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...

CatCrawl Celebrates Community Connection

Food, fun and prizes drew more than 100 UC Merced students and others to downtown Merced on Aug. 25, for the inaugural CatCrawl. Degree Attainment for Returning and Transfer Scholars (DARTS), Office...

New Academic Year Brings New Faces, Opportunities

More than 2,200 students — many entering their first year at UC Merced — arrived last weekend in cars, trucks and minivans packed to the gills with living essentials from clothing and...

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Emergency Fund Offers Hope to Students in a Bind

Karen Merritt came from a family without much money. Like nearly 90 percent of UC Merced’s students, financial aid made her college dreams a reality. However, she quickly learned the costs of...

Pioneering Alumna Embraces Career in Immigration Law

UC Merced alumna Linda Barreto always wanted to become a lawyer, but an experience in college helped reinforce her career path. While driving, Barreto was pulled over and cited for failing to...

Campus Launches Countywide Food and Ag Exchange

UC Merced is taking steps to fight hunger and tackle food waste on campus and across Merced County. The campus has launched CropMobster Merced County, an online food and agricultural exchange and...

Prachumsri Named Men’s Volleyball Coach

UC Merced’s Athletics Department has hired women's volleyball coach and alumnus Surabordin “Ai” Prachumsri as the men's volleyball head coach. He will remain coach of the women’s team, as well. After...

Golf Fundraiser Catapults to New Record

The seventh annual Building Future Champions Dinner and Auction and the 20th annual Ma Kelley Memorial Shoot-Out golf tournament, held over two days last month at the Turlock Golf and Country Club,...

Governor Names Harris to Fair Employment and Housing Council

Mark T. Harris, J.D., has been appointed to the California Fair Employment and Housing Council by Gov. Jerry Brown. Harris is a continuing lecturer of management and business economics at UC Merced...

EECU Gift Helps Enrich Valley Teachers

Dozens of educators took part in the CalTeach Professional Development Summer Institute for Valley Teachers last year, and thanks to another generous gift from Educational Employees Credit Union (...