This fall, VCU graduate students return to 25 nationally ranked programs — including the Department of Nurse Anesthesia.
As the fall semester approaches, incoming graduate students prepare to enter Virginia Commonwealth University’s many nationally ranked programs. But before classes begin, new students will attend Graduate School Orientation to become acquainted with the university and their selected programs.
Held on Friday, Aug. 15, in the Performing Arts Center from 10-11:30 a.m., the universitywide orientation will provide general information regarding VCU resources and services.
Orientation will serve as an introduction to VCU’s graduate programs, many of which enjoy national reputations stemmed from U.S. News & World Report’s recent listing of top-ranked graduate and first professional programs for 2009.
In all, 25 different VCU programs are nationally ranked, including two at No. 1 for the second consecutive year — the Department of Nurse Anesthesia and the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media.
“The rankings just reaffirm that we are doing good work in the department,” said nurse anesthesia assistant professor Suzanne Wright, MSNA, CRNA. “We strive to put forth good objectives. We know what we want this department to be and we’re focused on that and the ranking is a symptom of a quality program. It’s wonderful for the university and the department but it’s a symptom of what we already do.”
Wright serves as director of the Center for Research in Human Simulation — a state-of-the-art laboratory featuring multiple simulation technologies including full body patient simulators. Nurse anesthesia strongly focuses on the simulation lab, incorporating it into the curriculum.
“We use simulation very heavily to teach some of the abstract concepts that are indeed difficult to teach any other way,” Wright said. “We integrate it into just about every course that’s taught in our department and attract a competitive pool of students because they see the value in that type of education.”
Currently U.S. News & World Report ranks the VCU School of the Arts as the No. 1 public university — fourth overall — among graduate visual arts and design programs. The eight recognized specialty programs include sculpture, graphic design (No. 4), fiber arts (No. 4), glass (No. 5), painting (No. 8), multimedia (No. 9), ceramics (No. 12) and printmaking (No. 17).
“We are one of the few programs in the country since 1993 that has consistently moved up in the rankings,” said Richard Toscan, Ph.D., School of the Arts dean. “Back then, we were ranked 25th in the country and had no specialty rankings.”
Toscan came to VCU in 1996 with the goal of making the arts program one of the top five schools in five years.
“It was a very conscious strategic decision to build a national reputation,” he said. “Almost everything we did over the intervening 12 years was focused on building that recognition, which also meant paying a lot of attention to what we did locally. We are reinforcing VCU and art.”
