Jiaqi Yang has been chosen as the December Outstanding Student of the Month.  Jiaqi is from Guangzhou, China and has been attending Merced College for three semesters.  She graduated from Merced High School in 2004.  Jiaqi is majoring in Biochemistry and plans to transfer to UC Berkeley or Davis to complete her upper division course work for becoming a Pharmacist. Chris Gaugler, Geography Instructor nominated Jiaqi and his reasons included her accuracy, organizational skills and grammatical competence.

He stated that “she is an exceptionally bright young woman and also presents herself with a businesslike maturity beyond her age.”    Currently her GPA is 3.75 and she is a member of the Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society as well as the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.  She also works on campus in the tutorial center.  Gaugler noted that Jiaqi impressed him with her ability to ask the “right” questions that challenge the competent instructor. “Her questions are the types of questions that clarify the materials and facilitate understanding.”

            Jiaqi stated that she chose Merced College because of the variety of general education courses offered as well as the major courses.  She enjoys working with staff on campus.  She also believes personal growth is important to academic performance and stated that “I enjoy learning about different cultures and working with people from various ethnic backgrounds.” Her hobbies include photography and watching movies.

Congratulations to Jiaqi for being selected as the December Outstanding Student of  the Month. She will receive recognition at the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting as well as a check for $50 and a special parking space in December.