Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine.
Omar DeGuchy remembers the moment he left the comfort of UC Merced — the place he’d found his footing — and stepped onto what some call “the smartest square mile on Earth...
Brenda Ortiz
David Brantley isn’t a typical UC Merced student.
He’s older by a few decades. He’s already built a career as a professional photographer. And he’s the patriarch of three generations of Brantleys on ...
With student enrollment expected to top the 5,000 mark this fall, faculty research projects winning major new grants and making national headlines, and intercollegiate athletics about to begin, the...
Stephanie Ruiz and Marisela Torres have been friends since seventh grade, and they share dreams that include college degrees and teaching careers.
So it’s no surprise that these Tulare County...
Uriel Bravo is about to become a freshman at Merced High School, but he's already thinking about college — thanks partly to the encouragement of a UC Merced program.
“I really want to go to college...
For the second year, Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government has selected six University of California, Merced undergraduate students to attend the Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI...
Dulcemaria Anaya once vowed to represent her UC Merced class as the student speaker at commencement.
Anaya, a world history major from Merced, was an incoming freshman when she made the...
When it comes to management and preservation of public lands, park leaders have a simple choice: Be proactive or reactive. And that decision isn't easy.
Park leaders are faced with issues like...
From California's Sierra foothills to Sweden's Tyresta forest, the problems facing the world's national parks and reserved lands are immense and require a new way of thinking.
Park leaders from...
During a typical day at the Mercy Medical Center Emergency Department (ED), nurses, doctors and support staff swiftly move through the halls of the 27-room facility. Patients register and are...
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