Rockhurst News

The small gesture, moving the tassel from left to right, officially marks the passage from student to graduate.

It’s a moment that Niki Sanchez waited a long time for. Not just because she, like so many others, had worked very hard to complete her college coursework. But because she had to wait, withstand a pandemic, and travel nearly 2,500 miles to take part in it.

Sanchez has been at home in Belize City, Belize, since campus was shut down in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, completing the work for her accounting degree from afar.

Capping an academic year unlike any other, Rockhurst University graduates were able to walk across the stage in person to receive their degrees in a commencement ceremony Friday afternoon at Children’s Mercy Park.

Last year’s ceremony was held virtually because of the pandemic, and as the masks and spaces between families at the ceremony could attest, concerns about COVID-19 haven’t disappeared completely. But the fact that there was an in-person ceremony at all is a testament to where these graduates have been and how far they’ve come.

While Commencement marks the finish line for many students, others have miles and miles to go.

For pre-med students at Rockhurst, they have exhausted the University’s opportunities and resources, earned a bachelor’s degree, and are off to medical school as official RU alumni.

These graduates have made their mark on RU. Now they make their mark on the world.

It’s been quite a year for all health care professionals, and certainly in the nursing profession.

That makes this past week’s Nursing Appreciation Week, which concludes today with International Nurses Day, especially important as a way to look back and thank those who have sacrificed so much to take care of others over the past 12 months.

The class of 2020 at Rockhurst University is noteworthy for so many reasons.

As the sun sets on the Rockhurst University campus’ tulips for the spring, some new plants are getting a chance to shine.

On Friday, members of the biology faculty and students planted an assortment of pollinator plants in a small plot north of the Ignatius Science Center.  

Around a central redbud tree are now rows of coneflower, butterfly flower and coreopsis, among others.

Kristy Bayer has been named the new director of athletics at Rockhurst University, effective July 6, 2021. Bayer comes to Rockhurst from Emporia State University where she has served as the deputy director of athletics and senior woman administrator since December 2017.

1989 was a turning point for Saint Luke’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

In April of that year, the Missouri Board of Nursing approved a plan for a four-year degree program for the college, establishing a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree that generations of nurses have since pursued as a rigorous foundation for their own career in health care.

For centuries, Montserrat in Spain has been a pilgrimage destination.

Located high in the mountains not far from Barcelona and known as a destination for its breathtaking sunrise views, the Benedictine monastery also holds a special place in the hearts of members of the Society of Jesus. It’s where the society’s founder, St. Ignatius Loyola, came after suffering a battlefield injury, courtesy a cannonball, and laid down his sword in front of the statue of Our Lady of Montserrat.