University of California and UC Davis Shine the Spotlight on Graduating Seniors
The University of California Office of the President and the University of California, Davis, are sending the graduating class of 2025 off in style, highlighting individual seniors —including two first-generation graduates in the College of Engineering — and honoring the journeys that have brought them to the commencement stage.
The UCOP spotlight shines on Rui Ming Yu, a mechanical engineering major, whose experience with MESA in middle and high school revealed a path toward STEM. He stayed with MESA as a mentor during his undergraduate years, hoping to inspire other young people to pursue STEM fields.
In UC Davis' roundup of student commencement speakers, civil engineering major Krystle Catamura discusses how early impostor syndrome led to later confidence, thanks to an internship with the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District. An avid activist, Catamura hopes to embolden her fellow graduates to hold to their principles in her speech at the ceremony held on Friday, June 13, at 2 p.m.
Read on to meet these two inspiring seniors.
Krystle Catamura
Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering; minors in construction engineering and management and sustainability in the built environment
Written by Julia Ann Easley, UC Davis News and Media Relations
Once, Krystle Catamura didn't believe in her abilities. She thought she was an impostor among the talented students at UC Davis. But with her mother's encouragement, she responded to a part-time job listing shared by her college. Catamura got the job and, since summer 2023, has been an outreach intern with the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District.
Catamura said she has worked alongside generous people and learned so much.
"Without that opportunity, I wouldn't have realized how much I could grow."
She developed and led a youth education program about wastewater, got involved in a project to enhance flood and fire protection, and worked on climate resiliency projects. Through her work, she's also won scholarships and spoken at meetings of professional associations.
As a young Filipina, Catamura was inspired by the advice she received from another Filipina engineer, also in the first generation of her family to graduate from college:
"Whenever you question whether or not you belong or you find yourself in a room where you feel you need to work harder to prove yourself — you are never alone. Me and so many other people, just like you, are fighting the same battle right beside you."
Catamura, who started a student organization to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math to be advocates and activists in political arenas, said she wants graduates to hold to their idealism.
"Maybe it's not about witnessing the abolition of systems that still pose hardships and challenges to us today," she wrote in her draft speech. "But maybe it's about trusting that the work we put in now will result in change later."
Catamura will soon start as an engineering intern with the district, and she plans to enroll this fall in the master's program in civil engineering at UC Davis.
Meet all the student speakers for the 2025 commencement ceremonies
Rui Ming Yu
Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering; minor in electrical engineering
Written by Apollonia Morrill, UC Office of the President
As a kid, when his mom would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, Rui Ming Yu would always choose a police officer or a firefighter. He didn't know there were heroic jobs in science and engineering, too.
That was until he found MESA. Short for Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement, MESA's middle and high school programs around the state expose kids to STEM who might otherwise not have those opportunities. The goal is not only to spark curiosity but to lay the groundwork for students to excel in STEM fields in college and the workforce.
For Yu, the MESA after-school program at his Stockton middle school was one of few options at the end of classes. The program was free and allowed his mom a few extra hours at work, so, as a sixth grader, he signed up.
"MESA showed me, hey, you can apply your physics and your math that you're learning in the classroom to real-life projects," says Yu.
The students worked together to build Popsicle-stick bridges and raided the recycling bin to make Rube Goldberg machines (dubbed "MESA machines").
"I had so much fun with my friends, experimenting and getting my hands dirty. All the materials we needed were provided. That was really wonderful because if my parents had needed to pay for supplies, I might not have been able to continue with the program."
Yu did keep going with MESA into high school, until Covid-19 shuttered on-site programs in his junior year. By then, he was locked in on a STEM path and ready to make the leap to UC.
Immigrants who worked in food service, Yu's parents had always envisioned him becoming a doctor. While he dutifully tried to pursue that path, deep down, he knew his passions lay in engineering. He wanted to bridge the two fields but wasn't sure how. The answer came in a summer internship with a medical device company.
"From there, I was able to see how I could pivot and also get the knowledge and skills I needed to move into the field right out of college."
Switching from a biology to an engineering major, all the pieces fell into place. Yu discovered the MESA program at UC Davis and was hired as a student assistant, a paid job that has him helping local middle- and high-school MESA participants to have as much fun as he did by applying math, science and hot glue to real-world challenges.
After graduation, Yu will join Alameda–based biomedical device company Penumbra as a manufacturing engineer. The company fabricates clot-busting catheters and other medical devices to treat pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis.
