Kirkwood Community College celebrated the opening of its new Veterinary Technology Center with a ribbon cutting ceremony and tour on Sept. 14.
The new facility will allow for training of veterinary technician students who will provide professional technical support to veterinarians, animal hospitals, and clinics.
Dean of Agricultural Science and Hospitality Arts, Brad Kinsinger, said, “We had our first group of students here actually in June to kick things off and break it in since that time. The things that are awesome about this space is its truly student focused and it’s truly got animal welfare in mind.”
He added, “When we look at the older facility and the space we had, we had some spaces that were doubling as storage and now we have a place where they can work, and students can learn and truly engage with each other and with their faculty members staff members.”
The new building features 18,000 square feet of instructional clinical space along with technical classrooms, animal housing, lounge areas and administrative offices.
Kinsinger also discussed the updated equipment. “I’m excited about the technology, there’s an X-ray room there’s a dental room there’s a surgical suite and what’s cool about these spaces is that there’s cameras in the rooms that can be connected to TVs throughout the facility so whether you’re in that surgical operating room doing the procedure or not you can still see what’s happening and learn alongside,” he said.
“With the enrichment centers we have an indoor climate-controlled enrichment center so when it’s cold the snow is blowing outside, they can still be working with the dogs and the animals and here I’m an environment that’s good for both,” said Kinsinger.
Kirkwood President Dr. Lori Sundberg was at the event. She said, “I am super excited to be here today. This is something that’s been in the works for a long time, and I think you can see the facility is just state-of-the-art and I’m so excited for students because they get to work in an environment like this and take classes and just work on the latest equipment and technology. Our other facility was outdated, here we can give students an opportunity to really work with the latest, which is what students are looking for, they want to be relevant, they want to be cutting edge and I think this facility’s going to do it.”
The event was attended by Kirkwood’s board of trustees, the Kirkwood Foundation, multiple state senators, alumni, students, and community members.
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