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CSUB celebrates 50 years of nursing excellence

Nursing alums return to campus for anniversary event

By California State University, Bakersfield

June 5^th, 2024

In 1974, California State University, Bakersfield graduated its first class of nurses, a pioneering group that kickstarted a legacy of nursing excellence that has continued five decades and some 2,500 nursing graduates later.

On April 27, CSUB’s Department of Nursing welcomed back to campus those from the first graduating class, this year’s 50th graduating class and alumni from every class in between for a special anniversary fundraiser. Themed “50 Years of Excellence: Reflecting on the Past and Envisioning the Future,” the event covered the program’s early years, its success since then and exciting developments still to come.

Although the alumni event was originally to take place in CSUB’s Doré Theatre, a power outage that day forced organizers to quickly adapt for an outdoor setting. Fortunately, nurses know how to pivot, said Krystal Ball, assistant professor of nursing and one of the event’s lead organizers. With chairs set up outside the theater and a wireless, battery-powered PA system, the event went on without a hitch.

“While the power outage was distressing, I was proud of the way the CSUB team was able to pull it together so that we could continue with this event,” said Dr. Debra Wilson, chair of the Nursing Department. “This was a great time to celebrate our past and present students, our amazing staff and faculty and to showcase what is new in our labs. I heard from many alumni both during and after the event who expressed how much they enjoyed reconnecting with their classmates. I’m hoping that this event will encourage our alumni to get involved in our program with either a donation of time or money. We have an excellent program and I feel that our future is bright!”

Around 225 alumni and family members came to the event, which started with speaker presentations. With power restored as the keynote speaker was wrapping up, nursing building tours were able to go on as planned. In the end, the event and the fundraising period that followed raised around $30,000 for CSUB nursing.

Dr. Debra Wilson, chair of the Nursing Department, welcomes alumni back home.

Krystal Ball, assistant professor of nursing and one of the event’s lead organizers, welcomes alumni home.

Vice president for University Advancement Heath Niemeyer speaks about the role nurses have played in his own life.

A job that makes a difference

Following welcomes from Dr. Wilson, Ball and CSUB Interim Vice President for University Advancement Heath Niemeyer, nurses joined together to recite the Nightingale Pledge, an oath named for Florence Nightingale in which nurses promise to faithfully practice their profession to its highest standards.

Dr. Peggy Leapley, who taught in the nursing program for 31 years and earned her post-master’s family nurse practitioner certificate from CSUB in 1999, was the first speaker. She led attendees in a look back on the program’s beginnings.

The CSUB nursing program got its start back when the university was California State College Bakersfield. Classes started in 1970 on a campus not yet fully developed and still frequently visited by the sheep who grazed on the property before the university was built, Dr. Leapley told the crowd. The nursing building opened in 1973.

The first group of nursing students, then dressed in blue and white skirted uniforms, helped to design the nursing cap and pin. The first graduating class also started the tradition of a class composite photo; theirs is framed and hangs in a prominent spot in the nursing building today, with composite photos from subsequent classes lining the building’s halls.

Nursing alumna and 2022 CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame inductee Terri Church followed Dr. Leapley by talking about nursing’s future. She pointed to the ways science fiction has at times predicted health care developments, like an early form of telemedicine seen in an episode of “The Jetsons.”

While health care providers might not have a tricorder like Dr. McCoy in “Star Trek” yet, there are many ways that medicine is advancing. Surgeons can now use robots to operate on patients, artificial blood can be created in a lab and smart watches monitoring heartrates are only the beginning of wearable health trackers, Church said. One of the more exciting developments, she said, is the potential of designer drugs tailor-made to target a patient’s specific illness.

“With all that comes a lot of issues that nursing will be involved in,” Church said. “How do we make that safe, how do we make it ethical, what are the moral ramifications? I’ve been a nurse for a long time — if anybody is going to raise that there is a moral issue out there, it’s going to be a nurse, so we play a really key role in that.”

Beyond advanced technologies, the future of nursing also holds an increased demand for advanced practice providers like nurse practitioners. (CSUB is already answering that call with a recently announced Doctor of Nursing Practice program, slated to begin in the fall of 2025.)

Motivational speaker Jean Steel gave the keynote address, called “Happy Nurses Win!” As nursing can be a demanding and exhausting job, Steel encouraged nurses to be resilient by asking for help when they need it, practicing gratitude daily, seeking out awe, keeping their sense of humor and being optimistic and mindful.

“You’re going to have the best days of your life nursing and you’re going to have some of the worst, so you have to take care of yourself,” Steel said. “You have a job that makes a difference every single day.”

Ball concluded this part of the event by reminding alums why they were there: to come home to their alma mater and walk its halls and also to learn how to get involved. Alums were encouraged to donate money or their time to the program to give back to the program that gave them their careers.

A CSUB alum herself, Ball got emotional looking out at the crowd of nurses.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be around all of you,” she said. “The amount of knowledge in this room, the amount of patients that have been impacted, by everyone in this room, is just amazing.”

Dr. Peggy Leapley, who taught in the nursing program for 31 years and is an alumna herself, speaks about the program's history.

Nursing alumna and 2022 CSUB Alumni Hall of Fame inductee Terri Church spoke about nursing's future.

An alumna shows off the white cap and dress nursing students wore in the program's early days.

Motivational speaker Jean Steel gives the keynote address, called “Happy Nurses Win!”

Krystal Ball gets emotional as she addresses the crowd of nurses and considers the impact they have had on their community.

Train them well

Among the returning alumni were a few from the inaugural nursing class. Brenda Bennet Welch came all the way from Arkansas for the event. Her nursing career has taken her all over the country, including as a member of the Army reserves. She looked back fondly on the school that gave her her start.

“It’s astonishing that it was 50 years,” Welch said, adding that she wondered what the nursing program was like today. “I knew it would change. You know, 50 years, it’s got to change, but I was just kind of curious to see what it was and see if anybody showed up that I knew.”

Margaret Freyberger Levy lived down the hall from Welch in the dorms and said the first graduating class was a close-knit family back then. The nursing program gave Levy and her classmates “an excellent foundation,” she said.

Levy recalled the program’s curriculum at the time was made up of classes that progressed from birth to death, beginning with a child/maternal health class first. In addition to prenatal home visits and labor and delivery clinicals, students in that course were also on call to attend the birth if they were able.

“The knowledge we gained in the class was used in the next class as our patients got older with more complex medical conditions and psycho-social needs and concerns,” Levy said. “We were taught that patients go to hospitals for nursing care. It was important to know your patients, not just their diagnosis. We need to listen to our patient.”

After graduating 50 years ago, Levy worked locally until she joined the Air Force and was stationed in Spokane, Wash., where she met her husband. When the two moved back to California, she joined the California Air National Guard, serving for 20 years before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. Following that, she was a public health nurse and school nurse.

“It wasn’t until I was exposed to nurses from all the different nursing programs… that I realized how superb my foundation in nursing was and how much knowledge I had gained in those four years,” she said.

Levy made the trip back to CSUB from her home in Ripon, Calif. to share memories of her time at the university and see how the program had grown since she was a student.

Current CSUB nursing students led alumni on tours of the Romberg Nursing Skills Lab and Simulation Center where they could see what was new. On her tour through a lab, Levy was introduced to a high-tech, lifelike mannequin, complete with dilating pupils, pained groans and palpable pulses.

“I’m just amazed you have this kind of stuff! This is great; it’s good to see all the new inventions,” Levy told the current nursing students leading the tour. Her next comment was directed to the mannequin on the bed as she patted its foot: “Train them well!”

Aimee Gibson and Jaspinder Khaira, two students from the class of 2024, said it was an honor to be part of this milestone for CSUB nursing. Being part of the 50th class reminded them that they and their classmates are part of so many nurses before them.

“It’s almost like family,” Gibson said. “You may not know that person, but you feel connected. It’s an experience that we all know we’ve been through. They’ve gone through very similar classes before us, similar stresses. We share it all.”

“It’s like they all put down steps for us to walk on,” Khaira agreed.

Margaret Freyberger Levy, Beverly Copeland and Brenda Bennet Welch from CSUB's first graduating nursing class were among those in attendance.

Graduates from the class of 1974 wore a special corsage and were honored with a moment of recognition.

Nursing students in the class of 2024 wear special stoles with "50th graduating class" written on them.

Nurses from the class of 1995 smile for a photo.

Nursing students in the class of 2024 also received a special tassel.

CSUB celebrates 50 years of nursing excellence

The Kern County Nurse Honor Guard is a group of volunteers who attend the funerals of nurses who have passed.

Margaret Freyberger Levy, a member of the first graduating nursing class, tours the simulation lab. Photo by Kelly Ardis.

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Footnotes

Story by Kelly Ardis, communications specialist, School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering (NSME); Photos by Abel Núñez-Guerrero, Outreach & Community College Coordinator for NSME, unless credited otherwise