Before graduating in 2015, Berk was awarded two independent research grants becoming a 2014 S.U.R.F. Fellow and 2015 McNair Scholar. Berk was also awarded the EOP Achievement Award for leadership and community service, the Academic Achievement Program Award for his McNair Research, the Academic Achievement scholarship, and served as the Vice Chancellor’s Public Fellow for the American Cultures Engaged Scholarship program.
His research focused on internal and external motivation and their influence on health behavior. Drawing on course work in Public Health, Psychology and Sociology, Berk wrote an honors thesis, titled “The Internal Gym: Engaging Intrinsic and Extrinsic Variables of Motivation in Exercise Self-Efficacy”. Using the findings from this research, he subsequently created an innovative curriculum for a Decal course titled, “The Internal Gym: Redefining Health, Mindset and Motivation.” This course has been received well by students and will continue on after his graduation.
Before attending UC Berkeley, Berk was owner of a lifestyle and fitness coaching business in southern California. Believing that growth can only come from within, he dedicated himself to create a training system that provides a path to health and fitness that not only teaches, but truly empowers clients to take control of their lives by taking control of their minds. Having spent over 10 years working in the business world, Berk returned to academia to engage in rigorous research on motivation and healthy lifestyle management.
With intentions of graduate school, Berk plans to continue his research on motivation and behavior change and focus his energy into creating realistic and lasting health interventions that integrate physical and mental health in efforts to improve overall well-being. He will begin this post-graduate study through a UC program to conduct research in Paris this summer.
