Students in a UC Merced course stepped off campus and into the real world, developing flyers, website pages and even a TikTok account for a downtown arts center.
Staff at the center became clients and the students contractors in a spring semester project that produced marketing materials, forged relationships with the community and gave students an experience that in-class exercises can’t provide.
A throng of people came to UC Merced on a crisp, blue-sky Saturday for Bobcat Day. More than 7,000 were registered to attend the April 18 event for admitted and prospective first-year and transfer students, along with their families.
A highly customizable degree that rewards curiosity, reaches out to a diverse set of learners and prepares scholars for people-centered careers has arrived at UC Merced.
Liberal studies, a bachelor’s program that taps into disciplines in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, debuts in the fall 2026 semester. Students can parlay the degree’s flexibility with core UC Merced attributes such as undergraduate research and easy access to professors and advisers.
em·pa·thy (noun): the ability to recognize, understand and share the thoughts, emotions and perspectives of another person.
It is a means of connection, a path to understanding. Can you see where I’m coming from? Walk a mile in my shoes.
Three Merced painters, united in friendship and in their steadfast determination not to compromise their creative values, are serving as UC Merced’s first locally based artists-in-residence.
The brushes of Ruben Aguilera Sanchez, Frank Ayala and Abel Corchado create surreal scenes of fieldhands and crops coalescing in blues and reds, of a rural street splashed in watercolor, of shark fins cutting through a beach as a sandcastle rises from the surf.
UC Merced, a beacon of academic achievement in the San Joaquin Valley, is also a powerful driver of economic growth and prosperity in the region it was created to serve.
A beaming Jesus Cevon-Gonzalez stood on Merced’s Main Street, surrounded by his mom and dad, grandparents, sister and other loved ones. He clutched the proof of a freshly bestowed bachelor’s degree in computer science.
“I’m just trying to make my parents proud,” the Merced native said.
UC Merced Children’s Opera, a performance that delights and enlightens thousands of schoolchildren a year while giving Bobcat students experience in theater, has received support from a generous grant from the Central Valley Opportunity Fund.
UC Merced, recognized nationwide for providing access to a world-class education and transforming young scholars’ lives, is a finalist for the inaugural Excellence in Student Success Award offered by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.
UC Merced is among five universities nominated for the award. APLU, with more than 250 member institutions, advocates efforts to increase student success and workforce readiness; promote research; and bolster community engagement.
Several points support UC Merced’s nomination:
UC Merced has debuted a writer-in-residence program with one of California’s premier chroniclers of its history, especially the titanic power plays for land and water that have shaped the state’s growth and loom over its future.
Mark Arax, a Fresno native, author and former Los Angeles Times journalist, will host workshops about his craft throughout the academic year. His presence on campus also will offer inside access to a working author.
