
Alumni Luis Lara
For California Highway Patrol Sergeant Luis Lara, success means living in his hometown
with good health, a good family and a good job.
Having all three allows him to do good for his community, as well.
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Alumni DeVon Hilliard
DeVon Hilliard was the only medical technician that day over a decade ago during a
medical transport flight out of Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield. His role was accompanying
injured soldiers home, from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington,
D.C., to Travis AFB and then to bases in San Diego, Hawaii and Alaska.
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Alumni John Espinosa
It started nearly a decade ago when he left Atwater High a year and a half early to
attend Merced College.
The current chapter began three years ago with a job as a lab technician on the college’s
Los Banos Campus.
Espinosa could again use Merced College as a springboard once the budding biologist
finds a grad school to nurture his ambition to do research or teach.
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Blue Devil alumni
City of Merced Fire Chief Derek Parker was just a volunteer administering shots to
Merced County residents when he met Merced College President Chris Vitelli at the
school’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic back in February.
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Alumna Liliana Prado Nava, R.D.
Liliana Prado Nava, R.D., works with pregnant women, new mothers, infants and toddlers
every day. She gives them training and resources to feed themselves and their babies
so everyone can live a healthy life.
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Alumna Sarah Boyle
First-term Merced City Council Member Sarah Boyle doesn’t have time to rehash how
she won her campaign in November and became the youngest member of the current council,
at age 32.
She has time to work a full-time job, support family and friends, and spend every
other moment doing the work of a civil servant.
Boyle’s motto? “Merced is the gold. We just have to keep digging to find it.”
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Alumna Deshunna Monay Ricks
We are here today for Deshunna Monay Ricks because the Fresno Pacific University professor
recently published two books that herald her personal story to the world.
We are here at all because the Merced College and Fresno State alumna sculpted her
life’s mission from a rocky childhood.
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