POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam opened the doors to the college's new Center for Applied Learning offices with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a grand opening celebration today.

The SUNY Potsdam Center for Applied Learning is the first center of its kind in the State University of New York system, and will receive $750,000 from the SUNY Investment and Performance Fund, which is designed to increase student success and college completion.

The mission of the Center for Applied Learning is to ensure that every student has the opportunity to complete one or more high-impact learning experiences during their studies. It will also create models of success for applied learning that can be replicated at other campuses throughout the system.

In its newly renovated location in the Frederick W. Crumb Memorial Library, the Center for Applied Learning will bring together the offices of experiential education, international education and student research, in a "one stop shop" at the heart of campus. Faculty, staff and students were invited to tour the new offices and learn more about its programs.

SUNY Potsdam President Kristin G. Esterberg said the college has been awarded with a $750,000 SUNY grant "to develop models of success for applied learning that can be replicated at other campuses throughout the system," a statement from the school said.

"The Center for Applied Learning reflects what our students have shown us: that the ability to explore, take risks and reflect on how those experiences change their path is one of the foundations for success," Esterberg said. "I am so proud to be launching this center today, and to take the lead within SUNY for applied learning. We are grateful to have our leadership recognized with such significant support from the SUNY Investment and Performance Fund."

"The Investment and Performance Fund support from SUNY will allow SUNY Potsdam to expand the research, development, testing and implementation of models, methods and approaches to applied learning, through an incubator program. Planned areas of study include: curricular pathways across all disciplines, faculty compensation models for mentorship work and development of new applied learning programs, and collaboration with community colleges to create transfer pathways for applied learning experiences," the statement reads.

Collaboration through the North Country Initiative will expand the impact of Potsdam's program to students at other North Country SUNY campuses.

The Center for Applied Learning is overseen by the new Dorf Endowed Director for Applied Learning, Jenica Rogers, who also directs the College Libraries.

SUNY Potsdam created the first-ever endowed position thanks to tJoy (MacDonald) Dorf and her husband, Richard Dorf. The Dorfs made this possible through the creation of a $1 million endowment and the gift of start-up funding for the new center. Through an investment of campus funding and resources, the college recently completed a renovation and construction project to build new offices for the Center for Applied Learning in the library.

Rogers shared the story of Ajanee Biggs, who is completing the applied learning "trifecta," through a study abroad experience in Trinidad and Tobago, where she is doing hands-on research, which she will compile through a project working with a faculty member and present at a national conference later this semester.

"This is the best of what we do -- a student who looked at her own course of study and said, 'I want to do something remarkable,' and made a plan to make it happen," Rogers said. "That's my goal for this center. Our students will know that they can do that. And our faculty will believe it, too. Whatever they can dream of, we will facilitate."

For more information about the Center for Applied Learning at SUNY Potsdam, please visit www.potsdam.edu/academics/appliedlearning.