Undergraduate's Family Adds to Rewarding College Experience

Stephanie Ramirez started her UNLV career with the usual honors student indispensables: enthusiasm, a sum of college credits under her belt, and an eye on a degree in mathematics. But one of her greatest advantages came from two fellow undergraduate students—her brother, Mike, and their father, Miguel.

“We were the Ramirez triumvirate,” she jokes. “My family has always had this bond. They were in the College of Business , and I was in sciences, and when I finally switched majors to economics, it seemed like everything fell into place.”

Although they never took classes together—Stephanie says the trio was too competitive—they challenged each other for higher grade point averages. Mike and Miguel graduated in December 2006 with degrees in finance and management, leaving Stephanie solo for one semester. She'll graduate with honors this May with what she calls an understanding of “the science of business” and hopes to join a bank or investment firm as a research analyst.

“I love how UNLV has its business college set up,” she gushes. In addition to my classes in economics, I've had to take marketing and management and from that, I think I have a better understanding of business as a whole.”

Stephanie's other great advantage came from leveraging Nevada 's Guinn Millennium Scholarship with additional money earmarked for academically-talented students. She received an award from a privately funded scholarship set up by HSBC Bank Nevada.

“Scholarships have made it a lot easier,” she says. “I have enough support for tuition and books, and I have never had to put school second to working to pay for tuition.”