Why I'm Proud to be a Cal Alumnus

William Randolph Hearst.  Philip K. Dick.  Beverly Cleary (her Ramona books got me through my childhood).  Jerry Brown.  Edgar F. Kaiser.  Tom Anderson (MySpace dude).  Gina Pell (the creator of the best website ever).*

The Cal alumni roster boasts more movers and shakers than the ones I've listed here...and yet what makes me SO proud to be part of the blue & gold, Oski loving family....are the 2006 and 2007 CFDA finalists: Kate and Laura Mulleavy (Rodarte) and Erin Fetherston.  One of the Rodarte sisters was even in the same program when I was there.  My parents often wondered what I would do with an English degree (instead of earning a diploma in a field that they thought I could actually use as an adult).  Little did they know that I was hobnobbing with a crop of budding fashion innovators.  Ask me about the Berkeley's football team record this year, and I'll stare at you blankly.  Inquire about Cal's fashion stats, and I'll rattle off facts, figures and key players on the roster. 

*Omitted: William Hung (though I don't think he graduated), the curly haired boy from Lizzie McGuire, and Seth's parents from The O.C.