First Centralia College spring nursing program cohort celebrates new careers

Friends, family and faculty gathered on the Centralia College campus last week to celebrate 20 students and welcome them into their new careers as registered nurses.

The Centralia College nursing program hosted a pinning ceremony on Friday afternoon at the TransAlta Commons to celebrate the graduation of the newest class of nursing students to complete their studies. The event honored a cohort of new nurses and doubled as a milestone for the Centralia College nursing program.

The 20-student cohort was the first ever Centralia College nursing program spring-start cohort. As such, faculty and even student speaker and member of the class Tacy Coley referred to the class endearingly as “guinea pigs,” pointing to some stuffed animal guinea pigs at the front of the room Friday evening.

“We got the opportunity to become what it means to be a real Centralia College Trailblazer,” Coley said, “because they've never done this before.”

The Friday afternoon event began with welcoming words from Centralia College nursing program Director Jenny Higgins, who took a moment to thank the many family members and friends for their support and sacrifice.

“They probably weren't available to come to dinner maybe a few times because they were studying, and that was our fault, and we take full credit for that,” Higgins said.

Family and friends packed the house of the TransAlta Commons squeezing in as many chairs as they could around each table and cheering on the graduating students.

After Higgins, the event hosted two main speakers, one a member of the graduating class of nurses and the other a member of the faculty chosen for the role by the group of new nurses. Higgins first welcomed up student speaker Katherine Welch.

Welch took the podium thanking supporters and the students themselves while reminiscing on their time together. As she spoke, she likened participating in the Centralia College nursing program to playing a team sport. Each and every person, students, family members, instructors and friends all have to play their role.

“Some of you carried the extra financial burden so that we could cut back on work hours,” Welch said. “Some of you played babysitter so that we could get one extra hour of study time… Some of you were a shoulder to cry on at the end of a tough clinical day.”

As she continued, Welch commended her fellow students for sticking with their commitment to the program, overcoming challenges and coming out on the other side as a registered nurse who would soon be trusted with the lives of many.

“That was our very first lesson in nursing,” Welch said. “To keep going despite the challenges, to stay steady in the chaos, to advocate for the voiceless and to treat the person in the bed, not just the patient in the chart.”

Next, Teneal Bannon came to the podium as the faculty speaker chosen by her students. Bannon started by addressing the milestone of Centralia College advancing its first spring cohort. Bannon touched on a state and even nationwide nursing shortage and pointed to this class as Centralia College’s attempt to address that shortage.

“Demand for nursing has been rising for decades, but the number of spots in nursing programs hasn't kept up,” Bannon said. “It probably doesn't seem like a big deal, but behind the scenes, this represents years of planning and mountains of paperwork.”

Bannon also thanked her students for their commitment and even more so their patience and flexibility for rolling with the punches as they participated in a new part of the local nursing program.

“You all kept showing up, positive, flexible and willing to roll with the unknown,” Bannon. “You all handled it with patience and humor.”

According to Higgins, this first cohort was smaller than many others and allowed faculty to work out all the kinks in the program. Centralia College will now admit a spring cohort of 24 students every other year.

Before the pining ceremony, Coley and fellow nursing student MaKayLyn Dotson came to the podium to hand out superlative awards describing each of their classmates.

Superlatives ranged from serious to sweet to goofy as they awarded one student for being the “most likely to encourage her peers through a code brown” and another “most likely to have a gut feeling that ends up saving her patients.”

Finally, a faculty member began the final pinning ceremony. As each student’s name was called, they came to the front of the room and walked onto the stage with family or friends who “pinned” them, or in this case draped a graduation stole over their shoulders. After each student was named, they sat together in front of the crowd to be seen and recognized by the whole room.

“We're very excited for you,” Higgins said. “This is the moment we've all been waiting for.”