Li Koon Chun Finance Learning Centre, which will provide hands-on trading experience for students in various disciplines, including economics, was officially opened yesterday at the Mississauga Rd. campus.
"This will benefit 100 students in my class alone," said Dr. Lisa Kramer. "They used to have to take a bus to the St. George campus to experience anything like this. They begged for this type of facility here and in less than a year, here it is."
When students finished studies in late spring, they had no idea the centre, named after the father of Dr. Ronald Fook Shiu Li, a noted philanthropist and founder of the Far East Stock Exchange and Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Ltd., would become a reality. It was made possible because of an $800,000 gift from Dr. Ronald Fook Shiu Li and his wife, who were on hand at Monday's ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Mayor Hazel McCallion and UTM principal Ian Orchard were among the many who thanked the Lis for the donation.
"We are building an environment for success that will benefit our young people now and well into the future," Orchard said.
The centre is designed to provide students with a hands-on learning environment that mimics future workplace settings. It will include live data feeds from the global financial community, sophisticated financial analysis and simulation software, and software related to information security and computer forensics.
For UTM commerce graduate Rita Ahmadyar, who also served as student representative on the finance centre's project committee, it was an exciting moment to see the 32 work stations in place, the stock exchange ticker running in the background and big-screen computers mounted to the walls.
"The value for students makes this a great addition to this campus," she said. "On graduating, with this kind of hands-on experience, they will have a leg up when they start to look for a job."
Undergraduate and graduate students in economics, psychology and computer forensics programs will be able to study and conduct research in the centre.
jslack@mississauga.net
