Franklin County VGCC Nursing Student Attends Statewide Leadership Institute
Peggy H. Spivey is, as she puts it “in my 40s,” but she proves daily she can compete with the younger students in the Associate Degree Nursing program at Vance-Granville Community College.
She also proved June 9-14 she has leadership skills that are still being developed as she was one of 30 community college students statewide selected to attend the North Carolina Community College Student Leadership Institute at Peace College in Raleigh.
A resident of Franklin County near Lake Royale, Spivey graduated from the Practical Nursing program at Vance-Granville in 1975 and went to work at the Franklin County Health Department. Over the years she maintained the dream of returning to school and training to be a registered nurse and, in 1995, she began taking courses in the Associate Degree Nursing program.
Now enrolled full-time, Spivey is on track to graduate and earn her nursing degree in May 2003. She has maintained a 3.375 grade-point-average and has been selected for membership in Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society of two-year colleges.
Peggy Spivey’s instructors in the nursing program nominated her to attend the annual leadership institute. During the week, she attended daylong workshops and heard lectures from education leaders such as H. Martin Lancaster, president of the North Carolina Community College System.
“We were also divided up into teams, each of which were to develop a leadership project,” Spivey said. Her Purple Team developed a “Give Back Attack,” which was based on community service and soliciting community college students to get more involved in community issues.
The leadership institute students also participated in a “Capital walkabout,” during which they visited government buildings and sat in on Senate and House of Representatives budget deliberations.
“The week’s activities revealed leadership skills in me that I didn’t realize I had,” said Spivey. “It also helped me develop my organizational abilities and prioritizing.” While at the institute, she also wrote articles for a daily newsletter the students produced.
Although the formal leadership institute was in June, Spivey isn’t through yet. She will return to Raleigh in October for more workshops to enhance her leadership skills, and she will formally graduate from the institute in February.
“It was a wonderful experience, and I made many new friends, some of whom I have been sharing e-mails with,” said Spivey. “I want to thank the folks at Vance-Granville for nominating me and giving me this opportunity.”
Upon graduation next May, Peggy Spivey hopes to return to the Franklin County Health Department as a clinic coordinator. In the meantime, she works hard on her studies and holds down a part-time job at Louisburg Nursing Center. She and her husband, Larry, will celebrate 25 years of marriage in November. They have two daughters, Larranda, 20, a student at North Carolina Wesleyan College, and Teshonda, a senior at Bunn High School.
With those two daughters around the house, Peggy Spivey must have felt right at home rooming with an 18 year-old and a 19 year-old at the North Carolina Community College Student Leadership Institute.
