CSN’s 2021 Commencement speaker Sharica Lee has embraced the college’s “Students First” philosophy by establishing a new scholarship for CSN students transferring to UNLV.
Lee transferred to UNLV last year, where she also serves as a senator and vice chair of the scholarships and grants committee within the university’s student government. She recently authored Senate Bill 52–85. The bill was unanimously approved in late April and establishes the UNLV/CSN Transfer Student Scholarship. This competitive scholarship will benefit 10 CSN transfer students each academic year, beginning with 2022–23, and includes a $1,000 award and access to a semester-long cohort with transfer and belongingness workshops. The scholarship is intended to provide financial assistance, as well as bridge the gap in transfer student engagement.
“I am so very proud I could implement this recurring scholarship on behalf of CSN transfer students,” Lee said. She added that her passion for CSN transfer students is the rationale for her joining UNLV’s student government. While a CSN student, Lee participated in the 2021 spring cohort of the Leadership Book-of-the-Semester Program and is a recipient of the Nevada Institution Transfer Scholarship.
Before the passage of Lee’s bill, UNLV was the only four-year institution in Nevada that did not offer an in-state transfer scholarship incentive despite its ever-growing transfer student population.