Michelle Morgante

Jose Nava-Mejia hopes to work in renewable energy after he graduates from UC Merced. That means every moment spent on his environmental energy courses is a moment invested in the planet’s future.

Kelsey Duggin hopes to use her microbiology and immunology studies to become a virologist and work with stem cells. Vania Huaranga plans to become a neuropsychologist.

The three are among the scores of UC Merced undergraduates whose studies are backed by the Build the Future Scholarship Fund, which is supported by donations collected during Give Tue UC Merced.

Fifteen students from Merced County high schools experienced a bit of college life this week as part of the Junior Leadership Merced program.

UC Merced health experts will join other Central Valley medical leaders on Friday, Nov. 22, for the Rural Poverty and Health Equity Summit in Delano.

Professor Nancy Burke, chair of the Department of Public Health at UC Merced, is a featured speaker and will be part of the event’s opening panel discussion on building strong partnerships.

Students, faculty and staff members will step up to the microphone and share lessons from their lives during UC Merced’s inaugural The Spoken Experience storytelling event on Thursday, Nov. 14.

During the event, 10 people will deliver five-minute monologues reflecting on moments of enlightenment under the theme “Lessons.”

UC Merced will hold a free Spanish-language health conference for the community on Saturday, Nov. 16, with sessions on topics including preventative health measures, coping with stress, domestic violence and vaccines.

The event is led by the Medical Spanish Service Learning Project, which trains students how to discuss medical topics in Spanish.

At a time of dramatic political division in our society, the role of universities — as places where people can connect with others and explore ideas — is more important than ever, according to Maria Echaveste, the featured guest for a conversation with interim Chancellor Nathan Brostrom.

Brostrom welcomed the former senior White House official before a capacity crowd of campus and community members at the UC Merced Arts & Computational Sciences Building on Nov. 5.

As a child, Kevin Dawson traveled from California to visit his grandmother in Harlem, where he recalls playing in Jackie Robinson Park. Dawson, an avid swimmer and surfer, would peer through a fence with his cousins to check out the park’s large swimming pool.

“I remember thinking how fun it’d be to go in the pool. But there was never any water,” he said. “It was a disadvantaged and underfunded community.”

Archaeology Professor Mark Aldenderfer ventured to the Austrian Alps recently to deliver a keynote address at the International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck.