HUGHESVILLE, Md. — Leaders from the College of Southern Maryland (CSM), the Maryland Academy of Advanced Practice Clinicians (MAAPC), local health care professionals and community members gathered inside CSM’s Center for Health Sciences on Thursday to celebrate the ribbon-cutting for the newly dedicated MAAPC Nursing Lab.
The event marked what leaders described as more than the naming of a classroom — it signaled a pathway to regional workforce stability in nursing and health care.
“Today’s ribbon cutting is about more than a space,” said CSM President Dr. Yolanda Wilson. “It reflects a shared commitment to expand access, strengthen nursing education and support students as they prepare to serve our communities.”
MAAPC recently partnered with the College of Southern Maryland Foundation to establish the Future Nightingales Endowed Scholarship, supporting associate degree nursing students facing financial need. The lab dedication and scholarship together represent an investment in the region’s health care workforce pipeline.
“At CSM, we know that today’s associate degree nursing students are the foundation of tomorrow’s health care workforce,” Wilson said.
The event included a reception and formal recognition of the MAAPC Nursing Lab within the college’s Center for Health Sciences, a 50,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2023 as the second phase of development at the 74-acre Regional Hughesville Campus.
The College of Southern Maryland is a public, regional community college serving Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties, providing accessible, high-quality instruction that supports students along their personal paths to success.
The Center for Health Sciences centralizes CSM’s health programs — including nursing, emergency medical services, medical assisting, medical laboratory technology and other allied health fields — into one state-of-the-art training environment.
A Regional Investment In Nursing Education
MAAPC, founded in 2005, is an all-volunteer nonprofit professional organization dedicated to supporting advanced practice clinicians in Maryland, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, midwives, nurse anesthetists and physician assistants.
“MAAPC was established in 2005 by a group of innovative nurse practitioners right here in Southern Maryland to address critical health care access problems in our community,” said Sabrina Sepulveda, who serves on the MAAPC Board of Directors.
Now nearly two decades later, the organization represents thousands of advanced practice clinicians statewide. Its mission, said MAAPC President Marie Tarleton, is “to educate, collaborate and legislate for advanced practice clinicians throughout the state of Maryland.”
The Future Nightingales Endowed Scholarship aims to reduce financial barriers for nursing students at CSM, helping ensure that residents can train, graduate and enter the health care workforce without leaving the region.
As health care systems nationwide face workforce shortages, partnerships between educational institutions and professional organizations are becoming increasingly important. Sepulveda described the scholarship as a strategic investment.
“Investing in nursing education through this scholarship creates cascading benefits that extend far beyond individual recipients,” Sepulveda said. “Each scholarship recipient represents not just one nurse, but potentially thousands of patients who receive care throughout that nurse’s career.”
For Lorraine Diana, the ribbon cutting was more personal than ceremonial.
A founding member of MAAPC who now serves on its board of directors, Diana was also among the first nursing students at what was then Charles County Community College, graduating in 1979.
“Where do you get to be on the ground floor of a nursing program that’s starting up?” Diana said.
At the time, Diana had planned to attend Georgetown University’s School of Nursing. But when the local college launched its nursing program, she chose to stay close, a decision she said “kind of changed my path.”
Nearly five decades later, Diana emphasized the importance of educating nurses locally so they remain in their communities and reduce health care inequities. She tied the scholarship and lab naming directly to MAAPC’s statewide mission of education and legislation.
“We have an incredible health care shortage in Southern Maryland and other localities throughout the state of Maryland,” Diana said. “We feel that it’s critically important to educate nurses at the local level so that they can immediately go out into the community and provide health care services.”
For Diana, the formal dedication of the modern nursing lab was especially meaningful because four of the nine MAAPC board members began their nursing education at CSM or its predecessor institution — a full-circle moment for an organization rooted in Southern Maryland.
The scholarship is named for Florence Nightingale, honoring nursing’s legacy of compassion, scientific rigor and moral courage.
Removing Barriers, Strengthening The Pipeline
Chair of the College of Southern Maryland Foundation Samantha Stratchko described the naming of the MAAPC Nursing Lab as a formal recognition of a strong and growing partnership between MAAPC and CSM — one that directly benefits nursing students and, ultimately, the broader Southern Maryland community.
“It means everything, because it really is now memorializing MAAPC’s partnership with CSM and the incredible work that they do together for our nursing students,” Stratchko said. “They’re going to be taking care of all of us in the community as they graduate from the program.”
Stratchko emphasized the importance of state-of-the-art simulation technology inside CSM’s Center for Health Sciences, noting that hands-on exposure to realistic equipment and clinical scenarios prepares students to transition more confidently into the workforce.
“It’s going to give them real-life experience, so that they’re prepared,” Stratchko said. “They’ll be able to easily go right into the workforce and feel comfortable there, because they already had hands-on experience.”
Students at CSM’s Hughesville campus come from across the tri-county region, and Stratchko said that local investment strengthens the entire Southern Maryland health care workforce.
“The students come from all over St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles counties,” Stratchko said. “It really is benefiting the whole region.”
Reducing Barriers For Future Nurses
College leaders and MAAPC representatives said the partnership aims to reduce financial barriers for students while strengthening the region’s health care workforce at a time when demand for nurses remains high and the cost of professional education could derail students’ progress.
“Scholarships like the Future Nightingales Endowed Scholarship strengthen that pipeline by removing barriers that our students face and allowing them to focus on their learning,” CSM President Wilson said.
The CSM Foundation, composed of volunteer board members from across Charles, Calvert and St. Mary’s counties, works to close what Stratchko described as “the money gap” for students. The endowed nature of the scholarship ensures that support will continue for future cohorts of nursing students.
Samantha Freeman is a St. Mary’s County resident and a first-year associate degree nursing student who said the scholarship has helped ease the financial and emotional burden of balancing school with raising three young children.
Originally born in Iceland and raised in a military family, Freeman spent part of her senior year of high school volunteering at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, where wounded service members are stabilized before returning home. That experience solidified her decision to pursue nursing.
“There are three things that really define who I am,” Freeman said. “I’m a nursing student at the College of Southern Maryland, I’m a mom to three amazing kids, and I’m incredibly honored to be the recipient of the Future Nightingale Scholarship.”
Freeman began the nursing program in 2023 with plans to graduate in 2025. Shortly after starting, she learned she was pregnant and had to prioritize her health and family. She withdrew from classes, which ended her financial aid. When she returned, paying for tuition out of pocket while raising three children was a new barrier to continuing education. She described the scholarship as a turning point.
“The Future Nightingales Endowed Scholarship reassured me that even though the journey would be difficult, completing my education was still possible,” Freeman said.
Freeman now plans to complete her degree and continue to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, with long-term goals of serving mental health and underserved populations. She described the MAAPC-supported lab as an important part of her hands-on training, particularly the use of state-of-the-art simulation mannequins that prepare students for real clinical environments before entering the workforce.
“It’s amazing. The state-of-the-art mannequins that we have really help with our learning, our hands-on, tactile learning before we go,” Freeman said. “It means a lot that it’s funded for our learning. It feels like we’re being supported to further our education.”
Freeman also emphasized that the support she has received from CSM faculty contributed to her experiences on campus.
“The teachers are amazing. They support you through personal problems, financial help, and there’s actually resources here,” Freeman said. “CSM is just very supportive of their students and of being able to provide the students the best education that they can.”
Investing In People, Strengthening Communities
For MAAPC and CSM, the dedication symbolized a shared commitment to health care access in Southern Maryland — a commitment rooted in local advocacy and carried forward through education.
Tarleton, who has served with MAAPC for nearly two decades and as president since 2019, framed the scholarship and lab dedication as both a response to nursing shortages and a continuation of MAAPC’s founding mission.
“We have a tremendous shortage throughout the country, and in particular rural areas like Southern Maryland,” Tarleton said. “Our mission is to educate, collaborate and legislate for advanced practice clinicians. But we all get started somewhere.”
Tarleton noted that MAAPC was founded in Southern Maryland in 2005 by nurse practitioners seeking to eliminate bureaucratic barriers that limited health care access. Over time, the organization successfully worked to remove restrictive collaborative agreements and reduce administrative hurdles, allowing nurse practitioners to enter the workforce more efficiently.
“We all start off as RNs, and we wanted to do something for the community and to help with the nursing shortage,” Tarleton said.
She described the lab as “absolutely state of the art” and said its technology distinguishes CSM’s program from others she has visited across Maryland.
Among those in attendance for the ribbon cutting was Jennifer Clancy, a licensed professional counselor and state delegate candidate for Legislative District 29A, who said expanding nursing education is essential to strengthening Southern Maryland’s health care infrastructure.
“This CSM campus has real-life simulation labs,” Clancy said after touring the facility. “It’s so comprehensive, it’s robust, it is a hands-on immersive learning experience.”
Clancy emphasized that the region’s workforce needs span obstetrics, behavioral health, pediatric care and support for veterans and unhoused populations. She described scholarships as “the vital component” that allows students to enter the profession and remain in their communities.
“When you invest in people, they will reinvest in their community,” Clancy said.
Pointing to Freeman’s story, Clancy added, “For us to give back to her so that she can, in turn, set her roots here and give back to her community — I think she’s going to save hundreds of lives.”
In the end, the lab is more than a space — it is an investment in the people who will care for Southern Maryland for decades.
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