Department News

Department News

Prof. Piatote’s “The Beadworkers: Stories” is Magnetic!

September 21, 2021

The Berkeley News has just spotlighted the remarkable journey of Sariel Sandoval, a first-year UC Berkeley student from the Flathead Reservation in northwest Montana. Sariel’s story is part of what makes Berkeley such an incredible place to teach and learn and grow. And the inspiration for her coming to Cal? Well…

Sandoval could have attended the reservation’s highly-regarded tribal college for free her first year, and, with a high enough GPA, her second year, too. Other schools had offered her admission, and ample financial aid. Still, she wouldn’t budge from Berkeley, a university she’d never seen, but had heard so much about.

For one, a favorite book of Sandoval’s, The Beadworkers: Stories, was written by Berkeley professor Beth Piatote, who also is Native American. Discovering that, said Sandoval, “I thought that a school like Berkeley must be just as amazing as the author. … My mind was made up.”

Click here to read the full story.