Index of University Press Releases

May 6, 2006

Commencement set for 2 p.m. at Corn Palace
By ROSS DOLAN, The Daily Republic

The two years went quickly for Amy Dee-Kristensen. The 45-year-old single mother of two will graduate with an associate of arts degree today - one of the final steps in a new nursing career. She is one of 175 Dakota Wesleyan University graduates who will receive diplomas at 2 p.m. at the Corn Palace.

It’s been a busy time for Dee-Kristensen. Between speaking dates as a humorist and motivational speaker, she found time to renovate a 100-year old home and attend DWU’s nursing program. “I’m a single parent and I thought nursing would be a nice alternative,” she said. “I do motivational speaking but I couldn’t be on the road all the time.”

Nursing, she thought, would offer some steady job opportunities. As it turned out, “I really, really liked it,” said Dee-Kristensen, who said the program allowed her to keep her family in Mitchell.

Dakota Wesleyan University President Bob Duffett says he has complete confidence in the graduating class of 2006. “It’s a good bunch of students,” said Duffett. “With the kind of students we will graduate this year, I feel very optimistic about the future - whether they’re going on to professions in nursing, healthcare, teaching or business. The world is in good shape.”

Baccalaureate is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the Sherman Center. Bishop Deborah L. Keisey of the Dakotas Conference of the United Methodist Church will offer the message, and the Armstrong Award for Peace and Justice will be presented.

The commencement speaker will be 1969 DWU alumnus James Gritzner, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. Gritzner, who had 20 years experience as a Des Moines trial lawyer before becoming a federal judge, was appointed to the bench in 2002 by President Bush. His commencement address is titled “In a Position to Win.”

An honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters will be conferred upon Dwight D. Opperman, of Dellwood, Minn., another DWU alumnus. Opperman is a member of the Drake University Board of Governors and the New York University Law School Board of Directors.

Today’s diploma count includes nine master’s degrees, 111 bachelor of arts degrees and 55 associate of arts degrees. The associate degrees, with the exception of a single business administration degree, belong to 54 graduates of the DWU nursing program. The nurses include 42 from the Mitchell campus and the first 12 graduates of the “LPN to RN” program in Sioux Falls.

“The degrees will make the graduates eligible to write the national licensing exam for registered nurses,” said Gloria Thompson, administrative chair of the Department of Nursing. “Graduates must also spend a one-month practicum under the supervision of a registered nurse preceptor in 29 regional hospitals and care facilities. “Last year, 93 percent of nursing grads passed the nursing exam the first time. We hope these graduates will do as well,” Thompson said.

A tradition for graduating nurses-to-be are the pinning and Nightingale lamp lighting ceremonies - named for Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. In the lamp-lighting ceremony, said Thompson, candidate nurses light small lamps given to them by the college as mementoes of the program - from the main Nightingale lamp. The new nurses recite the nurse’s pledge.

“It’s symbolic of passing the nursing flame on to the new graduates,” Thompson said.
In the pinning ceremony, a registered nurse chosen by the nurse-to-be pins the nursing program pin on the candidate. “Every nursing school has a pin that represents their school’s nursing program,” said Thompson, “and ours has the school motto ‘Sacrifice or Service.’ ”
The pin will be worn on the nurse’s professional attire, Thompson said.

The person doing the pinning is usually someone significant in the new nurse’s life. Friday’s pinning ceremony marked the continuation of a nursing family tradition for Diana Harris, 23, of Mitchell, who will graduate from the LPN to RN program in Sioux Falls. She received her nursing pin from her brother, David Harris, 28, who works as a nurse at the Firesteel Healthcare Center. David Harris also pinned his sister, Jennifer Haiar, 26, a DWU nursing graduate, several years earlier.

Graduation will also mark a new chapter in the active life of Dee-Kristensen, who will complete her nursing degree this weekend after her midlife course correction. Earlier plans for degrees in English and law were set aside when she married and moved to Norway from 1994 to 2003, where she raised a family and ran a home-based calendar business.
The marriage didn’t work out and she returned to Mitchell with her daughters.

A performer at heart, she recently delivered a speech at a Sales and Marketing Executives International “Women in Business” conference in Sioux Falls that also featured Vicki Lawrence, a long-time regular on “The Carol Burnett Show,” who later starred in “Mama’s Family.” In her talks, she stresses the acronym FLY, which means “face your fears, leap into action and say ‘yes, you can.’ ”

Expatriate American friends she knew during her Norwegian years will be in town to help her celebrate her new career. “I couldn’t have done it without all the people who love me,” she said.

A vocalist, she also sang at Friday’s pinning ceremony and gave a brief motivational talk. Dee-Kristensen said she is surprised at just how much she enjoys nursing. Before entering the nursing program, she said, her only hospital experience was “having my kids in the hospital, or eating in the cafeteria.”

“I like to be with my patients; to talk with them and hear their stories,” she said.
She believes nursing is an important career. “People have to trust nurses,” she said. “(As a nurse) you hold people’s lives in your hands.”