Among the UC Merced students’ impressive creations in the dimly lighted room — dioramas, poems, photo collages, paintings in bold colors — Derek Miller’s creation attracted attention.
Because it gurgled.
It was a tall box open on one side. Balanced on top was a miniature footbridge made of red Popsicle sticks. Through the open side you could see clear beads dangling from the lid. At the bottom of the box, water trickled noisily into a tray glowing in sky-blue light.
Miller, a first-year civil engineering major from San Diego, stood next to his creation, eager to share one of the many stories being told on this fall Sunday.
“Water is basically a human right in California, and Southern California takes a lot of the Central Valley’s water,” he said, pointing to the barren trees painted on the box’s exterior. “There are people who struggle with that.”
Valley residents, parents and other students strolled through the room at Playhouse Merced where the projects were displayed. The event was a community celebration for Central Valley Stories — the final exam for a UC Merced Spark seminar .
All first-year students enroll in one of these seminars, which are designed to energize — to spark — the tools needed to investigate and to learn from experiences. In focused groups of no more than 30, students get lessons in life at a research university.
Central Valley Stories is one of 11 Spark subjects taught this spring semester. Others include Our Energy Future, Living with Wildfire and Cornerstone Engineering Design. Continuing Lecturer Dawn Trook created Central Valley Stories and teaches three seminar groups per semester.
Trook, who earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from UC Irvine, applied her deep connections to Merced and a long history in theater and the creative arts to Central Valley Stories.
“I designed this class as community-engaged art. Students can choose whatever art form they want,” Trook said. In addition to the dioramas, murals and paintings at the final showcase last fall, there were a couple of short films, some monologues and an audio clip from a podcast.
Brayden Van Kuren, an environmental science major from Hawaii, made a woodblock depicting “the unity of nature” after interviewing Indigenous Valley residents. One of them, Bill Leonard of the Southern Sierra Miwuk nation, attended the celebration. Mishiko Berango, a political science major from Los Angeles, created a pastoral diorama after talking to farmers about the challenge of working amid unpredictable weather.
Reese Gonzalez interviewed LGBTQ+ women for his art piece, a mural on black paper with “Fighting for the Right to LOVE” in white letters framed by ribbon shaped like a wedding arch.
The psychology major from Angels Camp talked to women who remembered the days before same-sex marriage was legalized in California in 2013. But he was moved by one interviewee, a transgender woman, who had current concerns.
“She was really worried about the election results, that she might not have access to her hormone medication and medical therapy,” he said. “She said it felt unfair because we are all humans who deserve the same health care, kindness and love.”
Tapping into students’ abilities to listen to stories and shape their own, in addition to connecting with the region, forms the core of Central Valley Stories. One time, Merced physician Salvador Sandoval visited the classroom to discuss treating unhoused people and low-income farm workers. There was a field trip to Livingston to experience a third-generation Japanese American farm.
“I think everybody in the world needs to be heard and understood,” Trook said. “Just sitting down with someone and saying, ‘Tell me about yourself. I want to know how you do this.’ That’s powerful. And the students help get these stories told.”
The community celebration for this spring semester’s Central Valley Stories student art projects is scheduled for 3-6 p.m. Sunday, May 4, at Playhouse Merced, 452 W. Main St.
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