UNLV commencement honors winter grads

By the end of the day, there will be 3,000 more college graduates in Nevada.

UNLV, the state’s largest university, holds its winter commencement at 4 p.m. today at the Thomas & Mack Center on campus.

The university will hand out degrees to more than 3,000 students from 59 countries. They range in age from 18 to 75. Most of them – 78 percent – are from Nevada.

Fifty-six percent are women, and
47 percent are minorities, university officials said.

They will join 1,500 students from the University of Nevada, Reno, which held its ceremonies last week. Neither the College of Southern Nevada nor Nevada State College hold winter graduation ceremonies.

The students will graduate in a state that has among the fewest college graduates per capita in the nation.

Only 22 percent of Nevadans older than 25 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That is 6 percentage points lower than the national average and 16 points lower than Massachusetts.

Higher education officials in Nevada have made it a priority to produce more graduates, joining a national effort dubbed Complete College America.

In addition to the traditional degrees, honorary degrees will be awarded to University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumnus and Food Network personality Guy Fieri and Las Vegas attorney Joe Brown.

Former Gov. Bob Miller will be honored with the Distinguished Nevadan Award for his commitment to higher education in Nevada.

Two students, both from the College of Engineering, will be honored as outstanding graduates.

Daniel Lowe will receive his doctorate in mechanical engineering. He is a researcher in the nuclear engineering field, and the university said he has brought in millions of dollars in research money through his work with the university’s growing accelerator research program.

He previously earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering from UNLV and was the first graduate of the university’s master’s program in materials and nuclear engineering.

The other outstanding graduate is also in mechanical engineering.

Sarah Trabia said she always had known she liked math and science, but it wasn’t until her senior year of high school that she realized mechanical engineering was her future.

“I just like the way in math, everything works together. The numbers always work themselves out,” said Trabia, 23, who was born and raised in Las Vegas and went to Clark High School.

Her father, Mohamed Trabia, is UNLV’s associate dean for research, graduate studies, and computing. He also is a mechanical engineering professor.

For her senior project, Trabia designed and built a solar-powered autoclave – an instrument that can be used where no electricity is available to sterilize medical equipment.

Rama Venkat, the dean of engineering, credited the students’ hard work for their success.

“They just don’t give up,” he said of Trabia and Lowe.

“It’s persistence. They kept working at it and working at it.”

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.