I believe because of education, I got out of that little village and got somewhere. My mission is to help as many people as possible.” — Dr. Hanimireddy Lakireddy —
“The seeds were sown by my father,” Vikram Lakireddy said. He hopes their support of the campus will shape the future for his children. “We talked about how we wanted this town to be the kind of place that our kids would want to come back to,” Vikram Lakireddy said. “I do not want my kids to automatically cross Merced off the list of options when they get older.”
Dr. Hanimireddy Lakireddy and his wife, Vijaya, have a long-standing relationship with the campus.
A Long-term Relationship That’s one of the reasons behind their establishing the Dr. and Mrs. Lakireddy Innovation and Design Clinic Endowed Fund in 2014. The endowment helps area nonprofits to participate in the campus’s annual Innovation and Design clinic, where UC Merced students apply engineering principles to come up with solutions to pressing problems. “If more people came up with ideas — whether it’s manufacturing jobs, programming, whatever industry — if those jobs could be established here in the Valley, it would create great opportunities for the town and the university,” Vikram Lakireddy said. The couple also shares in the senior Lakireddy’s belief in the power of education. “Education is the only way for upward mobility for anyone,” said Priya Lakireddy, who works on campus as an administrative coordinator for Environmental Health and Safety. “That’s why we think supporting higher education is so important.” The senior Lakireddy said his younger son, Sidhardha, a lawyer in San Francisco, continues to look for ways for the family to support the burgeoning campus. “We want to have a long-term relationship, even with the next generation of my family,” Lakireddy said. From humble beginnings, the family’s legacy of compassion and generosity began and will benefit many generations to come.
FALL 2015 | UC MERCED MAGAZINE
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