27 BC students earn Associate Degree of Nursing
Published 6:32 am Friday, May 18, 2012
BAINBRIDGE COLLEGE STUDENTS who earned the Associate Degree of Nursing are, from the left, front row, Victoria McLendon, Lucia Rivera, Lisa Huntley, Celeste Peterson, Dannyelle Parker, Brittany Barrett Bradley, Nicole Bramblett and Esther Alaniz; middle row, Emily Ray, April Tillery, Amy Powell, Brandie Morton, Tyara Bell, Shandra Rouse-Perry, Shaneka Brown and Tina Tomberlin; back row, Kristin Ruszala, Cyntoria Ross, Zacharey Powell, Ronald Peters, Katie Hall, Amanda Kirkland, Earnest Lucas, Kaysee Strickland, Bernadine Collier and Sierra Justice. Not pictured is Amanda Thomas.
By CAROL HEARD
BC Communications Specialist
Twenty-seven Bainbridge College students who earned the Associate Degree of Nursing were honored with a traditional pinning ceremony and reception at the Student Wellness Center on Saturday, May 12.
Student speaker Earnest Lucas told his students and members of the audience: “This has been a very challenging journey … but today we have all made it.”
Guest speaker Rhonda Payne said nurses care about people and families as human beings and often act as advocates for patients and their care.
“It is clear that nursing is not a profession for the weak of mind, spirit or heart,” she said. “A challenging profession requires the ability to work under pressure in sometimes very difficult circumstances; nurses are there in very good and very bad times.
“Nursing is also one of the most rewarding of professions a person can choose. Being involved with people’s lives at the beginning, at the end, and many times in between in so many various forms is an awesome responsibility and honor.”
Zacharey Powell, who graduated Saturday, gave a description of the Bainbridge College Associate Degree of Nursing (ADN) pin.
Sheree Dickenson, chair of the ADN program, and Jeffrey Ross, assistant professor of nursing, presented a nursing pin to each graduate as a recording of each student’s memory was played to the audience.
The award winners were as follows: Sierra Justice of Albany, Ga., earned the Academic Achievement Award. Shaneka Brown from Albany and Nicole Bramblett from Cairo, Ga., each received the Clinical Excellence Award. Kristin Ruszala from Whigham, Ga., received the Nightingale Award.
The Archbold Medical Center Leadership Award was presented to Katie Hall from Bainbridge. The Memorial Hospital and Manor Award was presented to Esther Alaniz from Bainbridge.
The ADN graduates, listed by their cities, are the following: Albany: Shaneka Brown and Sierra Justice; Bainbridge: Esther Alaniz, Bernadine Collier, Katie Hall, Amanda Kirkland, Victoria McLendon, Celeste Peterson, Ronald Peters, Amy Powell, Emily Ray, Cyntoria Ross, Shandra Rouse-Perry, April Tillery and Tina Tomberlin; Brinson: Zacharey Powell and Lucia Rivera; Cairo: Nicole Bramblett, Brandie Morton and Dannyelle Parker; Camilla: Earnest Lucas; Colquitt: Lisa Huntley; Donalsonville: Tyara Bell and Brittany Barrett Bradley; Tallahassee, Fla.: Amanda Thomas; Whigham: Kristin Ruszala and Kaysee Strickland.
ASSOCIATE DEGREE OF NURSING graduate Esther Alaniz from Bainbridge, in the middle, is presented the Memorial Hospital and Manor Award by ADN Chair Sheree Dickenson, on the left, and by Memorial and Manor’s Nurse Manager Delores Eidson, on the right.
