New Batch of Bobcats Celebrate Welcome Week

UC Merced Aerial Picture
By Kenneth Mashinchi, UC Merced
August 29, 2019
UC Merced's annual Scholars Bridge Crossing featured students passing through Beginnings before forming a heart with the shape of California in the middle.

UC Merced welcomed the largest incoming class to campus over the past week, as more than 2,000 first-year and transfer students took part in Welcome Week festivities.

Throughout the weekend, families from across the state made their way to Merced to move in their new Bobcat. Among those moving in was Interim Chancellor Nathan Brostrom, who will live on campus during his time at UC Merced.

On Tuesday, the new students participated in the annual Scholars Bridge Crossing, passing through the Beginnings sculpture for the first time as members of UC Merced. Brostrom spoke to the students, congratulated them for choosing UC Merced and encouraged them to embrace being part of the Bobcat family. The event concluded with a drone aerial photo of students forming a heart with the shape of California in the middle.

Classes began Wednesday, with many students getting their first chance to walk through two new buildings: the Sustainability Research and Engineering Building as well as the Arts and Computational Sciences Building. Both sites came online two weeks ago as part of the second phase of the Merced 2020 Project.

“The new buildings will provide world-class facilities for their education and will support our growing faculty,” Brostrom said.

Welcome Week was a great way to kick off his own experience at the university, he added.

“It was so exciting and inspiring to welcome these students from different parts of California over the weekend,” Brostrom said. “More than 73 percent of them are the first in their family to go to college, so to see them arrive with their extended families and the joy and pride they had was remarkable.”