MCC Nursing Alumna Returns 19 Years Later as Professor

Kelliann Bazemore was inspired to pursue a career in nursing after a personal experience at Lowell General Hospital (LGH). With a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from UMass Boston already in place, she started the nursing program at Middlesex Community College in 2000. Nineteen years later, Bazemore returned to Middlesex to work as a professor of nursing.

While she was pursuing her degree at MCC, Bazemore was raising her young children and helping an ailing relative. She took some time off from school to work and care for her family. MCC faculty were supportive and helped keep her on track when she returned.

“What I remember most about that time was how supportive the faculty was,” she said. “How amazing they were and encouraging, and told me to keep going. I just loved the program. It’s intense, but for people who want to become a nurse right now and can’t afford to go to a four-year college or don’t have the time – especially with remote learning now – it’s so much easier to go to Middlesex.”

After working as a nurse on the pediatric floor at LGH, Bazemore wanted to go into teaching because she appreciated how much faculty and MCC give to their students.

“I started as an adjunct for the first semester then I took a full-time nursing position,” she said. “I love how much MCC is a center point of downtown [Lowell] and all its surrounding communities.”

Bazemore is aware of how her students are dealing with other personal circumstances while attending school, including paying rent, caring for kids or parents, and managing job responsibilities. She believes MCC is invaluable for students because they can finish the nursing program within two years, start practicing as registered nurses, and go on to get their bachelor’s while working in the field.

“Without Middlesex, they wouldn’t be nurses,” she said. “Which is another reason why I love the school and I love teaching there. We provide the opportunity they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

She is most proud of her students’ resilience and is happy to be able to support them and give them a push when needed. This proved especially true when the pandemic struck amid the Spring 2020 semester and courses shifted to online platforms.

“I was so impressed with the students,” she said. “I didn’t even have some who said, ‘I have to give up.’ They were like, ‘what else can I do?’ That’s the difference at Middlesex. I would be in daily contact with my students throughout this whole COVID experience.”

In one circumstance, Bazemore had a student miss a class. Even though it was just one, she made sure to reach out because while he would have missed a lot of important content, Bazemore also knew the pandemic presented a new challenge that students would need guidance to get through. That extra step helped him finish the semester.

Having witnessed the culture Middlesex promotes to support students in their success above everything else first as a student, Bazemore brings the same to her teaching. She also has seen how other four-year colleges and universities responded to the pandemic through her children’s experience and she is certain that “Middlesex was most prepared.”

Bazemore teaches the pediatrics section of MCC’s program. Before COVID-19 – and at some point in the future if it is safe to return – she guides her students through clinicals at LGH. For now, students are able to practice with a simulation lab and in online courses.

The ability to be able to offer this technology is essential for students to gain the experience they need. Bazemore has witnessed how technology and research has shifted how nurses work. Now that everything they do is grounded in evidence-based research, she believes they are training students to become “nurse scientists.”

“I transitioned from being a student of ‘this is the way we do a dressing change,’ to a professor who teaches ‘this is the way we do a dressing change because studies have shown that by using these products and doing it this way the infection will decrease,’” she said. “There’s a lot more evidence-based research as a professor that I need to teach them. I think students are more prepared.”

Nursing is always changing, according to Bazemore, so she believes nurses never stop learning and being a student. MCC’s program ensures students are prepared for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) and “to provide safe, holistic care for their patients.”

As nursing careers run in the family – Bazemore is one of 11 – Middlesex itself is also a family affair. Both her mother and father attended – her mother Elaine Saunders in the Paralegal Studies certificate program in 1993 and her father Robert Saunders with an associate in Business Administration who started at MCC when it first opened in 1970 – 50 years ago.

With 22 MCC alums in the family, Bazemore has several aunts, uncles, nephews and nieces who attended, including her father’s sisters – Marianne Saunders Devlin, who was also part of MCC’s first graduating class, and her aunt Barbara Saunders who transferred to Boston College for a degree in finance.

Most recently, one of Bazemore’s sons took a semester off before transferring between four-year colleges. He completed four classes at Middlesex and played on the intramural hockey team.

Bazemore’s oldest children also took classes at Middlesex as part of the Dual Enrollment program at Lowell High School. These classes helped them earn credits and were able to start a semester ahead of many of their classmates once they started college.

“When you take courses like this, not only are you a semester ahead and you can graduate earlier, but you can register for classes earlier,” she said. “If you go in as a second semester freshman or first semester sophomore, you get dibs on classes because you’re ahead in credits. It’s an advantage of doing Dual Enrollment. Plus, you save money.”

As both a graduate and now faculty member of Middlesex, Bazemore is excited to continue to witness all of the ways MCC grows and helps students on their paths.

“It was so nice to come onto the faculty with the instructors I had there,” she said. “I think it was nice for them too to have one of their students come back almost 20 years later and teach beside them. They were so helpful. I’m grateful for that. I really wanted to be at Middlesex.”

MCC is celebrating 50 years! If you have ever taken a class at MCC, you are an alum! To share your story – and join in on the 50th anniversary celebrations – contact Amy Lee, Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations, at 978-656-3028 or leea@middlesex.mass.edu.

Visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/alumni/ for more information and to join the Alumni Association.

There is still time to register for MCC’s Mini-mester II, an accelerated, eight-week session that starts November 2. For more information and to register for classes, visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/registration/ or call 1-800-818-3434.

Discover your path at Middlesex Community College. As one of the largest, most comprehensive community colleges in Massachusetts, MCC has been a proven leader in online education for more than 20 years. We educate, engage and empower a diverse community of learners, offering more than 80 degree and certificate programs – plus hundreds of noncredit courses. Middlesex Community College: Student success starts here!