Edgewood College Nursing Department receives 2004 Mazzuchelli Award

Madison, Wis. (Nov. 1, 2004) – Edgewood College presented its highest honor, the Mazzuchelli Award, to the college’s nursing department, in recognition of its service to hospitals, senior centers, schools, hospices, neighborhood centers, and community health sites throughout southern Wisconsin. Mary Kelly-Powell, chair of the nursing department, accepted the award on behalf of nursing faculty, staff, students, and community partners.

The award, presented annually on Founder’s Day, is named for Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, a Dominican priest from Italy who served early settlers and native people in Wisconsin and founded the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, who sponsor Edgewood College.

Presenting the award, President Daniel J. Carey said, “The Edgewood College Nursing Department embodies wholeheartedly the theme for this celebration –‘Building community: bringing intellectual and spiritual resources together to empower others.’”

“In the 1980s,” he noted, “one of the original faculty in the nursing department brought to Edgewood a clinical site with the Ho Chunk Nation. Today nursing students continue to provide health services to the Ho Chunk community. This is reflective of Fr. Mazzuchelli’s dedication to the Menominee and Winnebago Native Americans. One of Fr. Mazzuchelli’s own contributions was a prayer book he wrote for the Winnebago people using his version of a phonetic alphabet.”

He added, “Most recently, the department has begun to collaborate internationally with the nursing faculty in Kuakarun, Thailand. This is reminiscent of the global vision of Fr. Samuel, an immigrant from Italy, who reached out to a great variety of people of various cultures who had settled in the upper Midwest and were in need of ministry and support.”

Some of the nursing department’s community partners include Madison Senior Center, Meriter Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, Don and Marilyn Anderson Hospice, Meriter Care Center, UW Hospital, Mendota Mental Health Center, The Triangle Community, Mental Health Center of Dane County, William S. Middleton VA Hospital, Edgewood Campus School, City of Madison Public Health, Dane County Public Health, Rock County Public Health, and Sauk City Public Health.

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About Edgewood College

Edgewood College is Madison’s only independent liberal arts college, a Catholic school with 2,400 undergraduate and graduate students. It offers more than 40 academic and professional programs, including master’s degrees in business, education, nursing, and other fields, and a doctoral program in education leadership. For more information about Edgewood College, visit www.edgewood.edu or call 800-444-4861.

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