By Madison West
Volunteer State Community College welcomes a new Dean of Nursing, Cassie Koester.
Prior to joining Vol State in July, Koester spent 11 years teaching at three different colleges in Illinois, Lakeview College of Nursing, Bradley University and most recently Lake Land College. She graduated with her Doctor of Nursing practice at Chamberlain College of Nursing, located in Downers Grove, Illinois.
Koester said that she found her love of teaching and sharing her experience early in her career.
“Prior to going into nursing education, I trained staff nurses to labor and delivery for years. There was hardly ever a time when I was not precepting someone. I became really interested in teaching during that time and that led to my interest in nursing education. It is such a great feeling seeing the nurses you have educated take on the nursing role when they graduate and start their careers,” said Koester.
The Associate of Applied Science degree in Nursing offered at Vol State is a competitive program. Students are required to have a 3.3 GPA with all general education courses required to be complete or in progress prior to the time of application. Any course still in progress is required to be completed prior to beginning the nursing program.
The nursing program is not offered at all of Vol State campuses, only the Livingston and the Gallatin campuses. Usually, an interview process and passing the TEAs test is among requirements for application, but due to Covid-19, these will not be required for application for the 2020-21 cohort.
Even so, meeting these requirements does not guarantee acceptance. There are some students that meet all requirements and are still not accepted. According to the Vol State website, there is a point system used to rank applicants and proceed with the best fit into the program.
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