Brenda Ortiz

Commuter Student Finds Belonging at UC Merced

March 31, 2026

Most weekdays, civil engineering major Jacqueline Garcia travels 45 minutes each way from her hometown of Hughson to attend classes at UC Merced. “The perk is being able to pursue my undergraduate degree while still having a tie to home. It's been great having the campus here in the...

Mobile Farmers Market Begins on Campus

UC Merced’s Dining Services is bringing Produce on the Go, a mobile farmers market, to campus from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Wednesday, beginning April 1. The truck will sell fresh, local and...

Academic Trailblazers to Address UC Merced’s 10th Graduating Class

The University of California, Merced, has spent the past decade blazing a trail as the nation’s first research university of the 21st century, and its students are no different. In May, the campus’s...

Student-Athletes Give Back to Community

There’s no offseason for giving back, and that’s exactly how the UC Merced men’s and women’s soccer teams felt as they recently reached out to help the local community. The men’s soccer team headed...

Community Garden Gets Facelift From Students

Warmer weather gave students the opportunity to spring to action to replant the community garden located next to Little Lake. The “Plant-A-Day” event, held March 18, was a collaboration between...

Dietitian Helps Students Improve Nutrition, Eating Habits

UC Merced students have a new resource on campus as they navigate the often tricky world of food and nutrition. Jennifer Hobbs just completed her first year as the registered dietitian with Student...

Students' Spanish Skills Aid Valley Crisis Center

In the fall semester, UC Merced Senior Lecturer Virginia Adán-Lifante offered extra credit to students who volunteered to translate a portion of the Valley Crisis Center website into Spanish. The...

Undergraduate Applications for Fall 2015 Rise 14 Percent

The University of California, Merced, received 19,932 undergraduate applications for Fall 2015, the campus’s largest pool of applicants in its first 10 years and a 14 percent increase over last year’...

Golf Tournament Breaks Fundraising Record

The 18th annual Ma Kelley Memorial Shoot-Out and the fifth annual Building Future Champions Dinner, presented by Merced Honda in October at the Stevinson Ranch Golf Course, netted more than $56,000...

Day of Giving Nets $40,000 for Scholarships

On Dec. 2, UC Merced alumni, parents, staff, faculty members and friends of the campus came together for the first #GivingTuesdayUCMerced, in an effort to create a positive effect on the lives of ...