Mounds of white roses lined a table near the stage in the Athletics Field House at the Community College of Rhode Island’s Flanagan Campus in Lincoln last week. 

The occasion was the pinning ceremony for about 170 nursing graduates who are now ready to fill much-needed positions in health care. 

Jarod R. Cournoyer of Warwick was the valedictorian, and he urged his fellow nursing graduates to go forward and fulfill their pledge to care for others. 

Like some others in the program, Cournoyer, who was graduating with a 3.99 grade-point average, came to nursing after another career. The 37-year-old is a civil engineer, but said he went back to school for nursing because he had always felt the calling to help others. 

“It was something I had to do,” he said before the ceremony. 

The pinning ceremony, held one night before the community college’s commencement, was both solemn and joyous. Proud families cheered loudly throughout much of the evening, but the field house became silent during the entrance processional. Dressed in white nursing scrubs, the nursing students filed in carrying ceramic lamps in the shape of old-fashioned oil lamps – a classic symbol of Florence Nightengale, who is recognized as the founder of modern nursing. 

The lamp, which CCRI faculty referred to as the “lamp of learning,” is often used to recognize Nightengale’s important role in nursing. It is a reference to the lamp she used to check on patients throughout long nights during the Crimean War and a reminder that her work and commitment to study and healing brought light to many during a dark time. 

After Cournoyer’s speech, he and his fellow nursing students crossed the stage in groups of three to receive their gold and green pins, with each student receiving a single white rose. Before and after the ceremony, friends and families waved colorful bouquets as they searched the crowd to congratulate their particular graduate. 

Ryan DiGiulio, an East Providence firefighter who lives in Warwick, held two bouquets as he kept an eye out for his girlfriend, Nina DiBenedetto of Warwick. He said he is extremely proud of her becoming a nurse and that she has already been hired to work at Rhode Island Hospital.