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Fitness and Health Promotion student says field placement taught her skills that can’t be learned in the classroom

As she graduates this spring, Melissa Lenis is ready to launch her career in wellness with a confidence boost from a successful field placement where she built connections and applied what she learned in the classroom.

Lenis spent time exploring her options before choosing a career path. She began her journey at DC in Police Foundations in 2014 before switching to 911 Emergency and Call Centre Communications in 2018 where she earned a diploma. Ultimately, she decided she wanted to work in wellness and is now graduating with a diploma in Fitness and Health Promotion.

“I’ve always loved coming to DC,” she said. “I live in Whitby so it’s close to home, you get a bus pass, campus is easy to navigate, the programs and Gen Eds are interesting and the health benefits are great. As a mature student having dental, therapy or chiropractic services mostly covered is a big deal as it’s expensive without any assistance.”

She said she attended a DC Open House in 2022 to meet faculty in the Fitness and Health Promotion program and impactful conversations led to her applying right away.

“I could tell they were passionate about what they do at DC, and knew this was a perfect program for me.”

Lenis said her program has prepared her for a career in many ways. A highlight was her job placement at a long-term care home.

“I had no experience working with seniors let alone with a variety of physical and cognitive limitations, but I wanted a challenge. I have a lot of experience in gyms and with fitness for the general population, but this was a great opportunity to try something I’ve never done before.”

Through her placement she gained experience with group exercise classes, one-on-one exercise based on care plans, physical assessments for residents and documenting.

“I’ve loved placement and made many connections with the residents, their families, my supervisor and my peers, and I’m continuing to volunteer as I don’t want to leave the residents,” she said, adding that she felt pride in seeing the long-term care residents making progress.

“Having placement in a program, you get to learn many skills that can’t be learned in a classroom. In class we were taught about exercise prescription for the elderly population, but getting to apply the information learned as well as adapting to new situations with each resident — everyone is a unique individual with a plan tailored to them — made me feel incredibly prepared for a future career in fitness and wellness.”

Looking towards the future, Lenis said she wants to launch a wellness business coaching women to eat intuitively and to nourish their body and mind.

“The fitness industry is heavily influenced by diet culture which leads to body image shame, food restrictions, labelling food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, over exercising to burn off calories after eating what is deemed as a big meal and a million other disconnecting behaviours,” she explains. “I want women to not feel shame in what they eat or how they look, and to move their body every day in a way that is enjoyable to them.”

Her advice for anyone considering her program is to pursue it.

Gaining on-the-job skills before graduation sets DC students up for success

Future fitness professional and Durham College Fitness and Health Promotion student, Josh Malbon, is getting on-the-job experience before he even graduates from college.

He is one of a number of students participating in a collaborative project* with students in the Firefighter – Pre-Service Education and Training program who are measuring the vital physiological responses of future firefighters as they perform real-life fire simulations to help learn how to improve their health, safety and performance.

“Working with students in the firefighter program is strengthening my ability to connect and communicate with clients in a professional setting,” said Malbon. “And the chance to work with a special population and learn specific procedures and protocols related to occupational testing is a huge benefit.”

Providing opportunities like this for students to participate in hands-on learning – also known as experiential learning or work-integrated learning – is a focus and priority for Durham College. Whether it is field placement, applied research, apprenticeship or co-op, they all have the shared objective to strengthen the skills students learn in the classroom by applying them to real-life settings.

And the result is undeniable that it gives students the skills employers are looking for and helps set them apart from the competition at graduation.

For Russell Waring, a third-year Computer Programming and Analysis student at DC, the opportunity was a co-op experience with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation that he says has helped boost his employability in the competitive field of information technology in advance of his graduation this spring.

“The Experiential Learning office supported me throughout the entire co-op experience,” said Waring. “Without the opportunities provided by DC’s work-integrated learning, I would not be graduating with the experience and confidence that I have today.”

Hands-on learning opportunities can also be student-led. In the Faculty of Media, Art & Design (MAD), a collaborative project lets students test out entrepreneurship and gain first-hand business experience.

Project Founders Drive*, a series of podcasts launched by DC’s Enactus Team, is helping student entrepreneurs realize their dreams and materialize business opportunities. With 18 jobs created for students across six MAD programs, the project has helped young professionals start seven businesses and exposed 780 people to entrepreneurship, not to mention the experience gained by the team.

No matter the form of learning, it’s all about gaining valuable experience while completing your studies to be job-ready on graduation day. And DC is here to help you get there.

To learn more about hands-on learning at DC, visit www.durhamcollege.ca/experiential-learning.

*These projects are funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Innovation Work-Integrated Learning program and Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning (CEWIL) Canada’s Innovation Hub.