UNLV graduates walk the stage, reflect on their education
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — University of Nevada, Las Vegas students walked the stage at the Thomas and Mack Center for their spring commencement ceremony Saturday.
The occasion marked a 7% increase with more than 3,700 Rebels graduating this semester, according to university staff.
The graduates come from 44 states and 50 countries.
However, the majority are locals including 23-year-old Christian Shelton, who was one of six honored as outstanding graduates.
He sang the national anthem and told 8 News Now that it “was everything I could have asked for.”
Shelton earned a Bachelor’s in music, with a concentration in vocal performance. After an opera program in Germany, he plans to return to UNLV for his master’s degree.
Shelton reflected on the resiliency he and his classmates showed as they went through the pandemic and a campus shooting during his education.
“How the last four years have been quite treacherous and us as a graduating class have seen the spectrum of everything, we just have stayed so close and positive the whole time,” Shelton said.
During the ceremony, the crowd got to their feet in an outpouring of love and applause for the memory of Emilee France Barker, who passed away in a February car crash in Utah.
She pursued a dual degree in dance and production.
“She was one of the greatest dancers on the stage, and I am so proud of her and the accomplishments she made,” Chris Barker, her husband, said.
He and Emilee’s mother, Christine France, walked the stage in her honor, held up a photo of her and accepted her diploma.
“She found a family at UNLV in the dance department, and they’ve been wonderful,” said France.
Nursing graduate Amanda Hill said she is hopeful for the future, and shared she is looking for local hospital jobs preferably with children or in the emergency room.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to honor my family and the people that supported me by helping out other people. The nursing instructors, clinicals, everything was just amazing,” she said
Since 1964, UNLV has awarded 176,442 degrees.
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