its a community college, entry level class. Not sure what that has to do with anything?

Making the hole in the center isn't necessarily the issue i'm having. I's creating that central, triangular, hub and connecting the 3 arms to it making 1 piece.
thanks for the response

Someone else suggested i try 'socking'.

I talked with my instructor today and figured out how to do the mesh with patches. It was just snapping the end points to curves by holding C, then selecting the curves involved, hitting 'trim', and then boundary.