Northwestern College held Virtual Pinning Ceremony for June Nursing Grads
Northwestern College’s Violet L. Schumacher School of Nursing held a virtual Pinning Ceremony on Friday, June 18 for its Spring Quarter Nursing graduates.
There were nineteen (19) students eligible to participate. This traditional ceremony is held quarterly and marks the formal induction of a student into the Nursing profession.
Due to COVID-19, the ceremony has remained on a virtual platform pursuant to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) guidelines. This is the fourth virtual pinning event held by the College.
The June 18 Pinning Ceremony took place online via Zoom and included the graduates, Northwestern College Nursing faculty and staff, and friends and family of the honorees.
The 19 Nursing students that graduated this spring from the Violet L Schumacher School of Nursing include: Kisha L. Bowen; Diondre L. Brooks; TriJae A. Brown; Catalina Diaz; Taylor Dobbins; Shauntell Herring; Susana Juarez-Diaz; Maricela Martinez; Marrissa McCormick; Krystle Nance; Tamika G. Rainey; Danielle D. Reed; Korlisha Roberts; Leyla L. Spells; Ashley Stephen; Robert Tonge; Krishna Turner; Eva Verdin; and Lizette Zamor.
Graduate Nurses TriJae Brown and Leyla Spells served as the student speakers selected to represent the Class at the ceremony.
The Pinning Ceremony began with a Welcome by Lauren Spraggins, the Associate Dean of Nursing for the Violet L Schumacher School of Nursing. She followed with a history of the pinning ceremony, which further outlined the symbolism incorporated in it.
The ceremony then featured the traditional presentation of pins to each individual graduate, facilitated by Lead Faculty Jessica McKinley. The graduate nurse is usually pinned individually by leading Nursing faculty, which was not possible with a ceremony conducted via Zoom. Instead, Lead Faculty McKinley called each Graduate Nurse’s name, and someone physically present with them affixed the pin on the Graduate’s white coat.
The ceremony featured the lighting of a candle held by a lantern, symbolizing the passing of the flame from the founder of professional nursing, Florence Nightingale. Associate Dean Spraggins led this portion of the ceremony. From locations all around the Chicagoland area, the Nursing Graduates each lit their candles. When all of the lanterns were lit, Associate Professor Peggy Taboas led the graduates in the recitation of the Nurses Oath, the Florence Nightingale Pledge. The ceremony concluded with closing remarks.
Students that successfully complete the Nursing Program of the Violet L. Schumacher School of Nursing will have earned their Associate of Applied Science Degrees in Nursing, and upon passage of the NCLEX-RN licensure examination, will receive the Registered Nurse (RN) designation. Students that completed their coursework at the end of this spring quarter are eligible to sit for the upcoming NCLEX exam.
Interested Nursing students that enroll at the Violet L Schumacher School of Nursing can begin their Nursing Programs during any of the College’s four quarters – Fall (September), Winter (January), Spring (April), and Summer (July). At the end of each quarter, those Nursing students that complete their studies and graduate are eligible to participate in the traditional pinning ceremony, hosted four times yearly.
The Violet L Schumacher School of Nursing opened in the fall of 2010 and was named for a 1930’s student of Northwestern College (formerly known as Northwestern Business College from 1902-2008) who later became an employee, and then finally purchased the College in 1958. Violet Schumacher was a visionary who advocated for students seeking higher education and served as President Emeritus of the College until her death in 2013 at the age of 98. Her son Lawrence Schumacher has served as Northwestern College’s President since 1978.