Recognition ceremony honors nursing graduates
LAU’s Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing celebrates its 33 graduating students in the presence of former Minister Leila El Solh Hamade.
The graduates welcome special guest Leila El Solh Hamade.
President Joseph G. Jabbra addressing the audience.
In her speech, former Minister Leila El Solh Hamade paid homage to “one of the most noble professions.”
Graduates stand as they take the Nightingale Pledge.
Ahmad al Jammal receiving his pin.
Bazzi receives the Chady Wehbe and Hiba Yazbeck Wehbe Award for a Graduating BSN Student.
On behalf of her classmates, Bazzi presents Dean Kulwicki with an appreciation shield.
Graduates, guests, school and university officials gather for a group photo.
The family spirit that reigns over the Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing was obvious to those attending its fifth Nursing Recognition and Pinning Ceremony last week.
Laughter, cheers and messages of pride and mutual appreciation rang out in the presence of special guest, former Minister Leila El Solh Hamade, donors, university officials and the students’ families, friends, classmates and professors.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all with open arms, open minds, and above all warm and open hearts,” said Dean Anahid Kulwicki at what was her first ARCSON pinning ceremony since she joined LAU in September 2016. “I feel proud to be a part of this college which has the best faculty, students and staff and an extraordinary level of academic excellence,” she added before congratulating the graduates and thanking LAU President Joseph G. Jabbra for the support he has shown the school and its students.
“Our institution is animated by the passionate commitment to serve others, and the profession of nursing has this notion at its core,” said Jabbra, the driving force behind the establishment of both the nursing and medical schools at LAU. Addressing the students he said, “You are going to change the perception that people in Lebanon and across the region have about your profession and show that a nurse is a physician’s key partner.”
For Jabbra, no one personifies these notions of dedication, commitment and service to the other better than Leila El Solh Hamade, who is also vice president of Alwaleed bin Talal Humanitarian Foundation.
An LAU honorary doctorate recipient (2006), El Solh Hamade spoke fondly of her special ties to the university, saying that this event was the only such ceremony she has accepted to attend this year. She paid homage to one of the “most noble and human professions,” reminding the audience that Lebanon, which currently counts 7,000 practicing nurses, needs no less than 17,000 nurses, which opens up great job opportunities for the graduates. “We need you,” she told the students before presenting them with pins and awards, alongside Kulwicki and Jabbra.
As the class representative, Nour Bazzi stood tall in front of the audience, going over the intense three years she and her classmates have shared and that got them to be registered nurses today.
“During this journey, we didn’t just grow, we have developed, and we have blossomed,” she said. Echoing Jabbra’s words, she added, “We’re going to be this agent of change in our field, as we have a lot to prove and a lot to correct. For a nurse is not only the white angel who holds the patients’ hands through their illnesses, nor the executor who gives shots, and draws blood samples, but rather the knowledgeable person who makes sure the patient is receiving the best available care in the safest manner.”
Bazzi’s classmate Ahmad al Jammal received the Inspirational Nursing Student Award. He was one of seven young men graduating that evening from a school that attracts a high rate of male applicants, a clear sign that the nursing degree at LAU is a roadmap to professional success.
“My parents encouraged me to enroll in nursing at LAU,” he said. “We have great career opportunities and, as men, our physical strength helps us to serve patients who are in intensive care units, so there is a high demand for male nurses,” said the graduate who is starting his professional career this week as a critical nurse at LAU Medical Center-Rizk Hospital.
Carmel Mansour Khoury, mother of graduating student Marguerita Khoury, expressed her confidence in the students and LAU. “I am very proud to be a witness of their success today. As a parent, one feels that we didn’t strive for nothing, that they have achieved and that there is more to come,” she said. “LAU gave them everything, confidence in themselves, great preparedness for the future, and a sense of commitment first to the university but more importantly to the community they live in.”
At the event the following student awards were presented:
- President’s Circle Award: Kamar Salem
- Dean’s Research Award for a Graduating BSN Student: Maral Torossian
- Dean’s Award for a BSN II Student: Lora Yehya
- Shaké Ketefian Award for a BSN II Student: Grace Der Boghossian
- Badre Shaheen Award for Nursing Students: Mariam Dahche
- Chady Wehbe and Hiba Yazbeck Wehbe Award for a Graduating BSN Student: Nour Bazzi
- Chady Wehbe and Hiba Yazbeck Wehbe Award for a BSN II Student: Farah Bou Said
- Inspirational Nursing Student Award: Ahmad Al Jammal
- Torch Award that will be presented during commencement exercises: Clara Ann Malak
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