First Millenium Scholar to earn degree at UNLV

Jennifer Knight

Thursday, Dec. 5, 2002 | 11:06 a.m.

Melissa Tishk will become the first Millennium Scholar next week to earn her bachelor's degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas -- after attending college for just 2 1/2 years.

Tishk, a communications major, is being held up as the poster child for the program. She started college with credits earned while at Boulder City High School, was frugal with the state's money, did community service and plans to stick around after graduation.

"The program has worked just the way we hoped it would work," Gov. Kenny Guinn said today during a ceremony at UNLV honoring Tishk. "Just think if we had started the Millennium Scholarship 10 years ago. We would have had things like the Silicon Valley coming here.

"The Millennium Scholarship is the basis for the state's long-term survival."

Guinn also used the graduation announcement to push a plan to raise taxes during the 2003 Legislature. He said the tax plan is the only way that the state could guarantee that every child has a seat at the university is to generate new revenue.

"We are in a very, very fragile state in Nevada ... because of the lack of money," he said.

He referred specifically to business, cigarette and liquor taxes, key parts of a plan proposed by the Governor's Task Force on Taxes, and encouraged those attending the ceremony to call or fax legislators to push for new revenue.

Tishk, 21, is the first Millennium Scholar in Southern Nevada to graduate with a four-year degree, and the second in the state. The first graduate of the scholarship program was Dan Coming at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Under the Millennium Scholarship program, students who graduate from a Nevada high school with a B average qualify for $10,000 for their education at a Nevada college. The program was launched in 2000.

UNLV officials said that Tishk represents what the program is all about.

"She just shows that the Millennium Scholarship program really works," UNLV Provost Ray Alden said. "She illustrates the idea of keeping the best and the brightest in the state. She is really the prototype for that."

Tishk said she was honored to be a first.

"I was very happy that I had been set apart from other students," Tishk said. "I felt that my future was already set with my scholarship in place."

Tishk didn't even use up her entire scholarship. Because she transferred 38 college credits earned during high school and finished college quickly, she left $3,100 of the scholarship unused -- money that will go back to the program.

Because Tishk didn't have to worry about working her way through college, she was able to volunteer at the Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center, tutoring women in religious studies and helping tutor homeless children as well.

"We're very proud of her," said Alan Tishk, Melissa's father. "With this graduation, I think Nevada citizens may be starting to see the fruits of their labor. I think you are going to see more and more people graduate with that feeling of owing the state instead of graduating and just moving on."

Officials hope the scholarship would keep students in Nevada. They haven't been able to tell yet whether that is the case, but since the scholarship began in 2000, officials said, the percentage of Nevada students who go to college has risen from 37 percent to 48 percent.

Melissa Tishk plans to stay. She said she will attend law school at UNLV next, then work in Nevada doing some type of public service.

"I feel like giving back to the state that gave to me," she said.