More than 80 undergraduate and graduate students gathered in downtown Merced on Dec. 16 for UC Merced’s first-ever Fall Commencement.
Graduates — along with their family and friends, faculty and a score of staff volunteers — assembled for the ceremony, held at the Art Kamangar Center at the Merced Theatre. More than 700 people filled the venue’s lower and upper levels.
It’s been five years since Shavone Charles walked across the stage at commencement. On Saturday (Dec. 16), she will return as UC Merced’s first alumni keynote speaker at Fall Commencement.
As a teenager in Merced, Marcus Shaw lived a life marked by poverty, poor choices and indifference to education.
The idea of college — especially at the new UC Merced campus — seemed like an opportunity for someone else. Yet on Dec. 16, Shaw will participate in the university’s first Fall Commencement ceremony and celebrate his dream of earning a Ph.D. in sociology.
Crediting UC Merced with much of his success, Shaw said the ceremony will be one of the biggest moments of his life.
UC Merced is welcoming back its first alumni keynote speaker, Shavone Charles, to address December 2017 graduates at its first Fall Commencement ceremony on Dec. 16.
Beginning this year, UC Merced’s fall graduates will have an earlier occasion to celebrate their outstanding accomplishments.
UC Merced is launching a new tradition with its first Fall Commencement. The intimate ceremony, which will be held at 11 a.m. Dec. 16 in the Art Kamangar Center at the historic Merced Theatre downtown, will include all the pomp and circumstance at spring commencement — caps and gowns, full regalia and crossing the stage in front of friends and family.
The newest campus in the University of California system, UC Merced is a campus that attracts leaders — individuals who enjoy the challenge of paving the way for others to follow — and the Class of 2017 is no different.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Héctor Tobar and HP Inc. Chief Diversity Officer Lesley Slaton Brown are the keynote speakers for the University of California, Merced’s 12th commencement exercises, May 13 and 14.
More than 1,200 undergraduate and graduate students are expected to participate in the University of California, Merced’s 12th 
Jocelyne Fadiga and Havilliah “Jake” Malsbury traveled from different worlds to study at UC Merced.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Héctor Tobar and HP Inc. Chief Diversity Officer Lesley Slaton Brown are the keynote speakers for the University of California, Merced’s 12th commencement exercises, May 13 and 14.
