Durham College (DC) is proud to announce that Ryan Cullen, an alumnus of the college’s Horticulture – Food and Farming program and now its field co-ordinator, received the John Dobson Enactus Fellow of the Year at the 2018 Enactus Canada National Exposition, an annual forum to address social issues through entrepreneurial action. The honour recognizes the outstanding contributions of faculty members as mentors to students involved in the Enactus teams at their respective colleges.

Held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in May, the exposition also saw the Enactus Durham College team showcase its Grassroots project, an outdoor education food facility – including a solar greenhouse created in a converted school portable – to create an accessible food and farming hub in Durham Region. In partnership with St. Mary High School in Pickering, the project aims to educate elementary and secondary school students about food-related issues.

Enactus DC co-presidents Eleanor Lau and Greg Barnes, students in the Music Business Management and Electromechanical Engineering Technology programs respectively, along with Justin Pantaleo, Marketing – Business Administration; Stephen McMahon, Entrepreneurship and Small Business; and Tyler Simpson, Marketing – Business – Transfer to UOIT Bachelor of Commerce (Hons), represented DC at both the regional and national expositions this year.

Enactus is an international non-profit organization, with a global network of 36 countries, dedicated to inspiring students to use the power of entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

Enactus was introduced to DC in 2016 through FastStart, the college’s entrepreneurial training program, to create a club of entrepreneurial student leaders looking to make a positive economic and social impact on society.

In Enactus DC’s first year of operation, the team started two projects. In addition to Grassroots, Project YO (Youth Opportunities) aims to help at-risk youth in Durham Region not only bridge into college, but stay in college and become successful post-secondary students.

Durham College (DC) is proud to announce that seven DC students earned six medals – two gold, two silver and two bronze – in post-secondary categories at the 29th annual Skills Ontario Competition, Canada’s largest skilled trades and technology competition, which took place in Toronto from May 7 to 9.

Students Zachary Unger, Building Construction Technician, and Keeshan Sharma, Automotive Technician – Service and Management (Motive Power Technician), owned the podium, winning gold medals in the carpentry and auto service technology categories, respectively.

Judges evaluated Unger on his carpentry skills for residential construction, requiring him to interpret drawings and assemble framing systems such as floors, walls and roofs. For his part, Sharma tackled real-life auto-repair situations related to engines, electrical function and vehicle performance, among other skills. Unger and Sharma’s wins means they will be representing DC and Ontario against the best and brightest in their categories in Canada, when they participate in the Skills Canada National Competition 2018 held in Edmonton, Alberta, on Monday, June 4 and Tuesday, June 5. 

Emilie Smith, a student in DC’s Advanced Baking and Pastry Arts program, took a silver medal in the baking category. Smith earned tops marks for her proficiency in baking cakes and pastries using her own recipes. In addition, Liam Duffy, who is enrolled in the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program and studies at DC under the School-College-Work initiative, picked up a silver medal in the culinary art category after demonstrating his skills in cooking and displaying hot and cold dishes.

In the horticulture and landscape category, Tianna Ghersini and Andrew Campbell won bronze as a team. The Horticulture Technician students showcased their skills by building a garden, which components may include plant selection and placement of landscape rocks. Apprenticeship Plumbing student Tanner Woodhead also earned bronze in the plumbing category, which assessed knowledge of the plumbing system, including gas and water pressure, and quality of work.

“Congratulations to all of the Durham College students who earned incredible success at the annual Skills Ontario competition,” said Dr. Rebecca Milburn, associate vice-president, Academic at DC. “Their accomplishments are a direct reflection of quality programs, the support of mentorship of their professors and the hard work and commitment they have demonstrated throughout their studies.”

The DC students competed against peers from across the province in contests that included theoretical and practical components, as well as a job interview related to their technical career paths.

The competition is presented annually by Skills Ontario, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting skilled trades and technologies to Ontario youth.

Overall, 18 DC students competed in various categories including auto service technology, baking, culinary arts, coding, IT network system administration and plumbing.

Durham College (DC) is proud to share that it has received two CICan Awards of Excellence in recognition of best practices from institutions across the country, as well as individual leadership and achievements, from Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan).  

Presented during the association’s annual conference on April 30 in Victoria, B.C., Naqi Hyder, a second-year Paralegal student and officer and transitional manager with Durham College Students Inc. (DCSI), was recognized with the gold award for Leadership Excellence for Students. Amit Maraj, a professor with the School of Business, IT & Management, and principal investigator for numerous applied research projects, received the silver award for Leadership Excellence for Faculty.

Naqi has always been community focused, and after coming to DC, he put his efforts towards helping students access and enjoy the best college experience possible. As a first-year student, he began working as a peer coach with the Access and Support Centre, where he assisted students to help them achieve their personal and academic goals. After seeing the difference he was making, and feeling confident in his ability to maintain his academics while working on campus, Naqi started looking for his next challenge. He was chosen to be part of the team of three that was tasked with developing the new student government to represent college students. The result is the DCSI, a service-based association that puts students’ needs at the forefront, and provides quality campus engagement for every student.

A natural-born leader, Amit is at the forefront of technological advancement at DC, with a specific focus on artificial intelligence (AI). He has a proven record of accomplishment of teaching and research achievements unmatched by most so early in their post-secondary career. Extremely passionate about exposing students to emerging technologies in a hands-on learning environment, Amit has developed innovative workshops and boot camps to encourage students to gain knowledge and fundamental technology skills – with a specific focus on AI concepts – outside of the classroom setting. While providing guidance and mentorship to students in the Computer Programmer Analyst program, he continues to pursue his personal post-secondary goals, and will graduate with a Master of Computer Science from UOIT in spring 2018.

Congratulations Naqi and Amit on your well-deserved awards.

The Journalism – Mass Media program at Durham College (DC) enjoyed a successful evening on April 20 at the Ontario Community Newspaper Association’s (OCNA) Better Newspapers Competition, taking home first place honours in both categories where the work of students and faculty was nominated.

The Chronicle website won for Best College/University Newspaper Website and 2017 graduate Toby Van Weston won for Student Feature Writing for his two-page story on the water quality issues on Scugog Island. In the judge’s remarks, Van Weston was commended for taking a national-scale story and bringing it to a local level. The Chronicle website was praised for its ease of navigation and for ensuring students are well-informed about campus events and happenings in the surrounding community.

The Better Newspaper Competition is sponsored by the OCNA, a non-profit industry association focused on helping community newspapers prosper by promoting and enhancing the image of the industry among readers. Awards are handed out annually in April and recognize the previous year’s work.

Congratulations to all of the students and faculty involved.

Durham College (DC) is pleased to welcome back three of its employees who were selected by Uniterra to represent the college as part of the Leave for Change program.

 The first Leave for Change participants to represent the college overseas turned their vacations into short-term leaves to share their unique skills and experience to assist with projects in developing countries.

The employees were:

• Dale Burt, professor, Mediation-Alternative Dispute Resolution Graduate Certificate program, School of Justice & Emergency Services. Dale worked within the School of Economics at Danang University in Danang, Vietnam, as a teaching methodology advisor for the month of July, 2017. Using interactive teaching approaches, Dale created and shared tools to assist in designing more modern and dynamic teaching plans.
• Cosette Kazarian, intranet specialist, Communications and Marketing. Cosette travelled to Colombo, Sri Lanka, in mid-January, for four weeks, where she worked with the University of Vocational Technology. During her time away, Cosette helped review their website, create a social media strategy, and created and updated marketing materials.
• Kim Sharpe, program assistant, School of Continuing Education. Kim travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, in June, 2017 where she worked with the National Youth Federation of Nepal to train their members. She was the first participant in the role and made a significant impact by sharing her experience and education with participants.

The agreement between DC and Uniterra allows DC employees to transform vacation time into professional and personal development opportunities. Employees enjoy three to four weeks in developing countries, where they participate in work mandates in their respective fields. During their time abroad, participants contribute their skills and expertise to a development project, paired with professionals from non-governmental organizations in their host countries. DC is pleased to continue the partnership with Uniterra in 2018 and this year’s participants will be announced shortly.

Durham College (DC) faculty first responders and first-responders-in-training from the School of Justice & Emergency Services (JES) took first-place honours at the National Paramedic Competition on April 7.

In the annual competition, which was held for the first time at Canada’s Wonderland this year, 34 teams from paramedic services and college across Ontario faced a written test and six simulated patient scenarios designed to highlight extreme situations and challenge teams to use their training, knowledge and critical thinking skills to solve problems and manage competing patient priorities.

Up against 15 college teams, DC Paramedic students Carley Schillings and Laura Ellis surpassed their competition to take first place. One scenario presented two patients with critical injuries—one having fallen from a railing, the other suffering an anaphylactic reaction. The scenario required the team to split up with limited resources and provide adequate care to both patients.

Also competing at the college level, Paramedic students Corey Beal and Jon Reid took second place by managing to diagnose and treat a patient experiencing an adrenal crisis–a rare medical condition. The patient presented in a vague way and required intensive investigation to create the correct diagnosis and treatment plan.

Competing against seven teams, Durham Region paramedics and DC professors Dale Button (Paramedic) and Matthew Walton (Firefighter – Pre-Service, Education and Training) took first place together in the Advanced Care (professional) category. The team particularly enjoyed a scenario where a patient fell out of a tree holding a saw. The simulated accident resulted in several serious injuries and a hunt to find a missing eyeball.

Congratulations to the entire JES team!

Learn more about the competition and view a complete list of winners.