MORGANTOWN, W. Va. -- The West Virginia University School of Nursing formally welcomed the Classes of August 2026 and December 2027 into the study of nursing during the Spring 2025 Nursing Pledge Ceremony, held Feb. 21 in the Okey Patteson Auditorium.
The nursing pledge is a commitment to demonstrate and respect the moral principles of the nursing profession. Specifically, the WVU School of Nursing Pledge speaks to integrity, compassion, ethics, patient advocacy and lifelong learning.
“The Pledge Ceremony is important to me because it is a mark of the beginning,” said Ellianna Shields, of Annapolis, Maryland. “We, as nursing students, are on the cusp of the rest of our lives -- a cusp that many of us have been working years to get to.”
After graduation, Shields hopes to work in the emergency department to gain experience, then become a flight nurse.
For Braeden Thornton, of North East, Pennsylvania, being at the Pledge Ceremony for his Bachelor of Science in Nursing is somewhat surprising.
“I never thought I would be a college educated person, and those self-imposed thoughts have always weighed me down,” Thornton said. “This ceremony will end that chapter of self-doubt, while at the same time marking the beginning of the rest of my life.
Thornton also aims to work in the emergency department, then pursue his master’s degree at WVU.
Walter Sulzbach, an Accelerated BSN student, said he is pursuing nursing to follow the advice his mom his mom always gave him growing up: “To leave the world better than you found it.”
“As a nurse, you have so much at your disposal that you can use to make a positive impact,” said Sulzbach, of Manassas, Virginia. “Whether it’s doing a procedure as a nurse practitioner or just going in andputting a smile on someone’s face when they’re having a difficult time, there are opportunities around every corner, and it makes me feel like I’m making the world a better place.”
Logan Krauss, of Princeton, is also an Accelerated BSN student who highly recommends the program. After graduating with his Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology, he began working as an EKG technician.
"I came to realize that nurses were always the ones that were there at the front of taking care of people and after seeing all the different roles that they can have, I realized that it was the career path that I wanted to pursue," Krauss said.
More information about all nursing programs and campus locations can be found at nursing.wvu.edu.
-WVU-
MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Holdren
Director of Communications and Marketing
WVU School of Nursing
304-581-1772; wendy.holdren@hsc.wvu.edu
