Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

State college awaits its first grads

When the first graduating class of Nevada State College in Henderson stands up to accept diplomas in May, it won't be the usual pomp and circumstance.

As trailblazers at the 2-year-old college, the all-female, 12-student Class of 2004 is involved in every detail of planning their graduation ceremony -- from the wording on the diplomas to the graduation music and the cake. And while some of the details will be unique to their class, the 12 women also are establishing many traditions that will stand in perpetuity for all the classes to come.

And the women -- almost all working mothers -- couldn't be more ecstatic.

"We feel like we are pioneers here," Gwen Fund, a 51-year-old psychology major and mother of eight, said. "We are the ones who took a risk."

That risk has paid off according to the graduates, who praised the college for its high academic standards, personalized attention to students and hands-on experience.

The May 13 graduation at the Ritz Carlton Lake Las Vegas in Henderson will be a celebration of the college and the community as much as it will mark their personal milestone, graduates said. The keynote speaker is Brian Greenspun, president and editor of the Las Vegas Sun, and the attendees will include many local politicians and community leaders who have supported the college, Spencer Stewart, director of college relations, said.

But the focus will be on the graduates, who will be highlighted in a documentary that will incorporate each woman's personal story.

"(The documentary) is trying to show who we are as graduates, and what we are putting into our degrees and our graduation," said Pam Frazier, 48, the only history major out of the predominantly teacher-oriented bunch.

Frazier is also writing a paper about the college's beginnings and the first graduating class. Her chronicle will remain in the college's library.

As historic as the commencement is, what is more important to the graduates is having their families there to watch them.

"Many of us are nontraditional students and the first (college) graduates in our family," Frazier said. "We are examples to our kids."

The graduates insisted they invite as many people as possible to the commencement ceremony, and one graduate, 22-year-old Jennifer Wright, joked that they may have set a Guinness World Record because there are an average of 25 guests per graduate.

Other commencement details still being discussed will set the tradition and philosophy of the whole college, Stewart said. The graduates are to try to pick possible school songs this afternoon. They are also establishing graduation honors and class speakers, and even composing the wording for their diplomas and selecting the fonts that will be used on the documents.

The design of the diploma seal was largely taken out of the graduates' hands due to a Board of Regents policy that requires all college seals to resemble the Nevada state seal, Stewart said. But in the other areas, the graduates said, it was important for them to place their mark while reflecting the uniqueness of the college, the Henderson community and the school's mission.

For their diploma, the graduates borrowed a line from the sheepskin of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., that stresses the responsibility of a college degree, Stewart said.

Most other universities, including Nevada's institutions, bestow "rights and privileges" in their diplomas. Following Pepperdine, Nevada State College will bestow "all the rights, benefits, privileges and responsibilities" that go along with the degree. The emphasis reflects the moral commitment inherent in teaching and nursing, as well as the other liberal arts majors that are taught, graduates said.

"Our professors have really focused on applying what you've learned and getting out there and spreading that knowledge and sharing it with the community," Charlotte Courson, a 32-year-old psychology major and working mom, said.

Establishing that emphasis was important to the graduates, but they said just being part of the decision was exciting.

"When our children come out we can say, 'I helped pick out that font,"' Courson said.

Many of the graduates said they choose Nevada State College for the chance to establish the college's culture and be involved in the creation of the school.

"Most people go into a school that already is established, and they are stuck with the traditions and mores that are already there," Fund said. "But here from the get-go we've been creating everything."

Many students also saw it as an alternative to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where many of the graduates said they would have been lost in the crowd.

"Here I didn't have to be stuck in with the herd, the bureaucracy that is at (UNLV)," said Wright, an elementary education major who will be seven months pregnant with her first child come graduation.

The students, who became giddy when talking about their impending graduation, said they were also looking forward to watching the college grow and celebrating each anniversary and milestone with the prestige of being the first class of a college that had its beginnings in a coverted vitamin factory.

"I'm just excited to say I went when it was a vitamin factory," Heather Olson, 25, an elementary education major, said.

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