AVONDALE, Arizona – The SouthWest Skill Center (SWSC) at Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC), one of the ten Maricopa Community Colleges, celebrated the accomplishments of 125 students at their Fall Completion Ceremony on Friday, October 19, 2012 on the EMCC campus’ Ceremonial Plaza.
The ceremony honored and recognized students completing their programs in Practical Nursing, Nursing Assistant, Medical Assistant, Phlebotomy, Spanish Medical Interpreter, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and Medical Billing and Coding, and the first cohort of students in the new Industrial Electronics Technology program.
“The completion ceremony is important to our students, but it’s also important to our staff and faculty,” said center director Tom Cotner. “We are committed to providing the best possible learning experience so that our students feel confident and well-prepared for their new careers, and we enjoy watching our students and their families celebrate an important life achievement.”
Two students were selected to speak at the Completion Ceremony based on their accomplishments. Dawnn Bartel represented 20 of the students successfully completing the Practical Nursing program, and an Industrial Electronics student spoke on behalf of the 12 students completing that program.
Dawnn Bartel always wanted to make a difference in people’s lives and society. She started pursuing a degree in architecture, but realized that wasn’t fitting into her goals, so she switched to education. After discovering that K-12 teaching was not the pathway for her, she started working in health care, managing the offices for a dental and anesthesiology practice. That’s when she discovered her passion for nursing.
Bartel, the wife of a Peoria Police officer and mother to 3 young boys, knew that starting her Nursing program would be tough, but was ready to make that commitment with her family’s support.
“It was an uphill battle for the eleven months of the program, sacrificing family dinners and soccer games for studying,” said Bartel. “My amazing instructors and classmates got me, and all of us, through the tough times and made it bearable. It was totally worth all of the hard work.”
Bartel plans to continue her nursing studies to attain her bachelor’s degree and maybe even a master’s, with the goal of teaching at the RN (Registered Nurse) level. “That would be an incredible feeling to combine my original love of teaching with nursing, and exponentially impacting the lives of patients by training future nurses,” said Bartel.
Since 1999, the SouthWest Skill Center has offered short-term job training and career development, specializing in allied health careers. SWSC students completing the PN program have an impressive 90 percent first-time pass rate on the exam leading to LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse) designation. For students continuing into the EMCC Registered Nurse transfer program, there is an 84 percent pass rate for the exam leading to their RN license. The Center has been acclaimed for its active learning in a highly technological environment, such as the simulation lab which creates a practicum patient experience for students.