May 1, 2008
For Immediate Release

CAMPBELLSVILLE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING TO HOLD PINNING CEREMONY FOR FIRST GRADUATING CLASS

By Linda Waggener, assistant director of university communications

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – The School of Nursing at Campbellsville University will hold the first pinning ceremony for 22 students, the first class in history to graduate from the new school, on Thursday, May 8, at 7 p.m. in the Ransdell Chapel.

Students receiving their associate degree in nursing (ADN) at the Saturday, May 10, commencement are:

Courtney Carroll, Russell Springs, Ky.; Lindsey Driscoll and Dedra Kerr, Elizabethtown, Ky.;

Denise Hughes, Natalie Shuffett, Janice Shuffett and Angela Stone from Greensburg, Ky.;

Christina Ward, Lexington, Ky.; Heidi Bloomquist, Martinsburg, Pa.;

LaRee Bell, Megan Cox, Theresa Fagundes, Anita Franklin, Jamie Holt, Sarah Kerr, Terri Miller, Melissa Mings, Rita Reynolds, Ashley Thompson, Janet Weatherford, Jacquelyn Young and Allison Wise, all from Campbellsville, Ky.;

“It seems like such a short time ago when the School of Nursing at Campbellsille University was only a thought and a plan,” said Jo Ann M. Wever, dean of the School of Nursing. “Now we are actually graduating our first class.”

The School of Nursing offers a two-year program leading to the associate degree in nursing. The degree prepares the graduate to function as a generalist and to practice in a variety of positions in a variety of clinical settings. The program’s goal is to graduate “competent, qualified, caring and compassionate nurses,” according to Wever.

CU nursing students learn how to take vital signs, give wound care, administer patients’ medications and practice disease prevention, she said. “You’ll learn what it means to be a nurse,” Wever said, “how to think like a nurse as well as what to do.”

Wever is a retired full bird colonel in the United States Army Reserve who has served as both an instructor at the University of Kentucky’s College of Nursing and the chief nurse of two medical units in the Army Nurse Corps. She is a licensed registered nurse in the state of Kentucky.

Applications are being accepted until May 15 for the next class. The associate degree program has limited enrollment and therefore admission will be selective and competitive, Wever said. Applicants must be officially accepted into the program prior to enrolling in any nursing course.

Applicants are considered on the cumulative GPA of prerequisite courses, ACT scores and/or NLN pre-Admission Examination. Transfer students will be accepted using the same criteria and on a space available basis. Graduates of the program are eligible to write the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN).

For details, stop by the CU School of Nursing located on North Columbia Avenue in Campbellsville, phone (270) 789-5155 or e-mail: nursing@campbellsville.edu. Campbellsville University is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,405 students who represent 98 Kentucky counties, 25 states and 29 foreign nations. Listed in U.S.News & World Report’s 2008 “America’s Best Colleges,” CU is ranked 22nd in “Best Baccalaureate Colleges” in the South and eighth in the South for “Great Schools, Great Prices.” CU has been ranked 15 consecutive years with U.S.News & World Report. The university has also been named to America’s Best Christian Colleges®. Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his ninth year as president.