Taking advantage of opportunities to grow and achieve greatness has always been one of Serena Witherspoon’s strong suits in life. A 2016 graduate of Berkeley City College, Serena is dedicated to pursuing a legal career as an advocate for criminal justice reform and prison abolition.

After graduating from Berkeley City College with a 3.86 Grade Point Average (GPA) and an Associate of Arts degree in liberal arts, Serena studied at the University of California, Berkeley where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology.  Currently, Serena is entering her second year at the University of California Hastings College of Law. This fall semester, Serena will study abroad at the Waseda Law School in Tokyo, Japan.

Without question, the time that Serena spent at Berkeley City College enabled her to seize opportunities to lead and learn on monumental levels. In 2015, while still a student at Berkeley City College, Serena began writing annual blogs in the Huffington Post’ for their segment entitled, “Living Room Conversations”.  Within this writing platform, Serena was able to explore and bring awareness to topics spanning from youth voting and learning about politics to the relationship between education and incarceration.

All things considered, Serena remains grateful for all of the support she received at Berkeley City College, especially from her counselor Emie.

Being the community advocate that she is, Serena’s favorite memory at Berkeley City College was when her ecology lab course took students to different sites in the Bay Area to do environmental restoration work on Saturday mornings.  

Be it in the courtroom, the community or blog, Serena Witherspoon’s drive towards advocacy and excellence will unequivocally make powerful impact in her community and in the world.