CHRONICLE 16-17 ISSUE 09

8 The Chronicle January 31 - February 6, 2017 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca Campus
50 years of Durham College
School has
grown to
serve 30,000
students
after
opening with
200 in 1967
Jessica Stoiku
The Chronicle
For UOIT student Jessica Nguyen,
the path to where she is today
wasn’t a straight one. “If it weren’t
for college I wouldn’t be the [university]
student I am today. It has
allowed me to grow,” says Nguyen.
College was Nguyen’s first
choice. She wasn’t always an “A”
plus student. She felt college was
her best starting point but her
father had gone to college and
wanted her to reach higher with
her education. So she did.
“I decided to apply to university
and got into a few. Although
in the end I actually lost my acceptance
because I didn’t meet
my conditional offer,” Nguyen
says. Nguyen’s end goal was to get
into university, but she knew she
had to take an extra step in order
to get there.
Nguyen applied to Durham
College (DC) for the health preparation
program to help improve
her marks in order to apply to
university. “I don’t regret going
to college at all,” Nguyen says.
“When I tell people I went to
college first, I used to be embarrassed.
It always comes with that
stereotype that college isn’t good
[enough].”
Depending on the kind of student
you are, you may flourish
in college. You’re still developing
core critical thinking, creative
and communication skills that are
valuable in both college and university.
You can also design your own
educational path because Durham
College now has more than
450 educational pathways to universities.
That wasn’t always the
case.
Durham College is celebrating
its 50th anniversary this year.
The college first opened its doors
in 1967 to just more than 200 students.
Now, the school has grown to
serving more than 30,000 students
in 140 different full-time
programs. Durham College’s
mission has always maintained a
commitment to the success of its
students. Durham College’s mission
is “the student experience
comes first.”
According to Durham College
President Don Lovisa, if you
graduated from college ten years
ago and wanted to go to university,
you had to start over.
“If you like to learn by doing
then start at college. You’ll get a
good, solid education. If you want
to pursue higher education, there
are so many pathways now,” says
Lovisa.
Not only are students making
the transition from college to university,
there are more university
graduates enrolling in college
programs. According to ontariocolleges.ca,
university graduates
enrolling in colleges has increased
to 40 per cent in the last five years.
The stereotype of college being
easy is diminishing over time. According
to Lovisa, students who
started at university find college
to be the opposite of what they
expected. They find the heavy
demands of workload, the rigour
of the programs to be a challenge.
Lovisa believes you have to do
more than just write a paper to say
you know what you’re doing. You
have to actually demonstrate you
know how to do it. That’s where
experiential learning comes in.
According to Forbes contributor
Amy Rees Anderson, “we ask
our young people to decide what
they want to be when they grow
up but we give them almost nothing
in the way of educating and
exposing them to their options.”
Young people need experience,
and DC can provide this.
Experiential learning is the
hands-on education students
apply to their in-class studies. Students
are given the opportunity
to demonstrate their understanding
of course material in order
to understand what their field of
study entails on a day-today.The
Global Class is an example of this.
Lon Appleby, a DC General
Education instructor, founded
the Global Classroom. It was developed
with his students as part
of his General Education elective,
Short History of the World. The
Global Class uses HD technology
similar to Skype to connect
a small college classroom with institutions
outside of Canada. The
idea is to branch outside the four
walls of a classroom.
New buildings like the Centre
for Collaborative Education, or
classes like The Global Classroom
that adopt experiential practices,
mark some of the developments
DC has seen in the last 50 years.
“We have changed enormously
as a system. The depth of our
programs, the quality of our programs,
the respect we have within
industry and business and government,”
says Lovisa.
Former Durham College
President Gary Polonsky believes
it’s important to be accessible to
students. Polonsky served at Durham
College from 1988 to 2006.
He is the college’s longest reigning
president.
He says he used to walk the
halls every day drinking coffee.
He would ask students and faculty
how their experiences were
on campus, then jot down notes to
see if there was anything he could
do to make it better.
“I would scribble on my Styrofoam
cup. Then when I got back
to my office I would implement
the reminders…into actions.”
Polonsky believes students are
still working hard and wanting to
learn.
But it’s the hands-on, experiential
nature of college education
that drives innovation, according
to Lovisa.
“We are really fortunate right
now to have… a president in
Don Lovisa who is ambitious and
wants to do something with education.
He understands that education
is not about textbooks. He
really understands that education
is changing greatly because of
technology,” says Appleby.
“I see the whole experiential
learning model as being part of
something broader, which is the
attempt to redefine what a classroom
should be. Anybody today
can get everything they need
online. You can educate yourself
pretty easily,” says Appleby.
There are skills, however, that
require expert and professional
help students only receive from an
institution where the professors
are experienced, and understand
how to teach skills required of a
particular industry or trade or
field, Appleby says.
Durham College has over 480
industry partnerships helping to
shape college programs so students
will have the training they
need to succeed after graduating.
“We had about five or six employers
coming in to our thirdyear
class to speak to the students,
introduce the company they work
for and then accept resumes and
cover letter packages etc.,” says
Beau James, a professor of engineering
technology at DC.
Students are required to complete
a placement. According to
James, the placement course gives
students a trial run at searching
for jobs as well as being able to
land one. The connection between
college students and industry is
about finding where jobs exist in
the particular field students are
Photograph assembled by Dan Koehler
A collection of Durham College Chronicle issues throughout the years. From left to right, top to bottom: 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986,
1993, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2015, 2016, 2017.
earning their education in.
Components purchased in
the advanced automation lab,
for example, are also being used
in industry projects. The professors
base curriculum on industry
equipment.
James believes students who
can take theory learned from a
lecture and demonstrate they are
capable of applying the required
skillsets is what appeals to employers.
“That was one of the reasons I
would look at a Durham grad…
with a bit of an edge over some
other grads from other programs.
They have hands-on learning,”
says James.
According to Colleges Ontario,
84 per cent of students find
jobs six months after graduating.
“You come to college to get a
job. So here’s your skillset, here’s
your knowledge, here’s what you
need to be successful,” says Lovisa.
“If you’re a student who loves
to stick their nose in a book and
read and you’re comfortable with
that, then university’s a great
choice. If you like to learn by doing,
then start at college”.
In the end, you have to decide
for yourself which education is
best for your learning style. The
path to your own success isn’t a
straight line. You have time and
opportunities in order for you to
get to where you need to be.
Nguyen’s goal is to become a
physiotherapist. Durham College
was her first step toward that goal.
Nguyen says to do what works
best for you. “This is your life,”
she says. “You decide which path
you want to take. I know I have so
many opportunities.”