Teens, Valley leaders voice hopes for a brighter tomorrow

As earthmovers dig into a transformation of UC Merced, faculty and students are initiating a more subtle change of landscape, urging high school students to step forward and help shape the Valley’s future.

“Don’t look to us for the answers,” Kenni Friedman of the Great Valley Center told Modesto High and Le Grand High students at a meeting this month on the UC Merced campus. “We want you to come up with what you need. We’ve been here before. We’re leaving it for you.”

“We see youth as the designers of not just their own future but, really, of our Valley,” said Steve Roussos, executive director of the UC Merced Blum Center. “They need to be the ones creating the rules. It can make or break how we all succeed.”

The gathering brought together Project Uplift members from Modesto, Le Grand High students and mentors, and members of the American Leadership Forum. Both high school groups wanted their kids to see the campus and feel the possibilities in its hallways.

Giving students motivation, helping them see a better way, is key, said Fernando Maciel, conflict resolution leader at Le Grand High.

“Every youth needs to have a positive support. We’re bringing in fathers,” said John Ervin III of Project Uplift.

For Jerrell Griffin, 16, of Modesto High, a better world would have more communication. “Everyone’s barricaded inside their houses,” he said.

Other youths suggested more parks, housing for the homeless and more recreational opportunities for kids.

Such changes will take time, said Roussos, adding the effort is a long-term project.

But just outside the building where the groups met, the rumblings of a $1.3 billion campus expansion spoke of a transformation already underway. Some 13 buildings are being designed and built at once.

The 2020 Project is clearing land and roping off access roads for four years of construction that by fall 2020 is expected to create three research laboratory buildings, dorms and dining for 1,700, a transit hub with parking, a conference center, a preschool facility and athletic facilities, including an NCAA II-class swimming pool.

This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 3:38 PM with the headline "Teens, Valley leaders voice hopes for a brighter tomorrow."