UC Merced holds 10th graduation ceremony

UC Merced began its 10th graduation ceremonies Saturday, when about 500 students crossed the stage to mark their educational accomplishments.

The ceremony, which included natural sciences and engineering students, was just the beginning as about 600 social sciences and arts students are expected to do the same on Sunday.

The graduates gathered, as is tradition, near the “Beginnings” statue before making their way to the stage on the 10-year-old campus. Monica Barbadillo, 22, a computer science engineering major from Dublin, smiled with excitement as she thought about her accomplishments.

“I’m super excited to be graduating and moving on with my life, but UC Merced is close to my heart,” she said. “I’m really excited (about) all of the opportunities they’ve given me out here.”

After she finishes one more class in the summer, she said, she’ll be headed to Silicon Valley to look for a job. A technology job with a start-up company might be waiting for her, she said, but that’s not for sure yet.

Another student putting the finishing touches on her robe and mortarboard before the ceremony started was Julie Delos Reyes, 22, an applied math student from San Francisco.

She said several family members had made the trip from the Bay Area to watch her walk the stage. “I am going to miss this place, it’s going to have a lot of impact on me,” she said.

Delos Reyes said she wasn’t sure what the job market had in store for her, but she decided not to think too much about while she enjoyed her graduation moment.

Still another graduate, Steven Coles, 33, said he’d like to stay in the area and find a job, but said that’s unlikely. The environmental engineer major from Elk Grove said jobs for engineering graduates are hard to find in this part of the Valley.

He said being a member of the university’s 10th class is meaningful. “It’s exciting to be a part of that,” he said.

The keynote speaker at the ceremony was Richard Tapia, a mathematician and professor at Rice University in Houston. He was born in Los Angeles to Mexican immigrants, neither of which finished high school.

As a first-generation college student, he is like more than 60 percent of UC Merced’s undergraduate enrollment. He said he also had a support system in his mother, who encouraged him to better himself through education and hard work.

He told the graduates to embrace their heritage, no matter how many sides it has. “I’m very proud of my Mexican heritage, and very proud of my American birth,” he said.

“I embrace the best of both cultures,” he said.

He went on to say that the graduates’ lives are just starting, and challenges will try to sidetrack them. He recounted the challenges in his life, including when his wife, Jean, an avid dancer, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and eventually needed a wheelchair. Then, in 1982, he lost his daughter, Circee, who died in a car accident.

“Our only choice is not to give up, and to play the hand that fate has dealt,” he said.

Chancellor Dorothy Leland also marked the 10-year milestone, noting that much has changed. The university’s first graduating class numbered just three people. “Over the years, the word has spread of this special place of opportunity,” she said.

Along with so many first-generation college students, UC Merced has a large contingent of underserved groups. For example, about 60 percent are Pell Grant recipients, which means they come from low-income families.

As the university has grown from almost 900 students its first year to the now more than 6,200, its graduating classes have continued to grow. The university now has to split graduation ceremonies into two days to serve all the graduates and their friends and family.

“That’s a good thing,” Leland said.

This story was originally published May 16, 2015 at 1:42 PM with the headline "UC Merced holds 10th graduation ceremony."