GCC Pins Nurses, Awards Scholarships, Touts New Program with Elms

GREENFIELD — Greenfield Community College recently held a graduation and pinning ceremony for the 50th class of students to complete GCC’s associate-degree Nursing program.

Along with celebrating this year’s 40 nursing graduates, the ceremony included the awarding of three scholarships to fund further nursing education for GCC graduates, as well as the announcement of a new partnership between GCC and Elms College to offer an Elms College bachelor’s degree in Nursing completion program at the GCC campus.

The new GCC/Elms College RN-BS in Nursing program will begin this fall, will be taught on site at Greenfield Community College, and will be open to anyone who has an associate degree in Nursing. Specific details of the curriculum and program are still being finalized.

Participating in the ceremony were six members of the first GCC Associate Degree nursing class of 1965 who welcomed the graduate nurses to the profession of nursing. One of those 1965 graduates is long-time GCC nurse educator Jean Simmons. Last fall, anonymous donors established a fund to honor Simmons, create an endowed faculty chair in Nursing, and provide scholarships to GCC nursing students. At the pinning ceremony, Simmons and GCC’s Assistant Dean of Nursing Programs Nancy Craig-Williams presented the Jean Simmons Endowed Chair Fund scholarships to three graduates who will continue their studies toward a bachelor’s degree in nursing: Kiah Crowley (who will attend Elms College), Sara Garfinkel (who will attend Southern New Hampshire University), and Chelsea Grybko (who will attend UMass Amherst).

Commenting on the new partnership with Elms, GCC President Bob Pura said, “this new baccalaureate-completion program is a very important one to our current nursing students, our alumni, and the healthcare of our community. It is essential that nurses in our community have access to a high-quality BSN program, and Elms is a perfect fit.”

Dr. Kathleen Scoble, dean of the School of Nursing at Elms College, added, “we are delighted to have the opportunity to expand our partnership with Greenfield Community College with the addition of the Elms RN-BS in Nursing program. … The Elms School of Nursing and RN-BS program has a long history of nursing education with a proud legacy of successful graduates. We look forward to reaching more and more GCC nurse graduates with our Greenfield program site.”