Algonquin College announces new DARE District

Posted on Friday, February 9th, 2018

FEB. 9 – OTTAWA – DARE District is coming to Algonquin College.

At a special reception, the College announced the name of its new innovation, entrepreneurship, and learning centre, which is opening in May 2018.

Algonquin College President Cheryl Jensen described the importance of the name, which was chosen from a list of more than 200 name suggestions from across the College community. DARE stands for Discovery, Applied Research, and Entrepreneurship.

“In choosing the DARE District, we are not just saying something about what we hope this exciting new building will become, but we are making a profound statement about who we are as a College,” Jensen said. “Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Right now.

“We are dedicated to Discovery. We are dedicated to Applied Research. We are dedicated to Entrepreneurship. In fact, we are committed to instilling an entrepreneurial mindset throughout the College – in our students and our employees. We are ready to dare. To be bold. To be strong. To be imaginative.”

The building will include the College’s new Library and Learning Centre, an Indigenous Commons, a Makerspace, a Cyber-Security Centre, and more. It will be home to new training and test facilities for high-demand job sectors, a multimedia production facility, expanded Applied Research and Innovation programs, and Indigenous entrepreneurship projects – and serve as a multidisciplinary space for students, faculty, researchers, and businesses.

Board of Governors Chair, Peter Nadeau, issued a challenge to the College community: “We still have a few weeks before the building is officially opened, but in that time, I would challenge everyone to think of what they might dare to innovate inside its walls. In this new DARE District, there will be no limits to creativity, no barriers to success.”

Victoria Ventura, President of the Students’ Association – which invested $1 million towards Indigenous art and architecture for the DARE District, including the courtyard – called the name fitting. “I believe calling it the DARE District just fits because becoming a student starts with a dare – to follow a dream… to put your education first, to learn new things… to forge new connection, friends, clients, and contacts,” Ventura said. “I believe great things will happen inside of the DARE District at Algonquin College, too.”

In her own remarks, Jensen said the DARE District would not be a place where Indigenous culture is compartmentalized in an office or a workspace. “I know you have all heard about the beautiful Indigenous courtyard — but that’s not where our commitment to Indigenous history, tradition and life begins and ends,” she said. “Indigenous culture will be a thread that runs through the DARE District, to be sure, but also through all of our campuses. It will touch every learner, employee and visitor to Algonquin College. We must accept nothing less — Indigenization is something that we carry in our name, that we aspire to in our everyday work and that we must honour as part of our unwavering promise to seek Truth and Reconciliation.”

For more on the DARE District, visit algonquincollege.com/dare.

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MEDIA CONTACT

Chris Lackner
Communications Officer
Algonquin College
613-727-4723 ext. 2091
lacknec@algonquincollege.com


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