Ceremony Information

The Twenty-Ninth Annual Recognition Ceremony will be held at 10am on Friday, May 9, 2008 in the Shroyer Gymnasium (see Ceremony Map).

Note to students participating in the ceremony: You will receive detailed information about arriving, checking-in and lining up from the administrative assistants on your campus.

Also see MSU Commencement Information and Campus Map and Ceremony Map.

Free parking will be available on Friday the 9th in the adjoining lots with the exception of the reserved and handicap spaces.

2008 Guest Speaker: Dr. Carol Picard
Dr. Picard is the immediate Past President of Sigma Theta Tau International. She is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She is also Past President of the International Association for Human Caring. She has presented papers and keynote addresses both nationally and internationally on excellence in nursing as evidence-based, theory guided reflective practice. In over 250 presentations and 46 publications, she addresses issues of leadership, caring, and restorative and creative practices to support nursing. 

Her program of research focuses on experience of illness for patients and their families, and the use of reflective art as pattern appreciation in research studies, and creative movement as a mode of expression with selected groups, including parents of persons with bi-polar disorder. She is a clinical specialist in psychiatric nursing, practicing for the past 33 years, with a particular interest in chronic mental illness and quality of life. A recent publications is her book, Giving Voice to What We Know: Margaret Newman’s Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness in Nursing Practice, Research and Education,

As a poet and dancer, she works at bringing the arts to the arena of healing for patients and students. She has choreographed dances on the subject of healing and led workshops on movement and wholeness.

Dr. Picard is the recipient of the first Alumni Achievement Award given by Fitchburg State College, and was also given the Lifetime Achievement Award by Epsilon Beta Chapter, as well as the Mentor Award. In 2006 she was honored with the Clara Barton Humanitarian Award from Emmanuel College. In 2008 she was awarded the Living Legend Award from the Massachusetts Registered Nurses Association.

2007 Recognition Ceremony Program (PDF)

History of the Ceremony

The College of Nursing sponsors an annual Recognition Ceremony in Bozeman the day before graduation in May. It was first held in June 1980 as a public declaration of the College of Nursing’s pride and scholarship. It was instituted to reunite seniors from the upper division campuses and honor them as a total class graduating from the MSU College of Nursing.  Graduating seniors receive their nursing pins and diploma covers in a formal academic ceremony.  This event is scheduled in proximity to the overall university commencement celebration, thus enabling families and friends of the graduates to attend both ceremonies in one trip.

Those honored at Recognition include seniors completing the requirements for the baccalaureate degree during the calendar year of the ceremony.  They are "pinned" by their significant others and receive their diploma covers from the president and provost.  Master’s degree candidates who are to graduate by August of the current academic year are also honored at the Recognition Ceremony and are hooded by their thesis/professional project chairs.

The MSU President and Provost, the College of Nursing administrators, faculty and staff, alumni and honored guests are an integral part of the ceremony. The ceremony features a student speaker who has been selected by his/her peers and a guest speaker who has made a significant contribution to nursing.

Past Recognition Ceremony Guest & Student Speakers

2007: Student Speaker: Jordon Bell, from the Billings campus. Guest Speaker: Clarann Weinert, SC, PhD, RN, FAAN, from the MSU College of Nursing.

2006: Student speaker: Jaclyn Jamison, from the Great Falls campus. Guest speaker:  Kay Chafey, PhD, RN, FAAN, from the MSU College of Nursing.

2005: Student speaker:  Alicia Haag from the Missoula campus. Guest speaker:  Elizabeth G. Nichols, DNS, RN, FAAN, new dean of the MSU College of Nursing.

2004:  Student speaker:  Ka Moua from the Great Falls campus. Guest speaker:  Diane M. Billings, Ed.D., RN, FAAN from Indiana University.

2003: Student speaker:  Laura Delaney-Pence from the Missoula campus. Guest speaker:  Patricia G. Butterfield, PhD, RN, Professor and Director, Office of Research and Scholarship, Montana State University - Bozeman College of Nursing.

2002: Student speaker:  Katie Pehan from the Billings campus.  Guest speaker:  Christine Tanner, PhD, RN, Professor and Director of Oregon Health Sciences University Undergraduate Program.  

2001: Student speaker:  Kali (Kearns) Schwindt, the Missoula campus. Guest speaker:  Geri Jennings, RN.

2000: Student speaker:  Autym Didsbury, from the Missoula campus.  Guest speaker:  Diane Carlson Evans, RN, Founder and Chair of the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project.

1999: Student speaker: Amanda Brooke Flamme, from the Missoula campus. Guest speaker:  Grayce Sills, former Dean of the College of Nursing at The Ohio State University

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 04/09/2008