By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Missouri Western State University saw 350 students graduate during its spring graduation ceremonies earlier this month.
President Elizabeth Kennedy says 43 of those students graduated from the Missouri Western School of nursing
“Which means they had the pinning ceremony, which that is such a meaningful ceremony because that’s the symbol of joining the profession of nursing,” Kennedy tells host Brent Martin on KFEQmunnity. “You still have to take the licensure exam.”
Kennedy says what’s particularly exciting however about the number graduating is
“We have students that are coming out of the program, 99% of them already have a place of employment or they’ve even started working already, a lot of times that happens with students their last year of the program, so that’s really great,” Kennedy says.
Kennedy says the number of graduates from the nursing school can help with an ongoing nursing shortage, while also staying in the area.
Kennedy also says another area that’s exciting, with an existing teacher shortage, Western saw 14 graduates from a Masters of Art and teaching program.
The university also saw several students graduating that came back to college to learn more.
Kennedy says while Missouri Western focuses traditional students, the university wants to look to work with more people who either want to finish a degree, or move from an associate to a bachelor’s degree
“Someone says for example working for the police department or the fire department and they want to get a promotion, a lot of the times that requires a bachelor’s degree,” Kennedy explains. “We’re having just some, I would call them baby step conversations at this point with folks in city hall, because there might be more city employees that fall into that.”
Kennedy recalls a statistic that around 22% of St. Joseph has some college and says if Missouri Western can work to come up with programs to help achieve the goal of a degree, she hopes to do that.
Many people who are looking to advance their career go back to school to do so, and Missouri Western State University strives to be the place to do that.
Kennedy says the university needs to have viable on and off ramps for students, and uses a student who attended Hillyard Technical Center as an example
“A year or two in you say I want to get more education, or maybe your employer says we really want you to get more education because we want to promote you or we want you to do x, y, and z,” Kennedy says. “We have to be so seamless in our ability to take students in, bring them back, make sure they get the credits for whatever they may have done, and then make sure they are on a path as efficient and as effective in terms of providing the education they need as we can.”
Kennedy says it can be someone who’s been in the workforce who wants to change careers, finish a degree, or seek something else to move into, but the university needs to make pathways seamless and effective.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.
