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From Instagram To Founder: Shavone Charles Is Shaping The Future For Next-Gen Creatives
Shavone Charles graduated UC Merced with a bachelor’s degree in literature. During her time on campus, she served as a peer mentor, helped organize the first Afrikan Black Coalition conference, wrote for the student newspaper and completed internships at Google, Twitter, BET Networks and the UCDC program, to name a few. After graduation, Charles took a job with Twitter and led the company’s global music and culture communications from its San Francisco headquarters. She was the youngest team member and the first African-American woman to be hired onto the communications team. While there, she helped found Blackbird — Twitter’s first employee resource group for African-American employees.
Charles is now the current Founder of Magic in Her Melanin, a creative collective and in-house agency that bridges the gap between creatives of color and the tech industry. She was also named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for 2019 after spending her career breaking down barriers in the tech industry by taking up space as a creative of color and then building support systems for the creatives to follow.
Forbes, Goldie Chan, March 15, 2019
Photo; Shavone Charles contemplates her next big creative move. Curtis Taylor Jr.
I’m really family oriented and from a really small town, so coming to UC Merced and Merced in general was a change. I wasn’t used to so much diversity.
- Anna Ocegueda, Psychology '19
Picture This: Migrant Farmworkers’ Daughter Turns UC Merced Grad
Anna Ocegueda is the daughter of migrant farm workers from Mexico and as one of five children, is the first in her family to graduate from a four-year university. Ocegueda is from Orange Cove, a small town in Fresno County, where her parents have picked seasonal fruit for more than 25 years.
Ocegueda’s sister photographed her with her parents, standing in the orange groves her parents know so well.
70% +
undergraduate students are first generation
Refugees' Son Helped Attract Michelle Obama to Historic Commencement
Before David Do earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Merced, he helped spearhead a Valentine’s Day card campaign that convinced First Lady Michelle Obama to give the commencement address to the first graduating class.
Do’s parents were refugees from the Vietnam War, and Do, a San Jose native, arrived at UC Merced as a first-generation college student. During his time at UC Merced, Do was active in several clubs. He served as director of Academic Affairs for the Associated Students of the University of California, Merced (ASUCM) and writing the first by-laws for the Fellowship and Undergraduate Research Symposium. He was also the president of the Pre-Law Society and vice-president of community affairs for the African American Student Association, helping start the NAACP Youth Chapter to bridge the divide between the greater Merced community and the university.
Do is now the director of the Washington, D.C., Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs.
UC Merced is a special place for me — I spent four years of my life there trying to challenge myself and grow. But more than just four years of my life, it is a place I will always cherish because it’s where I found myself and lifelong friends.
- David Do, Economics '09
Pictured Left: Michelle Obama, UC Merced Commencement Address, Class of 2009
I was a non-traditional student. I feel like they built UC Merced for me. I took the skills I had with my hands and the knowledge I had for 30-plus years of working with mechanical components, and combined that with the theory.
- Duval Johnson, Mechanical Engineering, '14
From Automotive Industry to Engineer and Tribologist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Duval Johnson was born in Downey, Calif., and raised there until he moved to Mariposa at age 8. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army for three years, then ran an automotive business in Merced for three decades. Johnson earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at UC Merced in 2014 and planned to go back to the automotive industry; however, the potential for research with Martini’s lab changed his perspective. He started working as a tribologist at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena in January 2018, before defending his thesis. Duval has also played a significant role in NASA’s recent fifth exploratory rover on Mars.
Bobcats Help Shape Future of NASA, SPACEX Missions
When Jessica Anderson first visited UC Merced as a high school senior, there wasn’t a campus to see. “They couldn’t bring us to campus because it was under construction,” she recalled. “They were showing us the fields and plans for things that didn’t exist yet.” Anderson, who grew up in San Diego, had expected she’d attend an established campus. But, on that tour in 2005, she realized UC Merced would give her a unique chance to be a pioneer — an opportunity she couldn’t pass up. “It was one of the rarest opportunities and I just happened to be in the right year to have this chance.” Jessica Anderson, who graduated in 2010 with her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering is a lead manufacturing engineer at SPACEX and aerospace fans often see her describing the technology behind launches as they stream. She is one of three 2010 graduates working at SPACEX, and one of hundreds of Bobcats — faculty and students — with deep and lasting connections to NASA, the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena and SPACEX through research projects, internships and jobs, including three at NASA.
UC Merced Alum Takes Helm at Lassen Community College
Trevor Albertson, who earned his Ph.D. in world cultures and history from UC Merced in 2009, has been appointed interim president/superintendent of Lassen Community College (LCC) by its board of trustees. Albertson began work at LCC in 2018 and served as dean of Instructional Services before former President/Superintendent Marlon Hall retired in December.
While at UC Merced, Albertson’s research focused on the political-diplomatic history of the 20th century United States. He was named a UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies.
A former Air Force intelligence officer, Albertson served as a congressional staffer, a deputy secretary of a cabinet department in California state government and a gubernatorial appointee. He was also an assistant professor and course director at the Department of Defense’s Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
Human Biology Major One of the First UC Merced Students Accepted to Medical School
Jason Castillo was a human biology major, and is one of the first students at UC Merced to be accepted into medical school.
He didn’t have to look any further than his immediate family to see the impact a family practitioner can have on patients. Castillo’s father is a long-time family physician. “It’s been nice having that constant exposure,” he said. “I was never pressured to go into that specific field. My dad has been a role model.”
Graduating in 2009, Jason is now a Mohs Surgeon & Dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente.
What sets UC Merced apart from other universities is that this is a young university that has been completely built on the efforts of its students, alumni and faculty. Unlike more established institutions, we cannot rest on the reputation of our university, but instead WE are part of CREATING our reputation as a campus. Being an alumnus of UC Merced means you are a leader, a trailblazer and an innovator.
- Jason Castillo, Human Biology '09
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