Over the past four years, genetics and plant biology major Yaeko Long has embraced a wide array of opportunities—both in and out of the classroom—that UC Berkeley has to offer.
Yaeko Long
Long has performed alongside the nearly 200 members of the University of California Marching Band since first setting foot on campus, taking the field for nearly every California Golden Bears home game and participating in recent appearances at the LA Bowl and Independence Bowl. As an aspiring mycologist, Long has taken courses from leading faculty in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and explored the fungal world as a member of the student-run UC Berkeley Mycology Club. Long has also documented Berkeley highlights through photography, a hobby that began in middle school and was inspired by their father.
Rausser College recently spoke to Long about their passion for fungi and photography, involvement with Cal Band, and time at UC Berkeley.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What drew you to studying genetics and plant biology?
My grandma is a microbiologist who worked for John Muir Health, so throughout my childhood, I had exposure to and experience with microscopes—we would look at things like bacteria, pond water, or mold. I often lost track of time looking through the scope, and this led me to the idea of studying microorganisms in my future.
I came into UC Berkeley as a microbial biology major, but switched at the end of my freshman year after I took the Plants, Agriculture, and Society class taught by Plant and Microbial Biology professors Brian Staskawicz and David Zilberman. I’ve always liked plants and have a garden in my backyard, so I thought it was an interesting course for me to take. There were also genetics and plant biology majors that I really looked up to in Cal Band, so I talked to them and took a closer look at the major snapshot profiles. When I did, I noticed that genetics and plant biology allowed me to still take microbiology courses. It was such an easy switch since the lower division requirements were the same.
An Epiccocum mold species as observed through a microscope.
Any highlights from your major-related courses and activities?
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management professor Timothy Bowles taught a wonderful course on Agroecology, and I really enjoyed our weekly lab sessions at the Oxford Tract. Each group had its own plot, and we watched crops grow throughout the semester. At the end of it, we donated our crops to community members in West Oakland through the Berkeley Food Institute. This experience drew me to the Food Systems Minor, which I will complete next spring through a capstone project working with a local organization to change our current food system. I also recently joined the lab of Molecular and Cell Biology professor Dave Savage, where I’ll be working with Maria Lukarska, a postdoc who is working on new gene editing tools. Additionally, I’ll be working with PMB PhD student Flora Wang, whose research focuses on improving the photosynthetic efficiency of rice plants.
And because I’ve always been interested in fungi, I jumped at the opportunity to take Biology of Fungi, taught by Professor Rachel Brem. It was a highlight of my experience here. Every week, we were allowed to bring in different fungi that we had collected and culture them so we could learn more about them. What interests me most about fungal biology is that it’s still a relatively understudied area of science. For instance, people are still investigating why some fungi are easy to grow in cultures like petri dishes while others are impossible.
How long have you been involved with the Berkeley Mycology Club?
I’ve been on the email list for the Berkeley Mycology Club since my sophomore year, but didn’t become more involved until this past year. In the spring, our club went to the Point Reyes Field Station with the Chico State Mycology Club, an event that one of our current club members had planned with a former classmate from Santa Barbara Community College.
Yaeko (second from left) with other members of the UC Berkeley Mycology Club.
We foraged there, walking through the woods to find any fungi we could. Mushroom hunting in the spring can be difficult, especially if there isn't as much rain, so we didn’t find as many as we normally would in the fall. Everybody brought tackle boxes tocollect and separate all the different species of fungi they found.
Once we got back, we spent a lot of time identifying the specimens we collected. People could identify some species we found using field guides and identification books, but our more experienced club members—especially the graduate students—can make preliminary identifications based on physical traits like look and feel. Other club members took samples to have the DNA sequenced and determine if our identifications were right, or if we found anything new. Our club recently received some student organization funding, so we're going to do internal transcribed spacer (ITS)sequencing for all of the different samples we got. This data will be uploaded to iNaturalist along with photos of the full specimen to get that information out in the world.
How did you get into photography?
A photo from New Zealand taken by Yaeko on Christmas Eve during a family RV trip.
Photography was always one of my dad’s hobbies, and once I got my first smartphone, he encouraged me to pick it up too. I ultimately figured out that I liked it even without him encouraging me, so I just kept taking photos. My parents decided to take our family to travel around the world when I was in eighth grade, and I took a lot of photos on that trip. It helped me stay grounded and appreciate all the different cultures I got to experience. I have this really lovely picture of where we were on Christmas Eve. There's this huge field of lupine and nice, sharp mountains in the back. It’s very much what I imagined I would have drawn as a little kid if you asked me to draw a nature scene.
I love photographing plants. My mom has always said that I see the world in a different way than most people, and that my photography helps others see what I see in plants. I also do portraits. I started by taking photos of my friends’ fashion in high school, and now I take a lot of grad photos and headshots for things like LinkedIn.
Why did you join Cal Band?
My high school did not have a marching band, but I had always seen videos of high school and college marching bands and felt like it would be a really fun time. I played bassoon throughout high school, and because I also had a little flute experience, I auditioned for Cal Band. Even though we don't have flutes in Cal Band, I got in by playing the piccolo, which is very similar to the flute.
You don't really have any leadership roles your first year in Cal Band, but in my second year, I became a teaching assistant. I helped teach all the new recruits to march in the Cal Band style. Last year, I was a TA again, but I was also apparel coordinator, so I was in charge of apparel for both the band and selling merch to our supporters. As apparel coordinator, I was on our PR committee, so I posted a lot of Instagram stories and helped the Band’s media specialist with photography too.
What does an average game day look like?
We’re at every home game of the season, which totals to about seven. Something unique about Cal Band is that every halftime show we do is different, which means that each season we’ll have about seven different performances. If there’s an afternoon game day kickoff, we’ll be at California Memorial Stadium by 7:30 a.m. We aren’t allowed to play music until 8 a.m., so for the first 30 minutes of our morning rehearsal, we'll just focus on marching. But once 8 a.m. hits, we’ll play our instruments as loud as we can—it’s a fun way to mark the start of gameday. We have a lunch barbecue after we’re done rehearsing, and when I was apparel coordinator, I would sell merch during that time, mostly to parents who want to support Cal Band.
Yaeko during the UC Berkeley-Idaho game on September 16, 2023.
We also have a concert on Sproul Plaza before the game. We run up the steps from Lower Sproul to Upper Sproul and play the show that we're going to play during the game, along with a bunch of Cal fight songs. From there, we march and parade through campus to the stadium. We typically have a pregame show, which starts with us rushing out of the north tunnel and onto the field in a wedge formation—which is a very big tradition for our pregame. We go into the stands to play until halftime, when we do our halftime show on the field, and once that’s done, we go back to the stands until the game is over.
We march down through campus after each game, and we sometimes visit the team tailgate at Clark Kerr Campus. We also have an agreement with Cal Athletics about NCAA Bowl Games, so I had the chance to go to last year's LA Bowl, and the year before, I went to the Independence Bowl. I'm sure student athletes experience this all the time, but it was a very new experience for me to take a final exam in a hotel conference room.
What do you like most about Cal Band?
Joining Cal Band helped me find an immediate community. Even before my first classes, I already knew 200 people on the campus, which made my transition to college so much easier. And even though it’s not low commitment—we rehearse for roughly an hour-and-a-half on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and close to two hours on Mondays and Fridays before gamedays—I really enjoy it. I have so many friends in band, and everybody's really supportive of each other.
My other favorite part about Cal Band is that it’s entirely student-run. From the arrangements that we play to all of our marching formations, everything is completely organized by Berkeley students, who are still balancing work from rigorous courses and other commitments. Our executive committee is seriously amazing, and the band wouldn’t run without them. Being student-run allows the band to be creative and makes us tight-knit, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
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