In recent years, conservation and environmental awareness have become sexy topics on college campuses, but two University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) students have gone beyond words, bumper stickers and fancy slogans.

With five months remaining until the new UNLV School of Medicine officially welcomes its first class, the university has offered admission to 40 prospective students – half of them women. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, given that women make up nearly half of Nevada’s population. But it’s an anomaly in a state that ranks near the bottom nationally in terms of physician gender diversity.

On most class projects, students are concerned with their grade. At the Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition, engineering students at UNLV also are concerned with winning cash and maybe even getting their project on the market.

It’s official: UNLV’s burgeoning medical school has been granted preliminary accreditation, allowing the institution to begin recruiting and accepting students for its first class in 2017.

The diversification of Nevada’s population and economy prompted the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce and UNLV to create an education program for professionals interested in better understanding government operations in the Silver State.

Hardly a week goes by on the PGA Tour without a former UNLV golfer showing up on the leaderboard. Last week at The Barclays it was Adam Scott, Ryan Moore and Charley Hoffman each finishing in the top 13.