Friday, December 06, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Student, Guinn praise program

Woman first Millennium Scholarship recipient to graduate from UNLV

Melissa Tishk, who will become the first Millennium Scholarship recipient to graduate from UNLV, stands Thursday with Gov. Kenny Guinn at a ceremony marking her effort. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

Melissa Tishk's completion of college work on a compressed schedule earned the 21-year-old praise Thursday from Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Tishk on Dec. 18 will become the first Millennium Scholarship recipient to graduate from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She will complete her four-year communications degree in 2 1/2 years and plans to attend law school in fall 2003.

Tishk, who earned 38 college credits toward her degree as a Community College High School student, took her opportunity before a few dozen university administrators gathered for a news conference to extol the virtues of the college aid program.

The program helps high-achieving students cover much of the costs of earning a bachelor's degree from a Nevada university.

"The Millennium Scholarship is the most important event in the history of higher education in Nevada," Tishk said. "Gov. Guinn and the administrations of our schools, both secondary and college, had the wisdom and foresight to know that unless we brought our work force up to a higher level of education than currently exists, we would never improve our standard of living in Nevada.

"Without this program, most of our best talent in our high schools would likely leave this state to go to college elsewhere. What that means is we would also let them stay out of state after college. In essence, we were exporting our best students to other states. With the Millennium program, it gave Nevada a chance to greatly diminish the odds of that happening."

Millennium Scholarship and university system officials have yet to prove such assertions because of lag time in data collection and the program's short history. Research is under way and might be presented to the 2003 Legislature.

After the news conference, Guinn said the state would make a mistake by abandoning the Millennium Scholarship program to save money during Nevada's budget crunch.

The program's long-term benefits, he said, include producing a more educated work force in a more timely matter. That might help attract more companies and diversify Nevada's tourism-dependent economy, he said.

The Millennium Scholarship program was created by the 1999 Legislature at Guinn's urging, with the high school class of 2000 the first to benefit.

Nevada high school graduates with B averages or better are offered up to $10,000 toward the cost of a bachelor's degree through Nevada's four community colleges, two universities and new state college.

The state's first Millennium Scholarship graduate was Dan Coming, a Southern Nevadan who was an early graduate at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The program is supported by 40 percent of Nevada's $1.2 billion share of states' legal settlements with tobacco companies.

Money to support new students to the program is expected to last at least through 2008, but the state treasurer's office wants to make the program stretch longer.

Guinn said diverting Millennium Scholarship money to other projects, a suggestion being made by some Nevadans, would be a temporary revenue source that would dry up and leave shortfalls if used for ongoing budget needs.

By next year, more than 23,000 Nevada students are expected to qualify for the program, Guinn said. Some 15,000 are expected to be enrolled in classes in fall 2003, he said.

"That is a phenomenal record," Guinn said. "The program is working just the way that we had always hoped it would work. It's giving our young people the opportunities that they need."

Tishk and her parents said they would have found a way to send her to college. But the Millennium Scholarship allowed Tishk to get her degree quicker in part because she did not have to work her way through college. She also volunteered to help female prisoners with academic tutoring and religious studies.

"We have money to help her with law school," said her mother, Cecilia Tishk, when asked about the benefits of the Millennium Scholarship. "It encourages young people to go on to graduate school."

Melissa's father, Alan Tishk, said, "In the next two or three years, Nevada citizens are really going to see the fruits of their labor, as more Millennium scholars graduate."

Retention rates for Millennium Scholarship recipients are above average on campuses that have poor overall retention and graduation rates. Guinn said that is a sign the scholarship program is attracting serious students to Nevada's public universities who in the past may have gone elsewhere.

"Just think if we had started the Millennium Scholarship 10 years ago, what we would have today," he said.

Guinn told Thursday's gathering he needed help in persuading lawmakers and the public that taxpayers need to invest in Nevada's higher education system and other state programs by supporting new taxes.