Gerri Bock remembers when her and husband Laszlo’s daughter, Lila, first received word she had been accepted to UC Berkeley, and the excitement the entire family felt.

“We were all so excited for her because we knew what was in store for her,” Gerri says. “Witnessing her Cal experience has been phenomenal. Lila had access to these amazing professors, and her classmates enriched all of that. But the experiences that happened outside the classroom were equally amazing.”

One of those extracurricular experiences for Lila was Superb Productions, a student run entertainment group. In her senior year, Lila was the booking manager for Superb, which involved negotiating contracts with national artists, to bring them to campus for concerts attended by thousands of people.

“I would not have expected that would have been part of her Cal experience, but for her it ended up being one of the best parts,” Gerri remembers. “Berkeley is just such a rich community, and such an enriching experience for the students. It’s been fantastic to see it through her eyes.”

For Laszlo, another benefit of their daughter having attended Berkeley is its global reputation as a public institution: one that prioritizes finding as many brilliant minds as possible, then training them and unleashing them back out into the world to serve the greater good.

“The public mission of UC Berkeley is such a critical thing,” Laszlo says. “It’s a privilege to be able to support the scale at which Berkeley provides the best education in the world. It’s really a remarkable thing that Berkeley does.”

Another aspect of the Cal experience Laszlo takes a direct role in is as a Co-Faculty Director of the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Leadership Program, an executive education program. “We spend more time working than on anything else,” Laszlo explains. “We want to train the next generation of transformational heads of human resources so they can effectively support their company employees by providing them with analytical tools, including expertise in AI, and problem solving skills. I couldn’t be luckier than to have Jenny Chatman, dean of the Haas School of Business, and professor Sameer Srivastava, as my Co-Faculty Directors in the program.”

Gerri, Laszlo, and Lila are a Cal family that shares in the mission of the university, that of serving the greater good. Gerri sums up their commitment this way:

“Berkeley students, once they leave the campus, go on to do amazing things,” she says. “It’s gratifying to see, because we get to be a tiny little part of that. I think that’s what’s worth it for us.”