In a room full of doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals during the University of Colorado Anschutz All Alumni Celebration, dozens of people are reconnecting with their time in school.
But for the University of Colorado School of Nursing Class of 1975 (before it became CU Anschutz College of Nursing), they were just getting to know each other.
“We’re trying to remember everyone,” alumna Barbara Van Horne says. “What’s funny about our class is that we weren’t that close. A lot was going on in nursing school and in the US during that time. Some nurses in our class didn’t become nurses once they finished, and some even dropped out.”
Celebrating the Classes of 1975 and 2015CU Anschutz Nursing not only celebrated the 50-year reunion of the Class of 1975, but also the 10-year reunion for the Class of 2015. Each class had three Class Champions who helped make the reunion possible by reconnecting with their classmates. 1975: Kathleen Patrick, Donna Marshall, Karen Anderson 2015: Auston Huntington, John Malsbary, Autumn Collins “One of the things that makes CU Nursing so special is the impact our graduates have on the communities they serve. A large majority of our alumni work right here in Colorado, providing compassionate, expert care in hospitals, clinics, schools, and homes across the state,” CU Anschutz Nursing Dean Elias Provencio-Vasquez, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAANP, said during the dinner. |
“To my knowledge, nobody kept in contact with each other after graduation,” Cindy Babb says. “We graduated, and then we were gone. We all went to do our own thing.”
Babb went on to be in charge of clinical research in the NICU at CU, where she required nursing research, even though “the medical staff wasn’t happy about that. But we pushed through.”
Babb explained that the 70s were part of a transition for the nursing profession.
“There were so many changes at that time, and there was tension between academic nurses and hospital diploma nurses,” she says. “If you were working in a private hospital, you were treated like a servant. But since I worked at CU, they were a teaching hospital, and they were much more open with having nurses doing more things.”
“I think our degrees allowed us to think more about leadership, teaching, and innovation in the nursing profession,” Van Horne says, who worked in San Diego before coming back to Colorado.
Remembering School in the 70s
Alumna Elaine Connell’s favorite memory of her time in nursing school actually led her to a career outside of nursing: working as a librarian at the Denver Public Library.
Class of 1975 alumnas Cindy Babb, Barbara Van Horne, and Elaine Connell. |
“My favorite part of nursing school was all the learning, and I loved going to the library,” she says. “When I left nursing, I became a librarian for 20 years. I worked in the health and humanities part of the library.”
“I think it’s better we didn’t have all the technology like we do now because we actually had to go to the library,” Van Horne says. “A lot of nursing now is so technical, and current students have to learn so much, so technology has changed nursing so much.”
Van Horne, whose mom also graduated from CU Anschutz Nursing in 1943, remembers the class graduation.
“My mom was so proud of me,” she remembers. “She took 36 pictures of the graduation, and when she got home…she realized she didn’t have any film in the camera! So I have no pictures from my graduation.”
Babb remembers not getting her diploma at graduation, yet, even though she and her classmates earned a degree.
“They wouldn’t give it to us at graduation because we hadn’t passed our boards yet – even though we earned our degrees!” she says. “But what I enjoyed most was that I earned a college degree—and was able to get a job that paid well.”
Photos from the CU Anschutz All Alumni Celebration are now available. Visit the college's website for more information about joining the CU Nursing Alumni Association.
