News

New Endowment Enhances Alumni Association’s Initiatives

May 10, 2018

Last month, the UC Merced Alumni Association (UCMAA) established the UC Merced Alumni Association Journey Endowment with $25,000 it collected through fundraising efforts to support initiatives throughout campus. Over the past several years, UC Merced alumni — especially UCMAA board members — have...

New Scholarship Pays Homage to Persistence and Research

May 10, 2018

A generous gift from the grandmother of a UC Merced alumna and current staff member is benefitting two undergraduate students who put the UC Merced Library to good use. Melissa Becerra, a third-year psychology student, and Nathan Parmeter, who graduates this week, are the first recipients of the...

Grad Student’s Passion for Prince Fuels Research

May 9, 2018

Dig if you will, a picture: the chance to study Prince – the musician and purveyor of all things purple -- as a subject of academic research. UC Merced’s Dalena Ngo did. For years, Ngo – a Minnesota native and lifelong Prince fan – wanted to examine aspects of the musician’s 40-plus year career and...

Campus Conferring its Highest Number of Doctorates at Commencement

May 8, 2018

This weekend, 1,250 UC Merced undergraduate and graduate students, including 52 doctoral candidates — the most in the campus’s 12-year history — are expected to cross the commencement stage and embark on the next chapter of their lives. “Commencement is the culmination of years of determination and...

QSB’s Portia Mira Places Third at GradSlam Finals

May 4, 2018

Portia Mira scored $1,000 for winning third place in the University of California’s 2018 Grad Slam competition , marking UC Merced’s first appearance as a top-three finalist during the systemwide contest. In three minutes, Mira -- a doctoral candidate in the quantitative systems and biology...

Grad’s Ambition Continues to Motivate Her Success

May 4, 2018

The odds of Tomanik’e Banks graduating from college were slim — only slightly lower than the odds she’d go to college at all. But Banks had one thing going for her that many others don’t. Determination. When Banks crosses the commencement stage May 12, she’ll be one of only about 3 percent of...

Professor’s Fellowship Allows Renewed Focus on Sociology of Race in South Africa

May 3, 2018

Professor Whitney Pirtle recently became the first researcher to win the prestigious Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship while employed at UC Merced — a grant that will help her finish writing a book and move her closer to gaining tenure. “It’s a really big honor,” Pirtle said. “It comes at a...

Prestigious University Press Signs Professor as Book Series Editor

May 3, 2018

Interdisciplinary Humanities Professor Arturo Arias was recently selected to edit a series of indigenous-studies books for the State University of New York (SUNY) Press. That makes him the first UC Merced professor to be named editor of a book series for a major university press. He said it is an...

I2G Alumni Return as Event Expands, Enters Seventh Year

May 2, 2018

The idea for a year-end event showcasing School of Engineering students’ original designs started as a scribble on the back of a cocktail napkin and culminated in the exhibition of 12 teams’ work. Now, six years later, Innovate to Grow (I2G) has become a premier event on campus highlighting dozens...

Beattie and Graduate Student Awarded Research Grant to Study Teacher Retention

May 1, 2018

Professor Irenee Beattie and graduate student Melissa Quesada have been awarded a $40,000 research grant from the California Teacher Education and Research Improvement Network (CTERIN) to study the factors associated with teacher retention in underserved schools. The interdisciplinary grant, which...