Miami Dade College has received $1.2 million from the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation to enhance hospitality and culinary education at the Wolfson Campus, including the creation of a state-of-the-art training facility featuring a hotel room, hotel front desk and dining room.
The new Hospitality Center at the Wolfson Campus will provide an environment to support both credit and non-credit hospitality programs with hands-on training. The funds will also be used to support the college’s Miami Culinary Institute with a new a savory/pastry kitchen and an expansion of its offerings with the launch of a Pastry Chef Culinary Program.
The Hospitality Institute at MDC is a widely respected program that provides students a practical and theoretical foundation for skills and leadership in a variety of fields with the hospitality industry. Students may obtain industry certifications in continuing education, earn an Associate in Arts or Associate in Science degree and can go on to complete a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Supervision and Management with a concentration in hospitality. More information can be found at: https://www.mdc.edu/hospitality-institute/.
Wolfson Foundation Donates $12M for Renovation and Expansion of a State-of-the-Art Makers Lab at Kendall Campus
Additionally, MDC has received a donation of $12 million from the Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Foundation to enhance a state-of-the-art Makers Lab at Kendall Campus to serve students studying engineering, information technology, robotics, visual and performing arts, and other disciplines.
The Makers Lab is a creative, problem-solving space where ideas take physical shape. Free and open to the MDC community, the Makers Lab is equipped with high-precision industrial tools that make it easy to produce an accurate prototype, model or replica of virtually any object, using a wide range of materials and computer-aided design (CAD) software. Collaboration and experimentation are key to innovation at the Makers Lab, where students are encouraged to work with peers from other academic disciplines in order to identify problems and search for solutions from various perspectives.
The enhanced Makers Lab at Kendall Campus will be an environment for high impact practices including collaborative learning, student research and learning communities. Faculty and staff will be encouraged to develop and integrate course and/or program modules into existing curriculum. External partners will be invited to use the space and engage with students, as well as develop potential internship or apprenticeship pathways.
For more than 50 years the Wolfson Foundation has provided financial support to the college for scholarships, program development and equipment to enhance the success and achievements of students. These donations have allowed MDC to provide financial assistance to thousands of low-income students who might not have otherwise been able to earn an academic credential. These funds have also been used for creating some of MDC’s most innovative academic spaces and programs in cutting-edge fields including cyber-security, artificial intelligence, and fashion design and merchandising, to name a few.