Student & Alumni Success

New Bobcat Looks to Expand Impressive Research Resume

August 29, 2025

This is the final entry of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. Adriana Ponce Mata spent the last two summers working in one of the largest and oldest companies in the Bay Area. This fall, she joins UC Merced to begin her next chapter. Through...

The Center for Career and Professional Advancement connects students to opportunities and experiences that best fit their talents through career fairs, on-campus interviews, career development programming and other opportunities.

Career-Minded Students Get a Helping Hand

Senior mechanical engineering major Kelvin Cheung from San Francisco got a head start on his career exploration during his first year at UC Merced. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM...

Students sit in a classroom while listening to a lecture.

Teaching Good Habits, Detecting Risk Factors Can Improve Student Success

The transition from high school to college is key for any student — but particularly new UC Merced undergraduates, the majority of whom are the first in their families to attend college. A...

UC Merced's Verenize Arceo presents her research as two onlookers listen.

Merced Undergrads Showcase Research in Sacramento

Two UC Merced students were among a group of 22 University of California scholars who presented research to alumni, lawmakers, President Janet Napolitano and others to demonstrate how they are...

Twitter's Trier-Lynn Bryant speaks to first-generation students about what makes them unique in today's workplace.

First-Gen Students Get Career Tips at New Conference

Starting and navigating the career-planning process can be daunting for any college student, but especially for those who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. UC Merced...

Alum Wins Opportunity to Pitch at Venture Summit

UC Merced alumnus Michael Urner is one of five finalists in the University of California new “I am a UC Entrepreneur” contest. Urner was selected from a pool of 169 contestants...

A smiling male student walks along Scholars Lane while carrying an arm full of papers.

Entrepreneurs to Share Secrets of Success

Make the connections that will help you make your ideas and dreams become a reality. Spend a couple days at UC Merced meeting successful entrepreneurs and hearing how they have brought their ideas...

A woman seated, behind the alumna keynote speaker at fall commencement, smiles.

Campus Hosts First-Ever Fall Commencement

More than 80 undergraduate and graduate students gathered in downtown Merced on Dec. 16 for UC Merced’s first-ever Fall Commencement. Graduates — along with their family and friends,...

Shavone Charles' interest in technology started during a summer internship with Google, where she served as a student ambassador liaison between the technology company and UC Merced students.

Alumna Shavone Charles Continues to Blaze a Path in Music and Tech

It’s been five years since Shavone Charles walked across the stage at commencement. On Saturday (Dec. 16), she will return as UC Merced’s first alumni keynote speaker at Fall Commencement...

Marcus Shaw will celebrate his dream of earning a Ph.D. in sociology at the university’s first Fall Commencement ceremony Dec. 16.

Former Street Kid Fulfills Educational Promise with Ph.D.

As a teenager in Merced, Marcus Shaw lived a life marked by poverty, poor choices and indifference to education. The idea of college — especially at the new UC Merced campus — seemed...

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