The 2024-2025 academic year is off to a great start. Due to the incredible work of the staff and faculty, our enrollment is up 6% over last year! We will continue to explore ways to bolster the future nursing workforce of Nebraska. Along with this exciting news, we also learned that we ranked 19th as the best undergraduate nursing program in the country from U.S. News and World Report. There were 686 programs, and our college is among the top 3% in the country. This can only happen with a great team of faculty and staff!
We have kicked off our strategic planning and visioning process along with phase one of our organizational changes. So many great things are happening; at the same time, we remain attentive to the needs of our students to ensure they are being supported while accomplishing their work.
This fall, we launched the inaugural cohort of the Mary Eliza Mahoney Mentoring Program. We filled all 50 seats across our five divisions, and we hosted scholars and their families at an open house in August. The scholars and external mentors were eager to meet each other and begin their journey together. I truly am appreciative of the effort that went into getting this program up and running. Already, we have received positive feedback from scholars and mentors regarding their experience in the program.
Currently, we are working with a national search firm to recruit our next assistant deans at Lincoln and Omaha and an associate dean of Transformational Practice and Partnerships. We hope to begin interviews over the next two months. These are exciting times for the college with changes that will position us for future success. As I reflect over the past 15 months, I could not be prouder of what our college has accomplished together!
I leave you with these seven words: “I work for you; I am grateful!”