Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

More than 3,000 graduate at UNLV ceremony (above).

Class of ’19 numbering over 3,000 takes walk

- By Amelia Pak-Harvey

A Route 91 Harvest festival shooting survivor. A father and future Air Force officer. A doctor who returned to her home country of Nepal to educate girls about their bodies.

These are among the more than 3,000 students to graduate from UNLV on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. The university has awarded more than 140,000 degrees since 1964.

The Class of 2019, which ranged in age from 18 to 71, hailed from 37 states and 50 countries, according to UNLV.

Among the graduates was Karessa Royce, who was shot at Route 91 in October 2017. She graduated with a bachelor’s in hospitalit­y management.

First-generation college student Nicholas Forester also overcame adversity as a graduate in the school’s Air Force ROTC. His daughter was diagnosed with a form of spina bifida, a defect of the spine, on his first day of college.

Yet he balanced school, part-time work and care for his daughter over

the past four years, earning a bachelor’s in mathematic­s and a minor in aerospace studies.

Saruna Ghimire, who obtained a doctorate in public health, left Nepal for education in the United States. Yet her research at UNLV brought her home, where she helped with a project to educate girls about menstrual hygiene and distribute­d

GRADUATION

sanitary resources.

On Saturday morning, Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Page encouraged the graduates to keep their talents local.

“We need your healing powers, your ingenuity, your business acumen, your teacher’s spirit, your generosity, your compassion and, more importantl­y, your loyalty,” he said. “In short, our state needs you to be the next generation of leaders that will help grow Nevada.”

The College of Southern Nevada will celebrate its largest commenceme­nt with its 47th graduating class on Monday. The college projects a REAL ESTATE INSIDER

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
 ?? Erik Verduzco Las Vegas Review-Journal @Erik_Verduzco ?? Psychology major Sharon Kotler, 23, of Las Vegas, stands and celebrates at the end of the UNLV commenceme­nt ceremony Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Erik Verduzco Las Vegas Review-Journal @Erik_Verduzco Psychology major Sharon Kotler, 23, of Las Vegas, stands and celebrates at the end of the UNLV commenceme­nt ceremony Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
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