Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before.
Call them Thunder ‘Cats.
The ceremony embraced about 2,000 first-year and transfer students to a campus that this fall semester marks 20 years since the first undergraduate class began at the newly built institution, bringing the power of a University of California education to the Central Valley.
Low, gray clouds and occasional distant thunder framed the scene as the new Bobcats gathered at about 8:30 a.m., dressed in dark-blue Boomer Bobcat T-shirts. Many had moved into residence halls a few days earlier in cloudless, 100-degree heat.
“We’re all excited to have you here, and we’re going to get this thing moving,” Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz told the incoming students, glancing at the sky. “You are the realization of a future launched 20 years ago. You will find countless ways to discover who you are and who you want to become.”
Just as Muñoz wrapped up his remarks, the sky opened — big, warm drops, growing in intensity. The chancellor, joined by his wife, Professor Zenaida Aguirre-Muñoz, and the university’s three school deans, led a brisk procession up to Scholars Lane and across the bridge.
The students were cheered by hundreds of faculty and staff, several of whom put welcome signs above their heads to ward off the downpour. Lightning flashed and rumbles of distant thunder were felt as the students marched to the Beginnings sculpture.
In years past they would walk ceremoniously through the twin spires then pause for a greeting from campus leaders. But Tuesday'st stormy conditions — no previous Bridge Crossing had experienced this — called for a swift, non-stop passage, followed by a retreat to dry shelter under the eaves of the nearby library and classroom buildings.
As staff and faculty worked to accommodate an event schedule now contracted and largely moved indoors, students enjoyed boxed lunches, maintained a celebratory atmosphere and showed the resilience that has set Bobcats apart through the years.
Several were asked to share why they came to UC Merced and what they hope to accomplish.
Romeo Yang from Sacramento is a bioengineering major. He came to UC Merced because “I really liked the campus. It’s very walkable.” He has enjoyed all the welcoming events. “I definitely think it will be fun here. I’ve met a lot of new people.”
Winnie Mabula is from San Jose; her family came to the United States from Kenya two years ago. She is committed to pre-med studies. She said she received generous financial aid (“I couldn’t say ‘no’ to that”) and that “what stood out to me is that everybody is nice and friendly. The atmosphere is very welcoming.”
Computer science and engineering is the chosen major for Jonathan Brown of Placencia. He looks forward to delving into science and robotics. He considered UC Santa Cruz and California State University-Pomona but UC Merced won out because “it has a really good campus life and the best amount of things I’m looking for.”
This Scholars Bridge Crossing debuted welcome sessions from academic advisers and professors. Associate Dean Anne Zanucchi and Professor Yang Lor, who chairs the sociology undergraduate program, roamed the desks in a packed classroom, talking to students.
"I asked him a couple questions and he was very informative," Kassandra Suentel of Tracy said of Lor. "He helped me start to figure out my future here."
Elsewhere, fourth-year student and chemical engineering major Luis Onofre, who interned this summer at 3M, demonstrated how a metal wire straightens to its original shape when exposed to heat.
“It remembers its form," he told a nodding group of Thunder ‘Cats. Their journey was well underway.
Public Information Officer Patty Guerra contributed to this story.
