UNLV’s honors college enjoys attendance surge, upgraded digs

Before enrolling at UNLV, Daniel Waqar contemplated a list of faraway schools with far bigger price tags.

He was a top student at the high-performing Advanced Technologies Academy, and teachers there told him he could likely be accepted by big-name colleges.

But drawn by UNLV's low cost and its growing honors college, Waqar set his sights closer and joined his hometown university in 2012.

"This university has so many opportunities," said Waqar, a senior history major in UNLV's Honors College who was one of 58 recipients selected nationwide this year for the coveted Truman Scholar Award. The $30,000 scholarship is given to students based on academics, public service and leadership potential.

"I'm not hobbled by student loan debt like a lot of my friends who go to bigger universities," Waqar said, noting that UNLV paid for a semester-long trip to Haifa, Israel, that launched a research project which helped him earn the Truman award.

Waqar — a son of Pakistani immigrants and a low-income, first-generation college student — is among hundreds of high-achieving Clark County School District graduates who, in recent years, have increasingly turned to UNLV's honors college instead of leaving Southern Nevada to attend more prominent universities.

The program's participation rate has ballooned since 2012, with an entering class that quadrupled over the past four years to nearly 270 entering students this fall semester. More than 700 students overall are enrolled.

University officials have been so impressed by the growth that they upgraded the program's facilities this year through a $12.5 million renovation of the newly renamed Beverly Rogers Literature and Law Building, a four-story structure nestled in the heart of the campus. After a two-year construction phase, the building opened its doors this semester boasting sleek new study rooms and sunny common areas lined with plush, spacious couches for students to lounge on.

School officials credit much of the program's growth to Marta Meana, a longtime psychology professor at UNLV who became dean of the honors college in 2012. Since taking the reins, Meana said she has focused on recruiting local students who have long overlooked the honors college, which was a "small, quiet operation" since being established in 1985.

"We always devalue what's familiar to us," Meana said. "We always think that what's close isn't as exciting as something that's far away. My biggest challenge is to say to people, just because you've grown up hearing about it doesn't mean it isn't special."

Students in the program are quick to tout its academic perks, such as access to mentoring services and scholarship opportunities. The new space — which is more than twice the size of the program's former home inside UNLV's Lied Library — also gives them better access to the program's nine dedicated honors college professors, whose offices are now concentrated within a single hallway.

The program's instructors, meanwhile, say they enjoy working with the honor college students because they're driven but still well-rounded and down-to-earth.

"Much of what drew me here was this honors college has a much more collaborative, not elitist environment," said Bryan Bornholdt, a first-year mathematics honors college professor who transferred to UNLV from Utah State University. "High performance is definitely celebrated, but it's more than that. There's more of a humanistic, whole person approach."

Contact Ana Ley at aley@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5512. Find her on Twitter: @la__ley