CSUB ‘calls home’ nursing alumni for 50th anniversary event

Fundraiser celebrates milestone of 50th graduating class

By California State University, Bakersfield

March 2^nd, 2024

California State University, Bakersfield will graduate its 50th nursing class this spring, a major milestone that the nursing department will celebrate with a special alumni event.

Nursing alumni from across the decades are invited back to campus for a 50th anniversary alumni fundraiser themed “50 Years of Excellence: Reflecting on the Past and Envisioning the Future” on April 27. Almost 2,500 nurses have graduated from CSUB since the first class in 1974, and organizers hope those who are able will join for a reunion while helping the students who are following in their footsteps.

“CSUB nursing has provided a valuable resource to our community since we graduated our first class in 1974,” said Dr. Debra Wilson, chair of the Nursing Department. “In addition to providing excellent health care, our graduates have become leaders in our local health care agencies shaping health care policy and improving health outcomes for our citizens. I am very excited to be able to recognize the accomplishments of our graduates at this event and to envision our future contributions to improving health care in Kern County and beyond.”

Krystal Ball, assistant professor of nursing and undergraduate program director, said this will be the first event of its kind. With so many nursing graduates staying in Bakersfield, she and her department colleagues felt like there was great potential for a fundraiser that would bring together generations of nurses.

“How in 50 years have we not invited back people who have graduated and who are serving our community?” Ball recalled wondering. “I feel like it’s long overdue that we should have called home all of our graduates, so it was the perfect time to do that with the 50th graduating class.”

The event will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. and includes three guest speakers in the Doré Theatre and a tour of the nursing building and labs. Nursing professor emeritus Dr. Peggy Leapley will speak about the history of CSUB’s nursing program, while nursing alumna and 2022 CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame inductee Terri Church will speak about the program’s future.

“The idea is to look at where we’ve come from and look at where we’re at now and where we see our program in the future,” Ball said of the first two speakers.

1975 graduates Teresa King and Rebeca Kavanaugh at Hart Park in their student nurse uniforms. Photo courtesy of Teresa King.

An early graduate at her pinning ceremony. CSUB file photo.

The event’s third speaker is Jean Steel, who will give a keynote address called “Happy Nurses Win.” While nurses are used to caring for others, Steel will remind them to care for themselves too, with guidance on reducing stress and increasing resilience.

Following the speakers, alums will have the chance to tour the nursing building and labs, which may have changed a lot, depending on when they graduated. To further entice alums, they can also get continuing education units for attending.

For those alumni unable to attend in person, a virtual livestream will be available for purchase.

“We have a lot of graduates who either can’t come due to not living in town anymore or because of medical issues,” Ball explained. “We just want to make sure it’s accessible and that they feel included and part of the event.”

Whether they attend in person or not, alumni will have three different funds they can choose to donate to as a way of giving back to their alma mater. In addition to the Bachelor of Science Nursing Scholarship Fund, they can also choose to give to the Nursing Student Global Outreach Fund, which helps send nursing students on international trips to help underserved communities around the world, and the Community Preventive Health Collaborative Fund, which helps with similar outreach activities here in Kern County.

While the event is meant for CSUB nursing alums, donations from others in the community will be gladly accepted, Ball said.

The goal for total donations is a very fitting $50,000. Ball hopes alumni will be moved to donate “because CSUB changed their lives.” As a CSUB nursing alum herself who graduated in 1997, Ball knows that firsthand.

“We gave them the career that has just impacted their lives so much and we want to celebrate that,” Ball said. “We want them to get more connected with us and help those that are chasing their dreams like they did.”

Justin Rodriguez, president of the nursing class of 2024, is one of those students eager to start a career in nursing. A United States Air Force veteran, Rodriguez hopes to become a flight nurse, caring for patients in the air en route from an accident or one hospital to another. He went on the nursing program’s first international outreach trip to Peru in 2022. Thanks to previous grants and ongoing donations, students only have to pay for part of the trip’s cost.

“That really helped with the funding because when you look at the whole cost of that trip, it’s a lot for a college student,” Rodriguez said before explaining how meaningful the trip was. “To see how privileged we can be here and the lack of access Peru had — you saw the glow in their eyes when you gave them simple vitamins. You’re just taking their blood pressure; they were so thankful for it. It’s cool to see that even just a student can have that kind of an impact.”

Rodriguez said being part of CSUB’s 50th graduating nursing class is “pretty surreal, to say the least.”

“When you go into all the nursing classrooms, you see all the different pictures and it really puts into perspective how long the program’s been going on for,” he said. “And then to see all the improvements that they’ve made and how they’re always trying to seek ways to improve the nursing program, it’s pretty cool to see.”

Class photos from throughout the decades line the halls of the CSUB nursing building.

Justin Rodriguez, president of the nursing class of 2024. Photo courtesy of Justin Rodriguez.

Ball knows photos help tell the story of the nursing program’s history, and she’s hoping alumni will submit any photos they have ahead of the event. She would like to put together a slide show of contributed photos to show alumni and the program’s evolution over the years.

Fifty years of the CSUB nursing program is not just significant for the university but for Kern County too, Ball said. With nearly 2,500 nursing graduates and many more to come, most people in town have been or will be cared for by a CSUB alumni nurse.

“If you think about our local community and how many nurses and providers are CSUB grads, and many of them have gone on to become advance practice nurses and nurse researchers and CNOs of our local hospitals ...” Ball said. “We have impacted so much the population of Kern in being able to provide the health care that’s so needed.”

Ball is excited about the opportunity for alumni from across the decades to meet each other and share stories about their time as nurses.

“I think the changes we’ve seen in health care in general and nursing especially over 50 years is just exponential,” Ball said. “Even myself, I graduated 26 years ago, and just from when I was a new graduate nurse to now, the things I do as a working nurse are very different. But what doesn’t change with nursing is the compassion and the caring and the willingness to serve. A nurse is always a nurse.”