The Bethel Department of Nursing honored its junior students in the annual lamplighting held Dec. 2, just before the end of the fall 2023 semester.
The traditional ceremony, which recognized the Class of 2025, took place in Krehbiel Auditorium, with the 12 class members participating.
Three members of the class had roles in the lamplighting service.
Junior Hannah Knight welcomed friends and family to the lamplighting, followed by junior Zitlaly Garay offering an invocation prayer.
Becky Bartell, M.S.N., director of the Department of Nursing, told about the meaning of lamplighting, a Bethel tradition that honors upper-class nursing students for their commitment to the profession.
The Bethel women’s a cappella group Woven offered special music, the song “Steady Light” by Sheila Dunlop and Reginald Unterseher.
The students recited the “I Believe” pledge, followed by the ceremony, in which lamps are lit and presented to the students to keep.
The lamplighting ceremony has its origin in the Crimean War between England and Russia, 1853-56, when British nurse Florence Nightingale, considered the founder of modern nursing, volunteered to go to Scutari, Turkey, with a group of about 30 women to care for the wounded soldiers.
Nightingale spent up to 20 hours a day dressing wounds, comforting soldiers, assisting in surgery, directing staff and maintaining records. The men called her “the Lady with a Lamp” after the Turkish candle lantern she carried as she provided care, going from soldier to soldier.
North Newton ceramic artist Conrad Snider designed and produces the lamps given to Bethel junior nursing students.
After the presentation of lamps, junior Daymon Levell gave the closing.
In addition to honoring junior nursing students, the lamplighting has become a time when the students express their gratitude and appreciation to the families and communities who support them in their studies.
Members of the Bethel College nursing class of 2025 honored at the lamplighting were: Megan Brown, Hutchinson, Kan.; Arianna Campos, Newton; Kennedy Chodak, Andover, Kan.; Jordan Facchini, Wichita; Zitlaly Garay, Syracuse, Kan.; Abigail Griffin, Cheney, Kan.; Emma Grimsley, Hesston, Kan.; Lauren Hurd, Morrison, Colo.; Hannah Knight, Wichita; Daymon Levell, Broken Arrow, Okla.; Anna Northcutt, Gardnerville, Nev.; and Abby Valeka, McPherson, Kan.
Bethel nursing faculty, in addition to Bartell, are: Elizabeth Herbel, M.S.N., assistant professor of nursing; Heather Hosford, M.S.N., assistant professor of nursing; Constance Jacob, M.S.N., adjunct instructor of nursing; Jenna Lehrman, M.S.N., adjunct instructor; Sarah Masem, D.N.P., professor of nursing and assistant director of the Department of Nursing; Jeri Melin, M.S.N., adjunct instructor; and Krista Miller, B.S.N., assistant professor of nursing.
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel ranks at #23 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings of “Best Regional Colleges Midwest” for 2023-24. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see https://www.bethelks.edu
