Nursing students celebrated with drive-through pinning ceremony in northwest Fresno

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- More than a dozen nursing students were honored in a not-so-traditional pinning ceremony on Saturday.

The pinning tradition has been a right of passage for nursing students for over a hundred years.

But instead of the typical ceremony, students from Gurnick Academy in northwest Fresno were honored with a drive-through event.

"It's equivalent to their graduation," says Simulations Manager Shelvia Salvano. "They're coming into this field, they're being pinned by their nursing instructors, being pinned by nurses as they're being welcomed into this field."

The nursing students will take the state board before heading to the front lines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a variety of other patient care.