Pinning Ceremony Keynote Speaker

I am on the pinning committee for my class, and we need a keynote speaker. Any ideas?

So far, we've come up with one, but he's terribly cost prohibitive. Just wondering what other schools do for speakers. We're having to pay for the entire ceremony ourselves--even the pins--so cost is an issue. (Strangely, the university doesn't pay for anything, but they mandate that we have one.) We would like someone who is relevant to our new careers, but we can't pay an arm and leg!
Didnt go to my pinning, but we voted on 1 of the instructors. Think they posted 5 or 6 names online and we voted for 1. I do belive they got her some type of memento for her speech, but wasn't that pricey

I think that's the norm--the class pays for EVERYTHING, which is what a good portion of the class dues was for. At least that's the way it was with our class.There was no cost for our keynote speaker (honestly, I don't think the thought ever crossed our minds that there would be a fee. We chose (and voted on) a favorite clinical instructor. Previous classes have picked nursing professors, nurses/directors from various clinical sites, etc. (none of whom charged a speaking fee!). Hope this helps.

We asked one of our instructors. Hands down, she influenced all of our lives. So it was an easy choice between a paid speaker and a non-paid influential-in-all-our-lives instructor.

Last year, I was the student speaker for my pinning ceremony. This year, I was most flattered and humbled to have been asked to be the keynote speaker for this year's class. It never occurred to me that I might be compensated for my time. The class gave me a lovely card of thanks and a gift certificate to one of my favorite eateries. I thought that was an incredibly generous thing to do.

My class also selected our (favorite) professor who had connected with us all on a deeper level than just teacher/student. He was amazing and I dont think any of us will ever forget him.We also had a particular cost we had to keep it down to

Maybe the president of the college or a Patron of the Nursing program.

It looks as if the norm is to have one of the clinical instructors or lecturers. Wow. I think our school usually selects someone from the community, but I think I might suggest we use our dean. I took a class from her this summer, and, if she ever gets bored with nursing, she could always take her comedy act on the road. Great speaker, great instructor, great dean. Thanks for all the input! Keep the suggestions coming!

We had to purchase our own nursing pin. The school stocked several styles varying in costs to suit almost everyone. I was our keynote speaker for our pinning ceremony. The nursing instructors are asked to select four nursing students from the graduating class based on grades, school involvement, leadership skills/role then allows the nursing students to select the Outstanding Nursing Student for keynote speaker.My nursing dept also had two organizations available for the nursing students to participate in: SNO (Student Nursing Organization) and the other was a Christian Nursing Group. Both organizations had fund raisers such as a taco stand, chilli dog stand for the entire student body at our school (which we raised a large portion of our money) and we also designed a nursing t-shirt, had it printed at a local print-screening shop for $7ea and selling them for $14. With this money we purchased a small gift for each graduating student, and donated to local charities.Good luck on your keynote speaker and congratulations on your accomplishments!

The favorite one I've helped set up was the president of a local hospital who was key in setting the hospital up with new programs to care for the patients. She was truly passionate about nursing and healthcare, and because she wasn't your "typical" motivational speaker or minor-celebrity type keynote, she didn't cost much to retain for the event.

We're almost done building our new nursing building at my school, and a very high profile individual donated the money for it. I'm trying to find a way to get a hold of said very high profile individual to see if he would be interested in speaking at our pinning, since we are the first class to graduate out of the new building he funded. Fingers crossed, but I don't expect to be able to land him. Way too busy giving money to other worthy causes...Wonder what it would be like to have so much money that it's actually WORK to give it all away??? I digress...LOVE the idea of an Outstanding Nursing Student!

We had a favorite instructor speak, chose a classmate to speak for us, & then chose someone from the community whose mother was a nurse (talked about what it was like growing up with a mom who was a nurse). There was a "nursing club" (although anyone on campus could join) that gave us (the club) money each quarter. This money was used to pay for our pinning ceremony. We had to participate in the typical campus club stuff but it was easy. While we were open to all students, we never had anyone outside of our nursing program join. And due to the limitations the school put on us for our ceremony, it was easier to keep it low budget.

Oh, how I wish we had "limitations." Classes at our school usually raise and spend around $10k on their pinning ceremonies. AS IF we have so much extra time to plan and carry out fundraisers.Just a little gripe...I'm done now and on to being more positive!