrive for a lifetime. Within the career development pillar is the Golden Bear Network, an online platform that connects Cal student-athletes to professionals and alumni for career support. It includes everything from internships and job opportunities to job shadowing, resume and cover letter reviews.
 
The Genentech mentorship program launched during the 2021 fall semester and is the brainchild of Cal alum Andrew Madsen.
 
"Genentech has it as a very high priority of our mission to push ourselves to give back outside of our work and through our work," said Madsen, a senior global clinical trial leader with the company. "I got to thinking: where is my passion? Where can I give back? Where can I share my experience?"
 
Scrolling through his LinkedIn page one day, he noticed a recently established partnership between the Cameron Institute and the Haas School of Business, in which student-athletes are paired with MBA students to focus on career-related tasks. Madsen knew one of the MBA students from a prior internship with Genentech, so he reached out to see how he could get involved. That conversation led him to Dr. Bineti Vitta, the Cameron Institute's director of career development.
 
A few discussions after Madsen and Vitta connected, the mentorship was born.
 
"It was really important that we create a flexible experience knowing that student-athletes have such demands on their time," Vitta said.
 
Vitta added that these programs, such as the ones with Genentech and Haas, help expose student-athletes to different fields that may not be obvious or well known.
 
"My overall objective is that I just want student-athletes to check various careers, and I think that can look a lot of different ways," Vitta said. "Primarily, people are most knowledgeable about internships, so they assume that is the main way to learn about a career or gain experience. I want to broaden that thinking and show that there are so many other ways that can also happen."
 
Alley agrees that her work in the mentorship program has revealed career possibilities and an understanding of the broadness of the medical field.
 
"I think that a lot of times people just think that I'm going to become a doctor or a nurse in practice," Alley said. "This shows that there is so much more that you can do besides patient care. Clinical trials and research are two avenues that are very possible, as well. Even if you don't want to be in the research realm or if you don't want to go to medical school, you can go the business route. It's cool to see that there are opportunities outside of being an M.D. or a nurse."
 
Ema Rajic, a senior molecular & cell biology major on the women's swimming team, is another participant in the mentorship. She knew that she wanted to get into drug development or academic research, and the Genentech program helped confirm her path.
 
"What I also liked about it was that it was career exploratory," Rajic said. "It wasn't focused on one thing in clinical research. For someone like me who wants to go into some kind of drug-development career, that really peaked my interest."
 
In order to accommodate the varying and busy schedules of student-athletes, the mentorship was set up to provide maximum flexibility. Madsen worked with Vitta at Cal and staff at Genentech to develop the plan.
 
"I don't have a degree in mentorship program designing – most people probably don't – so I thought I'm just going to brainstorm here and think about what could be the key elements that could be a value add for the group, could be interesting, could be enriching for their Cal experience, and as importantly, could be fun," Madsen said. "I want this to not burden them with juggling their coursework and their sports commitments and trying to have a normal life. So, this is something that is individualized, and I wanted them to be supported in a way that enriches their experience and doesn't take away from it."
 
Through the mentorship, student-athletes were able to sit in on virtual meetings with professionals who work in different fields at Genentech, including in clinical research and operations. Madsen set up fireside chats where the student-athletes could hear directly from people in various fields and have the opportunity ask questions. He even held weekly in-person office hours at Caffè Strada next to campus to provide one-on-one feedback.
 
"I find the fireside chats to be the most insightful and the most fun because you get to network while learning about your own passions and aspirations within the career," Rajic said. "All of the speakers we've had have been really receptive to questions and comments and have been open to connecting with you later on."
 
Alley, who is majoring in Spanish and taking pre-med requirements at Cal with a goal to find ways to improve access to healthcare across different populations, agreed. She noted that there was no pressure to attend a meeting and if her schedule, whether academics or athletics related, did not allow, Madsen would often provide a recording to watch later.
 
"It's been a great opportunity," Alley said. "Andrew has been flexible and very willing to help. It's been great to work with him and people like him who want to come back and help us. Building a Cal community can make us more successful in our future. It's nice to have a community that you know is behind you."
 
Based on the success of the Genentech mentorship program, which is up to nine student-athlete participants, Vitta foresees additional opportunities for student-athletes to help them gain a better understanding of career possibilities.
 
"I think the more that we can create some of these programs, student-athletes will get more of a sense of what it is to be in a specific job title and the more they can make informed decisions about their own careers," Vitta said.
 
For alumni who are interested in participating in the Golden Bear Network, send an email to cameroninstitute@berkeley.edu.