UC Merced's chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers was again honored as the Region VI Medium Chapter of the Year. It is the second consecutive year the organization received this recognition. The NSBE, established at UC Merced in 2007, provides support, guidance and advocacy for its members through their college journeys and beyond.
Smiling even as she cried, Nancy Rodas De Leon stood in UC Merced's University Plaza, accepting hugs, flowers, stuffed animals and cards from extended family.
"These are happy tears," said Rodas De Leon, who previously earned both her undergraduate and master's degrees at UC Merced. The eldest of five children, she said it was hard to believe she was now a doctor of psychological sciences.
"I'm incredibly grateful I got through," she said. "I can't imagine doing anything that would have led to more growth."
Frida Quinto Ruiz went to Sweden with a curious mind. She came home with a plan.
"Studying abroad completely reshaped the direction of my college career in ways I never expected," she said. "I went to Sweden already curious about the world, but I came back with a much clearer sense of where I want to go."
During a tour of the European Union in Brussels, Quinto Ruiz learned about the Fulbright Binational Business Program. The fourth-year economics major applied to the program and recently interviewed to join it after she graduates in May.
Kevin Arrieta got into robotics to avoid getting into trouble.
Arrieta said he joined the robotics club at Dominguez High School in Compton high school after Gloria Esiobu, the teacher who ran it, gave him an ultimatum.
"I had gotten in with the wrong crowd," he said. "I had a physics teacher who told me, 'Join my robotics club or I'm calling your mom.'"
In the club, Arrieta found he loved working with sensors and doing programming, and he was good at it.
"You have an engineering mind and you don't even know it," his teacher said.
More than two dozen educators from kindergarten through college converged at UC Merced to discuss the challenges they're facing and the opportunities ahead.
UC Merced has long been a place where students can thrive.
Now the university has been recognized for its commitment to increase the abundance of native and other pollinators.
The campus has become an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, joining other cities and campuses across the country in a united effort to improve their landscapes for pollinators.
Fifteen years ago, UC Merced was designated as a Hispanic-serving institution. And though recent developments at the federal government have left what that designation means in limbo, the mission of serving the university’s largest demographic has remained unchanged.
More than 53 percent of undergraduate students are Hispanic, and 71 percent of enrolled students identify as first-generation (a student whose parents did not complete four-year college degrees).
This summer, 2024 UC Merced graduate Tatiana Howell is set to begin working as a wealth management analyst with Goldman Sachs. She got the job through tenacity, a strong work ethic and participation in an innovative program that prepared her and other students to work in the financial sector.
The UC Investments Academy educates, motivates and professionally trains students for careers in investing and finance, at no cost.
Recently, more than 150 students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. completed Climate Justice, a UC Merced course , through a unique partnership between the University of California and the National Education Equity Lab.
Helping diplomats navigate new cultures, removing mircroplastics from stormwater and automating raisin processing: These are some of the projects awarded winning scores at UC Merced's fall Innovate to Grow event.
Innovate to Grow, or I2G as it's known on campus, is a twice-a-year showcase for UC Merced engineering and computer science students to demonstrate projects they have been developing.
Teams of students work to address challenges presented to them by clients, then present their results to judges who are experts from around California.
