Durham College (DC) and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s (UOIT) campus Holiday Food Drive committee has reported a record year in fundraising with $42,000 raised to create hampers and financial assistance packages to help 172 students and their families, including 218 children.

Staff, faculty, students and volunteers from DC and UOIT, in partnership with the Student Association and the Kinsmen Club of Oshawa, demonstrated a tremendous outpouring of help and generosity to support the annual tradition. Financial donations and non-perishable food items were collected during November and December and several fundraising events and initiatives were held on campus.

Korina Keays, who will graduate from DC’s Office Administration – Medical program this spring, told the Oshawa Express newspaper she learned about the campus Holiday Food Drive from a friend and was overjoyed with the support. Read more about Keays’ story.

“The Holiday Food Drive truly brings our entire community together to support our own,” said Kevin Dougherty, co-chair of the campus Holiday Food Drive.

Dougherty and Pat Vale-Dougherty have volunteered with the campus Holiday Food Drive for 15 years, and began co-chairing it in 2006.

Dougherty graduated from the Business Administration, Information Systems program in 1998 and is currently a professor with DC’s School of Business, IT & Management, while Vale-Dougherty graduated from Graphic Design in 1976 and is currently executive assistant to the dean of UOIT’s Faculty of Education.

As an employee of DC, Kevin was the recipient of the DC Faculty Award of Excellence for 2014; serves as the elected academic staff member on the DC Board of Governors (the Board); and serves as vice-chair of the Audit and Finance Committee of the Board. It is a little known fact that Pat originally began her time at UOIT in 2001, assisting with the DC project team to help prepare the plans for the new university.

Students of Durham College’s (DC) Occupational Therapist Assistant/Physiotherapist Assistant (OTA/PTA) program will experience an additional layer of hands-on learning by providing fine motor intervention to groups of children with fine motor delays, through the new DC Kids clinic. The clinic begins this month and is operating in partnership with Grandview Children’s Centre.

The DC Kids clinic will see students lead weekly treatment sessions under the direct supervision of an occupational therapist (OT), for children between the ages of four and 10 who may benefit from fine motor therapy.

“DC Kids gives OTA/PTA students an opportunity to give back to the community while learning at the same time,” said Dr. Judeline Innocent, RN and dean of the School of Health & Community Services. “It also allows our students to study under the mentorship of experienced occupational therapists so it’s truly a win-win scenario.”

The winter clinic will run Monday and Wednesday evenings and Saturdays in the OTA/PTA lab at the Oshawa campus from Monday, January 12 to Saturday, March 21. Clients will attend one session per week for nine weeks. Sessions are available free of charge with a one-time registration fee of $30. 

DC Kids builds upon the knowledge gained in the classroom and lab where students learn to assist with the implementation of rehabilitation treatment plans and programs developed to promote clients’ independence, enhance activities of daily life and function, and support individuals whose physical ability has been impaired by injury, illness, aging, developmental disability or emotional disability.

Durham College (DC) offers more than 450 pathway to degree options for students including a pathway agreement with the Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI), a representative body for 13 institutes of technology in Ireland. The agreement provides an opportunity for graduates of specific two and three year Ontario college programs to earn an honours degree abroad, in some cases earning the degree with only one additional year of study.

Jessamyn Adams, a Durham College Accounting – Business Administration graduate, is one such student that has taken advantage of this unique opportunity as she completed a Bachelors of Business – Accounting and Finance at the Institute of Technology – Blanchardstown in Dublin, Ireland following her time at DC.

“When I read I could obtain my degree in only one further year of study rather than the two I would need in Ontario I thought I should at least apply,” said Adams. “ITB offered me the most generous exemptions for the diploma I had already completed and even though I had never been to Ireland I knew it as somewhere I wanted to explore and what better way than to live there.”

The pathways agreement with DC was developed between IOTI and College’s Ontario, an advocacy organization for Ontario’s 24 community colleges. The agreement primarily pertains to programs within the School of Business, IT & Management (BITM) and the School of Science & Engineering Technology (SET) offering students the chance to further their post-secondary education abroad while experiencing one of the world’s most dynamic and lively countries.

“My experience working with the Irish Institutes enabling students to further their education abroad has been excellent,” said Susan Todd, dean of SET. “Many Canadian students now have the opportunity to transfer their college credits to obtain a degree in a beautiful English speaking country, which will broaden their horizons both culturally and academically.”

Support abounds for students looking to take advantage of the pathway opportunity. “Start to finish they made my transition to Ireland so great,” said Adams. “Once I accepted, I was put in contact with an International Officer and he answered my incessant questions from everything to do with my courses to where I was going to live and how to get around.”

Students can visit the College’s Ontario website for background information on the agreement itself in addition to the IOTI website, which offers additional information on specific academic bridging requirements per program/institution.

With healthy living becoming an increasing priority among students and the local community, Durham College (DC) President Don Lovisa was pleased to host Rona Ambrose, Federal Minister of Health, as she visited the college’s Whitby campus on December 16.

The minister and some caucus colleagues joined Lovisa, Susan Sproul, retiring dean of the School of Health & Community Services (HCS), and Judeline Innocent, incoming dean for the School of HCS, for a discussion centring on the college’s range of clinical-focused health programs – from its newest program, Activation Coordination in Gerontology, to cornerstones including Dental Hygiene and Occupational Therapist Assistant/Physiotherapist Assistant (OTA/PTA) among others – over lunch at Bistro ’67 and the Centre for Food (CFF).

“In addition to learning more about our emphasis on practical learning opportunities across all our health programs, the health minister showed great interest in how we train our culinary students to prepare healthy meals and meet the demands of an ever-growing health-conscious food-service market,” said Lovisa. “It is always wonderful to be able to showcase the state-of-the-art facilities that Durham College has to offer, and Minister Ambrose was keenly interested in how our facilities provide students with hands-on experience as they work towards meaningful careers.”

The minister also learned about the two residential homes located at the Whitby campus that are used across multiple programs to give students hands-on, real-world experiences. One home was built circa 1950s and was moved to campus from a residential street in Oshawa, while the other was built purposefully for DC, offering a stark contrast between modern and more dated building codes and residential features.

When they initially opened, it was expected that the homes would serve students studying toward a number of different apprenticeships. In the time since, there have been opportunities to introduce other students as well, including those studying in the Personal Support Worker (PSW) and OTA/PTA programs. The homes provide students with direct exposure to dealing with clients in a home-based setting.

Ambrose joins a number of other leaders from all levels of government to visit Durham and other colleges across Ontario over the past few months. During the visits they are learning about the many benefits to students in pursuing a college education and how colleges are a solution to increased productivity and jobs for Ontario.

Full details on each of DC’s health-focused programs are available at www.durhamcollege.ca/academic-schools/school-of-health-community-services/.