In his early 20s, Cory Mccullough battled addiction and stole to support his habits. The Dos Palos native spent several stints in prison as early as 2011 for commercial burglary. Education was the last thing on his mind.
Now, the former inmate finds himself in the joint again, this time not behind bars but helping incarcerated people forge their paths to higher education.
While the campus remained quieter than usual this summer, a group of new graduate students began their UC Merced journey earlier than the rest of their cohort.
The University of California Office of the President awarded three out of only seven UC-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Initiative grants to UC Merced faculty members.
The initiative has fostered faculty partnerships with HBCUs to support enhanced diversity and representation of Black scholarship in graduate education and the professoriate since 2017.
Quantitative Systems Biology Graduate Program alumni Kinsey Brock and Robert Boria were awarded Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB) from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Boria and Brock — both former members of paleoecology Professor Jessica Blois’ research group — graduated in May with doctoral degrees and are headed to top universities to continue their important research.
Postdoctoral Scholar Mikahl Banwarth-Kuhn was awarded a $205,140 National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NIH-F32) to be distributed over three years.
The purpose of the fellowship is to enhance the research training of postdoctoral candidates who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields.
A core tenet of UC Merced’s mission is public service, something staffers Tom and Esmeralda Martinez know all about thanks to their daughter.
Applied Mathematics graduate student Shayna Bennett won first place at the University of California’s Grad Slam finals today (May 7).
Bennett presented her dissertation research, “A New Tool to Fight Invasive Species,” in just three minutes and won $7,000 and the systemwide trophy — known as the Slammy — the campus’s first time winning the top prize.
A half-dozen UC Merced students and alumni are recipients of significant fellowships to help support their graduate education.
“We’re extremely proud of our undergraduate and graduate students and alumni who have earned prestigious fellowships,” Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Chris Kello said. “These awards will allow scholars to embark on or continue their graduate-level research opportunities.”
(Select the link below to learn more about the recipients.)
For the second year, the Margo F. Souza Student Leadership Center and the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) held the 2021 UC Merced Leadership Awards virtually. The April 30 event provided an opportunity for the center to acknowledge all student leadership witnessed by individuals at UC Merced and celebrate award recipients, including 21 individuals and four organizations.
A five-year, $2.2 million training grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will assist UC Merced with the development of diverse cohorts of doctoral students in interdisciplinary biomedical disciplines.
Twelve trainees each academic year will benefit from NIH’s longstanding Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement Program, or G-RISE.
