Brenda Ortiz

Ph.D. Student Awarded Fellowship to Advance Environmental Health and Harmful Algal Bloom Mitigation

December 18, 2025

Collage photo of Black male with dark hair and beard wearing blue and gray long sleeve shirt and photo of campus signage and palm trees.

Public health Ph.D. student Felix Agyemang Opoku has been awarded the UC Global Health Initiative Center for Planetary Health Water and Health Summer Research Fellowship. The research fellowships are designed to provide students with funding to conduct research on water and health. Opoku...

Craig Harmelin and Suki Spencer are among the first staff members on campus to receive Fulbright awards

New Fulbright Awards Strengthen Campus Study-Abroad Initiatives

Two staff members in UC Merced’s Office of International Affairs have earned prestigious Fulbright awards that will help the campus expand and develop study-abroad opportunities for students...

More than 1,200 degrees were conferred last weekend, pushing the campus's alumni total over 9,000.

Perseverance, Leadership Key Themes of Campus’ Spring Commencement

UC Merced’s exuberant spring graduates got the chance to demonstrate their gratitude during the 13th Spring Commencement ceremonies this weekend as many of them paused to thank the faculty...

New Endowment Enhances Alumni Association’s Initiatives

Last month, the UC Merced Alumni Association (UCMAA) established the UC Merced Alumni Association Journey Endowment with $25,000 it collected through fundraising efforts to support initiatives...

Nathan Parmeter, Arlene Kranich, Melissa Becerra and Haipeng Li

New Scholarship Pays Homage to Persistence and Research

A generous gift from the grandmother of a UC Merced alumna and current staff member is benefitting two undergraduate students who put the UC Merced Library to good use. Melissa Becerra, a third-...

Graduate student Dalena Ngo poses seated at table.

Grad Student’s Passion for Prince Fuels Research

Dig if you will, a picture: the chance to study Prince – the musician and purveyor of all things purple -- as a subject of academic research. UC Merced’s Dalena Ngo did. For years, Ngo...

UC Merced graduates are wrapping up finals and getting ready for UC Merced's 13th Spring Commencement ceremonies this weekend.

Campus Conferring its Highest Number of Doctorates at Commencement

This weekend, 1,250 UC Merced undergraduate and graduate students, including 52 doctoral candidates — the most in the campus’s 12-year history — are expected to cross the...

Tomanike Banks will receive a bachelor's degree in public health on May 12, then a month later her journey will take her to Sierra Leone with the Peace Corps.

Grad’s Ambition Continues to Motivate Her Success

The odds of Tomanik’e Banks graduating from college were slim — only slightly lower than the odds she’d go to college at all. But Banks had one thing going for her that many...

QSB’s Portia Mira Places Third at GradSlam Finals

Portia Mira scored $1,000 for winning third place in the University of California’s 2018 Grad Slam competition , marking UC Merced’s first appearance as a top-three finalist during the...

'Red Carpet' Event Honors Exceptional Leadership

At the 14th annual UC Merced Leadership Awards, undergraduate and graduate students, faculty advisors and student organizations were celebrated Hollywood style — complete with cameras, lights...