Hadley Sporbert & Molly Dibble ’13

When Longwood launched its nursing program in fall 2009, a chapter of the Virginia Nursing Students’ Association (VNSA) was formed. Hadley Sporbert became faculty adviser, and Molly Dibble was elected president. As they worked closely together to write the chapter’s bylaws, attend state conventions and get the fledgling chapter off the ground, they forged a partnership that is marked by mutual admiration and affection.

“Professor Sporbert was always an extra support system for me,” said Dibble ’13, from King George, who will graduate in May with Longwood’s inaugural nursing class. “She always gives me great advice. If I ever had trouble in a class, she would help me. I look at her as a mentor, and she has been instrumental in developing skills that I’ve used in the chapter and in my externship.”

Sporbert, lecturer of nursing, called Dibble “a born leader and a great person. The process of forming a student nursing chapter was new to both of us. By the second year, I was faculty adviser in name only, due to Molly’s leadership and that of the other officers. Once you explained something to her, she was off and running—she didn’t need hand-holding. I came to admire that intrinsic part of her character, her structured discipline. She put this chapter on the map, and she really embodies citizen leadership. There’s no one else like her.”

Dibble was chapter president through the fall 2012 semester when she had to relinquish the post due to her externship this spring at Mary Washington Hospital in Fredericksburg, where she is working in the surgical intensive care unit. She plans to go into critical care nursing.

Sporbert received the VNSA’s Most Supportive Faculty Member award in February 2012. She was nominated by Dibble.