UC Merced’s exuberant spring graduates got the chance to demonstrate their gratitude during the 13th Spring Commencement ceremonies this weekend as many of them paused to thank the faculty members and loved ones who helped them through their college journeys. During the two ceremonies, UC Merced

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

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 foster

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

“April ... hath put a spirit of youth in everything,” Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet 98. He might as well have been writing about this year’s Shakespeare in Yosemite production. With Friday’s premiere — attended by high school students from Mariposa and several children of park employees and El Portal

When Mario Banuelos was 12, his mother took him into the fields to tie grape vines. The labor was tough and the wages were meager. After just one day on the job, Banuelos knew that his path in life would be different. He worked even harder in school and earned nearly straight As. His efforts paid

Every 10 minutes, someone is added to the national organ transplant waiting list, and about once every hour, someone on the list is removed — either because they died while waiting or grew too ill for surgery. The number of Americans on the waiting list totals more than 114,000 as of this writing

April is Earth Month. It’s also when UC Water Academy — an intensive course aimed at training the next generation of California water experts — starts its second year. To mark the occasion, UC Water released its second video for the UCTV Sustainable California channel. “Knowing Our Water — The UC

UC Merced graduate student Danielle Bermudez will spend the next 10 months in El Salvador, conducting research and serving as a cultural ambassador for the campus as a Fulbright U.S. Student Researcher. She is the campus’s first student winner of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. There are other

Desperate lovers, a fairy king and queen, a woman with a donkey’s head and a scamp with Cupid’s arrow in flower form are taking over Yosemite National Park on Earth Day weekend. Highlighting UC Merced’s special partnership with Yosemite, Shakespeare in Yosemite enters its second year with “A