Dr. Thelma Hurd’s journey in medicine has taken her from New Jersey to Nigeria, with stops in Texas and Buffalo. Along the way, she gathered experience as a clinician, public health researcher and translational scientist.
Her proficiency in these crucial areas has led Hurd to UC Merced, where she became the university’s director of medical education last month.
In an effort to prepare middle and high school students for rigorous mathematics coursework, UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP) joined with 11 school districts in the San Joaquin Valley to launch a series of summer academies at UC Merced, CSU Fresno, Fresno City, Porterville College and College of the Sequoias.
UC Merced students come from all over the state, some from very long distances. But for dozens of students just five miles away from campus, getting here took its own kind of journey.
Becoming Gateway Scholars allowed 67 Merced High School students to reach a destination they thought was closed to them, and because of it, a path to higher education has opened to them.
Sixteen Tulare County high school students have completed the inaugural internship program through UC Merced’s partnership with the Tulare County Office of Education (TCOE). Late last year, the university partnered with TCOE to establish the UC Merced/SCICON Field Station in the Sierra Nevada foothills, with the goal of exposing students to higher education opportunities while studying the land for research on environmental issues.
The county fair offers food and fun, and thanks to UC Merced, this year’s Merced County Fair will also feature an interactive space for kids to learn.
UC Merced’s Mobile Maker Space is an innovative mobile science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) hub with hands-on activities and workshops geared toward students in kindergarten through high school. Attendees have an opportunity to experience the Mobile Maker Space at the fair’s Discovering Science exhibit before it launches to the public early next year.
Graduating senior Araceli Perez was looking for a new environment when she moved from Hacienda Heights to attend UC Merced in 2015.
The shift from the high-intensity region of Los Angeles to the more relaxed atmosphere of Merced was more than a change of pace. In her four years at UC Merced, she always welcomed the chance to experience something new — whether that was cheerleading or back-packing for an archaeological project in the Sierra Nevada.
The explorer mentality, public health Professor Stephen Wooding said, is what sets the students of UC Merced apart from anywhere else. A willingness to try something new, to go somewhere they’d never thought possible, is a part of the Bobcat DNA.
For three students, the time they spent traveling up and down the Amazon River over winter break fully embodies this desire to explore.
UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland and Merced Mayor Mike Murphy welcomed the Bay Area Council to Merced on Thursday for a robust discussion on potential future connections between Merced and the Bay Area.
“Today we are focusing on the economic potential of building greater interconnectedness, which would have major benefits to both regions,” Leland said. “It’s not just about creating a bedroom community here. We will be attracting businesses and industries that will help lift Merced, the Valley and the state.”
UC Merced psychology Professor Anna Song and biology Professor Jennifer Manilay had a special dinner with UC President Janet Napolitano at her Oakland home recently to honor the faculty members for their work on first-generation student initiatives.
Michael Pierick’s road to presenting as part of the UC Merced delegation at this week’s UC Board of Regents meeting started in 2012, with a pit stop on the way to a basketball tryout at Sonoma State.
Both of Pierick’s parents attended UCLA and encouraged him to check out the newest UC campus while driving to Sonoma from San Diego, where Pierick was finishing his senior year at Rancho Bernardo High School.
“When I got to campus, it was just this close-knit community,” Pierick said. “I could really be the person I wanted to be.”
