County Commissioner Weekly says Education is the Way

Event on Oct. 23

By Evan Combs

County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly came to the College of Southern Nevada to encourage students to change the Valley by improving themselves through education.

“In my personal opinion, I don’t think Nevada takes education too seriously,” Weekly says. Sadly this fact is true.

According to the 2013 Nevada Education Data Book, Nevada ranks 50^th in the nation compared to other states on various categories including the following: student success, standards, assessment, accountability and investment for education.

Nearly 60 percent of students graduate high school in Nevada, according to the Data Book, though only 43 percent go on to postsecondary education, falling below the national average.

Weekly stressed the importance of education in his speech during the event hosted by the African-American Heritage Committee held on Oct. 23 at Cheyenne campus.

He shared stories from the stage about his upbringing.

He was born and raised in Las Vegas and has dedicated his professional life to public service. He was a city councilman for seven years and more recently became county commissioner. He was born in Reno and was the youngest of four children raised by a single mother. He grew up poor in the projects.

CSN student Val Breau says, “The fact that Weekly came from the bottom and got where he is now is beyond inspiring to me.”

Weekly attended CSN for college. “This is a wonderful institution… I am so grateful for the staff of CSN.”

William McCurdy, president of the ASCSN student government, attended the event and received a special thank you from Weekly himself. “Being that he has come from CSN, it shows us that it was a great starting point and CSN offers an amazing foundation, and as long as our foundation is set firm, with the right mindset we can achieve anything we set out to do,” McCurdy says.

“What stuck with me was that no matter what you go through and no matter how hard it may seem sometimes, we must keep moving forward,” McCurdy says. He suggested we all have an opportunity to affect change each day. “As long as we have life we can change it if we want to see a difference.”