By KALEY LYON

klyon@dailynews.net

Shayne Unsworth couldn't believe his eyes when he first set foot in his classrooms earlier this month.

A second-year student at North Central Kansas Technical College, he was pleased to see almost a year of construction completed, and the campus nursing building greatly improved.

"It is wonderful," said Unsworth, a Hays resident. "There's a ton of room, new stuff to play with. It is, it's really nice."

Construction to expand the campus nursing facility commenced in October, and the school hosted an open-house celebration Thursday afternoon to celebrate the finished project.

Medical professionals, Board of Regents members and other interested parties were invited to tour the much-anticipated addition.

The new and improved facility features two classrooms, both considerably larger than the previous ones, an expanded commons area for the students to use between classes, and a bigger library with more resources available.

Perhaps most notably, however, the face-lift provided for an interactive learning laboratory that is about twice the size of the former space, said Robin Hertel, a faculty member in the nursing department.

The lab also features a variety of new learning materials, including 15 life-like mannequins for the students to practice medical procedures, and models of the human anatomy.

"The students can actually get hands-on experience here," Hertel said. "We have a lot of different and exciting things here."

And while the festivities continued throughout the afternoon, it was business as usual Thursday in the lab, as a group of students practiced nasogastric tube insertion for a test the following day.

The renovations and additional learning material was funded partly by a $350,000 grant given by the Kansas Board of Regents.

Ultimately, it's hoped the expanded space and technology will allow the college to increase the number of graduates, said NCKTC President Clark Coco.