BERKELEY Inspire

For Skyelar Montgomery, receiving the African American Initiative Scholarship in 2021 heavily influenced her decision to attend UC Berkeley. It enabled her to forego worrying about the financial costs of college and focus instead on seizing every opportunity she could that nurtured her leadership abilities and passion for serving the Black community: as a senator in the Associated Students of the University of California; as the head of public relations for the Haas Undergraduate Black Business Association; as vice president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the historically African American sorority, and more. She is graduating in 2025 debt-free with a degree in legal studies.

“As my time at Cal comes to an end, I am constantly reminded of the African proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’” she said. “Berkeley has become my village, and the Black excellence and joy I am surrounded by each and every day has raised me into the young woman I am today.”

Montgomery spoke at a celebration on Feb. 20, 2025, welcoming the scholarship’s newest cohort of 27 students. Held at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union, the event brought together nearly 150 staff, alums, and donors to show their support for the students — often with rapturous applause.

With the Super Bowl’s powerful halftime performance fresh on everyone’s minds — and with sweeping efforts to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs — Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright” became a unifying theme of joy and hope throughout the evening. In it he sings, “We gon’ be alright. Do you hear me? Do you feel me? We gon’ be alright.” The scholars marched to the stage to the song, and Fabrizio Mejia, acting vice chancellor for equity and inclusion, quoted it when thanking people for supporting the success of Berkeley’s Black students.

The event also acknowledged how far the university has come in serving the Black community. “I’m happy to say that we have consecutively had some of the largest classes of Black students since Prop 209, including doubling the number of new Black students enrolled since 2010,” said Olufemi “Femi” Ogundele, associate vice chancellor of enrollment and dean of undergraduate admissions. Proposition 209, which passed in 1996, outlawed affirmative action programs in the state’s public agencies and led to admissions declines for applicants from underrepresented groups at every University of California campus.

In addition to commitment, care, and resources, “It takes leadership to show up, stand up, and lean in when it counts,” Ogundele said. “People do not rise to the level of their goals. They fall to the level of their systems. While all students have goals, it’s our job to ensure they have the best systems to get there.”

In its seventh year, the scholarship, which is funded by the San Francisco Foundation and administered by the Cal Alumni Association, has supported more than 200 distinguished scholars to date. It offers up to $8,000 a year to incoming first-year students who demonstrate leadership potential and a willingness to give back to Berkeley’s Black community, as well as an array of academic and social events, resources, and opportunities that help scholars build community and thrive.

The scholarship is part of the African American Initiative, a comprehensive effort announced 10 years ago to address the underrepresentation and campus climate for Black students, faculty, and staff. Since the initiative launched, it has achieved:

• An increase in the number of Black students housed on the Afro Floor, a vibrant living-learning community, by nearly 70 percent;
• An increase in the number of staff, programs, and partnerships that help Black students navigate Cal;
• More opportunities to celebrate, including the scholarship event, a reunion for Black alums, and a Black history walking tour of campus that salutes incredible places and people from the last 100 years.

“As the world’s preeminent public university, Berkeley has a stake in serving as a model for the kind of society we want to build … one in which everyone feels welcomed and respected for their differences and contributions to the pursuit of excellence,” said Chancellor Rich Lyons. “The African American Initiative is an important step toward creating that model.”

Lyons also thanked those who have contributed to the initiative’s and the scholarship’s growth, including the Black Alumni Association, which helps to select each cohort of scholars, the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which recently established an endowed scholarship, and several donors and volunteer leaders.

Cheryl Wright, president of the Black Alumni Association, drew a line from Black students of the past to those who are not yet born. She said that historically Black students had been forced to sit outside the classroom, leave campus by a certain time each night, and were erased from the yearbook. “But they refused to be invisible. They busted through doors, and they shattered ceilings — not just for themselves, but those who would come after them,” she said.

Speaking to the scholars, she said, “You are our trailblazers on your own unique path toward greatness, and as you climb, I ask one thing: Send the ladder back down for your brothers and sisters. Go back to your communities and show them that there are big black bears thriving at Cal, and that they, too, can come here.”