Higher Education

Greater Nevada Credit Union has opened its annual scholarship program, which will award $2,000 scholarships to 37 qualifying individuals pursuing their undergraduate, technical or trade school education goals.

For many, the knowledge that their own COVID-19 vaccinations are just around the corner has been hopeful. For others, however, the process of reserving a spot has been more than a little confusing.

Gov. Steve Sisolak told Nevadans experiencing some of their darkest hours of economic and public health devastation that he has a plan to create more than 165,000 jobs over the next decade, launch new initiatives to retrain displaced workers and build out an economy based on clean energy, blockchain and other futuristic technologies.

Gov. Steve Sisolak is proposing a two-year budget that reverses cuts to Medicaid and other key K-12 programs made last summer, after financial projections left the state at what officials are calling an “inconsistent, if not positive, ending point” for tax revenue.

Nevada is moving to a new COVID-19 vaccination strategy that will allow the state to distribute doses to essential workers and priority segments of the population in tandem.

Carson City Health and Human Services announced last week that vaccinations would be moving into Tier 2 beginning on Monday, Jan. 11 starting with educators and daycare providers.

Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine’s Office announced open enrollment for the Nevada Prepaid Tuition Program, which will end Friday, April 30. The Nevada Prepaid Tuition Program helps Nevada’s families affordably prepare their children for higher education by offering future in-state college tuition at today’s prices. The Program offers various payment plans to help meet the diverse needs of families across the silver state.

With the new year, a new set of laws is once again taking effect.

Of the hundreds of bills the Legislature passed in 2019, nine finally became effective either in whole or in part on Friday with the start of the new year and as the next legislative session is set to begin in February.

Whether she is advising first-generation college students to better their lives through higher education or serving as a trustee for K-12 students in the Carson City School District, there are two common denominators in Lupe Ramirez’s education roles: The Western Nevada College Latino Leadership Academy founder and adviser will definitely make a difference and, without a doubt, she will stand out.

Distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is underway within the state of Nevada, including our local communities in the north. Those who are first up to receive the vaccine include health care personnel and long term care facilities as a part of the first phase of Tier 1 distribution.

The first batch of initial COVID-19 vaccines has reached Carson City, and was received by Carson Tahoe Health Tuesday morning.

Nevada Indian Commission Commissioner Lori Pasqua will be honored with a posthumous Bachelor of Arts degree by the University of Nevada-Reno at its winter commencement on Saturday. Her family will accept this honorary degree on her behalf.

Gov. Steve Sisolak is urging Nevadans to have hope but continue to follow coronavirus health and safety protocols with the state’s first allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine set to arrive as early as the middle of December.

So, who knows it all? Western Nevada College aims to find out Thursday, Dec. 10 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Virtual Team Trivia Night — a special no-brainer holiday-themed challenge that can be entered from the comfort of your own living room.

Addressing a need that was revealed during a 2020 student survey, Western Nevada College is nearing completion of a Food and Hygiene Pantry for students and their families.

The Nevada State Treasurer’s Office last week announced the launch of NVigate, a new program and online platform providing students and parents access to essential information, programs and services to make informed decisions about planning, saving and budgeting for higher education.

Joe Biden maintains the slimmest of leads in Nevada over President Donald Trump, while the other major congressional, statewide and local races significantly narrowed early Wednesday morning.

Local non-profit GREENevada announced Thursday the winners of the 2020 Golden Pinecone Sustainability Awards, a prestigious annual event recognizing local individuals and organizations working towards a more sustainable Nevada.

Health care workers, first responders and lab employees will be among the first in Nevada to receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, according to a draft of the state’s vaccination plan released Monday.

CARSON CITY — Western Nevada College and the University of Nevada Reno Extension are among recent federal grant recipients to receive financial packages to make distance learning upgrades and aid in the expansion of educational services in 14 rural counties.

In a letter to students, faculty and other university personnel Friday, UNR President Brian Sandoval announced the university would move to fully virtual instruction following the upcoming fall break, a move that comes as the university has averaged nearly a hundred new COVID-19 cases per week and as the flu season rapidly approaches.

University Police Services, which provides a safer learning environment for Western Nevada College and other Nevada System of Higher Education institutions, has taken its service to students one step further.

The Carson High School Retro-Homecoming and Respect Week went without a hitch, and the beauty of it was administrators, teachers, and staff had nothing whatsoever to do with making the decisions as the students chose both the candidates and the winners.

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation is the recipient of a nearly $14 million federal grant to support short-term job training programs to help prepare unemployed and underemployed individuals for in-demand occupations in Nevada, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Friday.

Sondra Cosgrove, President of the League of Women Voters of Nevada and Professor of History at the College of Southern Nevada, will be the featured speaker at Monday's Democratic tele-luncheon. Her presentation, to be teleconferenced via Zoom from Las Vegas, will spotlight the five questions on the November ballot in terms of their history and substance as well as the reasoning behind the League's positions for or against passage.

New Nevada System of Higher Education Chancellor Dr. Melody Rose spent the morning visiting Western Nevada College facilities on Thursday in Carson City. Dr. Rose is touring all of NSHE’s college campuses during her first month as chancellor.

RENO — At a special Nevada System of Higher Education meeting held Thursday, the Board of Regents announced the appointment of former Gov. Brian Sandoval as the University of Nevada, Reno’s next president. He becomes the first Hispanic and 17th president of the 146-year-old University.

Gov. Sandoval, who is currently a Distinguished Fellow of Law and Leadership at UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law among other endeavors, will begin Oct. 5, 2020 and serve a 4-year contract.

Students at Western Nevada College were captivated by a very special visitor on Wednesday morning on its Carson City campus. None other than Steve Sisolak, the 30th governor of Nevada, spent part of his busy morning passionately telling students about the respect he has for them and the sacrifices they are making to attend college.

The Nevada Department of Education announced Tuesday 25 grant awards totaling $11,075,467 in Elementary and Secondary School Relief funding available through the federal Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security CARES Act.

They’re our next paramedics, nursing assistants, machinists, mechatronics engineers and computer information technologists. But, right now, they can’t afford the higher education training those fields require.

The Nevada Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation officially re-launched LifeWorksNV, the statewide work-based learning hub for student career seekers looking for information and opportunities in registered apprenticeship, internships, career and technical education programs, career exploration and more.