Her commute to ceremony? 2,000 miles

Well over 50 nursing graduates were eligible to participate in Saturday’s Commencement, but none had a longer distance to cover in order to make the short walk across  stage to receive his or her diploma.

Lehi Lazo (left) took time off from work and traveled in from Oxnard, Calif., to claim the distinction, it is believed, of being the graduate with the longest commute to the May 2014 ceremony. She posed with Associate Prof. Susan Gallagher-Lepak, pre-ceremony, to mark the occasion.

Lazo’s one previous visit to Green Bay was to attend a Packers game, years ago. She works as an RN at Ventura County Medical Center as a pediatrics and neonatal intensive care unit nurse. She took two to three online courses per semester through BSN-LINC (the national, online nursing program) offered by UW-Green Bay.

Gallagher-Lepak points out that Lehi (pronounced LEE-high) is part of a larger trend. A national initiative is under way for nurses with associate degrees in nursing to advance to bachelor’s degrees, with the goal of an 80 percent BSN-prepared workforce by 2020.