UNLV celebrated its 60th birthday with a big party Tuesday, including cake and a pep rally.

Even at 7 years old, Hailey Dawson is on her way to reaching a life goal. Dawson has a robotic hand, but that hasn't stopped her from being a must-have person to throw out a first pitch at a major league ballpark.

Tuesday marks six decades since the University of Nevada, Las Vegas opened its doors under the name "Nevada Southern" Back then, 500 students were enrolled. This year UNLV welcomed more than 30,000 students.

After two years in second place, UNLV is now considered one of the most diverse undergraduate campuses in the nation. The university is in a three-way tie for first on the annual U.S. News and World Report list that ranks schools on ethnic diversity.

For decades, sports fans have dreamed about heading to a casino property in the resort and placing a bet on their favorite National Football League team to cover the point spread.

UNLV is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week. UNLV opened in 1957 with 29 students graduating in the first commencement ceremony in 1964. Today UNLV has 3,000 full time faculty and 30,000 students and has grown to become a national ranked college, setting standards and examples for peer institutions around the world. UNLV athletic program started with a bowling team and now have over a dozen. Not only will UNLV be sharing a stadium soon with an NFL franchise but they also are partnered with CBS Sports Digital and Emerge, among other major accomplishments. A host of events are planned this week that include:

Amber Alexis Turner looks forward to graduating from UNLV next year with a degree in geology. The Las Vegas native — and Army reservist — comes from a strong family of college graduates, and her scientific brilliance has delivered unique opportunities: an internship at UNLV’s High Pressure Science Engineering Center, under the guidance of Dr. Oliver Tschauner, which ultimately led to an internship opportunity at NASA in Houston.

You don't have to feel guilty if you don't have the time to pack elaborate lunch boxes for your children.

The “Valentine’s Day Massacre” nearly cut the Las Vegas Valley’s explosive growth off at the knees 26 years ago, when fewer than 1 million people called the region home. Jurisdictions had been battling one another for growth-sustaining allocations to Colorado River water for years, and the Las Vegas Valley Water District took drastic action Feb. 14, 1991, upon realizing it couldn’t meet any more water commitments: It stopped promising service to new developments. Henderson soon followed suit.