Spring 2025 Graduating Class

HISTORY OF THE BROOKDALE COMMUNIT Y COLLEGE NURSING PROGRAM

Brookdale Community College was established as a unit of the New Jersey Master Plan for Higher Education and became part of a statewide network of 19 community colleges. The 225-acre Brookdale Farm in Lincroft, one of the most illustrious horse farms in Monmouth County, was purchased by the Freeholders in 1968 to become Brookdale Community College. Its first classes were offered in 1969. The nursing program at Brookdale is one of only nine programs in the United States to have its roots in the Cooperative Research Project at Columbia University, which originated the concept of placing nursing education in the community college setting in 1952. Although the original partner was the diploma program at Monmouth Hospital, when Brookdale opened, that program was absorbed by the college. Classes were offered in classroom space at Monmouth Hospital until the building now known as Main Academic South was completed in 1974. The nursing program has been accredited since 1979, and since 2009 has twice been named as a “Center of Excellence” by the National League for Nursing in the category of Creating an Environment that Promotes Pedagogical Excellence.