BERKELEY Inspire

For over two decades, the Goldmans have nurtured a community of scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds who might otherwise never have found their way to academic success. These “diamonds in the rough,” as Ruth calls them, often arrive feeling like imposters but graduate as leaders. With Ruth’s experience as a Holocaust survivor and first-generation college student guiding their approach, the Goldmans have created a program that offers funding, mentorship, emotional support, and lifelong connections. Most remarkably, their scholars have achieved a 100 percent graduation rate, and almost all of them are the first in their families to earn advanced degrees and create pathways for others to follow.

Q: What inspired you to create the New Leader Scholarship Fund, and specifically at UC Berkeley?

Ruth: My own experiences shaped this decision significantly. I’m an immigrant who came to the U.S. as a young child. Having a dark complexion, I was often treated as “other” in our multiracial neighborhood. I was the first in my family to attend college, and no one expected me to pursue higher education. As a Holocaust survivor — my parents and I were the only ones from our family who escaped that horror — I felt a profound obligation. This country had opened its doors when others closed theirs. I believed I owed something sacred in return: to extend my hand to others as America had extended its hand to me.

I attended City College of New York when public education was still free. After some time, I came to Berkeley for my doctorate and fell in love with the university. Years later, when I was approaching retirement from 30 years plus as a professor of psychology, I wanted to maintain that connection with students. I especially loved the diversity and found classes more interesting and exciting with students from varied backgrounds.

Q: How did the two of you come to work together on launching the scholarship?

Ruth: Working our way through college at a summer resort, Bill was actually my busboy when I was working as a waitress! I hurt my shoulder one day carrying a heavy tray, and Bill came and picked it up, saying, “From now on, every time you have a tray, let me carry it.” That was the beginning of our relationship. Later, I applied to Berkeley for graduate studies in psychology, and Bill, after finishing medical school at Columbia, joined me in the Bay Area.

Q: What qualities do you look for in selecting scholars?

Bill: The scholars are truly transcendent individuals. They couldn’t find a straight line from their early lives — their home lives, cultures, class backgrounds — to being at Berkeley. They had proven they were special, but no support system would have predicted their success.

Ruth: We’re open to people who don’t necessarily fit the traditional mold of scholarship recipients. We easily select people who might not look like what you’d expect — people with tattoos or an unconventional appearance. We’re looking for diamonds in the rough.

Bill: We kept introducing our board members to the idea of a “diamond in the rough,” which they needed to be reminded of because systems favor uniformity.

Challenges and Community Building

Q: What challenges do your scholars face at Berkeley?

Ruth & Bill: Many of our scholars feel Berkeley is a hard and unwelcoming place at first. People seem aloof, and many students of color feel they’re not fully present or fully seen. There was a constant issue of not feeling legitimate — wondering if they belonged. More than half of our students — about 70 percent — came through community college as transfer students.

The imposter syndrome is alive and well among our scholars. One scholar, Cristina, would share her journey with imposter syndrome at our retreats. She struggled her first semesters at Berkeley, but improved through her own talent and courage. She became a New Leader Scholar. When she was accepted to Princeton for graduate school, those feelings of not belonging returned. After receiving her doctorate, she moved to Chicago for a prestigious fellowship and began to feel she deserved to be there. She went on to become a professor at UC.

Q: Do your scholars still face barriers related to gender?

Ruth: To a lesser extent than when I was in school, but in some ways more insidiously because it’s quieter and less obvious. It depends on the career field.

Bill: One example is a scholar who finished medical school, earned a public health master’s at Hopkins, became a junior faculty at UCLA, and chose orthopedics as her specialty. Only 13 percent of orthopedic surgeons in the United States are women. She’s still fighting, in this century, the same kinds of things I fought 50 years ago. She is now the director of residency training in orthopedics.

Q: When you first started the scholarship program, did you envision developing such close ties with your scholars?

Ruth & Bill: No, we didn’t anticipate this level of connection. Originally, we viewed it more like teaching — educating and helping others. What we didn’t realize was the extent to which it would fill us with such pleasure to be associated with these students. We knew we would have to figure things out as we went along. We kept learning from the scholars and trying to adjust as we learned more about their realities. The more that process moved ahead, the thicker the glue got between us and them. Twenty years out, mentors and scholars still have close relationships. It’s truly remarkable to see these bonds endure.

Support Beyond Scholarships

Q: What services beyond financial aid do you provide?

Ruth & Bill: We’ve spent a lot of time on financial literacy — teaching ways to get loans or financial assistance. Some of our students had debts over $100,000. Those who went into law often went into private practice for the first few years specifically to pay off their debt, and now they work for the government.

We witnessed how crucial this knowledge was. One of our New Leader scholars once said, “I’ve never heard any of this before. I thought the way you handled money is that you maxed out your credit cards and declared bankruptcy.” That’s all she ever knew growing up. These gaps in financial knowledge could have derailed their success despite their academic achievements.

We also help with mental health resources — about a quarter of the scholars received pro bono psychotherapy through our network. Surprisingly, dental care emerged as another significant need that we hadn’t anticipated. These practical supports — mental health, financial literacy, and even dental care — proved just as important as the scholarship funds themselves.

Q: What role has community played in the program?

Ruth & Bill: The community of scholars coupled with mentors has a comfortable mix that isn’t segregated by education or social class. In my years of teaching, racial groups always tended to self-segregate. We never had that with our scholars — the old and young, different races, different areas of interest — they just felt comfortable together.

At our retreats, they raise heartbreaking issues, personal dilemmas, things that really troubled them. They frequently say, “I’ve never said this before,” or “This is the first time I’ve been able to talk about this.” There’s an unbelievable openness about microaggressions, racial incidents, family issues, poverty, and money.

Q: What drives these scholars to help others and pass the torch?

Ruth & Bill: Our scholars feel grateful for opportunities their communities rarely see. They view their success as both a gift and a responsibility — inspiring them to create pathways for others to follow. They’re extraordinarily generous in spirit, helping other scholars with graduate school applications, test preparation, and personal statements.

Q: Do your scholars take their skills back to their communities?

Ruth & Bill: Absolutely. One of our students, Ricardo Valencia, who now teaches at a high school in Santa Maria, set up a financial literacy program. He was inspired by our grandson, who had created a financial literacy program for high school students as an undergraduate at UCLA. Ricardo’s program for low-income high schools taught seniors how to manage finances. Beyond that, Ricardo is also on the school board and has developed an ethnic studies program for the high school over fierce resistance. This was particularly significant because while the population is 90 percent Latino, the school board is all white men. His work exemplifies how our scholars become change agents in their communities.

Impact and Lessons Learned

Q: If you could go back and give yourselves one piece of advice when you were starting this program, what would it be?

Ruth & Bill: Trust the journey and keep your options open. You can’t predict how things will unfold. Be opportunistic; that’s where the magic happens. We found our way by listening to our scholars and adapting as we went. Each surprise taught us something valuable that no planning could have revealed. We didn’t really know the world these students came from. To help them move closer to us and realize their aspirations — which would be our aspiration — we had to learn from them what they needed and what was acceptable. The key was remaining adaptable and letting the scholars themselves guide the evolution of the program.

Q: How do you define success for your program?

Ruth & Bill: Graduating was clearly the first marker — and we never lost a student; they all graduated. About 75 percent of them went to graduate school, and they all completed their graduate studies as well, which is extraordinary.

Beyond academic achievement, success meant becoming a leader in an area, usually around social change. That’s a much higher mark, and a surprisingly large number achieved it. What universities are not set up to do is follow these students after graduation. We uniformly tried to stay in touch and find out what they were doing and what they needed.

For many of them, we were the first and main place they would return to when there was a problem. They became the anchors of their families — the ones relatives could rely on in times of need. They transcended their circumstances and became pillars for others.

For the 20th anniversary of the scholarship, we wrote a book called Passing the Torch to capture all the above and more.