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Bruce Duong – Project Manager Bruce Duong is a second-year Engineering student who plans to make a difference in the lives of youth through his interdisciplinary experience and research skills. Duong is the project manager of Team Merit Partners and has an opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the community through research and engineering. He is passionate about qualitative and quantitative analysis and is currently researching on human-computer interactions in the Spivey Lab. In addition, Duong has experience in team leadership, client support, and Engineering Service learning, and looks to lead this project to completion. When he is not busy with academics or community service, he enjoys playing basketball, swimming laps, and tinkering with computers |
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Johanna Araiza – Assistant Project Manager Johanna Araiza is a third-year Bioengineer major and the assistant project manager of the Merit Partners Engineering Service Learning Team. She is interested in using engineering concepts like gene cloning and biotechnology to advance California’s agricultural food system. While attending UC Merced, Araiza has worked on a joint research project with Arduino dealing with temperature regulation within beehives and their significant decrease in pollination. Merit Partners was ideal because Araiza has partaken in the project before and is aware of what needs to be done to successfully complete the project. After graduation, Araiza plans to pursue a career working with Arduino. |
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Imani Jones – Intellectual Property Officer Imani Jones is a first-year Computer Science and Engineering student at UC Merced. As the intellectual Property Officer for Merit Partners, her job is to organize all the documents and oversees overseeing the development of the Semester Proposal and Project Report for the Spring semester of 2018. In this Engineering Service Learning team, she works with the Merit ePartners program at the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton, CA. Their goal is to decrease the number of incarcerated youth returning to crime by hiring them to do jobs like refurbishing electronics. |
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Alex Pena – Procurement and Finance Officer Alex Pena is a second-year Mechanical Engineering student and the PFO of the Merit Partners Engineering Service Learning Team. Being part of this project provides him a meaningful opportunity to help young incarcerated people get their life on the right path. Academically, Pena is interested in social justice and has declared a minor in Community Service and Research at UC Merced. Pena hopes to become a successful engineer meanwhile helping those less fortunate have a voice. Pena plans on using this skill and knowledge to help people who are not able to help themselves get what they need the most. |
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Melissa Aguilar- Team Member Melissa Aguilar is currently a fourth-year Biological Science major and a member of the Merit Partners Engineering Service Learning Team. Aguilar joined the team because this program has given her the meaningful opportunity to help contribute towards making a positive impact with young adolescents that have been incarcerated but want a second chance to improve their lives after incarceration. Through the hands-on experience from this project, she hopes to gain valuable skills and improve her leadership capabilities. Aguilar has a passion for helping and providing resources to her community and on her free time volunteers in outreach activities to help provide knowledge about various well-being topics in her community. |
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Dennis Kuma – Team Member Dennis Kuma is a third-year student at UC Merced pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering. He is a team member for the Engineering Service Learning team, Merit Partners section. Kuma hopes to learn a lot from different aspects of the merits behind the reason people do the things that they do. The idea of working with incarcerated youth strikes the interest of Dennis Kuma, which is why he chose the team to work within this semester in Engineering Service Learning. He also enjoys playing basketball and football with friends during his free time. |
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Barbara G. Montes Uribe – Team Member Barbara G. Uribe Montes is a first-year student pursuing her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering. As a team member on the Merit Partners Engineering Service Learning Team, Uribe wishes to create more awareness about prison rehabilitation programs in California. She is passionate about using technology to better her community and hopes to give back to her community. In the future, she plans to pursue a career in cybersecurity and help communities in need. In her spare time, she likes to spend her time volunteering at her local library and creating new baking recipes |
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