Students from nursing and the police and fire academies witnessed the groundbreaking for the new Yuba College Health and Public Safety Building on September 24, 2010. Yuba College President, Dr. Kay Adkins, welcomed and introduced guest speakers along with YCCD Trustees Jim Buchan, Brent Hastey, and George Nicholau. Chancellor Nicki Harrington also spoke. They all thanked the community for their support of Measure J.
The pictures of the new building that were unveiled are beautiful. When they are complete, they will be an amazing addition to the Yuba College campus both aesthetically and academically.
Guest speakers for the Nursing Department consisted of Lynette Garcia, a Yuba College Faculty Member; Jan Frank, Director of Nurses for the Fremont/Rideout Health Group; and Janet Box, a nursing student preparing to graduate this December. They all spoke of the exciting new nursing labs with 7 beds each attached to classrooms and the Simulation Center designed to create a controlled hospital experience with a labor and delivery, ICU, ER, Triage, and Psych unit suites.
Lynette Garcia thanked the community for giving back to our future care givers.
Janet Box stated, “I am sad that it won’t be finished before I graduate, but maybe I can come back and teach here.”
Speakers for the Public Safety Department were Rolfe Appel, the Public Safety Director; Michael Gomez, P.O.S.T. Regional Consultant; Steve Durfor, Yuba County Sheriff; and Felicia Kim, an Administration of Justice Graduate from Yuba College and current member of the Citrus Heights Police Department.
Appel spoke eagerly about the law enforcement classrooms and the simulation labs that will be used for cell extraction training, SWAT training and much more. “Yuba College will be a premier training center because of Measure J,” Appel said.
Gomez, from the Commission of Peace Officers and Training, said, “We believe that Yuba College is the foundation for officer training, and we look forward to the day the academy re-opens here at Yuba College.”
“This is the training ground for the next set of protectors,” Durfor said.
Kim spoke of her experience when she was training in the academy at Yuba College and what a rewarding experience it was. “Bonds stronger than steel will hold its peers together in this new training center,” she said.
There is so much more that this new Health and Safety Building will provide in training, such as dedicated classrooms for Fire and EMT training with video for state test observation; two classrooms for degree courses in law enforcement, corrections, and fire; and a fire training tower that will be four stories tall for live fire training.
The opportunities seem endless with this new training center. I can’t wait to see it when it is done.
Update 10/16/10: Student Trustee George Cheso was also present at the Ground Breaking to represent the students of Yuba College. His name was inadvertently omitted from the original article. – DB
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