The skyward steel beams of UC Merced’s“Beginnings” sculpture were once again the site of the tradition of graduates stepping into new futures, as the campus kicked off commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2024.
Graduate students were honored Friday evening, while the School for Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts held its commencement Saturday morning. Commencement ceremonies for the Schools of Engineering and Natural Sciences were scheduled for Sunday.
More than 1,300 students in total were set to graduate this weekend. Chancellor Juan Sanchez Munoz welcomed just under 700 graduates at Saturday’s ceremony, saying many have overcome challenges and are leaving better prepared to succeed in their careers.
Munoz asked the crowd how many have worked jobs through college, and a large number of students raised their hands. He asked first generation college students to raise both hands, and loud cheers filled the outdoor auditorium as many hands went up.
“Some of you, because of COVID, may not have enjoyed this kind of ceremony as high school seniors,” Munoz said. “So this is extra special not just for you, but your families and your friends and all of us here on the stage.”
Keynote speaks on activism, life experience
The atmosphere at Saturday’s ceremony was festive, with many students adorning their mortarboards with inspirational messages and words of encouragement.
Although there have been reports of nationwide protests at college commencement ceremoniesover theongoing war in the Gaza Strip, thus far there has been no disruption of commencement ceremonies at UC Merced.
A small group of UC Merced graduates on Saturday showed support for Palestinian rights by waving small Palestinian flags. One graduate held a large “Free Palestine” flag while walking to the stage to receive her degree from Munoz.
Saturday’s commencement keynote speaker Castulo de la Rocha, president and CEO of AltaMed Health Services Corporation, during his speech referenced the Gaza protests happening nationally.
Known for transforming a storefront barrio clinic in East Los Angeles into California’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center, de la Rocha said he grew up admiring nonviolent civil rights leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Cesar Chavez.
He spoke of being active in MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán) while he was one of just a handful of Latino students in the 1970s at UC Santa Barbara. There, de la Rocha and other activists demanded that more Latinos be accepted as students to the university.
Eventually UCSB would change, becoming one of the nation’sfirst Hispanic Serving Institutions.
“Protest has given us the right to vote, to marry the person that we love, to be hired for our job regardless of our skin color or our religion,” de la Rocha said, to the sound of applause. “Yet, we have the duty to use our words, not our fists, to speak up for what is right.”
Talking about his career journey to the graduates, de la Rocha spoke of how he found his purpose. He described driving around East Los Angeles in a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle in the 1970s, when he saw a line of people waiting to be treated outside the East Los Angeles Barrio Free Clinic.
“This clinic treated people regardless of their immigration status or whether or not they could pay. They gave hope to a community that had lost so much of it. Suddenly I found my purpose in the least expected places,” he said.
The first in his family to graduate from college and receive a law degree, de la Rocha applied to become the clinic’s executive director, a position he expected to last a few months, but turned into a career of more than 45 years. Today the clinic serves more than half a million people annually throughout Southern California.
De la Rocha said today the nation remains a place where access to health care, voting, and jobs is “still a million miles away” for too many people. “I don’t say these things to scare you. Instead, I challenge you to find your unexpected journey,” de la Rocha said. “Never let the fire that got you here die, never.”
‘Waiting for this day’
At the close of Saturday’s ceremony, hundreds of graduates were greeted outside the amphitheater by family and friends, who offered hugs, bouquets of flowers and kisses.
Wearing a kente cloth graduation stole, an ectatic Osioriame Christopher Bramah, 23, of Hayward, ran into the waiting arms of his family members after receiving his bachelor’s degree in business management and economics.
He plans on pursuing a career as an entrepreneur. “I have been waiting for this day for so long,” Bramah said. “It’s been a long journey, and we finally made it, so I am just happy to reach my next chapter in life.”
Ivan Vargas, 23, from the Fresno area, wore a blue Hawaiian-style lei and held red roses given to him by family. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. “It’s very surreal. I am so excited for the future. It feels like I still have my whole life ahead of me,” he said.
Sadia Mlamba, 21, from Fontana, who received a bachelor’s degree in cognitive science with a minor in psychology, is heading to medical school. “I’ve got to do the MCAT. Dr. Mlamba is in the house,” she beamed.
Officials don’t have a count yet on how many people attended Saturday’s ceremony. UC Merced Police Chief Chou Her speculated anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 people may have been present.
The student speaker at this year’s ceremony was Eva Devanathan, a cognitive science major from Sunnyvale, who was recently presented the SSHA Outstanding Graduating Student Award by the Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences.
The keynote speaker for Friday’s commencement ceremony was UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, former director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
Sunday’s commencement speaker for the Schools of Engineering and Natural Sciences was Vice Chancellor for student affairs Charles Nies, who recently accepted a new position as chancellor at University of Minnesota Duluth.