Commencement exercises at Minnesota State University looked a little different at the noon ceremony Saturday.

There, in the front row, in purple robes and fresh hoods — the mark of doctoral-level graduate — were the first official doctoral graduates in the history of MSU, and in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

Four women completed the applied doctoral program in nursing: LaDonna D. McGohan of Rochester, Natalie Rosen of Spring Park, Minn., Laura M. Vesel of Blaine and Ellen D. Vorbeck of Mankato.

Vorbeck said she was proud to be the only recipient from Mankato.

“This has been a lifelong goal for me,” she said, moments before commencement. “Being the only one from Mankato has been really nice.”

And her family, including husband Tim and kids Kyle, 14, and Hannah, 9? “They’re so excited.”

Vorbeck works in the Immanuel St. Joseph’s-Mayo Health System Wound Center. She runs what she calls the Wound Center.

For her capstone project, he researched how patients with stomas — which make up a significant number of the patients she works with — can get better sleep. She said she hopes to build on her findings and even implement them where she works at ISJ.

The doctor of nursing practice degree program is offered through a consortium of schools including MSU, Minnesota State Moorhead, Winona State University and Metropolitan State University.

It all began in 2005 when the Minnesota Legislature authorized MSU and other four-year MnSCU institutions to offer applied doctorate degrees. Two Minnesota State Mankato programs — the doctor of nursing practice and the Ed.D in counselor education and supervision — were approved and accredited in 2007, and students began the programs that fall.

Since then two additional MSU doctoral programs were approved — the doctor of psychology in school psychology and the Ed.D. in educational leadership.

The doctor of nursing practice program is for nurses with a master’s degree whose goal is advanced clinical, organizational and leadership competency. It is intended to develop front-line leaders for hospitals, clinics, schools of nursing and other health-care entities.

Sonja Meiers, a faculty member in the College of Allied Health and Nursing, served as advisor to several of the doctoral students.

She said the program the students went through wasn’t easy.

“It is daunting in terms of the intellectual strides they make in learning not only research methods, but then taking those methods and making a clinical practice change,” Meiers said.