Undergraduate Students

Ripon Student Turning Heart and Heritage into a Path of Healing

March 19, 2026

As a child of the Central Valley and a member of a Native tribe, Grace Grinder developed an early awareness of health care disparities affecting rural regions and underserved communities. While in third grade, Grinder lost her grandmother to what she described as too few physicians nearby to...

Student stands outdoors on the UC Merced campus holding a notebook and pen, looking off into the distance near a campus walkway lined with leafless trees.

Student Finds Community and Purpose Through Culture and Literature

Between classes at UC Merced, you will often find Padme James under the trees outside the Leo and Dottie Kolligian Library. What she studies there isn’t directly correlated to her classwork,...

Line of UC Merced graduates in cap and gown

Hundreds of UC Merced Graduates to Cross the Stage at Fall Commencement

Hundreds of UC Merced students will be celebrated this weekend at the university’s fall commencement ceremonies in downtown Merced. Nearly 400 undergraduate students and 40 Graduate Division...

Graduate Students Highlight Research and Campus Life to Encourage Transfers

Three Ph.D. students recently visited Madera Community College to share research findings and highlight opportunities available to transfer students at UC Merced. Emily Rivera Mondragon, a...

Conference of California Sociologists Engages UC Merced Undergrads

More than a dozen undergraduate students in UC Merced’s Sociology Club were immersed in the discipline’s breadth of research and professional possibilities during the California...

UC Merced Professor Rose Scott, student Narciso Martinez Solorio

First-generation Students Shine at UC Merced. This Week Celebrates Them

More than six in 10 UC Merced undergraduates are the first in their families to attend a university. The national average for four-year universities is about two in 10. Opening doors to...

UC Merced a National Finalist for Student Success Award

UC Merced, recognized nationwide for providing access to a world-class education and transforming young scholars’ lives, is a finalist for the inaugural Excellence in Student Success Award...

This summer's cohort of Data Science Challenge students and Professor Suzanne Sindi (red scarf)

Two Weeks, One Challenge, Lifelong Impact: Bobcats Dive into Data Science Challenge

Kathy Chau believed she knew what her future would look like. The first in her family to attend college, she had long been advised to aim for a safe and stable job — one that might not light a...

UCM letters in blue and yellow on Pavilion lawn

Prospective Graduate Students Invited to Diversity Forum at UC Merced

For students considering a master’s or doctoral degree, the 2025 California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education is the place to be on Oct. 18. Eight hundred undergraduate and master...

From the Valley, for the Valley: New SJV PRIME+ Students Embark on Journey to Transform Health Care

The stethoscopes may come later, but the commitment to community was clear as UC Merced welcomed its newest SJV PRIME+ students last weekend. The Student and Family Welcome event marked the beginning...