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Michelle Jackson already possessed several of the qualities needed for college success: Ambition. Strong work ethic. Tenacity. And, finally, a vision for her personal and professional future.

But what Jackson needed were those educational opportunities that can be challenging to find for so-called “First Gens.”

Jackson is a first generation immigrant and a first generation college student. She’s also a young mother and a new homeowner — busy tackling the day-to-day tasks of caring for a couple of small children and helping to support a household.

Utah Valley University, said Jackson, is her ongoing source for those essential educational and mentoring opportunities.

“Anyone who wants to go to UVU has the same opportunities available to them. They make it really accessible for everyone,” she told the Deseret News.

The institutional opportunities being offered to Jackson and many of her classmates have earned UVU — the state’s largest university by enrollment — an “Opportunity College and University” designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The designation highlights UVU as “a model for studying how campuses can create and support student success by providing more access to more people in their communities and fostering high earnings post-graduation,” according to a university release.

The UVU designation is part of a newly introduced Student Access and Earnings Classification, published this month by the Carnegie Foundation and the American Council on Education.

The new classification assesses how well institutions create opportunities for student success by measuring whether they enroll students who reflect the communities they serve and by comparing the graduates’ earnings to their peers in the same areas.

Only 16% of the nation’s colleges and universities received a similar “Opportunity College and University” designation.

“As an open-access institution, UVU encourages students to ‘Come as you are’ and provides a high-quality education with seamless pathways to a degree, whether through vocational/community college offerings or four-year and master’s programs,” said UVU Acting President Jim Mortensen in the release.

“This innovative model has resulted in strong job placement and competitive wages for our graduates, who consistently earn above the national median.”

“This Carnegie Classification affirms that our student programs truly make a difference in fostering career success.”

UVU reports almost 75% of its graduates securing “high-wage, high-demand” jobs with 4- or 5-star ratings by the Utah Department of Workforce Services in a variety of fields — including nursing, elementary education, engineering, computer science, finance and marriage and family therapy.

Feeling seen on a sprawling campus

UVU leaders also point to the school’s comprehensive approach to student support services as key to fostering an opportunity-rich campus.

The school’s Student Success Center, for example, offers students of all backgrounds academic advising, tutoring, mentorship and wellness programs.

Meanwhile, the First-Generation Student Success Center and UVU’s GEAR UP resource assistance program offer admissions-to-graduation guidance for students such as Jackson.

A Mexico City native, Jackson and her family moved to Provo when she was a little girl.

After graduating from Provo High School, she discovered a path to higher education via UVU’s GEAR UP program. She began attending school, married and expected to follow a linear student path to Graduation Day.

But life intervened.

Family challenges and pregnancy prompted Jackson to step away from school.

But when she and her husband later found out they were expecting their second child, “I decided I needed to be a good influence for my children and teach them the importance of education — so I re-enrolled at UVU.”

Excited to be back in class and pursuing educational goals, Jackson said she’s been “all in” during her second stint at the Orem school. She participated in the school’s “Presidential 100” program — enjoying the mentorship of UVU President Astrid Tuminez and others on campus.

Jackson remembers Tuminez encouraging her to chase and capture dreams.

“President Tuminez said, ‘Go write down your dreams and start working on them. You really can accomplish these things.’”

That sort of campus leadership and support has proven pivotal for Jackson and her family in purchasing their first home — and she’s a year away from graduating with an accounting degree. She has her post-graduation eye on entrepreneurship.

Jackson added she has never felt unseen at UVU, despite the school’s massive student body of almost 50,000.

“They do a wonderful job of connecting with everyone, individually,” she said.

Affordable paths to higher education

Inside Higher Ed recently highlighted UVU’s classification as an “Opportunity University,” noting the school’s commitment to first generation students and non-traditional students.

Kyle Reyes, vice president for institutional advancement at Utah Valley, said he attributes the university’s high “Return on Investment” for students to the institution’s long-term investment in student success initiatives — and an unwillingness to deviate from its original mission as a broad-access institution.

Some of those efforts, Inside Higher Ed noted, have included partnerships with K-12 schools; helping students fill out federal financial aid applications; offering scholarships; academic advising; a food pantry; low-cost, on-campus childcare; student research opportunities; paid internships; and completion grants for returning students.

Recognition as an affordable pathway to economic stability through the new classification system is both “validating” for Utah Valley and a “game-changer” for all of higher education, Reyes told Inside Higher Ed.

“For so long, the incentives were for exclusion, prestige, lower admission rates and higher test scores — even though on the ground we knew the masses weren’t being served by that model,” he said.

When the first major of the LPGA Tour season came to a close in Houston this Sunday, seven private jets were waiting to take off for Utah.

The Black Desert Championship — the first LPGA Tour event in the Beehive State since 1964 — is trying to roll out the red carpet for its players. That includes airfare to the course, something seldom offered on tour.

“I thought it was important to go a little bit over the top,” Patrick Manning, the resort’s managing partner, said last week. “We partnered with SkyWest, and we’re sending private charters to go pick up the entire field and a plus-one. When they get on the plane, there’s going to be custom Black Desert Championship Minky Couture blankets for them.”

Manning believes Black Desert in Ivins is the only LPGA Tour event offering chartered jet travel to a tour event.

“At least not domestically,” he said. “If they go international, [maybe]. I’ve been told that there are no domestic charters doing that.”

It is part of an effort for Black Desert to establish itself as a key stop on the tour. The southern Utah course opened last year, hosting a fall PGA Tour event in October.

Top LPGA golfers headed to Utah

Unlike the men’s event, which came after the PGA’s playoff had concluded, this LPGA stop will have many of the top players in the world.

Lilia Vu, the tour’s No. 4 golfer, will tee it up. The field also includes Charley Hull (No. 8), Megan Khang (No. 22) and Allisen Corpuz (No. 30). Six of the top 10 golfers will head to Utah.

The tournament has a $3 million purse, which is on par with some of the top events outside of the majors. For context, the Mizuho Americas Open in Jersey City has a $3 million purse. The Portland Classic in Oregon is $2 million.

“I felt it was very important to really celebrate the women coming in. You know, they don’t always have the elevated experience that the men typically do,” Manning said.

The field is notably missing the top player in the world, Nelly Korda. Manning said it was due to a scheduling conflict.

“The only reason Nelly specifically [didn’t come] is because she’s defending a major the week before us,” Manning said, noting Korda won the Chevron Championship last year.

Next year, Manning is hoping Korda will be on one of the planes taking players from Houston to St. George.

But for now, he is planning on an elaborate reintroduction of the LPGA in Utah — hoping it attracts top players for the foreseeable future.

On the grounds in Ivins, the players will stay for free and will have access to player dining.

“Nowhere else on tour can they stay privately in a whole building; it’s just theirs,” Manning said. “And they can travel from the room to the locker rooms without public interface. They get from the locker rooms to player-only dining without public interface. So when they’re outside the ropes, they’ve got a pretty private experience if they want one.”

How to attend the Black Desert Championship

Black Desert is offering two free youth tickets with every adult ticket purchased. It is an effort to get more fans out to the course and make the experience more affordable. A daily pass costs $60 for Thursday’s competition and $70 on the weekend.

“We want to get as many youth out as we can and frankly, make it more affordable for families to be able to come,” Manning said.

Utah hasn’t hosted an LPGA Tour event since 1964, when Riverside Country Club in Provo hosted an event. Courses in Ogden and Salt Lake also hosted LPGA Tour events in 1963 and 1962.

Utah’s average household has more buying power than anywhere else in the nation, according to research from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. That’s despite rising housing costs and reflects the Beehive State’s strong economic growth, Gardner Institute economists said.

Utah had the highest-growing gross domestic product of any state in the country last year and is considered the top economy by a conservative, nonprofit group focused on limited government.

When evaluating the state’s economic growth using income as a metric, Natalie Roney, a research economist at the Gardner Institute, noted that this approach also makes Utah look good.

Larger households up income potential

The state has the eighth-highest median household income in the nation, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Utah’s rating is high largely because its typical household has more people than in other states.

“We just have more workers per household, meaning there’s more income potential in our average household,” Roney said.

Utah jumps to the top spot when using U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data to adjust for cost of living.

Roney said that while Utah’s low cost of living might surprise some people due to current housing costs, there are reasons the state’s expensive market doesn’t have as much of an impact.

Housing costs are above the national average, based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that Roney showed during a recent presentation. But goods, utilities and other services are lower. Utilities, in particular, are much lower.

Roney added that the cost-of-living data doesn’t capture higher housing costs in recent years because the average household already owns its home.

Below the national cost-of-living average

Although Utah overall has a low cost-of-living index, regional price parity — or RPP – varies by county.

Summit County has the highest RPP score, something Roney described as “not really surprising.” The county is home to Park City and some of the most expensive housing in the state and was the only county with a score above 100, a marker representing the national cost-of-living average.

Wasatch County has the second-highest score, followed by urban centers, like counties along the Wasatch Front and Washington County.

The lowest cost of living is in Emery County, while other rural counties round out the bottom of the regional price parity scores. business-friendly

In general, Utah is well-positioned for success, said Phil Dean, chief economist at the Gardner Institute.

“We often get asked, ‘Why is Utah experiencing this growth?’ It has been very robust, very strong,” he said. “I always go back to Utah’s very strong fundamentals.”

Those fundamentals, he said, are a young and well-educated population, a diverse economy, business-friendly policies and the ability to talk to each other and work together – Utah’s “secret sauce.”

Consistently ranked top economy by nonprofit

Other economists agree, including those who put together the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Rich States, Poor States report.

The latest report, released earlier this month by the conservative group, again ranks Utah as the top state economy in the nation. The report has 18 iterations and has consistently recognized the Beehive State as having the best economic outlook based on 15 policy variables.

“Rich States, Poor States” particularly recognizes Utah’s lack of a state-level inheritance tax, the state’s right-to-work status and low federal minimum wages, though it notes that Tennessee and North Carolina could catch up

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a nonprofit that brings together conservative-minded state lawmakers and corporations to draft model legislation. It describes its point of view as “dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.”

In Utah, Republican lawmakers Sen. Lincoln Fillmore and Rep. Karianne Lisonbee serve as ALEC’s state chairs, according to the group’s website.

Jonathan Williams, the organization’s president and chief economist, recalled coming to Utah after the first report, shortly after the state passed a flat tax, which made all taxable income subject to the same rate.

If Utah’s Republican supermajority hadn’t passed additional conservative legislation in the years since, he said, ALEC projects the state would have been ranked 23rd this year instead of first.

The state’s advantage, Gov. Spencer Cox believes, is that leaders look ahead to make sure they are “planting trees not for our shade but for the shade of a future generation.”

House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, paraphrased Wayne Gretzky — the Canadian hockey legend who celebrated Donald Trump’s return to the White House at Mar-a-Lago on election night — by saying lawmakers know they need to “skate to where the puck is going to be,” and that gives him optimism.

Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Under a cloudless Sunday sky, Krew Jones lined up against Sam Greer for a one-on-one rep at an Under Armour camp hosted by Pickerington North High School.

The former is a four-star edge rusher in the 2027 class. He’s a prospect with room to grow, but he’s catching the attention of some of the nation’s top schools.

The latter is a four-star offensive tackle in the 2026 class — a 6-foot-6 force committed to stay close to home with Ohio State football.

Greer, an Akron product, won his share of reps against the visitor from Utah. But on this rep, Jones unleashed a wicked spin move which would’ve put a quarterback, had there been one, in an unfavorable situation.

That’s what Jones can do. It’s why he earned an offer from and visited Ohio State two days before.

“It’s different,” Jones said of OSU. “I haven’t been to a school like that yet. Their culture, their motives, their fight. They’re all about development. That’s something I love.

“It’s a big-time school where you’ve got to work to get what you want. They’ll get you where you want to go, so that’s definitely something I love.”

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) — The Boston Marathon is one of the most popular marathons in the country. And for one Utah man, it was also an opportunity to break a record that some people may find unusual.

Jordan Maddocks, who owns 21 Run in South Jordan, has been running in marathons across the country for years. On April 21, he ran in this year’s Boston Marathon, breaking an unusual world record: The fastest marathon run in a fruit costume.

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Maddocks was unable to run in the 2024 Boston Marathon due to injury, when another runner broke his previous record by over six minutes. Maddocks trained for a year while rehabilitating his injury, focused on breaking the record.

That he did — setting the record with a time of two hours, 33 minutes and 19 seconds, over two minutes faster than the previous record. But his journey began well before this year’s marathon.

In 2019, Maddocks made his first run at the record during the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon, clearing the record in that race by 15 seconds. Unfortunately, in May of that year, Maddocks received a letter stating the record was denied due to the banana suit he wore at the time being one inch too short in the back. But his attempts didn’t stop there.

“I saw that Chiquita Banana had sponsored a guy in Canada to set the record for the fastest half marathon at the Toronto Marathon and he got the record,” Maddocks said. He reached out to the company to ask if they would sponsor him during the 2020 race, and they said yes.

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Maddocks added that he also got to run that marathon with his dad, all while he wore the banana costume. But he adds that specific race was about more than just the record and the banana suit.

“I got to crown my dad with his medal at his finish,” Maddocks said. “Out of all the marathons that I’ve done, that was one of the most special moments of my entire career — because I got to be there and watch my dad do something he always wanted to do.”

Maddocks’ long-term goal is to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Trials, but for now, he says he’s going to continue to do what he loves.

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For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.

Utah’s work in the transfer portal paid off again Monday with the addition of another guard.

This time, a commitment came from Western Kentucky’s Don McHenry — as reported by national outlets The Athletic and On3, and later confirmed by McHenry himself on social media.

A visitor at a nature park discovered human skeletal remains, Utah police reported.

The person reported the find at Lambert Park in Alpine to police at 8:30 p.m. Friday, April 25, the Lone Peak Police Department said in a news release.

A horseback rider discovered the remains, police told KSTU.

Officers confirmed the remains appear human and called in investigators from the medical examiner’s office, who began working to identify the remains and determine the cause of death.

Lambert Park is “largely undeveloped and used for biking, equestrian, and foot traffic,” police said.

Alpine is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Salt Lake City.

Micah Bernard didn’t hear his name called in the 2025 NFL Draft, but that didn’t stop the Tennessee Titans from giving him a chance. The former Utah Utes running back has signed as an undrafted free agent, hoping to prove he belongs at the next level.

Bernard put up solid numbers in college, rushing for 1,009 yards last season while averaging 5.1 yards per carry. Over his career with the Utes, he racked up nearly 3,000 rushing and receiving yards, showing his ability to make plays in multiple ways.

Now, he joins a Titans backfield that features Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears, both of whom bring speed and versatility. Bernard isn’t guaranteed a spot on the roster, but his skill set gives him a legitimate shot. He’s a smooth runner with solid hands, meaning he could carve out a role as a third-down option or even contribute on special teams.

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Tennessee’s offense, under coordinator Nick Holz, values backs who can move in space and pick up chunk plays, which fits Bernard’s style perfectly. His ability to catch passes and block in pass protection could give him an edge in training camp.

Making a team as an undrafted free agent isn’t easy, but plenty of players have gone that route and found success. Bernard’s job now is simple: to show up, work hard, and prove he belongs. If he does, the Titans might have just landed a hidden gem.

Related: Utah Running Back Micah Bernard Named a Team Captain