MERCED, Calif. — Though UC Merced looked back this year to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the campus’s groundbreaking, signs of what the future will hold continue to come into focus.
Those signs include cutting-edge research moving forward in the San Joaquin Valley -- the state's fastest growing region -- and around the world, the growing campus, and the ever-strengthening bond between the campus and the community.
At 33, Nick Navarrette isn’t the average UC Merced student. He’s not even the average transfer student. Then again, Navarrette has never been “average,” nor does he pretend to be. Maybe that’s why adversity doesn’t seem to faze him.
Portia Mira considers herself lucky. Although the UC Merced senior was taken from her parents and spent five years in foster care, she said she and her sister are much better off than most.
http://www.ucmerced.edu/sites/www/files/news/images/sjv_prime_inaugural_..." style="width: 200px; height: 250px; " title="The students in the inaugural class in the UC Merced San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education are spending the summer furthering their training by participating in internships and other opportunities. From left, Christina Thabit, Agustin Morales, Kelly Fujikawa, Randell Rueda and Sidra Ayub.
When a deadly earthquake shook the Sichuan province of his native China in May 2008, John Li watched from Los Angeles and immediately made a connection. He knew his passion for performing magic could offer relief and hope to suffering people, especially orphaned children.
Five University of California, Merced, undergraduate students have been selected to attend the Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI) Program at Harvard University Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership, now in its third year.
The program, which was developed to address the rapid growth of the Latino population and the lack of Latino leadership representation across all sectors of society, starts June 23 in Cambridge, Mass., and lasts one week.
UC Merced will commemorate the 10th anniversary of its groundbreaking with a series of 
At 33, Nick Navarrette isn’t the average UC Merced student. He’s not even the average transfer student. Then again, Navarrette has never been “average,” nor does he pretend to be. Maybe that’s why adversity doesn’t seem to faze him.
The UC Merced 
UC Merced senior Patricia Paredes didn’t grow up in the best neighborhood or have the easiest childhood.
Portia Mira considers herself lucky. Although the UC Merced senior was taken from her parents and spent five years in foster care, she said she and her sister are much better off than most.
When a deadly earthquake shook the Sichuan province of his native China in May 2008, John Li watched from Los Angeles and immediately made a connection. He knew his passion for performing magic could offer relief and hope to suffering people, especially orphaned children. 
An academic focus on the Central Valley region’s historically African-American communities brought Michael Eissinger to UC Merced.
