Cleveland Community College celebrates first graduates of associate degree nursing
On May 8, 2024, Cleveland Community College held a pinning ceremony for its first class of associate degree nursing graduates.
Sixty graduates were pinned — of those, four had already passed the National Council Licensure Examination and officially become registered nurses.
The ceremony featured a welcome from CCC President Jason Hurst, in which he told graduates, “Starting this program was important to us because our community needs and deserves highly qualified nurses who will care for us and our families. I can’t emphasize enough how exciting it is to be congratulating our very first associate degree nursing graduates.”
During the ceremony, two students were recognized for outstanding accomplishments. Summer Mosteller was presented with the Betty Garrison award, which recognizes students who exemplify qualities such as excellence in patient care and advocacy, a good sense of humor and genuine kindness toward others.
Teresa Vasquez was selected by the nursing faculty to receive the Outstanding Student award. She was recognized for being a positive role model, her initiativeand her pursuit of excellence in the classroom, lab, and clinical settings.
Bruce Mack, vice president of academic affairs, closed the ceremony by reminding graduates that they have chosen a noble profession that will challenge them.
“We are proud of each of you, and we know that your efforts to care for us will make our community healthier.”
This is the first class to graduate since CCC announced in 2021 that it was withdrawing from the Foothills Nursing Consortium to create a standalone Associate Degree Nursing program. Although the Consortium provided a way for the members to share resources, it limited each school to a small number of seats in each class.
Creating this standalone program allows CCC to accept 120 nursing students each year. In addition, CCC has received an important national accreditation for its program from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: CCC celebrates first graduates of associate degree nursing
