KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The new Center for Accelerated Training (CAT) facility at Valencia College’s Kissimmee campus offers students access to accelerated skills training programs and nationally recognized industry certifications in Osceola County. Designed by DLR Group, the 14,700-square-foot center houses short-term training courses to support local workforce needs. This is the third CAT facility to open at Valencia College; DLR Group designed the original CAT prototype facility, which opened on the Poinciana Campus in 2017.

Sanford, Fla.-based Wharton-Smith, Inc. Construction Group served as the general contractor for the project.

The new facility consists of 10 classrooms, a computer lab for instruction and hands-on activities, and a large bay area for skills training. Programs include technical training for apartment maintenance, carpentry, clinical medical assisting, core construction, heavy construction equipment, roofing, transportation logistics, and warehouse packaging.

“DLR Group is excited to continue our partnership with Valencia College and to deliver beautiful and functional facilities that meet the educational needs of its students,” said DLR Group Principal Nicole Nichols, AIA. “The new CAT facility is designed with a mix of labs, classrooms, and breakout spaces, allowing students to master skillsets necessary to immediately enter the workforce.”

In addition to preparing workers for high-demand careers, the $4.5 million facility also features classrooms to house Valencia’s English programs for non-native speakers, as well as conversational Spanish and Portuguese classes.

“We’re very excited to provide the Osceola County community with a space where students can pursue careers that might lead to higher wage employment,” said Joe Battista, vice president of Global, Professional, and Continuing Education at Valencia College. “These programs provide the adult student an alternative way to attend college in an intensive six to 20 weeks of education and training.”

The CAT facility will neighbor a new Careers in Industry and Technology (CIT) building, which is scheduled to open by January 2020.

The CIT building will be a 36,000-square foot building that will provide space for bringing Valencia’s engineering technology classes to the Osceola Campus. The building will also house classes for criminal justice technology, hospitality and tourism management and a new degree in residential property management. The five Associate in Science degree programs enable Osceola County students to earn two-year, workforce-oriented degrees without traveling to Valencia’s other campuses in Orlando.

The CIT building will also house classrooms, administrative offices and one small mock apartment unit for the college’s hospitality program.

The CIT building will also be home to Valencia’s mechatronics program, which is a short-term job training program currently housed at Valencia’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Center in Kissimmee. Mechatronics technicians learn skills from electrical, technical and computer technologies to enable graduates to troubleshoot mechanical systems in everything from ATMs to assembly lines to computerized theme park rides.

“These short-term training programs and specialized workforce degree programs have never been more important,” said Kathleen Plinske, president of Valencia’s Osceola, Lake Nona and Poinciana campuses. “Not all jobs require a bachelor’s degree; not all jobs require even an associate’s degree, but essentially all jobs now require some education after high school.”

The $13 million CIT facility will also provide short-term training for service technicians.

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Higher education creates opportunities for students to follow their dreams, provide for their families and master skills. Some communities across the country, however, lack access to higher education facilities and programs, forcing residents to make difficult life choices.

In one community southwest of Kissimmee, Fla., thousands of students were without direct access to higher education institutions for many years. Students fought the daily grind of a 90-minute round-trip commute by car; those who relied on the bus for transportation suffered through a two-hour, one-way trip as they pursued degrees or certificates from Valencia College’s West and Osceola campuses. Fortunately, that all changed in the fall of 2017 with the opening of the new Valencia Poinciana Campus.

The realization of a vision that launched 10 years prior, the new campus serves the growing higher education needs of the local community that bridges Osceola and surrounding counties, and provides much needed and desired accessible education to students of the Poinciana community.

“When we started construction on the Poinciana Campus, I was often asked, ‘Why are you building a campus in Poinciana? No one from Poinciana goes to college.’ I would consistently respond, ‘That is precisely why we are building a campus in Poinciana,’” Kathleen Plinske, Ed.D., campus president for Osceola, Lake Nona and Poinciana campuses.

National firm DLR Group was hired to master plan and program the new campus, and to design the first three buildings, which include:

• A 63,894-square-foot, multi-use facility that houses 12 classrooms, a science lab, two computer labs and a culinary teaching kitchen to serve the new Hospitality Program. Additionally, as the first and main building for the campus, this facility includes necessary financial and student services, administration offices, conference rooms, a library, a café and a multipurpose gathering room that opens to a central courtyard that can be used by the college and community for events.

• The 11,706-square-foot Center for Accelerated Training, which houses rotating programs of six- to 12-week certification courses such as basic construction, transportation logistics, advanced manufacturing and fork-lift operating as well as continuing education courses in English as a Second Language and Spanish.

• A 4,220-square-foot Central Utility Plant servicing the entire campus with room for future campus growth.

DLR Group’s planning efforts for this campus stem from its belief that truly successful higher education capital improvements focus on three considerations: student culture, community investment and sustainability.

Designing a Student Campus Culture

Higher education designs are formed from a deep understanding of core institutional programs, services and stakeholders. Designs that are most effective serve the unique needs of the local student body. At Valencia College’s Poinciana Campus, this translates into a campus culture designed to serve thousands of local students, many of whom are the first generation in their family to attend college. Building upon the long history and success of the Valencia College network, this new campus is a fresh start that creates a memorable student experience.

“When you step onto campus you feel a sense of optimism. Students express excitement about the future with deep-rooted emotion, as though they are now physically standing in a vision they have had without knowing if it would ever be their reality,” said Mark Hose, Valencia College facility planner.

A majority of the population served by the Poinciana Campus is Latino, specifically from Puerto Rico. DLR Group’s design celebrates the surrounding community’s heritage and pays homage to the iconic Poinciana (or “flame”) trees, which are common in Puerto Rico and are viewed as symbols of hope. Two Poinciana trees in the student courtyard are the focal point for the campus’ inspiration. The trees’ placement, coupled with a courtyard that opens toward the community, welcomes visitors and creates a sense of pride for the new campus.

Biomimicry of the Poinciana tree is used throughout the exterior and interior design of the main building as inspiration to the community and a reminder of hope and aspiration. DLR Group incorporated the tree’s foliage as the pattern for shading devices on the south side of the building, and colorful banners along the north side celebrate the blooming red flowers. The interior color palette blends warm wood tones reflective of the beautiful Poinciana tree with bold red moments in the cool-toned carpeting, recalling the picturesque tapestry of the ground after the red flowers have fallen. The design also features a student-gathering plaza that inhabits the second and third floors of the north-south portion of the building. This plaza is lovingly termed the “Treehouse” as it sits nestled between the finished, polished Poinciana Trees’ courtyard to its west and the native Floridian conservation forest to its east.

Because the design reflects the local culture, students who attend Poinciana Campus feel at home, while also staying connected to the greater Valencia College student experience. They finally have a designated space where they can learn and socialize with their peers while achieving their higher education goals.

Community-Based Dynamic

The Poinciana Campus is a true community campus, supported both locally and by the state. Leaders within the local community rallied with state officials to create lifelong learning opportunities for residents of all ages.

“The Poinciana Campus is a game-changer for the community,” said Plinske. “Before, a college education was simply out of reach for many students. Now, a college education is available in our students’ backyard.”

The 19-acre site was donated by Osceola County, and the design and construction was funded by the state. The state legislature approved a series of funding for the school, including $1 million in 2014 for planning funds, $11.9 million in 2015 to fund half of the construction costs and an additional $12.1 million in 2016, which helped transform the Poinciana Campus from a dream into reality. Recognizing the critical need for the campus, the Board of Trustees of Valencia College also allocated $2 million from reserves to accelerate the planning and design of the campus.

“We were so fortunate that our local, county and state leadership recognized the tremendous need for the Poinciana Campus and found the resources necessary to make higher education accessible for a community that historically had been underserved,” said Plinske.

To read the entire story, check out the March/April issue of School Construction News.

Nicole Nichols, AIA, is DLR Group’s higher education leader and principal in the national design firm.

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The CWU students built three buddy benches for the nearby Mount Stuart Elementary playground in hopes of eliminating loneliness and fostering friendships at recess. The concept behind the two-person bench is that if a student doesn’t have a friend to play with at recess, they sit on the bench and wait for someone to come sit with them.

Local community member Linnet Botkin spearheaded bringing buddy benches to the area. Botkin connected with Dr. Warren Plugge, a professor in the CWU construction management department, who encouraged eight students to take on the project.

“I thought this would be a great opportunity for our students to get involved with a community service type project that could help the community but also students at a local elementary,” Plugge told the Daily Record News.

Now that the benches are built, students from the fifth-grade class at Mount Stuart will paint them before they are placed on the school grounds at the start of next year.

“I hear about bullying and it breaks my heart,” Botkin told the Daily Record News. “I like the thought that there’s somewhere a child might go and just sit and other people would be aware and come over and say, ‘Want to come over and play?’”

The Mount Stuart Elementary buddy benches are among several others being integrated in school playgrounds across the country. The concept of buddy benches came to the U.S. several years ago when Pennsylvania elementary school student Christian Bucks brought the idea to his principal. Bucks had first seen the benches being used at a school in Germany, according to Christian’s Buddy Bench website.

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