Nursing Students Receive High Honors in ROTC

Two Belmont University nursing students participating in Vanderbilt's Army ROTC were ranked the second and twelfth best nursing Cadet in the nation, competing against over 215 nurses from across the country. Their rankings are based on their performance during leadership assessment courses, overall scholastic academic performance, physical fitness, and overall leadership ability.

Cadet Amanda Barfield is the second-ranked nurse in the nation. She was the senior ranking Cadet in the program for the 2011-2012 academic school year. Cadet Jessica Sanders is the twelfth-ranked nurse in the nation. Both of them held very high GPAs in the rigorous nurse discipline. In particular, Amanda Barfield was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society.

Both Cadets also did extremely well on the overall National Order of Merit List, which ranks Cadets between their junior and senior year from every ROTC program in the country in all academic disciplines. This year, Cadet Barfield ranked in the top 3% and Cadet Sanders was in the top 12% of over 5,500 Cadets from across the US. Vanderbilt's Go Gold Battalion is continually one of the most competitive and most selective officer-producing programs in the nation. Cadet Barfield and Cadet Sanders are prime examples of the caliber of Cadets graduating from this ROTC program.

In recent history, Vanderbilt Army ROTC and Belmont Nursing have produced the number one and number five best nursing Cadets in the country.

The Go Gold Battalion is comprised of students from colleges throughout the Nashville area, to include Vanderbilt, Belmont, Lipscomb, Tennessee State, and Trevecca Nazarene.