On Saturday, May 9, Wesleyan graduated her first cohort of students to earn their Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. The entire class of twenty-five exceptional women will begin their careers in nursing immediately after graduation with twenty-three serving Macon and Warner Robins hospitals: twenty at Navicent Health and one each at Coliseum Medical Center, Coliseum Northside Hospital, and Houston Medical Center. One graduate has accepted a position at Memorial Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia, and another at Parkland Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. The students received their nursing pins and took the Professional Nurses’ Pledge during a ceremony on May 7. “These ladies have set the bar high for our nursing program,” said Sirena Fritz, MSN, RN, program director and assistant professor of nursing. “They have embraced Wesleyan’s standards for excellence in all that they do. I could not be more proud of a group of students. I would feel confident with any of them taking care of me or one of my loved ones. Hail to Wesleyan’s first cohort of BSN students!” As part of the senior curriculum course, Holistic Nursing VII: Care of the Client in the Community, nine senior nursing students - Melissa Abraham, Kael Crews, Destiny Higdon, Erica Clark, Laurie Chelsea Widener and Martha Cecilia Flores
“These ladies have set the bar high for our nursing program. They have embraced Wesleyan’s standards for excellence in all that they do. I could not be more proud of a group of students. I would feel confident with any of them taking care of me or one of my loved ones.” – McElmurray, Lindsay Saunders, Brittani Tilley, Lauren Mitchell, and Alicen Hilton and three nursing professors - Sirena Fritz. Holly Hollis, and Teresa Kochera - boarded a plane to Montego Bay, Jamaica, on February 28, for a week-long mission trip. The group conducted a blood pressure and blood glucose-screening clinic at the Flanker Peace and Justice Centre; toured Cornwall Regional Hospital, SOS Children’s Village, Chance Rehabilitation Centre, West Haven Children’s Home, and Melody House (a home for sexually abused teenaged girls); and spent time on the beach with children from Robin’s Nest Children’s Home. According to Holly Hollis, MSN, RN, assistant professor of nursing, students received up to forty clinical hours for participating in the mission trip. “This experience was life changing for me.
Sirena Fritz
It was a privilege to be part of the sisterhood these women feel for each other. These are some of the brightest ladies I have had the pleasure of teaching and they will always hold a special place in my heart.” To be part of the first nursing class at a college known for her firsts and to conduct the first of many BSN mission trips both are sources of pride for those who attended, including Destiny Higdon. “Being a part of this ‘first’ comes with a lot of emotion. I am humbled. I am grateful. I have no doubt that for years to come I will still be saying with the utmost pride, ‘Yes, I was one of the first twentyfive Wesleyan College nursing cohort trailblazers.’”
Wesleyan Magazine Summer 2015