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On Monday, December 18, 58 nursing students and seven surgical technology students, the largest class in the past twelve years, crossed the stage of the Kingsborough Community College (KCC) Performing Arts Center to receive their pins and congratulations from college administrators, professors, family and friends.
Dr. Regina Peruggi, KCC president, welcomed the audience of approximately five hundred family members and love ones to the historic ceremony.
Professor Dolores Shrimpton, chairperson of the Department of Nursing, and Professor Denise Giachetta-Ryan, director of the Surgical Technology program, congratulated the graduates for the successful completion of their respective programs.
The seven surgical technology students were the first to ever graduate from the program which began in 2006. Kingsborough’s AAS degree program in surgical technology is the only one in CUNY and is only one of four in the state of New York.
The graduates included eleven men, representing 19 percent of the class, a married couple, both launching a second career in nursing, and a couple who met as new students, married during the program, and are now expecting their first child.
The graduates came from all the boroughs of New York City, the state of Pennsylvania and an international student from China.
“There were times when I needed money for food and gas and you were there pushing me along,” said graduate Allison Edouard, remembering her journey. “You all have inspired me in special ways.”
The graduates recited the traditional Nightingale Pledge which was led by Hersha Frederick and Claudia Perry.
Although the Nightingale Pledge is historically recited by nurses, the surgical technology graduates collaborated with the nurses and joined in reciting the Nightingale Pledge as members of the health care profession.
The capacity of the rigorous and respected nursing program at Kingsborough has increased 48 percent.
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