Dr. Cynthia Stinson
Associate Degree in Nursing, Class of 1975,
First Cohort of the Nursing Program at Lamar University
B.S. in Nursing, Class of 1980
Professor and Chair of the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing
Began Working at Lamar University in 2000
First Cohort of the Nursing Program at Lamar University
B.S. in Nursing, Class of 1980
Professor and Chair of the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing
Began Working at Lamar University in 2000
Interviewed by Vidisha Barua Worley on 05/04/2023
Picture taken from https://www.lamar.edu/news-and-events/news/2022/10/dr.-cynthia-stinson-recognized-as-distinguished-educator-of-gerontological-nursing.html
‘No one thought that nurses could be educated at a university and not be at a hospital working every day…Lamar is my home. We are still the top university to impact the community. If it had not been for Lamar, my life would have been quite different.’
‘I started taking classes here at Lamar in the summer of 1972. At that time, we didn’t have a nursing program here and my dream was to finish my prerequisites at Lamar and transfer to Baptist Hospital which had a Diploma Nursing Program. It was the only Nursing program in the area. I came from a lower income family with a single mom. The Baptist Hospital had dorms for the students and a swimming pool. My dream was to study there and go swimming every day. That was 1972. Unbeknownst to me, in 1973 Lamar University started working on having a nursing program. In 1974, Baptist Hospital closed their nursing program. That was quite a controversy in our area. No one thought that nurses could be educated at a university and not be at a hospital working every day.’
‘I entered the program sometime in 1973. The program was supposed to be an associate degree for two years. They didn’t graduate their first four-year program until 1979. I graduated with my Associate Degree in 1975. It was supposed to go two years. They couldn’t find enough faculty but we went through the program in 18 months because. Ms. Doris Price-Nealy dealt with many obstacles when opening the nursing program. We did not have a building. We learned a lot of our skills by going over to LIT. We had a portable building by the Biology building where the faculty had their offices. This building that we are in now was built in 1976. We closed our Associate Degree in 2014.’
‘Lamar is my home. No one in my family ever graduated from high school. I am a first-generation student. My mom was a single, un-wed mother. If it had not been for Lamar being right here, there was no way I could have gone away to school anywhere else. We are still the top university to impact the community. If it had not been for Lamar, my life would have been quite different.’
‘I entered the program sometime in 1973. The program was supposed to be an associate degree for two years. They didn’t graduate their first four-year program until 1979. I graduated with my Associate Degree in 1975. It was supposed to go two years. They couldn’t find enough faculty but we went through the program in 18 months because. Ms. Doris Price-Nealy dealt with many obstacles when opening the nursing program. We did not have a building. We learned a lot of our skills by going over to LIT. We had a portable building by the Biology building where the faculty had their offices. This building that we are in now was built in 1976. We closed our Associate Degree in 2014.’
‘Lamar is my home. No one in my family ever graduated from high school. I am a first-generation student. My mom was a single, un-wed mother. If it had not been for Lamar being right here, there was no way I could have gone away to school anywhere else. We are still the top university to impact the community. If it had not been for Lamar, my life would have been quite different.’
‘We have one of the highest rates of males studying to be nurses than anywhere else in the nation.’