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DC students test their skills and collaborate in emergency simulation

On February 29, 195 Durham College (DC) students, faculty and industry partners collaborated on an intense, large-scale emergency simulation exercise at the Oshawa campus that let students put their classroom and lab training into action.

Bringing together participants from the schools of Justice & Emergency Services, Health & Community Services and Media, Art & Design, as well as peers from Ontario Tech University’s nursing program, the exercise followed a detailed script that saw volunteers simulate a mass-casualty emergency stemming from a sports-racing situation.

Unfolding in real-time, the exercise provided students with valuable experiential learning as well as a better understanding of how members of emergency services, health and social services, legal services and the media work together during an emergency. A second simulation exercise focused on mock legal proceedings in connection with the emergency will be held Saturday, March 7.

Students from the following DC programs participated:

DC and Ontario Tech University raised $21,000 for students in need over the holiday season

Last month, employees from Durham College (DC) and Ontario Tech University opened their hearts to students in need through the annual Holiday Food Drive. A longstanding campus tradition, the drive provides hampers of food and financial assistance to student families from both institutions during the holiday season. This year, the drive raised more than $21,000 and helped 332 students and their families.

After a full season of fundraising, the co-chairs of the drive are extending their sincere thanks to everyone who helped make the 2019 initiative a resounding success.

“I would like to thank everyone for another successful Holiday Food Drive,” says Kevin Griffin, professor in the School of Justice and Emergency Services at DC. “There is an amazing culture of giving at both Durham College and Ontario Tech University which is evident on this campus every day. That is what makes this event so successful.”

“We are grateful for the continued generosity of our students, faculty and staff at both institutions,” says Kevin’s co-chair, Sarah Rasile, director, Student Success at Ontario Tech University. “Thank you to everyone who gave their time, donated food, and hosted or supported the many fundraisers that make this drive possible each and every year. We received many notes of appreciation from students and we want everyone involved to know that your efforts made the holiday season brighter for many students and their families”.

The campus holiday food drive is organized annually by DC, the university, the Kinsmen Club of Oshawa, Durham College Students Inc. and Ontario Tech Student Union.

DC becomes first college in Canada to deliver course through Walls to Bridges program

Durham College (DC) is proud to announce that it is the first college in Canada to provide college courses in prison through the Walls to Bridges (W2B) education program, which facilitates for-credit post-secondary courses taught within correctional settings. Each W2B classroom sees equal numbers of incarcerated and non-incarcerated students learning together as peers.

This semester, DC Professor Dale Burt is teaching Resiliency in Society: the Bridges and Barriers at a federal correctional institution in Ontario. Each week she travels to the prison with eight DC students who are taking the class alongside eight currently incarcerated students.

“The Walls to Bridges classroom offers a unique transformational learning experience that encourages diverse learners to build bridges with one another, recognizing that there are many ways of ‘knowing,’ including from each other and our experiences,” said Professor Burt. “I structure and lead the lessons and facilitate the learning activities, but we are really all students and teachers in the W2B classroom. Together we are able to break down barriers as we examine – and unlearn – assumptions and ‘othering.’”

The participating DC students are enrolled in either Mediation – Alternative Dispute Resolution or Victimology, two of the college’s post-graduate certificate programs. Each student had to apply and be interviewed in order to be accepted into the W2B course.

“Taking part in the Walls to Bridges program is important to Durham College for many reasons,” said Stephanie Ball, executive dean of the college’s schools of Justice & Emergency Services and Interdisciplinary Studies. “The environment and dynamics of the class make for a more impactful learning experience for all students while also providing access to post-secondary education for learners who may not have had access to it otherwise.”

The final class will be held at the prison on Wednesday, April 15. Students will present a collaborative project on what they have learned through the course followed by a graduation ceremony.

Durham College becomes first college in Canada to join Walls to Bridges educational program

Class sees incarcerated and non-incarcerated students learn together inside federal prison

Oshawa, Ont. – Durham College (DC) is proud to announce that it is the first college in Canada to provide college courses in prison through the Walls to Bridges (W2B) education program, which facilitates for-credit post-secondary courses taught within correctional settings. Each W2B classroom sees equal numbers of incarcerated and non-incarcerated students learning together as peers.

This semester, DC Professor Dale Burt is teaching Resiliency in Society: the Bridges and Barriers at a federal correctional institution in Ontario. Each week she travels to the prison with eight DC students who are taking the class alongside eight currently incarcerated students.

“The Walls to Bridges classroom offers a unique transformational learning experience that encourages diverse learners to build bridges with one another, recognizing that there are many ways of ‘knowing,’ including from each other and our experiences,” said Professor Burt. “I structure and lead the lessons and facilitate the learning activities, but we are really all students and teachers in the W2B classroom. Together we are able to break down barriers as we examine – and unlearn – assumptions and ‘othering.’”

The participating DC students are enrolled in either Mediation – Alternative Dispute Resolution or Victimology, two of the college’s post-graduate certificate programs. Each student had to apply and be interviewed in order to be accepted into the W2B course.

“Taking part in the Walls to Bridges program is important to Durham College for many reasons,” said Stephanie Ball, executive dean of the college’s schools of Justice & Emergency Services and Interdisciplinary Studies. “The environment and dynamics of the class make for a more impactful learning experience for all students while also providing access to post-secondary education for learners who may not have had access to it otherwise.”

The final class will be held at the prison on Wednesday, April 15. Students will present a collaborative project on what they have learned through the course followed by a graduation ceremony.

—30—

About Durham College

At Durham College (DC), the student experience comes first. With campuses in Oshawa and Whitby and a learning site in Pickering, we offer approximately 13,400 full-time post-secondary and apprenticeship students access to more than 140 full-time and nine apprenticeship programs, including the Honours Bachelor of Behavioural Science and Honours Bachelor of Health Care Technology Management.

We enable students to develop the career-ready skills required to meet the demands of today’s job market by connecting them with expert faculty and offering quality programs. With a focus on experiential learning through field-placements, applied research, co-ops and other hands-on opportunities, DC grads have the skills and knowledge employers need.

The Oshawa campus features DC’s newest building, the Centre for Collaborative Education, which represents the college’s commitment to working with local business and community partners while bringing together local, Indigenous and global communities and members of key business sectors.

DC’s Whitby campus is home to the Skills Training Centre, where students receive hands-on training and instruction in industrial-grade shop labs for carpentry, HVAC, welding, elevating devices and crane operation, among others. The campus also features the W. Galen Weston Centre for Food, which includes Bistro ’67, a full-service, teaching-inspired restaurant, and Pantry, a retail store featuring food prepared by students in the college’s culinary programs.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca or call 905.721.2000.

About Walls to Bridges

Walls to Bridges (W2B) is an innovative educational program that brings together incarcerated (“Inside”) and non-incarcerated (“Outside”) students to study post-secondary courses in jails and prisons across Canada. The National Hub for the program is based out of the Lyle S. Hallman Faculty of Social Work, Wilfred Laurier University, in partnership with Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener.

Experiential learning is foundational to the W2B teaching and learning process. An important principle of all W2B courses is that students from outside the correctional system are not ‘mentoring’ or ‘helping’ or ‘working with’ incarcerated/criminalized students: all participants in the class are peers, learning the class content together through innovative, experiential and dialogical processes. Self-reflexivity is a key component of W2B classes.

By providing access to education for incarcerated peoples and through collaborative scholarly inquiry with university-based students, Walls to Bridges classes offer opportunities to understand the complexities of criminalization and punishment through lived experiences and intersectional analyses. This is a transformational educational experience which draws upon lived experience as a source of theorizing as well as challenges the artificial boundaries between people experiencing imprisonment and those who are not.

Visit www.wallstobridges.ca for more information.

For more information, contact:

Melissa McLean
Communications and Marketing
O: 905.721.2000 ext. 2952
M: 647.880.6363
melissa.mclean@durhamcollege.ca

DC paramedic students learn hands-on

Students from the Paramedic program at Durham College (DC) recently had two valuable experiential learning opportunities to put theory into practice.

On April 6, the annual National Paramedic Competition was back at DC after an absence of two years. The Centre for Collaborative Education on the Oshawa campus was abuzz with paramedic students and professionals from across Ontario showcasing their medical knowledge and skills.

The competition saw 24 teams of professional and student paramedics participate in six different patient-care scenarios. These scenarios were presented with realistic and exciting visual effects to convey an accurate portrayal of the dynamic situations encountered on the job.

Over 60 volunteers from DC’s Paramedic, Emergency Services Fundamentals and Firefighter – Pre-service, Education and Training programs assisted with the competition, providing an excellent opportunity to network and learn from the professional teams in attendance. DC is very proud of our students who participated and alumni who walked away with two awards.

Another experiential learning opportunity took place on April 10, at Camp Samac adjacent to the Oshawa Campus, when the graduating Paramedic class took part in the annual year-end mass casualty incident event. Students were presented with scenarios involving mass casualty incidents, with the purpose of reviewing the principles of triage, and the management of mass casualty incidents.

On February 23 and 24, the first and second-year Paramedic students had their chance to get hands-on experience when they took part in Project Lord Ridgeback a multi-disciplinary experiential learning exercise that simulated a local disaster.

Paramedic students volunteer at the Durham Region 2019 Ontario Parasport Games

From February 8 to 10, Durham Region hosted the 2019 Ontario Parasport Games in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, welcoming over 500 athletes, coaches, guides, and support personnel.

As athletes competed in 11 parasports at eight different venues across the region, 18 Durham College (DC) students and alumni from the Paramedic program in the School of Justice & Emergency Services stepped up to volunteer as first aid providers during the games.   

“The paramedic student and faculty volunteers from DC were professional, friendly, and inclusive throughout the games, and were excellent ambassadors for our community,” said Don Terry, co-chair of the Games Organizing Committee.   

“This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to participate in experiential learning while also giving back to the community,” added Jen Walker, a faculty member in the Paramedic program at DC. “It was terrific to see our students having fun, whether they were meeting athletes, cheering them on in their sports, or collaborating with other medical professionals to provide services as needed.”

Alongside experiences like this one, students in the Paramedic program are exposed to ongoing clinical and field placement opportunities during their time at DC, helping them become highly skilled first responders and compassionate caregivers who meet community members’ emergent and non-emergent health needs.

For more about the Durham Region 2019 Ontario Parasport Games, please visit their website or watch their 2019 celebration video.

Students’ strength and program pride shine at DC Justice Games VII

Students from the School of Justice & Emergency Services (JES) put their strength, speed and teamwork on display at the seventh annual Durham College (DC) Justice Games. Held at the Oshawa campus on March 13, the friendly competition brought together contenders from 10 JES programs, including alumni, to represent in seven events.

Beyond bragging rights, the Justice Games gives students the opportunity to showcase their training and network with professionals from Durham Regional Police Service, York Regional Police, Toronto Police Service, Town of Whitby Fire and Emergency Services and regional paramedics.

The event also brought the JES community together to remember and commemorate former Firefighter – Pre-service, Education and Training students Adam Brunt and Tasha Nickelchock. Most valuable player awards in each of their names were awarded to the students identified as demonstrating the highest levels of performance, leadership and sportsmanship over the course of the event.

This year’s MVP winners were Joel Campbell and Melanie Hope.

Students also took home prizes for first and second-place finishes in each event.

The winner of the Justice Cup, which is awarded based on the number of first and second-place finishes by competitors from the same program, was Police Foundations.

Students from following DC programs took part in this year’s event: