Wallace State Community College’s Department of Nursing Education recently celebrated the success of the first cohort of students completing the Practical Nursing certificate option at the Oneonta campus site, with a white coat ceremony at the Little Brick Church in Oneonta.

The ceremony marks the end of their time on the Oneonta campus and a future that could include starting a career as a practical nurse, continuing their education at the main campus to earn an associate degree or both.

“These students are pioneers,” said Deborah “Pepper” Hoover, chair of the Nursing department. “They have earned their practical nursing certificate and are eligible to take the license practical nurse licensure exam. As an LPN, they can obtain a full-time job and make a difference in the lives of their patients.

Wallace State President Dr. Vicki Karolewics reminded the graduates of the history of Wallace State locating in Oneonta and how one man’s dream made their own dreams become a reality.

“You have probably seen his photograph in the lobby of the Academic Center, Mr. Eldridge Bynum, I want you to know who he was,” Dr. Karolewics said. “He had a dream about what education can do to change a life, and that’s why we have an academic and a technical center here in Oneonta, because Mr. Bynum had a dream about what education could mean to Blount County and the surrounding area.”

“I’m going to consider you not only the very first graduating class, but the Eldridge Bynum graduating class,” Dr. Karolewics added, pointing out that the first person hired to teach the nursing classes was Mr. Bynum’s grandson, Chris Bynum.

Bynum presided over the ceremony, where students donned a white coat, received a pin and a candle.

Members of the inaugural nursing class at Oneonta include Samantha Bynum of Oneonta, Bonnie Chasteen of Cleveland, Andriana Doyle of Oneonta, Porsha Foster of Centerpoint, Annagrace Harper of Anniston, Kierra Jackson of Moody, Brannen Johnson of Gadsden, Cierra Murray of Pinson, Camryn Norman of Odenville, Whitney Sullivan of Pinson, Megan Weaver of Birmingham, Miranda Wells of Oxford and Shelby Wilkinson of Trussville.

For students like Porsha Foster of Clay/Trussville area and Bonnie Chasteen of Oneonta, the opportunity to take nursing classes at the Oneonta Academic Center was invaluable.

Foster is a wife and mother of five children ages 14 to 22 who has worked in the healthcare field for more than 20 years. During that entire time, she worked in the emergency room of labor and delivery for UAB, where she is a Patient Care Technician at UAB Women’s and Infant Center. She started working at age 18 and was a runner, physically carrying items to and from the lab and transporting patients.

It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Foster thought about going back to school to become a nurse.

“I felt like I couldn’t do enough to help the nurses on our unit because at that moment, everything was uncertain and we didn’t know what we were going into,” she said.

As the number of patients increased and the nurses were stretched thin taking care of multiple patients and in patient’s rooms for longer times, Foster said she felt like she needed to do more.

“I thought I need to go back to school, I need to do this, and I need to help my unit,” Foster said.

Foster is taking nursing classes at the Hanceville campus for the next two semesters to complete her associate degree in Nursing. She said she will transition to be an LPN in her unit and after completing her associate degree will transition to an RN and help deliver babies.

Chasteen earned a degree in Biology from Jacksonville State University before deciding to enroll in Nursing at Wallace State’s Oneonta site.

Like Foster, Chasteen is continuing her education at the Hanceville campus to complete the associate degree. She then plans to go on and become a nurse practitioner with hopes of opening her own practice.

“For now, I think I’ll start with critical care nurse and see where we can go from there,” she said.