While not all Seneca students will pursue entrepreneurial endeavours, that determined, tenacious and self-promoting mindset can serve them well—especially in a labour force based more and more on “gig-style” contract work that is precarious. And Seneca’s growing number of applied research projects brings students elbow-to-elbow with small business owners, looking for industry solutions to support commercialization of local products and services.

Seneca’s on-campus incubator, HELIX, and the Mechatronics Simulation and Demonstration Centre are helping with this too. Both are examples of the many Seneca spaces where students are encouraged to experiment, innovate, make mistakes and then learn from them.

“Seneca lets students test their skills in a safe environment,” says Laurel. “They are exposed to highly energetic, positive, motivated people who can mentor them, helping them know what they don’t know.”

Innovation, emotion and distraction: technology and today’s learner

As Seneca continues to educate today’s learner effectively, it will look to professors like Valerie Lopes. Along with her teaching duties, Valerie is engaged in research and consultation with eCampusOntario on pedagogy and leveraging technology to foster optimal learning environments. Technology, especially, is of great interest to Valerie, and she feels that, when used thoughtfully, can be an enabler of student success but also can provide big distractions.

For her, learner needs haven’t changed, but technology has, and this has affected how institutions like Seneca need to design learning experiences. While providing more courses and resources online helps, Valerie’s ongoing work has found that students still need “face time” to find success.

“There is a body of research that shows it’s human, personal contact that makes the difference for retention and success,” says Valerie. “The most important factor is student/faculty connection. When students have this, they stay.”

Seneca professors and advisors also have to help students avoid the distractions and emotional impacts that have come with the evolution of social media. While a wonderful tool for networking and information sharing, social media can hinder students’ development and add to their stress levels.

“The biggest difference for today’s learners is that they have more things that they can distract themselves with,” says Valerie. “If I had a cellphone when I was that age, I’d be doing exactly the same thing.”

It is also imperative that counsellors and advisors keep a close eye for signs of the emotional toll that social media can take on mental and emotional wellness. It’s well-known that cases of mental illness are on the rise at campuses throughout Canada, and social media is a contributing factor.

“We are dealing with questions of self-worth that no one has had to deal with before, based on the reactions we get to social media posts,” says Valerie. “It’s so important to remind students about ways they can think positively about themselves in ways that aren’t based on ‘likes.’”

“Au Large:” Positive horizons for collaboration, learning and belonging

As Seneca turns 50, grappling with emerging technology, new workforce competencies and additional pressures for students is the norm—as it was when the doors opened on Sheppard Avenue in 1967. While arenas like social media were not part of the landscape then, Seneca professors had the same responsibilities then as they do now.

One big difference between 1967 and now is the space Seneca can provide: King Campus is expanding with new academic and athletic facilities at Magna Hall to accommodate 1,500 more students. At Newnham Campus, Seneca Fields opened this fall and will be followed by expanded space for First Peoples@Seneca in 2018 and the Centre for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship in early 2019.

“With our builds, we are better able to provide service to students and invest in their experience in a thoughtful way,” says Laurel. “And it’s not just about teaching space. It’s our ability to provide cross-disciplinary opportunities that bring students together.”

All these new and improved spaces contribute to a Seneca designed to invite students to take ownership of their surroundings and develop those competencies that will serve them in their careers and personal lives—a project now entering its 50th year.

The street leading to Newnham Campus is called Au Large Boulevard. More than 450 years ago, the French had a fort operating at Fort Boyard, now Bathurst Street. The coureurs de bois (runners of the forest) used it as a pushing-off place for their journeys to the interior.

Legend has it that the early morning tranquility would be broken by the lead canoeist shouting a rallying cry of “Au Large,” which means “into the offing” or “most distant part of the sea in view.”

Au Large became the motto for Seneca, instilled by Dr. Newnham, as he and his fellow Ontario college pioneers looked toward the distant sea of our future to help build a better Ontario for tomorrow.

Fifty years in, it is clear they were on the right track. It’s now up to all of us to continue this mission.