An aspiring physician with a strong record of community service to hospice, homeless, and other at-risk patients. Two physical therapists — one with an eye on improving life for amputees and the other with a public health-focused passion for preventing brain injury in athletes and military members. A magazine entrepreneur researching the portrayals of women and other underrepresented groups in literature. A media communications professional striving to propel Las Vegas to sports mecca status.
These five are among more than 2,000 newly minted UNLV graduates who will cross the Thomas & Mack Center stage on Monday and Tuesday, earning rave reviews for their years-long performances of perseverance and triumph.
UNLV has a commencement tradition for the president to select and honor a few exceptional students who embody the academic, research, and community impact of the graduating class.
These five Outstanding Graduates represent the spirit of the entire Class of 2022, which hails from 36 states and 40 countries. Nearly 90% of degree earners are Nevada residents.
Many are the first in their family to graduate from college, and the majority – 70% – are from ethnically diverse backgrounds. This year’s class ranges in age from 19 to 75, with the average age of 27.
Since 1964, UNLV has awarded more than 165,000 degrees.
Read on for details about the Winter 2022 group of UNLV Outstanding Graduates:
Brooke Conway Kleven
Ph.D. in Public Health
Earning a doctoral degree in the health sciences is no small feat. Brooke Conway Kleven now has two. The Outstanding Graduate, who earned a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from UNLV in 2018, graduates again this winter with a Ph.D. in Public Health and a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Brooke’s incredible journey combines experience and passion in physical therapy, nutrition, and exercise physiology. She specializes in performance training and injury recovery in amateur and professional athletes in a variety of sports, including UFC here in Las Vegas.
For her dissertation, she worked with the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health to advance research on blood biomarkers, motor function, and neuroimaging of professional athletes with sport-related brain injuries. Her work has already aided in better diagnoses of brain injuries for both active and retired athletes.
During her time at UNLV, Brooke also started a direct-access physical therapy clinic for athletes. This led to a partnership with Cure 4 the Kids Cancer Center, where she developed and managed a physical medicine program that delivers rehabilitation and preventive health care to adolescents and young adults with cancer, blood disorders, and rare chronic diseases.
A service-focused practitioner, Brooke has also worked with a number of non-profit organizations, including the Nevada Institute for Children’s Research and Policy and STAND: The Haiti Project to offer access to rehabilitation services for Haitian citizens.
As one nominator succinctly put it, “Brooke is an all-around great student and an even better person. She excels in the classroom, in her research, as a clinician, and in volunteering to help others. There really isn’t anything she can’t do.”
Following her time at UNLV, Brooke hopes to extend her dissertation work to support brain injury prevention and related practices with members of the military and combat athletes.
Tracy Fuentes
B.A. in English and Political Science (Honors)
Tracy Fuentes graduates this winter with double majors in English and Political Science and a minor in Asian American Studies.
Tracy, who earned a commendable 3.97 GPA as a member of the Honors College, is committed to creating and curating outlets for student creativity, and to increasing academic opportunities for students from underrepresented groups.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tracy co-founded an online magazine – Kindergarten Mag – to give young writers and artists a place to share their work with the world. The site, which launched in late 2020, has drawn dozens of contributors and has attracted thousands of visitors. This success led Tracy to launch a literary journal, From the Brush, and the campus-based A4 Zine Club that offers additional creative outlets for UNLV students.
Tracy’s undergraduate research explored the intersection of gender and race in literature, with a focus on the representation of Asian American women in contemporary young adult literature. She also served as a peer instructor for the Honors College, as a student advisory council member for the College of Liberal Arts, and as a researcher for the UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, where she also organized community arts events.
One of Tracy’s multiple nominators described her as “simply the best undergraduate student that I’ve had the pleasure of instructing in more than a decade.”
What’s next? Tracy plans to pursue a Ph.D. in English, where she’ll continue her research on portrayals of women and underrepresented groups in literature while simultaneously finding new avenues for creative students to share their work.
Michael Saladino
M.A. in Urban Leadership
Michael Saladino, the fourth member of his family to graduate from UNLV, has been a Rebel since elementary school. A UNLV men’s basketball team ball boy at age 9, he went on to become a foreign language student in the UNLV SAGE Academy summer enrichment program during middle school, then attended dual-credit video production classes at UNLV during high school and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the university by age 19.
Today — two years later — Michael graduates again from UNLV with a master’s degree in Urban Leadership and a perfect 4.0 GPA.
The journey to this stage was full of hard work. Michael was the youngest graduate at the College of Southern Nevada, earning an associate’s degree one month before he finished high school. He transferred at age 17 to UNLV, where he joined the Honors College and earned the Anderson Cooper Scholarship.
His interest in journalism centered around sports media and film, and he created a 90-minute documentary on Las Vegans who pioneered the birth of minor and major league baseball here.
His skills during a post-graduation communications internship with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights caught the eye of several other local teams, and this past season he was hired as the first automated ball strike technician at Summerlin’s Las Vegas Ballpark. Since 2020, Michael has also worked triple duty as a videographer, production director, and content editor for the Las Vegas Raiders — creating social media, television, and arena screen videos shown during home games.
And he’s not done. Michael plans to parlay his new master’s degree into continued work with the Raiders, with an eye on expanding his career with Las Vegas sports media whenever Major League Baseball decides to join the country’s newest sports town.
Hui-Ting Shih
Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences
Hui-Ting Shih — an international student from Taiwan graduating with a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences — is the absolute meaning of “born for this.”
Over the course of five years of study at UNLV, she both excelled in her academics and accelerated the progress of her peers.
Shih’s various research projects looked for ways to improve the rehabilitation of individuals learning to live with amputations, and she published six research manuscripts with another five in review.
Her professors applaud her devotion to her fellow classmates, as Shih assisted in teaching five graduate-level courses, mentored three Doctor of Physical Therapy projects, and was the vice president of the UNLV Taiwanese Student Association.
These accolades aside, she learned that a medical professional’s heart has to be with the patient. And she worked with more than 100 rehabilitation patients, becoming an integral part of the Las Vegas Amputee Support Group.
Shih achieved her academic goals while presenting 13 times at national and international conferences, was awarded the prestigious Matching Dissertation Grant from the International Society of Biomechanics, the Barrick Fellowship, and has been published in the Journal of Allied Health for her translational knowledge about rehab after amputation.
Shih is graduating with a 3.98 GPA and is currently a research fellow at Baylor Scott & White Research Institute in Dallas, Texas, where she hopes to continue transforming the field of health care.
Miah Strellnauer
B.S. in Biological Sciences (Honors)
First-generation college student Miah Strellnauer’s dream is to become a physician, and her long list of volunteer activities, mentorship record, and academic achievements prove that she’s well on her way.
Nominators marvel at how Miah managed to balance her extracurriculars with academics. The longtime research assistant studied hypertension in conjunction with the Children’s Heart Center Nevada before joining the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine’s Down Syndrome Program, where she identifies resources for patients and their families.
When Miah’s not absorbing knowledge, she’s imparting it to others. The UNLV Honors student served as a lead mentor for the college’s incoming freshmen, and as a teaching assistant for introductory biology labs. One of her multiple Honors Student Council roles involved developing recruitment strategies.
As president of the UNLV American Women’s Association Pre-Medical Branch, Miah led community service projects with groups like Opportunity Village and the UNLV Food Pantry, and helped assemble over 100 feminine hygiene kits for donation to a local women’s shelter as part of a period poverty initiative. She spent hours in the homes of hospice patients assisting them and their caregivers. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Miah screened UNLV CARES callers for food eligibility and delivered masks, medical supplies, and groceries to ill and at-risk patients. She then went a step further and was trained to administer vaccines to community members in collaboration with the UNLV Community Clinic and Las Vegas Fire and Rescue.
Miah kept busy in the classroom too, earning induction into the Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society and numerous scholarships, including the Brenda and Russell Frank Honors Scholarship. She graduates today with a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences and an impressive 3.92 GPA.
