The Linfield University School of Nursing honored several recent graduates with awards for academic achievement and nursing excellence at the December 2025 Pinning Ceremony. Congratulations to the following students, who just completed their Bachelor of Science in Nursing:
- Senior Honors in Nursing: Lauren Holford
- Professional Excellence in Nursing Award: John Calder
- Wilma Pope Alumni Award: Julie Peterson
- The Daisy Award for Extraordinary Nurses: Camille Joy Baptista
Senior Honors in Nursing
Chosen by faculty, this award honors a student who has demonstrated both exceptional academic performance and outstanding clinical practice. They must:
- have earned at least a 3.5 GPA on required nursing courses
- have shown exceptional performance in clinical practice as a provider of direct and indirect nursing care, designer/coordinator/manager of care, and member of the nursing profession.
The recipient, Lauren Holford, is from Sammamish, Washington.
Professional Excellence in Nursing Award
The Professional Excellence in Nursing Award is only given in years when the School of Nursing faculty identify a graduating student who excels in leadership, scholarship and the human science of nursing. To be eligible for this award, students must be:
- caring with self, clients, fellow students, faculty, health care providers and the community.
- a leader in multiple areas (may include clinical practice, student government, and the community).
- in touch with their own power and use it appropriately; have excellent communication skills in class, clinical and the community.
- a critical thinker that looks at multiple perspectives and shares own perspective (even when holding an unpopular view).
- respectful in dialogue with others.
- a potentially skilled scholar-clinician, demonstrating a high level of inquiry skills in the creation and evaluation of knowledge.
John Calder, this year’s recipient, is from Sandy.
Wilma Pope Alumni Award
This award honors Wilma Pope, a graduate of the Good Samaritan nursing program and Linfield University professor emeritus. Pope spent decades of her life educating nurses and shaped generations of nurses through her wisdom, rigor and commitment to the profession. In that regard, this award is reserved for a graduate from Linfield’s traditional BSN program who displays characteristics that go beyond academic achievement, including demonstrating caring in clinical practice and in university activities; demonstrating clinical competence; modeling professional behavior; and a high level of involvement and leadership in student organizations.
This year’s recipient, Julie Peterson, is from Portland.
The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students
The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students is designed to remind students, even on the hardest days in nursing school, why they chose nursing as a profession. By recognizing nursing students for the above-and-beyond care and compassion shown to patients and their families, this award celebrates what it truly means to be a nurse. Students honored demonstrate a strong nurse-patient connection that makes all the difference to patients and their families in their health care experience and that makes great nurses truly great.
Following an open nomination period, one student in their final term is selected for this distinction by Linfield’s DAISY Awards Committee.
Camilla Joy Baptista, this year’s recipient, is from Gresham.
Learn more about the Linfield School of Nursing at Linfield.edu/nursing.
