UCMBecca

I'm a senior at the newest University of California Campus, UC Merced! I absolutely love the campus and am pursuing a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, which will hopefully lead to getting a career recovering endangered species and getting involved in conservation education! Feel free to ask me anything about life in Merced, I'd love to talk to you!

[vikkiisvikkixd]

Y'all have no idea how much I love these views. #nofilter #photographyskills #snapchatquality (at UC Merced)

[ucresearch]

Read more about the report

[ucmbecca]

Especially the building more bike paths part, I’d love that! Although Merced has a pretty nice bike path network already :)

[brendaucmsfc]

Already Attend Orientation?

Check out the AFTER Orientation Checklist to see what to do now!

Also shows you tons of resources UC Merced has to offer you new bobcats! :) 

http://orientation.ucmerced.edu/after_orientation

[brendaucmsfc]

Welcome to the family :) 

Did you bring your family with you but they are not partaking in the parent orientation? 

Have them wait while you attend you college orientation in the Lantern Cafe! It gets pretty hot here, ESPECIALLY during the summer! 

I noticed that some parents were waiting for their students in their cars, and that could get pretty hot! 

The Lantern Cafe is on the first floor of the library, where students have breakfast for the first hour of orientation. The Library is the very first building you see after crossing the bridge.  Please let your parents know! There are water fountains and air conditioning in the library! And WiFi. :) 

[brendaucmsfc]

Our Very first orientation of summer for UC Merced Class of 2019 is TOMORROW! I cant wait to meet the Class of 2019! I know I was nervous for my Freshman orientation and did not know what to expect so I’m here to help you! Freshman Summer Orientation check in starts at 7:00 a.m. and the program will begin promptly at 8:00 a.m.

What To Bring!

ID - license, state issued ID. At orientation you will have your  student ID picture taken and they will be given to you at the end of the day. But if you happen to stop by the financial aid office or anything like that I would recommend bringing your license or a state issued ID so the staff can confirm your identity.

Paperwork - if you still need to turn stuff in in regard to paperwork for school, don’t forget to bring any paperwork such as your housing contract, any financial aid documents, official transcripts, etc. 

Backpack/bag - I would bring a backpack to call all the stuff you need with you for orientation. As well as for the stuff you will get at orientation. You get ALOT of stuff. Informational stuff and COOL FREE stuff too!

Comfy shoes - Wear comfy shoes! You do a lot of sitting and listening at orientation but you also do ALOT of walking so be prepared! 

What To Expect!

It’s Picture Day! Once again, at  orientation you will have your  student ID picture taken and they will be given to you at the end of the day. I was not aware of this. If only you all could see my I.D. picture… So make sure you have a good hair day! 

Info Sessions! - DEFINITELY pay attention to these info sessions! They inform you about all the resources on campus and overall how to get through your first year of college. I would recommend bringing a notebook and pen. There is seriously some good stuff that they tell you and you don’t want to forget it!

Group Activities and Making Friends - At orientation you will be put into a group and you will be with this group for almost the whole day. These people will most likely become your first UC Merced and college friends so if you really hit if off with someone in your group ask for their number so you can hang out, or be study partners during the school year! 

LUNCH - YES. They will feed you, and YES. it’s good food. This isn’t High School lunch anymore :D

Club Fair - This was my absolute FAVORITE part about orientation! You got to see all the amazing clubs and organizations that UC Merced has to offer! One tip for all incoming students, GET INVOLVED! It can be time consuming at times, but you meet tons of people that can help you throughout your first year of college. Getting involved in a club or organization helps you adjust to college life socially as well as academically. TRUST ME! 

Thats all I have for you for now! Now you know what to bring and what to expect! If you have any questions, any at all! Feel Free to send me a question on Tumblr here:

http://brendaucmsfc.tumblr.com/ask

OR FOLLOW MY TWITTER! 

https://twitter.com/brendaucmsfc

HAVE FUN AT ORIENTATION GUYS! 

-Brenda SFC. 

[tastefullyoffensive]

[brendaucmsfc]

I LOVE THIS. Too great not to post. Happy Wednesday! 

[brendaucmsfc]

The Merced County Fair starts TOMORROW! 

If youre in town for the summer Visit the fair! 

FAIR FOOD.<3 

and who doesnt like fireworks!

June 10th-14th 

http://www.mercedcountyfair.com/

[ucmbecca]

What Happened in Class This Week

Whoops, it’s been a little while since I’ve updated...sorry about that. Classes have been really crazy recently! I’ve survived my first wave of midterms and projects, so that’s a relief! But on the upside, here are some fun things that have been going on.

Soil science had its first field trip! I hadn’t expected that testing soil samples would be so much fun! I guess the inner nerd in me got excited when some areas were deep red from tons of clay and other areas were darker colored or had a layer that fizzed when we added hydrochloric acid to it, and we got to learn why. Well, that and because we got to spend a day wandering around making and playing with mud. :)

On a slightly more grown-up note, plant bio has had a bunch of interesting labs involving plant dissecting. We just finished a section on plant anatomy, so we got to essentially take plants apart and identify different structures and see the differences between plants on a cellular level. 

Although those labs were for plant bio, they ended helping out with Flora of California. We’re getting into the differences between plant families so we can go out in the field and know which family each plant belongs to, which definitely helps in identifying the species. And it’s a good thing we’re doing that, since this weekend we’ll be going on our first field trip! I’ll definitely tell you about that next week! Until then, have a lovely weekend!

[ucmbecca]

[ucmbecca]

What Happened in Class This Week #2

Hi there! Classes are definitely starting to amp up now we're getting into some of the core material for each class. But even as it's all getting busier, the subjects are still staying fun and interesting. 

Even though this week included my first quiz in Plant Biology (ew!) the class more than made up for that with the plant respiration lecture. I know, it sounds hopelessly boring, but I actually really enjoyed it because that lecture cleared up a lot of confusion I've had about the finer points of photosynthesis. And it's a pretty good feeling finally getting something that has always bugged me!

As for Soil Science, we got to learn more sampling and analyzing techniques in lab. Which translates to us running around and digging up campus in lab coats with shovels and augers (kinda like drills) and getting all kinds of weird looks. But it was all worth it because we got to take everything back to the lab and test it for different properties like pH, color, percentage of rocks, and texture, all of which were interesting to observe.

My favorite lecture of the week happened in Flora of California, and it was about keeping a field journal! The Vernal Pools Reserve Manager, Chris Swarth, was a guest lecturer and shared with us some of his field journals and what things we need to put in. He had all sorts of cool sketches and entries from all his trips across the globe, which of course made me excited to start my own! Maybe I'll get to do a few entries this week, I'll let you know if I do! Have a great week!

[ucmbecca]

#ucmadms

[ucmbecca]

[ucmbecca]

[ucmbecca]

If you're lucky, you can see these around Lake Yosemite outside of campus.

[ucmbecca]

What Happened in Class This Week #1

Hello there! So I'm taking some really fun classes this semester (finally got all that calculus and chemistry behind me, thank goodness) and I was thinking that maybe you guys would like to hear about them, just to know what an ecology and evolutionary biology major does. So I'm taking three classes this semester, all of which have to do with plants, although I promise I didn't plan it that way. I'm taking Plant Biology, Soil Science, and - my favorite - Flora of California! Plant Biology covers, you guessed it, what makes plants tick. I never thought it would be as interesting as it is, although that could be just because I have a lovely professor. Soil Science is also more interesting than I thought it would be and it covers the different types of soils, how to identify them, and why they are important. Flora of California is a ton of fun since it's all about plant identification in the field, so that means tons of field trips and walks to gather specimens. 

So some highlights of this week were the first soil science lab, the second plant biology lab, and the first flora field trip. The soil science lab was a fairly basic one, we were just practicing identification techniques like matching soil colors, feeling the soil to identify the texture, and calculating what percentage of the soil is rock and water. But it was great getting out of the lecture hall and getting our hands dirty (quite literally). Plant Biology also had a lab session, which involved looking at various plant tissues to be able to visually tell them apart, so how root tissue looks different from vascular tissue and leaves, etc. Now, my favorite part of the week was the flora field trip! It was more of a walk off campus to the Vernal Pool reserve (we're so lucky and we have a natural reserve right behind campus!Check them out here: http://vernalpools.ucmerced.edu/) but we got to spend the whole class session looking at wildflowers, trying to identify them. Although I found out the hard way that stinging nettles really deserve their name....

All in all a great week, I'll make sure to post what happens next week. Feel free to ask me any questions you may have about my classes! 

[ucmbecca]

I was lucky enough to get to see one of these guys on a class field trip, they're pretty cute!

[ucmbecca]