BSN, Graduate Students Celebrated at Ceremonies

On Friday, hundreds of students in Rockhurst University’s graduate programs and the Bachelor of Science in nursing degree program were recognized after completing their programs in a series of ceremonies on campus.

In addition to BSN students, who celebrated with a ceremonial pinning, students in the Master of Science in nursing and post-graduate nursing certificate programs; the Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in data analytics programs; the Doctor of Education program; and the Doctor of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Doctorate programs were all celebrated in hooding ceremonies.

Both pinnings and hoodings as academic traditions are based in history — the pins are tied to the 12th Century, when monks were given the Maltese cross and pledged to assist six soldiers. Academic hoods were practical, made of heavy material to keep students and faculty warm in cold universities.
Today, both serve different purposes — rites of passage marking the end of one phase of student’s journeys and the start of the next, as well as academic achievement. 

“The pin will remind you of the dedication and perseverance needed to have come this far,” said Sarah Schlanker, MSN, director of the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. 

At each of the hooding ceremonies, students were asked to speak to their fellow graduates. In those comments, they shared the sense of accomplishment, reflecting on where they’ve been and where they might be going.

“I want us all to remember who we were and how we felt sitting in this exact room about two and a half years ago as we went through orientation the first day of school,” said Dani Mabry, ’25 DPT. “Since then, we've grown in our competence as clinicians, our confidence as people and in our capacity to provide compassionate care. But in order to get here, we had to spend a lot of time at the edge of our comfort zone, getting comfortable failing for the sake of our growth, which is not always easy.”

Another student, Hannah Caviness, ’25 OTD., thanked not only the graduates but the faculty and staff for providing example of the type of commitment that makes for great practitioners.

“We all arrived here for different reasons and for different experiences, but one thing I've seen in every student professor and practitioner is passion,” Caviness said. “OT is a field that demands passion. It demands that we show up fully through our minds, bodies, and hearts. It requires holistic care through therapeutic use of self.”