Millennium Scholarship Records

In 1999, Governor Kenny Guinn's Millennium Scholarship initiative was enacted into law by the Nevada Legislature. The legislation created the Millennium Scholarship trust fund to be administered by the State Treasurer. The University and Community College System of Nevada Board of Regents adopted policy guidelines for the administration of the scholarship. The program was initially funded by a portion of the $38 million Nevada received from the tobacco industry in the Master Settlement Agreement that ended cigarette litigation by states in 1998.

The original qualifications for eligibility for a Millennium Scholarship were that a student had to graduate from a Nevada public or private high school in the graduating class of the year 2000 or later, with at least a 3.0 grade point average calculated using all high school credit granting courses. The applicant also had to pass all areas of the Nevada High School Proficiency Examination and had to be a resident of Nevada, as defined by the Board of Regents' policy, for at least two of their high school years. The State Treasurer established a Millennium Scholarship Office. Sierra Nevada College was also an eligible institution for scholarship recipients, pending successful admission. In 2006 the program was limited to covering a maximum of 12 credits per semester. In 2007, the eligibility requirements changed to require high school graduates to earn a GPA of 3.25 or higher. By early 2010, 18,000 degrees had been earned by Millennium Scholarship graduates. After former Governor Guinn's death on January 22,2010, the Kenny Guinn Memorial Millennium Scholarship Fund was established to help continue the program.