The 17 most recent graduates of the Ancilla College nursing program were honored recently at a pinning ceremony on the Donaldson campus. Division of Nursing and Health Sciences Director Ann Fitzgerald says it’s a special and very symbolic celebration.
“You will receive as a student who is going to graduate a nursing pin that is exclusive to that nursing school. So Ancilla College Nursing has its own exclusive pin. Those are not given until the students graduate and complete all the requisites for their area of study. In this case it’s the Associate of Science in Nursing.”
Fitzgerald adds graduates have to be pinned by another nurse.
“It’s like passing of the torch, so to speak. It’s passing of the pin. So one nurse will pin the quote, new nurse, with the nursing pin. It’s very sentimental. We had a wonderful group of nursing students this year.”
Each graduate got to choose the person who pinned them. Many were pinned by their grandmothers or their mothers, and one wife pinned her husband. In other cases, friends pinned friends and aunts also took part in the ceremony. Fitzgerald says Ancilla’s pin was designed by students in the school’s graphics department and selected by the first class of nursing graduates. It’s been the school’s official pin ever since.
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