I spent 38 years at MacEwan and have so many wonderful memories of the faculty members I worked with – how we learned together, grew together and challenged each other.

In the 1970s and '80s, we knew virtually everyone by name who taught at the college, and we felt like a family – the MacEwan family. We were proud of what we were doing and proud of the graduates we sent out into the world. 

When our two-year nursing diploma program began in 1972, it was a bit of an uphill battle. Until then, nursing education happened in hospital-based programs and finding clinical experiences for our students was a struggle. If I had to choose one moment that stands out during my time at MacEwan, it was probably a number of years after the nursing diploma had graduated several cohorts. During a meeting, our program chair announced that many hospitals were now choosing to hire MacEwan graduates over students who had completed the hospital-based program because our grads had better assessment and decision-making skills. It felt like a major turnaround. 

Years later, when a baccalaureate degree became an entry-level credential for nursing practice, MacEwan had a bridging program where students took their first two years at MacEwan and then completed the remaining two years at the  university. We always had students coming back and saying they would have liked to complete their entire degree at MacEwan. That was certainly the vision of the nursing faculty at the time, and so it was a time of great celebration when the proposed four-year degree program was approved. 

–Chery Ann Hoffmeyer Ph.D.

Chery Ann Hoffmeyer taught in MacEwan’s nursing program for 25 years, followed by 13 years as an instructor and chair in the Holistic Health Practitioner program. She retired in 2011 but continues to teach private holistic health courses and is an active member of the Retirees of MacEwan University (ROMU). Read or listen to Chery Ann’s contribution to the Grant MacEwan Community College Oral History Project.