Nursing students graduate from Manatee Technical College | From the Lakewood Ranch Herald Tribune
The Practical Nursing program at Manatee Technical College held a graduation ceremony on February 22, 2016, in Cantrell Hall. Eleven students completed the licensure program.
Doug Wagner, director of Manatee Technical College, told the graduates, “You are graduating from one of the longest running programs at Manatee Tech.” Practical nursing was offered when the school opened in 1963.
Each graduate called a loved one to the stage to pin them. As they walked off the stage, nursing instructors Bonnie Harvey and Sheila Lankford handed each of them a lit nursing lamp, a tradition that started with Florence Nightingale.
Djemson Anneaud, RN, BSN, from St. Joseph Hospital in Tampa and brother of graduate Lunda Anneaud, offered congratulatory remarks to his sister and her classmates.
Graduate June Rayford led her fellow graduates in the recitation of the Nursing Pledge. Rayford was working two jobs as a CNA while going to school full-time. After she is licensed as an LPN, she plans to enter a bridge program to become an RN. The 31-year-old said, “Coming here gave me a sense of accomplishment.”
Nursing program manager Joan Barrese, MSN, RN, was the master of ceremonies.