Darlington Hall, Harford Community College's new Nursing and Allied Health Building, had its official grand opening ceremony Friday.
More than 250 Harford County government officials, local business people, community members and Harford Community College employees attended the ceremony.
Students have been using the new building since the start of the current spring semester.
During the ceremony, Patrick Haggerty Jr. presented a citation from the office of Maryland State Sen. J.B. Jennings; Sue Clark presented a citation from the office of Maryland State Sen. Wayne Norman; and Julia Bopst, from the office of Del. Teresa Reilly, presented a citation on behalf of the Harford County delegation. Richard Slutzky, James McMahan and Chad Shrodes presented a proclamation from the Harford County Council and McMahan also presented a legislator citation from District C.
Comments were delivered by Harford County Executive Barry Glassman, HCC Board of Trustees Chair Dr. Jay Valdes, HCC President Dr. Dennis Golladay, HCC Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Annette Haggray, HCC Foundation Board Chair Deborah Smith Williams and nursing student Dori Reimert. During his comments, Glassman also presented a certificate of congratulations. At the ceremony's conclusion, guests toured the building.
Darlington Hall opened for classes in the spring. For the first time on Harford's campus, academic credit and continuing education health care programming are offered in one building. The 52,000-square-foot, three-story, state-of-the-art facility was designed with high-tech classrooms, laboratories, modeling and simulation labs and informal study and social spaces. The building is a central hub for students pursuing nursing and allied health degrees and certificates at the college and also serves Upper Chesapeake Health through ongoing professional development course work.
The state invested $10.5 million and the county $7.4 million to construct, equip and furnish Darlington Hall. Harford Community College contributed land, human capital, equipment and furnishings to positively impact the future quality of health care in the region.
The architectural firm of Hord Coplan Macht designed Darlington Hall to help provide for a more collaborative, team-based model of teaching in health care fields. Kinsley Construction was the general contractor.
The college offers accredited health care education in a wide variety of majors and fields, including EKG technician, electronic health record specialist, electroneurodiagnostic technician, dental assistant, histotechnology, medical assistant, medical office assistant, medical administrative assistant, medical billing and coding, medical transcriptionist, registered nurse, practical nursing, paramedic, physical therapy technology, patient care technology, pharmacy technology and phlebotomy technician.
To learn more about the nursing and allied health programs offered at HCC, contact nursing@harford.edu or alliedhealth@harford.edu.