Patty Guerra

Editor's note:This is part of a series of profilesabout new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2024 semester.

Jesus Silva graduated from Central Valley High School in Ceres after being named the school's Central California Conference male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. "I had no idea I was going to win," Silva told the Ceres Courier. "My athletic director (Greg Magni) told me. I think it's pretty cool. It's an incentive to do your best in the class and on the field."

When the city of Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District wanted specifics about the impacts of truck traffic on the health of some of the city's most vulnerable residents, officials turned to UC Merced's Community Labor Center (CLC) and public health Professor Sandie Ha.

California high-speed rail, a multibillion-dollar project designed to connect the Central Valley to Los Angeles and the Bay Area, promises swift transportation, the protection of agricultural land and contributions to a cleaner environment.

It's also providing a lot of jobs - from design to construction to, eventually, operation.

Ensuring people have access to reliable, clean water is no game.

Except when it is.

UC Merced's Secure Water Future interns, administrative assistant and coordinator joined the university's Game Development Club to host the "Aqua Arcade Game Jam" in early April. Dozens of students from UC Merced and Merced College competed to develop a game that included an aspect of hydrology education.

Sometimes public service at UC Merced looks like finding ways to grow crops with a changing water supply. Or delving into how children translate for their non-English-speaking parents.

And sometimes it looks like picking up a paintbrush and refurbishing park benches and curbs at Lake Yosemite.

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus.

UC Merced's Black Student Coalition has tripled in size in just the past year.

Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus.

An organization that was created in a time of tragedy and crisis has been a force for good for UC Merced's Black community.

A study conducted by a UC Merced researcher found that people injured through violent acts have a substantially higher risk to die by or attempt suicide.

UC Merced civil and environmental engineering Professor Colleen Naughton has been included in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists' (AAEES) 40 Under 40 Program.

According to the AAEES website, the program recognizes "talented individuals who have, either personally or as part of a team, been responsible for helping to advance the fields of environmental science or environmental engineering in a demonstrable way within the last 12 months."

Nearly 65 percent of UC Merced's undergraduate students are the first in their families to go to college. Being a college student of any kind can be a thrilling, confusing, challenging, exciting, overwhelming experience, sometimes all at once. When you're the first in your family to go to college, there can be an added degree of uncertainty, as well.

In advance of First-Generation Student Week activities, the UC Merced newsroom asked some first-generation alumni and current students to share some advice for those following in their trailblazing footsteps.