How two graduating siblings found their ‘second act’ at UC Berkeley

Two years ago, when Ryan and Melissa Mattson arrived at UC Berkeley as undergraduate history majors, they were excited, anxious — and double the age of many of their classmates. 

They spent their 20s and early 30s raising children, tending to an ill father and working to make ends meet. They were long convinced that higher education wasn’t for them. Especially not at Berkeley.

But Ryan and Melissa, now 36 and 40, will graduate this month in Berkeley’s class of 2025. 

As described in a 2023 UC Berkeley News story, Ryan fell from a ladder during a job installing an air conditioner and used the extra hours recovering from a back injury to attend online classes from Sacramento City College. Melissa, an avid reader, was intrigued by the lectures she overheard from her brother’s computer. She decided to enroll in classes, too. 

A sibling rivalry quickly followed. So did straight As and a belief, boosted by a history teacher, that they were college material after all. Admissions officers at Berkeley agreed. As Ryan put it at the time while reflecting on the 180-degree educational pivot, “Somehow, the stars aligned.” 

As history majors at Berkeley, Ryan and Melissa enrolled in, and commuted to, almost every class together. To Ryan, his classmates felt like younger siblings. Melissa saw it differently, like she was hanging out with her own children. But as they did in Sacramento, they forged special bonds with faculty members and also found support through the student parents group.

All around campus, Melissa said she appreciated “the profound support of a community that believes in second acts.”  

“Berkeley didn’t just equip me with a degree; it gave me a voice,” Melissa said. “I leave with gratitude for a university that embraces learners at every stage of life — and with hope that my story might inspire others to pursue their academic dreams, no matter the timeline.”  

The siblings also explored issues and world events that most interested them. Melissa’s final thesis examined the 1968 student uprising in Mexico and how physical and symbolic spaces shaped identity and resistance. Ryan studied how baseball has been a link between the U.S. and Cuba throughout intense geopolitical moments.

Understanding history is especially important right now, they said. 

“Studying history made me literate on what is happening,” Melissa said. “You ask questions of the past to find out what’s happening today. History helped me see that connection.”

As for the adage that those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it, Ryan said the inverse is also true.

“Sometimes those who learn the past attempt to recreate it,” he said.

Ryan also uses his personal history as a way to inspire others. He teaches auto repair at Contra Costa College in San Pablo and encourages students to believe in themselves and their ability to pursue higher education, whether it’s a two-year certificate or a four-year university degree.

Ryan and Melissa plan to take a gap year before applying for a Ph.D. program studying — perhaps unsurprisingly —  history. 

Their dream graduate school? UC Berkeley.