Graduation caps decorated to celebrate accomplishment but also promote political messages.

UNLV professor and folklorist Sheila Bock studies trends behind graduation caps.

In a sea of graduation caps, how do you stand out? Increasingly, students are decorating their caps to showcase some part of their life.

Isabella Rooks, who will graduate Saturday with a degree in theater arts, is among the growing number of college students who bedazzle their mortarboards with gems, lace and glitter to add funny, serious, political or playful messages to the ceremonial accessory.

UNLV professor and folklorist Sheila Bock began studying trends behind graduation caps after she first arrived in Las Vegas in 2011. She began formally researching in 2015, taking photos from around the country and interviewing students on their graduation cap design choices.

Students at the three state universities and dozens of community colleges are graduating in ceremonies now and in coming weeks. Graduation caps let these students subvert traditional, and formal, commencement rituals.

In a sea of graduation caps, how do you stand out? Increasingly, students are decorating their caps to showcase some part of their life.

Higher education has been transformed in countless ways over the past few centuries, but one thing remains largely unchanged: the mortar boards worn on graduation day.

When an Asian restaurant named Yellow Fever opened more than four years ago in the unassuming Southern California suburb of Torrance, some people were perturbed but kept their opinions to themselves. After all, they thought, how much harm could a single fast-casual restaurant do in a strip mall?

Dr. Javon Johnson, an assistant professor and Director of African American & African Diaspora studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, believes socially conscious people should be upset.

If for no other reason, the Believer Festival—coming to assorted venues April 13 and 14—deserves our admiration and support for not scheduling a single overlapping showcase. “No one should have to choose between events,” says Joshua Wolf Shenk, executive director of the festival’s sponsoring entity, the Beverly C. Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute. Unlike the Coachellas of this world, Believer Fest unfolds leisurely over just two days and four events. Life itself should be so easy.

Meet May Irwin, the Stormy Daniels of the Victorian era.