From Beaufort County Community College

 

Fifty-one graduates of Beaufort County Community College’s Associate Degree Nursing program received their nursing school pins Thursday, May 14, in a ceremony, which is a traditional rite of passage for nursing school graduates across the country.

It was the largest Associate Degree Nursing class and at 11, the largest graduating class of new male nurses in the school’s 48-year history.

The ceremony was held at the Turnage Theater in Washington before an audience of about 350 BCCC administrators, faculty and staff as well as family and friends of the graduates.

Four students received awards honoring their academic and nursing success. The Leadership Award was presented to Josh Harriett. The Outstanding Senior Student Award was presented to Cecil Scott Campbell II. The Katie Paul Award for Clinical Excellence was presented to Bridget Lynn Lewis. Kimberly M. Moore received the Academic Excellence Award

In his faculty address, Kent Dickerson, director of nursing at BCCC, told the graduates that they had changed from their first day of orientation and are ready for the challenges ahead.

“Go out there and do the little things that nurses do,” he said. “And then take that extra step with your patients because it’s by going that extra mile with your patients that you will leave your legacy.”

In remarks on behalf of the graduating class, Lewis thanked the family and friends of the graduating class for their support and recalled the class’s years as nursing students.

“In the last two years, we have grown to e a family,” she said. “We’ve held each others hands as we witnessed babies being born and we dried each other’s tears when we lost a patient. We came together when it really, truly counted.

“This has been a life changing experience for all of us and I think that’s appropriate because we are going into a profession where we change people’s lives,” she said.

Pinning ceremonies in their currently recognizable form began in 1893. The pin is awarded to the nurse to recognize the achievement of entering the profession and to signify a nursing school graduate’s affiliation with a specific nursing school.

The graduates are now qualified to take the state licensure examination.

The graduates are Nina Arrington Alexander, Diego Amorocho, Brett Ange, Kayla Ange, Elsie Baker, Megan Nicole Barr, Randy Baugham, Brandy Sheppard Baynor, Cameron B. Blake, Susan Braxton, Rebecca Lynn Brooks, April C. Bullock, Laura Lyon Butler, Lauren Elizabeth Bystrack, Cecil Scott Campbell II, Caren Moller Cooper, Dustin Earwood, Lillian Danielle Edwards, Cody Wayne Furlough, Josh Harriett, Morgan Carol Herring, Carolyn Leighann Hill, Caitlyn Elise Horton, Carolyn Elizabeth Jones, Cathy Lengyel, Andrew J. Lewis, Bridget Lynn Lewis, Kelly Bland Meetze, Jessica Marie Mitchell, Meredith Duke Mobley, Kimberly M. Moore, Brittany R. Moss, J.R. Nimeskern, Sarah M. Oswald, Alexis Lillian Peed, Sarah Elizabeth Peek, Meg Poston, Meredith Price, Deanna A. Pryor, Aime S. Roberson, Lisa Council Rogerson, Amber Christin Rombold, Elizabeth Watson Rose, Jodie Rouse, Elzbieta Skiba, Amy Kirk Tinker, Bethany Rae Utter, Brandi Louise Walling, Samantha Marie Whitfield, Caleb Manning Woolard, Marissa Brooke Woolard.

For more information about the Associate Degree Nursing program at BCCC, contact Kent Dickerson, director of nursing, at 252-940-6205 or visit the BCCC website at www.beaufortccc.edu.