Nevada State College (NSC) is a public college in Henderson, Nevada. It is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education and opened on September 3, 2002, as Nevada's first state college. Its main campus is located on a site in the southern foothills of Henderson. Nevada State College has around 3,300 undergraduate students from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In terms of minority or underrepresented students at NSC, close to 20% of the student body is Hispanic/Latino, 11% is Black or African American, 10% is Asian, and 2% is Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The college's average student age is 29, and 61% of its students attend part-time. The vast majority of Nevada State College's students are from Nevada. Nevada State College's enrollment has grown from 177 students in 2002 to 3,389 in 2012, making it one of the fastest growing institutions of higher education in the country on a percentage basis. During this period, however, some of Nevada State College's programs suffered from lower than expected enrollments. However, enrollment for 2010 increased by 23.3% compared to the year before. Nevada State College's six-year graduation rate in 2017 was 15.9%. The average between 2008 and 2017 was 14.99%, with a high of 21.6% in 2011 and a low of 9.4% in 2009. From 2004 to 2010, 1214 students have graduated from NSC, over 500 of them earning nursing degrees. Approximately 45% of Nevada State College's students are first-generation college students. An equivalent percentage are members of racial or ethnic minorities. Campus activities and organizations include student government and a student-run newspaper, The Scorpions Tale. Nevada State College does not currently have any varsity sports teams, but it offers a few club sports. The school's colors are black and gold and its mascot is a scorpion. History In 1999, the Nevada Legislature created the Advisory Committee to Examine Locating a 4-Year State College in Henderson, Nev. In December 1999, the Nevada Board of Regents approved the establishment of Nevada State College. In February 2000, the committee recommended the new institution be named Nevada State College at Henderson. The committee members determined Henderson should be part of the official name as they felt additional state colleges would be created in the state. Later that month, the Henderson City Council, after having evaluated several potential sites, voted to locate Nevada State College northeast of Lake Mead Drive and Boulder Highway that was