Saltmans' Continue Legacy of Award Program

Twenty years ago, English major Cynthia McCoy was selected to receive the Vista Group Award, given annually to an outstanding liberal arts undergraduate student.

“I thought, ‘Wow, a thousand dollars in cash!’” McCoy said. “That was a lot of money to me.”

McCoy, who went on to earn a master’s degree and is now teaching at Clark High School, is helping average-level students who show academic potential to succeed in honors courses. The Clark Challenge Program is effective – nine of the original 13 students in the program qualified for the Millennium Scholarship.

McCoy is a perfect example of how recognizing excellence in one person can create a ripple effect into the future.

This was the intention of real estate developer Michael Saltman, managing partner and president of the Vista Group, who started the award program with his wife Sonja in 1986.

“I wanted to celebrate excellence at UNLV,” Saltman said. “Over the years we were able to develop a cadre of outstanding liberal arts graduates to receive the Vista Group Award, and many of them, like Cynthia, went on to do a lot of wonderful things.”

Supporting education is important to the Saltmans. They founded the William S. Boyd School of Law’s Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution in 2003 and are the driving force behind the Midtown UNLV project.

In May, the Saltmans and numerous Vista winners from over the years will gather to celebrate their achievements.