Diversity

College and K-12 Faculty Strengthen Collaboration for Central Valley Students

November 6, 2025

Photo depicts people sitting at tables listening to a speaker at the head of the room.

More than two dozen educators from kindergarten through college converged at UC Merced to discuss the challenges they're facing and the opportunities ahead. The Oct. 21 event, hosted by the Center for Educational Partnerships, featured Lupita Cortez Alcalá, the newly appointed executive...

New Book Details Best Practices in Research Among Vulnerable Populations

Rosa D. Manzo, Ph.D., associate director of medical education and a project research scientist, has co-authored a new book on community-based and community-engaged research. “Cultura y...

Undocumented Bobcats Find Support on Campus and Through One Another

Being a university student is stressful on its own. Students who have an uncertain immigration status have an additional layer of worry. The nearly 600 UC Merced students with undocumented status...

Chancellor Muñoz Honored for Leadership on Workers’ Rights and Humanitarian Issues

UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz was a first-generation college student who became a lifelong advocate for education and the social mobility it provides to students from underrepresented...

Public Health Ph.D. Student Wins CCAPW Scholarship

Shaina Santa Cruz, a graduate student in the Public Health Graduate Program, was awarded the Central California Asian Pacific Women (CCAPW) scholarship. The scholarship provides financial...

Matos Selected for National Hispanic Leadership Program

UC Merced Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer Dania Matos has been selected as a fellow in La Academia de Liderazgo (Leadership Academy) by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and...

‘From the Valley, For the Valley’: Local Students Start Training at UCSF to Become Physicians for the Region

The San Joaquin Valley has a shortage of doctors, but students such as Kyle Shen (’18) aim to change that by attending a tailored track at UCSF’s medical school specifically designed to...

New Project Aims to Advance Understanding of Immune Cells as they Develop

Maybe now more than ever, scientists need to understand the immune system. A new National Institutes of Health grant is funding a cross-disciplinary collaboration between bioengineering Professor...

Three Awarded UC Pre-Professoriate Fellowships

UC Merced graduate students Anabel Castillo, Veronica Lerma and Sammy Villa are recipients of the University of California’s inaugural President’s Pre-Professoriate Fellowship (PPPF)....

Professor’s Documentary Film about Refugee Family Honored at Vienna International Festival

“Songs that Never End,” Professor Yehuda Sharim’s intimate film about a family transitioning from Iran to life in Texas, is a finalist contender in the International Documentary...