UC Merced students strive to connect peers, residents

UC Merced students this month have been challenged by their peers to connect with the greater community through volunteer work, actions that organizers hope will better connect the campus to the local region.

The Community Engagement Challenge came from the campus’s Blum Center for Developing Economies, which set a goal for 1,000 volunteer hours this month. The center recruited other groups to jump in on the effort.

A couple of dozen students took turns on Thursday cleaning up trash at Lake Yosemite, the man-made reservoir near the campus that is a popular summer recreation spot for local residents. Daniel Sabzehzar, director of marketing for the Blum Center, said the challenge is a way to get students to take an interest in being part of Merced.

Sabzehzar, a 21-year-old biochemistry and public health student, said students can too often feel like they’re part of a “colony” that is separate from the greater city of Merced.

But, to change that, students need to do some of the work. “They need to put in some sweat equity, too,” the Fresno native said.

So far, the students have polished off about 500 volunteer hours, and expect to clear their goal by the end of March.

Outfitted with rubber gloves and carrying plastic bags, students walked around the lake picking up bottle caps and trash strewn about the beach.

Alex Wood, 20, a history major from San Diego, helped organize members of Humans United to take part. As president of the club, which does regular cleanup efforts, jumping into the challenge made sense, he said.

“We want to bring people of different backgrounds, cultures together and do some good in the city,” he said.

The cleanup efforts are part of a larger plan. Organizers said they are working on getting grant funding to bus 1,000 students to enjoy Merced’s downtown nightlife on April 15. That effort will take some help from downtown business owners, they said, in the hopes of furthering relationships between students and residents.

The Blum Center recently surveyed 1,000 students and found they most often frequent 14 local eateries and retail spots. That’s too few, said Christopher Bernal, president of the Student Alumni Association.

The 20-year-old management and business economics major from Lancaster said the businesses that get those student dollars are the ones with the closest relationships to campus. He said, for example, local businesses that sell food on campus are familiar to students.

The next step is finding a way to get other shops to partner with the school. “We want to try to figure out ideas that are data-driven,” he said.

Organizers said they are planning other events, including a student art show at the Epekel Gallery, which is owned by Merced Art Hop.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "UC Merced students strive to connect peers, residents."