With a class of ten students, Boise Junior College’s nursing program began in 1955. Nursing was established as a full department in 1972, and Boise College became Boise State University in 1974. “We were a family.”In 1988, Boise State adjunct professor and former St. Luke’s nursing director Joanna “Jody” DeMeyer co-founded Boise State’s Friends of Nursing. Nursing faculty Nancy Otterness and Carol Fountain developed interactive learning programs for nursing students during the early 1990s, like this one featured in an issue of “Focus” magazine. Nursing students regularly participate in community health partnerships, such as the mobile health assessments in the early 2000s.