Dear UC Merced Fellows,
I hope this note finds you doing well and enjoying the summer. It was wonderful to see some of you last month at the reception following the Board of Trustees meeting, and we hope you can make it out for other engagements in the coming year.
As you may know, we had the honor of recognizing nearly 2,500 graduates in May, including more than 1,000 alumni from the Classes of 2020 and 2021. This was our first in-person Spring Commencement since 2019 and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to celebrate so many Bobcats and their families. UC Merced Foundation Member at Large and Regent Emeritus Fred Ruiz delivered an inspiring keynote address at the Saturday ceremony. I invite you to view this highlight reel and have also included links below to the Commencement Chronicle publication and the videos from each ceremony.
We hope you enjoy reading some of the other recent highlights from campus below. We are grateful for your continued interest and support of UC Merced's ongoing success, and I welcome your outreach should you have any questions or comments you would like to share.
Warmest regards,
Stephanie
Stephanie Sia
Director, UC Merced Foundation Board
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Trustees Sally Bednar, Dorothy Bizzini, Ross Gentry, Gary Kremen, and Roger Sturdevant were acknowledged during the June board meeting for their years of service on the board. We look forward to their continued engagement through the UC Merced Fellows program. |
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Candidates Lisa Andrew, Dinesh Moorjani, and Brenda Pannell were approved for terms beginning July 1, 2022. We are excited to welcome them to the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees. |
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Trustee Ranu Mishra and his wife, Preeti Mishra, have made a significant donation to UC Merced that will help solidify the campus’s ability to host regional and national events and create inviting spaces ideal for academic collaborations, presentations and information exchange. The executive suite in the new state-of-the-art conference center will be named the Dr. Mahavir B. Mishra Executive Suite in honor of Ranu Mishra’s father.
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2022 UC Merced Advocacy Initiative |
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The 2022 UC Merced Advocacy Initiative was held virtually throughout the month of April. Our advocate teams of trustees, students, and alumni met with 26 state legislators to share UC Merced's story and ensure they support funding for the UC system.
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Our Foundation Intern Hannah Meskienyar graduated in May from the School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts with a degree in Management and Business Economics. Hannah began a summer internship last month, but returned to deliver a presentation at the board meeting on June 22. We are incredibly grateful for her hard work and support and are excited for her bright future ahead. |
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For the first time, a UC Merced alumnus will serve on the UC Board of Regents. Keith Ellis, who received his bachelor’s degree from UC Merced in 2012, will serve a two-year term beginning in July and continuing through June 2024. In addition to his new role, Ellis will be recognized as an active officer of the Alumni Associations of UC (AAUC).
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The U.S. Senate confirmed UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe to be the new director of the Office of Science in the federal Department of Energy. The Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the lead federal agency supporting fundamental scientific research for energy, and the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences.
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The Carnegie Corporation of New York announced that UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair Jessica Trounstine has been named to the 2022 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. Each of the program's 28 award recipients will receive a $200,000 stipend to devote their time to research and writing in the social sciences and humanities. This year's commitment totals $5.6 million in philanthropic support.
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A team of UC Merced engineering students brought hands-on lessons on drones and robotics to hundreds of children and families at the recent Tri-Valley Innovation Fair. With UC Merced’s Mobile Maker Lab as headquarters, the CITRIS team taught young people to write simple programs in introductory Python to make drones fly a pattern — a new curriculum unit developed by Gamiño and Peter Sou (’22) who will graduate in May with a computer science and engineering degree.
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The University of California, Merced, continues to pave the way to success for local high school students. The campus announced the expansion of the Merced Automatic Admission Program (MAAP) for students at Dinuba Unified School District (DUSD).
The new partnership will allow students with a weighted GPA of 3.5 with no grade lower than a “C” to be automatically admitted to UC Merced through a streamlined admissions process.
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UC Merced is adding men’s and women’s water polo and men’s and women’s outdoor track as varsity intercollegiate sports beginning in the 2022-23 academic year.
This announcement gives UC Merced Athletics 12 sponsored varsity sports: six men’s teams and six women’s teams.
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