On September 5, Durham College (DC) flung open the doors to the Centre for Collaborative Education (CFCE) and invited students and employees to explore the newest building on the Oshawa campus.

While enjoying free cupcakes and lemonade, as well as music spun by DJ Greedo, members of the campus community took self-guided tours of the CFCE’s innovative learning spaces, which include the following:

• 360insights Entrepreneurship Centre, home to FastStartDC, a program that helps students and youth develop valid business ideas and plans to take their products and services to market quickly and successfully. 
• Centre for Success and Academic Upgrading, home to the School-College-Work Initiative, a partnership between DC and five regional school boards, which assists at-risk students to earn their Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) in a college environment and find their way to post-secondary education. Students also have the opportunity to take college-level courses in order to earn dual credits that can be counted against both completing their OSSD and a chosen college program. Academic upgrading supports mature students in achieving prerequisites they need in order to pursue post-secondary education. 
• Durham College Spa, an inclusive space committed to making beauty, health and wellness accessible and more affordable for all, while supporting the intensive training and learning of a new generation of massage therapy practitioners, makeup artists and estheticians. It includes a massage therapy clinic and makeup and esthetics labs. 
• First Peoples Indigenous Centre (formerly the Aboriginal Student Centre) which uses a holistic approach to education, serving First Nations, Métis and Inuit students by focusing on their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. 
• Global Classroom, where state-of-the-art technology enables students and faculty to discuss topics in a virtual classroom, joined by experts and other students from around the world in real time to foster intercultural competency and experience. 
• Interprofessional Simulation Lab, a 21-bed unit that simulates a hospital environment for students in various health-care programs. 
• Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion and Transitions, a space dedicated to ensuring that DC students feel welcomed and supported on campus through a variety of diverse and comprehensive programs designed to foster academic and social growth.

Located on Simcoe St. North, the CFCE stands just east of where the aging Simcoe building once stood. The new multi-level facility is a legacy project tied to DC’s 50th anniversary in 2017 and will now serve as an educational access point for students while bringing together local, Indigenous and global community groups and members of key business sectors.

Up next for the CFCE will be a formal, by-invitation grand opening celebration on Tuesday, October 2, which will include an Indigenous ceremony, official ribbon-cutting, unveiling of the donor wall and time capsule installation.