‘Today we celebrate you.’ UC Merced spring graduation returns with joy, festive atmosphere
Gustavo Morales Valdez proudly wore his blue and gold cap and gown as he posed for photos with his family on Saturday afternoon.
The 21-year-old East Palo Alto native was among the many students participating in UC Merced’s weekend graduation ceremonies on campus.
“It means a lot,” Morales Valdez said. “This is part of my parents’ American dream when we moved here from Peru. Part of that dream was to for me and my sister to graduate from college. Now we’re both college graduates.”
Morales Valdez’s older sister graduated from Cal State Northridge. Now he is a graduate and forever a Bobcat. “During the ceremony I thought of all the hard work, there were so many times I wanted to leave school but I didn’t,” he said. “I stuck with it. There were a lot of long nights, a lot of sleepless nights, but I’m glad it paid off.”
The commencement celebrations this weekend were the first spring in-person graduation ceremonies since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today is a day to focus on your success,” said UC Merced Chancellor Dr. Juan Sánchez Muñoz during his speech. “Today we celebrate you and we look ahead to your bright future. Today you graduate from one of the great campuses of the greatest university system in the world.
“You in particular have persevered through challenges and overcome obstacles, never more so, than the last two years of the pandemic.,” he added.
Many students expresses messages on their graduation caps, including Tea Pusey’s whose cap read: “Long story short, I survived.”
Navigating their way through classes on Zoom and learning remotely were challenges this group of graduates had to overcome.
“It was very different,” Morales Valdez said. “I had to stay at home, isolate and quarantine. I missed the social aspect of the university but at the end of the day this degree is all that matters.”
Emily Ruiz, 21, of Madera says her graduation hasn’t set in yet. “It doesn’t feel real,” Ruiz said. “I don’t feel like I’m finished yet.”
Ruiz is the first person in her family to graduate from college. She wore a stole that read “First Generation” around her gown.
“This means everything,” Ruiz said. “I’m a first generation graduate and that’s a big accomplishment for my family. I did this for them.”
The graduates celebrated as they took turns walked on stage to accept their diplomas. Families cheered from the crowd. As they made their way down from the stage some graduates held their hands up high, some cried, and other raised their diplomas in the air.
“You’re boldly setting out to contribute to a world that desperately needs you,” Sánchez Muñoz said. “It needs your ideas, it needs your problem solving skills, it needs your passion, your willingness to explore, to create, to innovate.
“Some of you came to UC Merced with doubts to overcome and with competing priorities and challenges in your lives, but you did not lose faith in your abilities,” Sánchez Muñoz added . “You did not lose the belief that you had something important to accomplish and indeed this morning you have.”
