College honors 14 nursing graduates, boosting local health care workforce
Fourteen NJC nursing graduates add fresh talent to Logan County’s care network as leaders watch how many stay close to home. The program has trained nurses since 1964.
Fourteen new nursing graduates from Northeastern Junior College add immediate workforce potential to clinics, hospitals, long-term care centers and home-health agencies across Logan County and northeast Colorado, where even one trained nurse can change how quickly patients get seen and how far families have to travel for care.
The college honored the 14 graduates in a May 28 headline that underscored more than student accomplishment. In a rural region, the real stakes are whether those new nurses will fill shifts in Sterling, support elder care in Logan County and strengthen care access close to home.
NJC has been educating nurses since 1964, and the program’s own materials describe the profession as one that reaches far beyond hospital floors. Nurses work in long-term care facilities, home-health care, school nursing and research, a range that makes each graduate useful in more than one corner of the local health system. The Associate Degree Nursing program is led by Julie Brower, MSN, RN, director of nursing programs, with faculty including Kelsey Dillinger, Kelli Gandee, Jody Kind, Samantha Mahaffey and Ashley Marostica.
The college’s graduate-profile report shows why that matters for Logan County and the surrounding area. As of September 2025, NJC recorded 295 graduates, and 51% were from its five-county service area. That regional mix suggests the nursing pipeline is not just producing credentials, but helping train people who already have ties to the communities they may serve after graduation.
Local scholarship support points in the same direction. The NoCo Foundation lists a Logan County Nurses Scholarship for county residents who are accepted into a nursing program, offering $2,000 awards to three recipients each year. NJC’s private-scholarship listings say the scholarship is available to Logan County residents pursuing ADN, BSN or MSN study. Together, those programs help make the profession more accessible for students who want to build a career without leaving the region for good.
The May 28 recognition also echoed a similar local milestone from May 13, 2022, when NJC again reported 14 nursing graduates. That recurring class size shows the college has long been a steady contributor to the health-care workforce, not only celebrating students at graduation but feeding a profession that Logan County depends on every day.
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