Students in Lisa Caruso’s precision machining class have the chance to get a break on their tuition this term thanks to a grant from the Gene Haas Foundation.
The grant of $15,000 US will fund more than eight scholarships worth $2,000 for students in Niagara College’s Mechanical Techniques (General Machinist) program.
It’s one of three grants the college recently received to help students with tuition costs, carrying out community work, and taking care of their mental health during the pandemic.
The other grants include $20,000 from The United Way to hire Recreation Therapy students to help seniors combat isolation in a local long-term care home. Additionally, $15,000 comes from the Niagara Community Foundation to take the NC Student Administrative Council’s (NC SAC) Wellness Lounges online for peer-to-peer mental health support. Both grants were made possible by the Government of Canada’s Emergency Community Support Fund (ECSF).
Caruso’s students already have a connection to the Gene Haas Foundation, working on Haas CNC machines in class. Funding scholarships shows the foundation values student learning and is keen to nurture careers in machining, Caruso said.
“The Gene Haas Foundation sees the challenges students are facing and is becoming part of their support system,” she said. “They’re supporting the machining field because they’re invested in the machining field. The Gene Haas Foundation sees the work students do as important and sees them contributing to something that makes a difference.”
Rec Therapy students go to work
The United Way-ECSF grant has enabled the creation of paid work placements for three Recreation Therapy students in their fourth and final term of the program. The money furthers efforts made possible by an earlier United Way-ECSF grant worth $55,000, which was used to cover materials that will help the students connect virtually with residents at Millennium Trail Manor, a Niagara Falls long-term care home hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The student-led programming will include one-on-one interactions to stimulate residents cognitively and socially. The students carrying out the programming will also use materials created by their classmates and technology purchased with the first United Way-ECSF grant.
“We’re so thankful for the money and so thankful we can impact Millennium Trail in a positive way,” said Carol Phillips, NC’s Associate Dean of Community Services. “The residents really need it. The students are really keen to make a difference and understand this will be their role. This is real life coming for them and they’ve really embraced it.”
Wellness Lounges move online
Making virtual connections between students will also be easier thanks to the Niagara Community Foundation-ECSF grant that will bring student wellness lounges online. Wellness lounges opened at both Niagara College campuses just weeks before the province declared a state of emergency and went into lockdown in March 2020.
The spaces were created in response to a growing need for student mental health support and are a partnership between the College’s Health, Wellness, and Accessibility Services and the NC SAC. Wellness lounges provided opportunities for students to drop-in and engage in-person with trained wellness peers in supportive, relaxed conversations around common student challenges and wellness concerns, such as feelings of loneliness, sadness and stress, and how to access resources on and off campus.
This latest grant, which follows a $55,000 infusion last fall for NC SAC’s Nourishing Minds programs, will shift those activities to a dedicated online space where wellness peers will provide virtual group sessions. They’ll discuss subjects such as self-compassion, mindfulness, time-management, resilience, gratitude, cultivating peace, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. Wellness Peers will also be available for one-on-one conversations during dedicated virtual drop-in hours.
“The transition to a virtual peer wellness program is extremely important as it provides the opportunity to reach students who are learning remotely and engaging virtually,” said Tom Price, NC SAC president. “A virtual lounge is exciting as it will allow for the creation of new activities and supports for this vital students-supporting-students initiative.”
