BLINN RECOGNIZES 49 ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING GRADUATES WITH PINNING CEREMONY
Forty-nine future nursing professionals were recognized with their nursing pins Saturday, Dec. 2, after completing the Blinn College District’s highly regarded Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) Program.
“These graduates reflect the dedication, compassion, and resilience needed to become exceptional caregivers,” said Dr. Karla Ross, ADN Program Director. “It is a privilege to celebrate their academic journey and I feel confident that the skills and caring touch our students possess will make an incredible impact on the lives entrusted to their care.”
Blinn’s two-year program prepares students for nursing careers and for transfer into a bachelor’s degree program at a four-year university. Students who complete Blinn’s ADN Program and pass the national licensure exam have a job placement rate between 97 and 100% and are qualified for a wide array of nursing positions, including pediatric, geriatric, hospice, school, and clinical nursing. With demand soaring in the nursing field, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that registered nurses earn a median salary of $81,220.
The fall 2023 graduating class includes Latisha Nicole Allen, Philip Blaszak, Aschlen Campbell (Seguin), Jacob Clarke (Jersey Village), Casey Noelle Cobb (Marble Falls), Daphne Cook (Lovelady), Kyndal Kate Coufal (Burton), Anthony Neil Drake (Mesquite), Jessica Duplechain, Victoria Denise Easley (Gilmer), Hunter Eiben (Wylie), Steve Estrada (Austin), Janine Heather Firment (Prince George, Va.), Alexus Fletcher (Bryan), Clancey Leigh Harpin (Biloxi, Miss.), Tia Harrison (Madisonville), Rayvin Kalisek (Moulton), Jenna Kana (Blessing), Anna Megan Talyor Ketelsen, Joshua Kim, Cassie Dianne Kinkade (Blanket), Opeyemi Kolawole (Fort Bend), Crise Esperanza Leal (Pasadena), Mia Lugo (Montgomery), Lindsay Jordan Malik, Nicole Manche, Allie Manson (Rockport Fulton), Emily Brigitte Martinez (Bryan), Ainsley Rose Mason (Garland), Rachel McCord (Brenham), Maddie McKnight (Sunnyvale), Raven McNew (Bryan), Jordan Michals, Abigail Mooney (Denton), Victoria Moreno, Payton Nieto (Conroe), Nayel Novelo, Lourdes Osorio (Clute), Sara Rattray (Round Rock), Taylor Richardson (Baytown), Omar Sanchez (Garland), Ellianna Foxx Shadricks (Washington, D.C.), Jasmine Skalin (Ashaway, R.I.), Liana Sotelo (Del Rio), Christyan Sparks (Round Rock), Mikaela Stephens (Hearne), Grayson Tabor (Spring), Morgan John Triplett (San Antonio), and Bo Young.
Coufal, Easley, Manche, McCord, McNew, Stephens, and Young each graduate as members of Alpha Delta Nu Nursing Honor Society. Alpha Delta Nu students must maintain a 3.5 grade-point average both overall and in their nursing courses. Members also must complete a capstone project and demonstrate conduct on campus and in clinical areas reflecting integrity and professionalism.
“I’m thankful that Blinn’s program has given me the skills I need to provide care to people during some of the hardest moments of their life,” said Stephens, who recently accepted a position in the intensive care unit at a Baylor Scott & White hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “Blinn’s instructors are what truly makes the ADN Program so successful. They are there when we are scared, first-semester student nurses, they cheer us on when we get our first IV stick, and they support us as we transition to becoming graduate nurses. My long-term goal is to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist and I know that Blinn has given me the foundation to start my journey and obtain this goal.”
Blinn’s ADN Program is based at the RELLIS Academic Alliance Complex at Texas A&M-RELLIS in Bryan, where students gain hands-on skills utilizing the facility’s 16,000-square-foot simulation laboratories.
Nursing students spend at least two days per week in clinical rotations, in addition to lab, simulation, and lecture time. Most students dedicate 15 to 24 hours each week to scheduled program activities and at least 30 hours per week on study and preparation.
Blinn’s ADN Program recently partnered with the Texas A&M School of Nursing to provide students with an affordable pathway to their bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN). The Aggie Student-Centered Express Nursing Degree (ASCEND) Program allows students to co-enroll with both schools to earn their ADN degree with Blinn and their BSN with Texas A&M in as little as one additional semester. Blinn also maintains transfer partnerships with other universities including Sam Houston State University.
As a result of this success, Blinn has been recognized by Nursing Schools Almanac, NursingProcess.org, RNCareers.org, and RegisteredNursing.org.
For more information about Blinn’s ADN Program, visit www.blinn.edu/adn.
(Story courtesy Richard Bray, Blinn Information)
Congratulations to all future nurses. One thing to mention about the salaries pretty good but not that good if you have to work in the big cities or like so many now commute from towns to the city adding more stress to an already stress job. Why? Cause they big hospitals closing the small town hospitals. Steve Grueber has a documentary called Flat line watch it please! It explains why nation wide we are losing our local small town healthcare and maybe we can stop this trend cause it by design to make us go to the city. St.Marks should have never closed. See why!
Most people in the U.S. choose to live in large cities. It’s not like the residents are there and saving up money to move away. At least the vast majority of them aren’t. Why do you think the populations are so high in metro areas vs. small towns? It’s by choice. Cities are wonderful places and have top notch healthcare facilities. The small town hospitals can’t compete financially because they don’t have as many patrons visiting daily and they can’t support the salaries of international specialists coming in to do research and the like. What you see is capitalism at work.
I still find it strange that with Blinn touting its recognition that it receives and the quality of the programs that so few students from Washington County are ever in any of these lists of graduates. 2 out of 49 is not what I would consider to be a likely number of local students in a program such as this. Obviously, no comment will ever be forthcoming from Blinn on why this might be, but surely more than two students at one time from Washington County are working on earning a nursing degree or some similar certificate that Blinn might be offering. Where do the rest go? And if some of the students whose hometowns are not given are from Brenham or Washington County, then I would certainly think that Mr. Bray should ferret out that information and give it to the readers so that we might have more pride in our local young people.