A message from President Kennedy:
Yesterday, we had the pleasure of gathering with friends and colleagues at NC’s Holiday Celebration to cap off what has been a remarkable year of momentum and growth for our college.
Our evolution has been a result of your hard work and consistent efforts to support student success. Your commitment to our college gives me great pride, and I want to thank you for being student-focused, welcoming, passionate and trailblazing, this year and always.
As we close out 2023, I am reflecting fondly on our many accomplishments, particularly the ways in which we have advanced the goals and actions of our Strategic Plan.
Among a great many awards, our spirit of innovation once again shone brightly this year. Last week, we were thrilled to announce that Niagara College is now the number one research college in Canada – moving up one spot from last year’s rankings. Our consistent ranking among the top 10 research colleges is a truly remarkable achievement that gives our college community great pride.
I’d also like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to participate in the recent Employee Engagement Survey, the results of which will be released in late March.
Looking ahead to 2024, we will be working hard to support our ambitious vision for our campuses.
Our Master Plan is guiding the development of new and renovated buildings and spaces to support investments in student housing, Applied Health, and Skilled Trades programming, among many other exciting campus improvements.
With our EDI Blueprint to guide us, and with the Niagara College Student Administrative Council (NCSAC) as our partner, we will continue to take meaningful action to advance equity, diversity and inclusion to ensure Niagara College is a place where all are welcomed, valued, and included.
We will also continue to expand our Global Reach in a variety of ways, including our Be World Ready program, which will see over 170 students taking flight for international learning experiences in the upcoming Winter and Spring terms. This Winter, students will participate in work abroad and International Field Studies (IFS) in Costa Rica and Portugal; in Spring, IFS will travel to India and Georgia; and over the summer, students will engage in culture and language institutes in South Korea, Spain and Japan.
As we look forward to the holidays, I want to celebrate NC’s spirit of giving. NC is a longtime supporter of the United Way, and this year our caring employees have raised a record $62,000 for community members in need.
Through our recent Giving Tuesday activities, more than $18,000 was raised for NCSAC’s Nourishing Minds program. Health, Wellness and Accessibility Services (HWAS) recently partnered with the School of Culinary Arts to provide frozen meals for students in need once a week. Culinary students also joined chef professor Olaf Mertens in preparing a traditional Christmas dinner that will be donated as part of our Feed the Community initiative to Bethesda Children and Youth Services. Feed the Community has prepared and donated more than 4,800 meals to key agencies in Niagara.
Our Give Back Committee has gathered donations of children’s toys, clothing and food through their annual “Adopt a family” and “Give a gift to a child” initiatives in support of student families in need. So many people in our community will have a brighter holiday season thanks to the caring and generosity of our students and employees.
On behalf of the entire Executive Team, I offer you my most sincere thanks for all that you do to make NC such a remarkable place of learning and innovation. Warm wishes for a safe, happy and restful holiday season!
