On a sunny summer morning in Sacramento, Janet Mendoza-Partida was walking from her office at the California Department of Education along tree-lined streets to the state Capitol, a thoughtful young woman explaining why she feels divided between two worlds.
Her parents are Mexican immigrants who raised their children in Watsonville - her father a farmworker, her mother a childcare provider. Even a few years ago, before starting studies at UC Berkeley, Mendoza-Partida said she could not see far beyond the agricultural community where she grew up and dreamed of being a teacher.
But this summer, through the Cal-in-Sacramento fellowship offered by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS), she has had an entry-level role in California education policy. Her career dreams have expanded, and so has her sense of what might be possible in the years ahead.
"Cal-in-Sacramento, providing me this opportunity to be here and to understand what people do here, and to work here myself - it's beyond where I ever thought I would be," she said. "I could have never seen myself being where I am today."
Mendoza-Partida's experience echoes that of more than a thousand students who have held the fellowships over the past half-century. They have formed a Berkeley-to-Sacramento talent pipeline, working in both Republican and Democratic administrations and legislative offices. Many have built careers in the unglamorous but essential roles that shape California policy in areas ranging from forestry and agriculture to housing, energy and economic development.
In recent years, explained IGS Executive Director Christine Trost, the fellowship has made it a priority to seek fellows who were the first in their families to attend college. The goal: help to assure that California's diverse population is reflected in the state policy workforce.
Photo by Edward Lempinen
"We are building a robust pipeline of committed public service-oriented students," Trost said. "The invaluable lived experience and perspectives that they bring with them into state government and policymaking spaces is essential to solving the critical issues that are facing our state."
Consider the experience of Kenny Kutter. His parents met in Indonesia when his American father was teaching English; the couple moved back to the U.S., where Kutter was born. As a high school student during the COVID pandemic, he was deeply affected after his father lost his teaching job in the UC Riverside extension program.
"At that point he was in his early 50s, effectively being forced into retirement," Kutter recalled. "Watching him navigate being unemployed for the first time, watching him struggle - that hardened my resolve to go into politics."
This summer, Kutter's Cal-in-Sacramento fellowship placed him on the staff of Assemblyman Corey Jackson, who represents the Kutters' hometown in Southern California's Inland Empire. This fall, he'll be back at Berkeley for his junior year, but he'll be seeing the future through a new lens.
"In the long term," Kutter explained, "my main career goal is to get into a position, eventually, where I can help effectuate real public policy that can help real people. That's been my mantra from the very beginning, but I didn't know how I would get there."
A student project, a state institution
IGS was founded in 1919 as the Bureau of Public Administration, a nonpartisan, multidisciplinary center. From the start, it has worked closely with state government, providing information and expertise to elected officials. Today, IGS is one of the oldest research units on the Berkeley campus.
Courtesy of the Institute of Governmental Studies
The Cal-in-Sacramento fellowship was founded in 1973, in an era shaped by the excitement and disappointment of the 1960s and early '70s. For many young people then, rebellious idealism was morphing into a practical commitment: To produce social change, you had to work within the system.
The program was founded by students, and students ran it for about three decades. Structure was loose and informal, and Trost said there's little documentation about those early years. Still, the fellowship was establishing itself as an institution.
These students are smart, they're curious. Let's put them to work.
Christine Trost, executive director of the Institute of Governmental Studies
Cal-in-Sacramento came under the IGS umbrella in the early 2000s. A preparatory spring class in state government operations was added to the fellowship soon after, taught sometimes by legislators themselves. Research requirements were added, too. A growing network of past fellows working in the Capitol was increasingly important in finding summer slots for each new cohort, usually around 30 students.
Fellowship alum Tom Negrete grew up in Sacramento, and at Berkeley in the mid-1980s, he was an aspiring journalist. He'd had an internship at the Sacramento Bee, and when a colleague at the Daily Cal told him about Cal-in-Sacramento, he decided it would help him to a better understanding of state government.
"I got placed with the Lieutenant Governor's Office," Negrete recalled. "That experience convinced me that I definitely wanted to be a journalist. I did not want to work in state government. But it's funny - I remember I discovered the State Library back then. I had to do some research there. And I thought, 'This is kind of a cool place. I could see myself working here the whole day.'"
After an illustrious career at the New York Times and the Bee, that's exactly what happened. Today, Negrete directs the library's California Research Bureau.
When the COVID pandemic severely curtailed state government activities in 2020, Negrete stepped in. On short notice, the library took on 18 Cal-in-Sacramento fellows whose planned placements had been cancelled.
Far from a make-work internship, the library staff and the fellows collaborated remotely on intensive reports looking at the human and economic impact of the pandemic across California.
"This is a perfect example of the fellowship's direct impact," Trost said. "These students are smart, they're curious. Let's put them to work. Let's create some fact sheets that are going to help inform our policymakers' responses to how we can help communities during this unprecedented time."
Opening a wider window onto the world
Mendoza-Partida and Kutter are emblematic of the latest generation of Cal-in-Sacramento fellows.
"They're bringing their lived experience to the policy areas that they're most passionate about," Trost explained. "That's often education, it's often climate and environment, or housing. It's really interesting how the lives that they've lived and the problems they've been exposed to inform where they want to work over the summer.
"They want to go in there and learn, and then use what they have learned about how state government and policymaking works to make changes that will improve their lives and the lives of their communities."
Photo courtesy of California state Assembly
Kutter has focused his fellowship in part on housing. His interest was inspired when the Los Angeles wildfires ravaged the region in early 2025. The Palisades Fire burned through the mostly affluent area of Pacific Palisades, and Kutter knew that many of the people displaced would have the means to get back on their feet. But the Eaton Fire that largely destroyed Altadena affected mostly low- and middle-income people.
He then focused his research on the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, using his data science training to study how issues such as zoning and affordability shaped the rebuilding effort. And then, as a legislative staffer, he worked closely on a bill, sponsored by Jackson, that would have provided support for community college students who needed to sleep in their cars.
"I was already vaguely interested in housing because we live in California, with a seemingly never-ending affordable housing crisis," Kutter said. "I've been engaging in so many diverse perspectives and understanding the multitude of experiences that people everywhere are having. That's a pretty good characterization of the foundation I've gotten here."
Cal-in-Sacramento has made a real effort to try to place students who are first-generation college students.
Tom Negrete, director of the California Research Bureau
For Mendoza-Partida, education has been a theme since her earliest years. Her parents were raised in Jalisco, Mexico. Her father had to drop out of school before fifth grade, and her mother didn't finish middle school. But in the U.S., her father was always interested in the news, and her mother focused her work on caring for young children, most from immigrant families.
Growing up, "I saw the struggles of not only my family, but neighboring families," she explained. "I knew I wanted to do things that supported my community."
In high school, she was a tutor for local elementary and middle school students who sometimes didn't speak English. She imagined herself as a teacher. She was the first in her family to graduate from high school, and when she was admitted to UC Berkeley, she became the first to attend a four-year university.
"Berkeley is less than two hours away from my hometown, but I didn't know how different the world could be," Mendoza-Partida explained. "You really start getting a picture of how, even within California, with its economic disparities, where you come from is going to impact you so much - what privileges you have, what resources you're going to be able to get."
At every step, it seemed, her horizons widened. This summer, working at the California Department of Education, she was assigned to review grant applications from local school districts. To some, the work might've seemed bureaucratic. But for Mendoza-Partida, it opened a window onto profound policy issues - and educational needs - across the state.
And that contributed to her growing sense that she could make a career in education policy.
Training students, supporting democracy
Mendoza-Partida's next stop is the yearlong Capitol Fellows Program offered by Sacramento State University. After that? Work, or maybe graduate school - she's not sure yet. But in Trost's view, she and Kutter are already success stories that point to the importance of the Cal-in-Sacramento fellowship.
Photo courtesy of the California Department of Education
"California is huge and it's diverse," said Negrete. "If you want to understand the state and meet its needs, you have to find a way to bring in that diversity. I don't just mean race or ethnicity, but income levels, experiences. … Cal-in-Sacramento has made a real effort to try to place students who are first-generation college students. And so the students bring a level of diversity that you don't commonly see in state government."
Trost sees the recruitment effort as part of a broader mission to support democracy.
"At a time when it seems like democratic institutions are under threat, when federal agencies are being dismantled, it's more important than ever to support students who are interested in public service," she said. "They're not interested in making a ton of money. They want to serve their communities.
"They really believe that now is the time to lean in to working in state government or in other government spaces. They want to bring their experiences and perspectives and also what they've learned here at Berkeley to support those institutions, to keep them strong, so that they can continue to serve the people in this state and nation."
