Graduation

OGDEN -- All 10 members of the Pentz family collected Weber State University diplomas Friday.

Mother Sonia De Los Santos Pentz, 42, was awarded her bachelor of fine arts degree in an afternoon ceremony, a few hours after the rest of the Morgan County family, from dad Troy Pentz, 44, to the eight Pentz kids, age 3 to 17, got their PST diplomas.

OGDEN -- When Heather Wokurka considered updating her Weber State University electronics engineering technology degree with night classes in WSU's new electronics engineering department, the decision wasn't exactly rocket science.

Rocket science is Wokurka's day job.

INDIANAPOLIS -- College athletes are outperforming other students in the classroom, and they're doing it at a record rate.

Eighty-two percent of freshman athletes who entered school in 2004-05 earned degrees within six years, according to the NCAA's newest Graduation Success Rate. The report, released Tuesday, also shows that the four-year graduation rate hit 80 percent for the first time.

Both numbers had been stuck at 79 percent.

Even the traditionally lower federal rate hit 65 percent, a record high for athletes, compared with 63 percent for all other college students The difference between the federal figures and the NCAA numbers is that the government doesn't account for transfer students, regardless of whether they graduate.

Only 16 percent of Utah public college and university students who enroll full time at in-state, four-year programs actually graduate four years later, a national study of college-completion rates has found.

OGDEN -- Whitnie Dutt took the final step that her mother could not. The 13-year-old stood in at the Stevens-Henager College graduation ceremony Thursday night to accept her mother's diploma.

LAYTON -- Already a graduate from the school of hard knocks, 27-year-old Kirk Green, who is a quadriplegic, expanded his education by capturing a bachelor of science degree in business/accounting from the University of Phoenix in Salt Lake City.