Student Life

Open Arms, Open Skies: Students Welcomed at Spirited, Soggy Scholars Bridge Crossing

August 26, 2025

Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before. Call them Thunder ‘Cats. The ceremony embraced about 2,000...

Scholarship Helps UC Merced Senior Expand Her Worldview

Patricia Leslie is the first in her family to attend college. And the UC Merced senior is making the most of it, both on campus and beyond. Leslie is studying abroad in Córdoba, a small city located...

Class of 2014 Bids Farewell, Begins Next Chapter

At two weekend ceremonies, UC Merced conferred degrees on more than 1,000 commencement candidates who said goodbye to the campus they called home for the past four or more years of their lives....

Senior Balances Athletics, Academics With Agility

Growing up in Bangkok, Surabordin Prachumsri knew what he wanted to do at an early age. Now in his final year at UC Merced, that hasn’t changed for the 22-year-old. “My mom is an anthropologist, and...

Students Continue Their Acting Careers at UC Merced

TaNayiah Bryels didn’t get the lead role of Mary in her first-grade Christmas pageant, but it did spark a lifelong interest in theater. The UC Merced student has been acting ever since, landing parts...

Conference to Explore Black Arts Movement, Influences

An international two-day conference on the Black Arts Movement will draw world-renowned scholars, musicians and artists, and offer new scholarship and perspectives on the 1960s and 1970s movement....

Men’s Soccer Team Builds Framework for Success in Debut Season

In its inaugural intercollegiate season, the UC Merced men’s soccer team showed plenty of promise by defeating the eventual conference champions and producing the California Pacific Conference...

Campus Pitches In for Day of Service

A day off meant a day of service for some UC Merced students and staff and faculty members who volunteered to help spruce up Luther Burbank Elementary School in Merced as part of the 2014 Martin...

Grant Helps Strengthen Transfer Student Experience

University life can be hard, and for transfer students, it often proves even more daunting. Studies have shown they typically have low rates of campus engagement and retention, and take longer to...

UC Merced Tells Madera Students: College is Attainable

For Melissa Ugaldes and many San Joaquin Valley high school students like her, a University of California education might not be an obvious option. That’s why leaders from UC Merced visited Madera...