Diana Franklin, a junior at UC Merced, has a passion for the environment and sustainability that began with an interest in architecture.
As a high school student in Orange County, Franklin interned for two architecture firms, which narrowed her focus early. In the long term, she wants to use her management major and art minor to guide her toward a master’s degree in sustainable architecture.
"I'm excited about designing custom homes — not just the exteriors, but interior design as well, and how to utilize sustainable products throughout,” Franklin said. “I imagine designing entire schools, including dorms, classrooms, administrative buildings — you name it."
During her sophomore year at UC Merced, Franklin served the campus in two major roles, both of which she plans to continue this year. She was the team manager for the Alliance to Save Energy's (ASE) Green Campus Program at UC Merced and served as the Associated Students at UC Merced’s commissioner of sustainability.
With the Green Campus team, Franklin's role allows her to hone her project management and people skills while furthering a cause that is both important to her and critical to UC Merced’s mission. Franklin manages three interns, using ASE’s goals and standards to initiate and organize sustainability-related projects on campus.
Each intern, Franklin included, manages his or her own project from start to finish.
"We want them to work on a project they're passionate about," she said. "The best advice I can give anyone on the team is to think about what you're interested in and make a project out of it."
Franklin held a Water Awareness Month campaign in honor of World Water Day on March 22, then organized the Earth Week Speakers Series in April, a four-day event featuring two guest speakers each day.
Research delves into health disparities
Reducing the profound disparity in health status seen in racial and ethnic minorities the San Joaquin Valley and the country represents one of the area's greatest challenges.
UC Merced's Center of Excellence on Health Disparities in Rural and Underserved Populations -- established with a grant given to UC Merced in September 2009 by the National Institutes of Health's National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities -- is working on finding solutions to that challenge, and four graduate students are doing their part:
Chris Fradkin, a psychology student from Utica, N.Y., is helping develop policies to combat obesity in the area.
Chi-Shuo Chen, an engineering student from Taiwan, is studying the biological effects of ultrafine particles and the fate of ultrafine particles in the environment.
Malgorzata Skorek, a social and cognitive sciences student from Sopot, Poland, will explore the effects of exposure to mass media portrayals of thinness on body satisfaction, self-esteem and perception of weight- related health risks in an ethnically diverse group of women.
Roger Tseng, a quantitative systems biology student from San Diego, is investigating how three proteins interact to produce a stable 24-hour rhythm, which is a common biological feature in many animals and has implications for shift workers who are constantly going against their biological clocks.
UC Merced Connect is a collection of news items written by the university's Office of Communications. To contact the communications team, e-mail communications@ucmerced.edu.
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