Jody Murray

Her UC Merced Path Changed But Stockton Student Stays on Track

March 25, 2026

UC Merced student Taliyah Miller poses for photo

Taliyah Miller would be the first to tell you she arrived at UC Merced with an unwavering, long-range goal: become an anesthesiologist. What she could not have predicted was that a difficult roommate, a therapist’s question and a job she forgot she applied for would upend that goal and leave...

Advisor and student of Undergraduate Research Journal

Happy Birthday to Undergrad Journals that Spark Students’ Aspirations

It’s a pair of special birthdays for UC Merced’s two student-run journals for undergraduates. The Vernal Pool , which publishes creative stories, poems and images, turned 10 this...

Student Production of ’26 Pebbles’ Encircles Tragedy with Healing and Hope

It is impossible to avoid — the real-life event that frames the play “26 Pebbles” is disturbing. Heartbreaking. Which makes all the more remarkable the play’s uplifting...

Artist Mine Okubo painting exhibition in Riverside

UC Merced Professor Curates a California Woman’s 7 Decades of Artistic Accomplishment

An exhibit curated by a UC Merced professor reintroduces the seven-decade career of an American artist of Japanese descent who defied systemic racism and created a body of artwork true to her unique...

UC Merced's Professor Valerie Leppert at Bobcat Day

Thousands Enjoy a Big ‘Welcome’ at Bobcat Day

Fernando Malagon and his mom stood at the head of a line for guided tours of the university he plans to attend this fall. The informational stroll around UC Merced would be more for her than for him...

Shakespeare in Yosemite Goes Big for Magical ‘Midsummer’

There’s nothing small about this year’s Shakespeare in Yosemite production. It boasts the largest cast in the program’s seven-year history and, for the first time, features a full...

Speech therapists and TeleLingo creators Lorena Aceves Hernandez and Brenda Sanchez

Creators of TeleLingo, a Spanish Immersion Show for Children, Come to UC Merced

(Lee este artículo en español.) Take the cultural rewards of preserving Spanish for babies and toddlers in a bilingual home. Bring in two speech pathologists steeped in techniques that make...

Yehuda Sharim film "Flora" still image three daughters

Sharim Film 'Flora' to Premiere at Philadelphia Festival

"Flora," the latest film by Yehuda Sharim, will have its world premiere later this spring at a festival in Philadelphia, according to the UC Merced global arts professor. Sharim...

CRES Earns Mellon Grant for Student-led Activities

UC Merced’s Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) is among 95 programs recognized and supported by the Mellon Foundation in an initiative called Affirming Multivocal Humanities. CRES...

Bobcat Art Show piece, "Alignment and Dissolution", digital art on metal.

Bobcat Art Show Puts Broad Range of Creativity on Display

The 12th edition of the Bobcat Art Show, which debuts this week in a new space, is further proof that creativity can come from anywhere in the UC Merced community. “In addition to the...