By Patty Guerra, UC Merced
Family is everything to Linda Chang.
A 30-year-old administrative officer with the UC Merced Police Department, Linda was a quiet high school freshman when she joined the Leo Club, the youth branch of the Merced Breakfast Lions Club’s community service organization. The youngest of 10 children (including two sets of twins), Linda got involved with the Leos at Merced High School for a simple reason: She was following her older sisters’ footsteps.
“When you’re the youngest and you don’t know what to do, you look up to your siblings,” she says. Her parents, immigrants from Laos who fled the Vietnam War, trusted that the community service organization would provide a positive influence on their children.
Gary Eno met Linda when he served as the Leo Club adviser. “Linda is a very astute young lady,” he says. “She was very quiet, but I saw her blossom into a superstar for the Leos.”
Linda went on to hold several offices for the Leos — including a stint as president.
Upon graduation, she enrolled at UC Merced, where the university provided a second home for her and several of her siblings. “Having it built here was perfect for us,” she says.
Initially, Linda majored in human biology with a minor in psychology, eyeing a nursing career. Attempting to pursue this career path, she became an ER medical scribe at Merced Mercy Medical Center from 2019-2021. A chronic back injury during a 2015 summer program made her turn toward a different path — administration.
Linda worked as a student employee in the Facilities Management Department at UC Merced and upon graduation in 2016, she accepted a temporary full-time position there. She then explored working for several other departments around campus, including the School of Natural Sciences and Students First Center, before returning to Facilities Management as a help specialist/dispatcher. She remained in that role until transitioning to her current position.
“I get to build connections with different departments,” Linda says. “I think that’s why I like it here so much. The environment is just great.”
In 2018, Linda joined the Merced Breakfast Lions Club and immediately got involved with numerous activities and community service efforts. From 2022-2023, she served as the club’s president — a role that required a five-year commitment. Her family obligations, work and extracurricular activities didn’t leave her with a ton of free time. “I had to calendar sleep or nap,” she says, laughing.
Linda met her husband, Kenny Yang, during the COVID-19 pandemic at a store where he worked. “It was an interesting time. We met with our masks on,” she says.
The Lions Club, where Linda remains an active member, threw her a wedding shower. “They really do become family,” she says. “They’ve seen me grow up.”
Gary Eno watched Linda grow from a quiet teenager into a “very determined young lady.” On occasions when the Lions didn’t have enough volunteers for an event, Linda would get on the phone and soon the event would be fully staffed. “Linda has a gift in that she will never take no for an answer when it comes to doing something to help people,” Eno says.
Helping people comes in the form of cooking meals at the D Street shelter in Merced or for other community organizations, as well as providing scholarships for students and support for efforts such as building bleachers at a local sports complex.
“During my (presidential) year, we helped the Boy Scouts with purchasing a trailer to store all their equipment, contributed toward a portable shower facility for the unhoused and we helped the Merced County Library fund their teen center,” Linda says.
Today, Linda’s husband, Kenny, is employed at the federal penitentiary in Atwater, and the couple is expecting their first child, a girl, in May. As she grows her own family, Linda says she has no plans to leave the Lions Club behind. “I’m trying to get my husband to join as well,” she says.
She has been thrilled to watch UC Merced and its surrounding community grow up around her. “Seeing how campus has changed is really mind-blowing,” she says. “It’s so much bigger than when I went here. And it’s fun to see student groups out in restaurants and in downtown Merced.”
Linda looks forward to the future of her family, her club and UC Merced. “Everything always works out for a reason,” she says. “I still tell myself now, ‘If all else fails you, you can’t fail yourself.’ You have to keep going with what you have.”