A local contingent of longtime nurses -- all graduates of the Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University -- are cheering the recent ranking of ISU's online nursing program as one of the Best Online Nursing Programs. U.S. News & World Report ranked ISU's online program as 93rd on their list and the only public institution in illinois to be ranked.

Local graduates of the nursing program include Doris Garmatter Hamman, Willadene Hartzler Keeney, Jonita Shetler Clemens, and Elfrieda Ramseyer. The late Carol Diller was also a graduate and at one time was the nursing school's program director. Norm Vercler, another Bluffton resident, was employed in the ISU hospital lab, according to Ramseyer.

This is the first time Illinois State has been ranked in the Best Online Nursing Programs survey.  U.S. News defines a nursing distance-education program as a program for which all required nonclinical courses can be completed via distance-education courses that incorporate Internet-based learning technologies.