KU School of Nursing Class of 2026 welcomed to nursing profession at annual ceremony
At the Dedication to the Profession ceremony, new KU nursing students marked the beginning of their educations and their careers.
Every fall, schools of nursing across the country hold ceremonies to mark the entrance of their first-year students into the nursing profession. For the University of Kansas School of Nursing’s Class of 2026, that ceremony was held Aug. 23 at the school’s annual Dedication to the Profession.
Of the 134 incoming Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students, 114 will study on the Kansas City campus and 20 will earn their degrees on the Salina campus.
“I am honored, not only that you have chosen KU nursing school, but that you have chosen our family, so you literally are family now at KU Nursing,” said Jean Foret Giddens, Ph.D., FAAN, dean of KU School of Nursing. “The challenges of nursing school are very different than most baccalaureate degrees, but the rewards are different and, quite honestly, spectacular.”
Giddens then showed a short video titled “Nurses Change Lives” that described the seminal contributions nurses have made to human health, including to the treatment and care of people with infectious disease, jaundice, AIDS and cerebral palsy.
In addition to receiving their jackets, each student was given a Gold Humanism pin from the Arthur P. Gold Foundation. After the students formally introduced themselves at a microphone, KU School of Nursing clinical assistant professor Jessica Brunsman, DNP, led the new students in reciting together the KU Dedication to the Profession.
Students came into the program already having completed 58 hours of prerequisite and elective courses, but what led them to consider a career in nursing can vary.
New student Allison Comer from Shawnee, Kansas, said she decided to get a nursing degree because of her love of interacting with and helping people. She chose KU because of its reputation and the feeling she got when she visited the campus. “I just felt kind of at home. I loved seeing everyone from all different walks of the health care around the medical center. I felt like I would be a part of something really awesome coming here,” said Comer.
Another member of the Class of 2026, Abdullah Al-Awhad, who grew up in Mosul, Iraq, said he had always wanted to be a Jayhawk: “My dad came here (to KU) in 1979 and he studied petroleum geology, and I grew up seeing little Jayhawk souvenirs around the house and pictures from when he was in America.”
Al-Awhad earned a journalism degree from KU on the Lawrence campus. “I wanted to go back and pursue that passion that was missing, which is working in health care,” he said. “It wasn’t hard to choose nursing. I chose nursing, and that's why I'm here.”