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They entered the Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla years ago, emotionally wrung out by tragedy, criminal convictions and prison time.

When the Rising Scholars program began at Merced College in the spring semester of 2016, the mission was to remove as many obstacles as possible to assist currently and formerly incarcerated people to access and earn a college education.

Two years after retiring from the California Highway Patrol after a distinguished 38-year career, a relaxed Sam Samra got a call from the office of freshman U.S. Congressman John Duarte.

By the end of the 2022-23 academic year, Merced College’s Los Banos campus will have grown by an entire building and, for the first time in its history, a full graduation ceremony.

When Merced College turns to the horizon to ponder its future or looks back to reflect upon its history, the Cunningham family is usually there, looking in the same direction.

The day we caught up with Lindsay Roe, assistant director of Merced College’s Registered Nursing Program, she and her colleagues were preparing for upcoming site visits by the California Board of Registered Nursing. The board in April will begin a tri-annual accreditation review and evaluate the college’s new request to expand enrollment.

It might be reductive to say that area administrative coordinators work “behind the scenes” to ensure students complete their goals.

Plans to produce more health practitioners in Merced County, a place that desperately needs them, are finally coming to fruition. In January, Merced College expanded its well-regarded registered nursing program in two significant ways.

If you want to find the roots to Merced native Michelle Esquivel’s success in education, you don’t have to go far.

The modern world is rethinking conventions like “male-dominated professions,” but challenges remain for women in fields that tend to attract more men.