HANCEVILLE, Ala. — The Wallace State Community College Department of Nursing Education has once again been named a Center of Excellence by the National League for Nursing (NLN). The program was the first institution in the state to achieve this honor in 2016 and is the first to repeat it.
“You have done something that no other college in Alabama, no other university in Alabama has done, and this to have done it twice,” Wallace State President Dr. Vicki Karolewics recently told graduates and faculty, congratulating them for their efforts.
“With the fierceness of a lion and the desire to bring light to a hurting world, the Department of Nursing Education dares to dream of the possibilities that can happen when one melds passion, resources, and an innovative faculty and staff together to challenge students who are motivated to pursue nursing as their calling,” Wallace State Nursing Chair Deborah “Pepper” Hoover quoted from the report they submitted for consideration based on enhanced student learning and professional development.
Wallace State is one of only 17 programs across the nation to receive this designation for the years 2020-2025. They include nursing programs across the country and the academic spectrum of higher education in nursing as well as leading teaching hospitals and clinical sites. The college will be formally recognized at the 2020 NLN Education Summit Sept. 23-25, which will be held virtually this year. Currently, there are only four community colleges in the nation that have been designated by the National League for Nursing as a Center of Excellence.
“These exceptional institutions have been named 2020 NLN Centers of Excellence,” said NLN President Patricia S. Yoder-Wise, RN, EdD, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAONL, FAAN, Professor and Dean Emerita at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and president of The Wise Group. “To earn this recognition, a team of scholars and visionary leaders co-create and sustain educational excellence. Those individuals—faculty, deans and administrators—deserve our deepest gratitude. Centers of Excellence faculty and leadership enjoy the opportunity to share their experience, knowledge and wisdom for the benefit of everyone in nursing education.”
NLN CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN, said, “NLN Centers of Excellence help raise the bar for all nursing programs by role modeling visionary leadership and environments of inclusive excellence. These environments help nurture the next generation of a strong and diverse nursing workforce to advance the health of the nation and the global community.”
Each year since 2004, the League has invited nursing schools to apply to become a Center of Excellence, based on their ability to demonstrate in concrete, measurable terms sustained excellence in faculty development, nursing education research, or student learning and professional development.
Wallace State Community College has more health science programs than any other community college in the state. The WSCC Nursing program was the first to establish a joint partnership with the University of Alabama at Birmingham for a joint enrollment program leading to a bachelor’s degree and has a partnership agreement with the University of Alabama that leads to a master’s degree.
Application deadlines for Spring 2021 entry to the traditional Associate Degree Nursing and UAB/WSCC Joint Enrollment options have been extended to Oct. 1. Visit www.wallacestate.edu/nursing for more information.
Visit www.wallacestate.edu for more information about this and other Wallace State programs or call 256-352-8000. Regular and Mini Term II classes began Aug. 17 for the Fall 2020 semester, with Mini Term II beginning Oct. 14. Flex Start terms will begin Aug. 26 and Aug. 31.
