Hundreds of UC Merced Graduates to Cross the Stage at Fall Commencement
Hundreds of UC Merced students will be celebrated this weekend at the university’s fall commencement ceremonies in downtown Merced. Nearly 400 undergraduate students and 40 Graduate Division students are set to cross the stage in the Art Kamangar Center at the Merced Theatre during three ceremonies.
Commencement weekend kicks off with the Graduate Division ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19. Undergraduate ceremonies are scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 20. Students from the School of Engineering and the School of Natural Sciences will be celebrated at 9 a.m., followed by students from the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts at noon.
Omar DeGuchy, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will address graduates at Friday’s ceremony. At LLNL, he has served as a technical lead and principal investigator on projects pertaining to the application of machine learning to problems involving national security. DeGuchy earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from UC Merced in 2020, following graduate studies that produced numerous publications and collaborations with researchers at Air Force Research Laboratories and LLNL.
While at UC Merced, DeGuchy served as the president of the university’s Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics student chapter and enjoyed mentoring undergraduate student research. At LLNL, he is the group lead for the analytic software group in the global security computing applications division and the lead for the data science challenge, a program that brings students from UC Merced to the lab to work on mission-relevant datasets and problems.
Saturday’s commencement speaker will be Dale Johns, the president and CEO of Dignity Health Mercy Medical Center Merced. Johns is leader whose work is deeply connected to the well-being, resilience and future of Central California. He has more than 35 years of hospital leadership experience, navigating health systems across the country through moments of tremendous change, including the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a proud veteran of the United States Army Reserves, having served during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He has volunteered on the board of the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute, served on Utah’s Health Facility Committee, and devoted many years to mentoring youth and coaching teams, thus, demonstrating the kind of community-focused leadership we hope today’s graduates carry forward into their own lives.
Commencement schedule:
Graduate Division
Friday, Dec. 19, 6 p.m.
School of Engineering and School of Natural Sciences
Saturday, Dec. 20, 9 a.m.
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
Saturday, Dec. 20, noon
Tickets have been distributed to graduating students and are required for admission to the commencement ceremonies.
Guests are encouraged to arrive early and allow at least 30 minutes for parking, walking to the venue, and ticketing. Seating for ticketed guests is available on a first-come, first-served basis, and all guests must be seated prior to the start of the processional.
Please use public parking in nearby parking lots or available street parking. Parking is limited, and carpooling is strongly encouraged. Guests should plan to arrive early to secure parking, as spaces are also available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Those who won't be able to celebrate graduates in person can watch a livestream on the university's commencement webpage.