The future of Illinois State University Mennonite College of Nursing is bright, thanks in part to funding secured by Illinois lawmakers.

The Mennonite College of Nursing broke ground on an expanded simulation center earlier this summer. That center doubles the space of the current simulation lab, allowing the state school to enroll 1-hundred additional nursing students. U.S. Representative Darin LaHood and Senator Dick Durbin helped secure two million dollars for the project. He says this funding paves the way for the future of nursing across the state.

The new laboratory, priced at 18 million dollars, also houses new classrooms and patient simulation areas.

The laboratory is at the corner of Locust Street and Normal Avenue - across from the Bone Student Center parking lot.