Education
Hastings residents are committed to quality education and opportunities for students, as they are aware that tomorrow’s labor force is found in today’s student.
All schools encourage parents to be actively involved in their child’s education, so students benefit from strong parental support. Hastings takes pride in the high quality of area public and private schools and backs their commitment to education with both time and financial resources. The result is small teacher/pupil ratios from kindergarten to graduation, helping the Hastings system maintain an AA accreditation.
High academic standards—even at the lower grade levels—set Hastings students apart. The Hastings Public School District is in the process of building a new middle school to further the education process. While adhering to high academic standards, children in all the schools are regularly exposed to technology and award-winning music, visual arts and performing arts programs as a normal part of their curriculum.
The Educational Service Unit #9 (www.esu9.org) provides more detailed information for each school and provides support in the form of resource personnel, nurses, counselors, substitute teachers and a film and audio/visual library. Additionally, Hastings Senior High and Adams Central High extend adult education opportunities to residents seeking to improve their skills.
Adams Central School District The Adams Central School District (www.adamscentral.us) encompasses nearly 300 square miles outside the city limits of Hastings. Serving over 800 students in grades K–12, the district is made up of one junior/senior high school building and five feeder elementary school buildings (Wallace, Tri-View, Juniata, Ayr and School #15). These students are served by 74 certified staff members, 45 support staff members and six administrators.
Adams Central continues to build on its rich academic tradition, featuring a curriculum with more than 50 class offerings. Students are given the opportunity to pursue a variety of academic interests, including those in the arts, sciences, humanities and technologies. Adams Central High School also offers a number of honors programs and courses for college credit.
Hastings Public School District The Hastings Public School District serves an overwhelming majority of the students within the city limits of Hastings. The district has six elementary schools (Alcott, Hawthorne, Lincoln, Longfellow, Morton and Watson), one middle school (grades six through eight) and one high school (grades nine through twelve). The district completed the construction of a middle school building in 2008 and has initiated a major facility improvement project at the high school. The district has an enrollment of 3,500+ pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade students. Given its size, the district is able to provide students with the programming and services of a large school while maintaining the caring and safe environment of a smaller school.
HPSD offers a solid academic program that prepares students for further study at the post-secondary level and/or for the world of work. The school system provides a comprehensive curriculum that includes extensive offerings in the fine arts, industrial arts, world languages and careers. In addition, the school offers extensive student support services. A broad extracurricular program is also available to provide all students with a means to express their special talents and to learn important lessons for life.
As measured by state and regional accreditation, both professional reviews of the quality of a school, the district has been recognized as a school system of quality. More specifically, Hastings High School is one of a few schools in Nebraska that have been accredited for over 100 years by the North Central Association–Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. At present, the district appears well on its way to attaining an even higher level of accreditation, in that the largest accreditation association in the world, AdvancED, will likely accredit the entire district sometime in the near future. Should the district attain this status, it will be a member of a relatively small group of schools in Nebraska with this distinction.
Hastings Catholic Schools Hastings Catholic Schools operate a K–12 system, with St. Michael’s Elementary (grades K–5), St. Cecilia’s Middle School (grades 6–8) and St. Cecelia’s High School (grades 9–12).
Parochial Zion Lutheran School provides a Christ-centered education of academic excellence which equips students for a lifetime of service to God and an enteral life with Him in Heaven. Zion Lutheran educates students from preschool through 8th grade.
Hastings College Hastings College is a private, undergraduate, four-year, residential liberal arts college. It was founded in 1882 by a group of men and women seeking to establish a Presbyterian-related college dedicated to high academic and cultural standards—traits that still apply nearly 130 years later.
The Hastings College campus is situated on 109 beautifully landscaped acres. Within that space sit 40 buildings, spanning from the traditional McCormick Hall built in 1883 to the gleaming Osborne Family Sports Complex/Fleharty Educational Center built in 2002 and the ultra-comfortable Bronco Village student apartments completed in 2006. An outdoor track complex was completed in 2007 and The Morrison-Reeves Science Center, a brand new state of the art student learning facility, opened for classes in fall 2009.
Hastings College is named in the 2008 edition of America's Best Value Colleges, published by The Princeton Review; ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, America's Best Colleges 2009; named a 2010 "'Best College in the Midwestern Region" by The Princeton Review; listed by Kaplan/Newsweek as one of "America's 369 Most Interesting Schools;" and recognized among the top liberal arts colleges in America by The Washington Monthly.
Hastings College has also been named a "Best Buy in College Education" by Barron's and is listed in Kaplan's The Unofficial Unbiased Insider's Guide to the 331 Most Interesting Colleges, Peterson's Guide to Competitive Colleges and The National Review College Guide: America's Top Liberal Arts Schools.
Hastings College offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees.
86 percent of tenure-track faculty have doctorates or the highest degrees in their field. Student/faculty ratio is 12:1.
The student body of approximately 1,150 represents 23 states and eight foreign countries. Of the first-year students enrolled in 2008, 18 percent were either valedictorians or salutatorians and 35 percent were in the top 25 percent of their high school class. The student body differs in religious, ethnic, social and economic backgrounds and forms a well-rounded college community.
Hastings College offers 64 majors in 32 areas of study and 12 pre-professional programs. The college also offers a personalized program for students who want to tailor their own unique course of study. Students can study abroad with connections to England, the Netherlands, Germany, Northern Ireland, Thailand and more.
Home of the Hastings Broncos! Hastings College is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Broncos compete in basketball, cross country, track, golf, soccer and tennis for men and women, football, baseball and wrestling for men and volleyball and softball for women.
Hastings College received the 2009 and 2010 GPAC All-Sports Trophy for the best overall performance in 19 conference sports.
Central Community College Central Community College (www.cccneb.edu) is a multi-campus community college serving a 25-county area in central Nebraska—approximately 14,000 square miles with a population of more than 300,000.
CCC offers 35 career and technical education programs with a focus on degree, diploma and certificate programs requiring two years or less to complete. The college also offers an academic transfer program for students who want to complete the first two years of a bachelor’s degree before transferring to a four-year college or university.
In addition, the college offers classes in communities throughout its 25-county service area, online learning and training and development for businesses, industries and other organizations. The three main campuses are located in Hastings, Grand Island and Columbus and education centers are located in Kearney, Holdrege, Lexington and Ord. Additionally, CCC uses a variety of distance learning techniques to provide educational services in some 70 communities in its service area.
The CCC-Hastings offers degrees, diplomas and certificates in over 28 career and technical education programs which provide a number of career options in the areas of Agriculture, Automotive and Transportation, Business-Related, Construction, Computer Technology, Healthcare, Human and Social Services, Manufacturing and Fabrication and Media Arts, as well as academic transfer courses in 20 areas for students who plan to attend CCC for two years before transferring to a four-year college to complete a bachelor’s degree. The Hastings Campus is also home to the state’s only two-year dental hygiene program.
The Hastings Campus offers a number of campus activities, clubs and organizations. Six residence halls provide on-campus housing.
Mary Lanning Memorial HealthCare- School of Radiologic Technology Mary Lanning Memorial HealthCare School of Radiologic Technology (www.mlmh.org) is a hospital-based program established to provide well-qualified radiographers. Upon successful completion of the 24-month program, the graduate is awarded a Certificate of Graduation and is eligible to apply for the American Registry of Radiologic Technologies (ARRT) certification examination. The Mary Lanning School of Radiologic Technology is affiliated with Hastings College, Central Community College and the University of Nebraska at Kearney for advanced degrees. The Radiologic Technology Program is approved for 60 credit hours toward a Bachelor of Science Degree in Radiography from the University of Nebraska at Kearney and 60 credit hours toward an Associate of Science Degree in Radiography from Central Community College in Hastings.
Creighton University School of Nursing- Mary Lanning Campus Creighton University, a leader in innovative nursing programs, has earned a national reputation for providing excellence in nursing education. The Creighton University School of Nursing–Mary Lanning Campus in Hastings offers students a unique opportunity for educational excellence in the convenience of a small town environment.
Through a partnership with Mary Lanning Memorial HealthCare, a nationally recognized hospital, Creighton University is able to offer students the traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree, the Accelerated Nursing Curriculum and the cores courses of the graduate nursing program. Distance technology including video, Web and transmission are used to provide students with access to the most expert nursing faculty.
The traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) curriculum prepares traditional and transfer students to enter professional nursing practice. The senior preceptorship provides students with a strong foundation in both theoretical knowledge and clinical skills. Graduates of the traditional BSN program are ready to face the challenges of an ever changing healthcare system.
The Accelerated Nursing Curriculum (ANC) has been available to students on the Hastings campus for over 10 years. Students who have a four-year college degree with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and have completed the nursing prerequisites are eligible to apply for this intensive one-year program. The rigorous one-year curriculum recognizes each person’s past experiences and builds on those strengths. Classes begin each August on the Mary Lanning Campus.
Creighton University continues to set the standard and is the first in the state to offer the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). The DNP is designed for nurses seeking a terminal degree in clinical practice. Nursing students seeking a Master of Science can select from a variety of Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) specialty tracks as Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse Specialists.
For more information, please access the Creighton University nursing web site at www.creighton.edu/nursing.
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