Berkeley STEM4Palestine hosted its “CALternative Career Fair” last Friday with the goal of connecting students to “ethical, mission-driven” job opportunities.
STEM4Palestine began in fall 2025 following electrical engineering and computer sciences lecturer Peyrin Kao’s hunger strike against “the use of tech in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” STEM4Palestine cited Google and Amazon’s cloud and AI services contract with the Israeli government in its open letter supporting Kao’s reinstatement.
Senior data science major Lyla Patel, who leads STEM4Palestine’s membership committee, organized the career fair to “put our words where our actions were” and show students that pursuing ethical STEM-based careers is possible. Patel emphasized that the career fair was open to students of all majors.
“I think this career fair is a great opportunity to show that there are opportunities post-grad and even during your college career where you can actually make an impact and earn money and be able to do something valuable with your time,” said sophomore political economy major Bhairavi Senthilkumar.
Senthilkumar is a campus ambassador for Teach for America. At the career fair, she promoted the paid remote math tutoring she did as an undergraduate and Teach for America’s postgraduate two-year teaching program in underprivileged schools.
In total, the career fair brought in 10 employers, two tech worker organizing groups and an ethical tech hiring platform to recruit students for volunteer work and jobs.
All the organizations present at the fair are compliant with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement or BDS, meaning that they reject companies that support the Israeli government to pressure the Israeli government to comply with international law with regard to its ongoing actions in the Gaza Strip.
Featured employers promoted a wide range of pathways from education to health and space startups, including the space debris removal company Project-S and public health hardware and software startup Auracare. Auracare was founded by former campus computer science and philosophy major Stephen Okita.
Senior data science and sociology major Kai S. said that they attended the career fair to network for full-time data analyst opportunities in education and youth advocacy.
“I think a lot of nonprofit, public sector (organizations) only really need one or two data analysts or they have a small team,” they said. “The job market isn’t the best right now, and I think I just have to keep networking and I’ll meet the right person and the right opportunity will come.”
While Patel is graduating this spring, she hopes that underclassmen involved with STEM4Palestine will continue to organize alternative career fairs on a yearly or semesterly basis.
“I really want to foster a sense of community in that there are employers that want these students,” Patel said. “And for the employers, there are students that want to work in these more ethical, more people-facing jobs. I want people to feel hope about the really scary job market that we’re going into.”