Santa Maria Sun / School Scene

Hancock instructor wins award for education excellence

BY AMY ASMAN

And the award goes to ... Julie Kuras, Allan Hancock College’s nursing assistant programs coordinator and health sciences department chair, is the 2010 recipient of the prestigious California Community College Association for Occupational Education Excellence in Teaching Award. This is the second time in as many years a Hancock instructor has received the accolade. PHOTO COURTESY ALLAN HANCOCK COLLEGE

A nurse and educator for almost 30 years, Kuras oversees Hancock’s Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA), Certified Home Health Aide, and Restorative Aide and EKG/Monitor Observer programs.

“It would be hard to describe how wonderful a teacher Julie is,” Ramona Capen, a graduate of the CNA program, said in a release to the media. “She has so much experience, and she cares so much for her students. I really respect her.”

According to Hancock officials, Kuras began her career when she was just 15 years old, as a nurse’s assistant at a retirement home. She learned a tremendous amount about how to care for patients, but Kuras said she also picked up some bad habits.

“That experience instilled in me an appreciation for good training and education that I try to pass on to my students,” she said in the release.

In 1978, Kuras started teaching at Hancock while still working full time as a critical care nurse and hospital supervisor at Marian Medical Center. She signed on as a full-time instructor in 1990, as well as leader of the college’s CNA program.

The ladder-style training program now graduates approximately 30 to 40 licensed vocational nurses and registered nurses each year, according to college records. Many of these graduates start off in Kuras’s CNA program.

“We get students fresh off the street in the CNA program and we really get to mold them and prepare them for a career in nursing,” Kuras said in the release. “It’s a joy to see their confidence grow and to witness the transformation in them from their first day as a CNA student to their graduation as an RN.”

Welding instructor Rayvell Snowden received the award in 2009 for his efforts in the college’s industrial technology department.