Montana State pinning ceremony recognizes ‘excellence and intelligence’ of graduating nurses

BOZEMAN - The Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing at Montana State University celebrated graduating students at its annual pinning ceremony, with families clutching cameras and bouquets of flowers as they cheered the accomplishments of their loved ones.

The recognition ceremony was held in the Strand Union Building ballrooms the day before MSU's spring commencement and brought together students from the university's five nursing campuses across the state in Bozeman, Billings, Missoula, Great Falls and Kalispell.

Sarah Shannon, dean of the nursing college, gave introductory remarks and explained the symbolism of the pinning ceremony. First coined in 1880 with the graduating class of the Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York, nursing colleges across the U.S. started the tradition of granting graduates pins to recognize their entry into the nursing profession.

"Your preparation has been academically rigorous, but it has also involved your development as a professional," Shannon told the crowd. "The citizens of Montana charge your faculty with ensuring that you are smart and competent nurses, but also that you are compassionate and ethical nurses who recognize how illness impacts different groups disproportionately, whether that is due to geography or the social determinants of health.

"Nursing is consistently voted the most trusted profession in America," Shannon said. "And this is an honor we earn every day."

The pins given to students featured the MSU logo in blue and gold surrounded by a halo of white. They were attached to blue ribbons and draped over each student's neck by family members or friends who came up to the stage with them. The students were recognized by campus, with the affiliated directors reading the names of each student.

The 119 pinned students graduated Friday with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. Twenty-seven graduate students were also recognized, with the college offering degrees in Master of Nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice: family nurse practitioner option, and Doctor of Nursing Practice: psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner option.

This school year also marked the first year of the new Doctor of Nursing Practice: nurse-midwife option, which will have its first graduating class in 2027.

Shannon also recognized students who participated in special programs within the nursing college. The Caring for Our Own Program, a supplemental support program for Native students pursuing a nursing degree whose goal is to improve health in Native communities, graduated five students this spring, bringing the total MSU CO-OP graduates to 180 since the program's inception in 1998. Dozens of students also participated in the Mobile Health Training Program to increase the accessibility of rural health care and/or were inducted into the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau.

MSU President Waded Cruzado also spoke at the ceremony, celebrating the knowledge and expertise of Bobcat nurses.

The $101 million donation in 2021 from Mark and Robyn Jones, the namesake of the college, helped fund new scholarships, the midwifery program and five state-of-the-art buildings currently being built on each campus, Cruzado said.

The nursing college also exemplifies MSU's mission as a land-grant university to help support every Montanan and build communities across the state, she said.

"I love the Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing for many reasons, and that's why I'm here for pinning ceremonies year after year. It's because Bobcat nurses exemplify for me excellence and intelligence in everything they do," Cruzado said. "They don't rest on their laurels. They work hard every single day. The nursing profession is not just a profession. It's a labor of love.

"With that comes a great responsibility," she said. "You are now Bobcat nurses, and we have very high expectations of you now that we know you have what it takes to not only have a successful career, but also a very rewarding one."

At the ceremony's end, Cruzado, who will soon step down as president of MSU, was brought to tears when nursing faculty surprised her with her own honorary pin to thank her for her years of service to the university. She then turned the thank you back on the crowd.

"We thank the families and the parents of our students for depositing their trust in what we have to offer," Cruzado said. "We thank our faculty and our staff, who are so talented, so dedicated, who could actually be anywhere in the world because they are in such high demand, and they're right here. We also thank our future Bobcat nurses - the best nurses in the whole wide world."

More information about the programs offered in the College of Nursing can be found at: https://www.montana.edu/nursing/degrees/index.html.