Academic News

Professional Development Workshops

As part of the implementation of the E-Portfolio to students in the Accounting and Computer Education department we will be developing professional development workshops. Every week there will be two hours included in the student’s schedule for professional development and every semester will focus on how the students can expand and modify their portfolio as they learn new skills. By establishing regular classroom sessions students will be given direction on the creation and maintenance of their portfolio in both a group setting and individually. The importance of these workshops will be to prepare students for their co-op and industry project work terms and ultimately their job search for full time employment.

In the first semester students will be learning about what a portfolio is, how to create it, what to include in it and how to document their learning. At the beginning of each subsequent semester students will be taught how to reflect on their learning from their previous semester and include examples of the skills that they developed in and out of school. In the second semester the focus will be developing and enhancing their portfolio further and preparing for an industry mock interview.

In addition to the E-Portfolio students will be learning job search skills, cover letter and resume preparation, interview skills as they prepare for co-op. Students will be able to reflect on and get feedback on the co-op process as they apply for jobs and experience industry interviews. During their work term and upon return for their final semester students can use this time to add relevant skill sets to their portfolio and document their learning. In their final semester students will reflect on their overall learning, academically and from industry to modify their portfolio into a document that will impress employers.

As you have seen in previous blogs we are currently training to be able to show learners how to use an E-Portfolio and build it through Mahara. There are 8 staff members from the ACE department that are among those taking an 8 week course in E-Portfolios. We are looking to implement the concept of E-Portfolios to the Business Technology Management students in the second half of this semester. Then we will begin the Professional Development workshops in September for both the current BTM students and the new intake in the fall.

Each year, up to four medals are awarded to RRC students who best combine good character, academic and technical achievement, and involvement in College and community activities. This year’s winners are:

Consuella Brass, Technical Vocational Teacher Education

Michael Buffie, Business/Technology Teacher Education

Graphic Design Advanced student Hely Schumann is this year’s Gillespie Award winner. Listen to Hely talk about her experience in our program in our new video.

Bruce Gillespie was an instructor at Red River College from 1989 until illness in 2007 left
him unable to continue teaching. Bruce left this mortal world in the spring of 2008 at the age of 57.

Over the course of his two decades at RRC, he crossed paths with hundreds of aspiring graphic designers, as a teacher, mentor, big brother and friend. In addition to teaching, Bruce is best remembered by most people for his encyclopedic knowledge of music, for his incredible album collection, and his own musical ability.

Application for the award is in the form of a poster that reflects on the marriage of music and art; collecting, giving, sharing, remembering and passion.

Previous winners are:
2014 Réanne Chamberland
2013 Steve Ramos
2012 Christian Gilbang
2011 Sam Giesbrecht
2010 Madison Zyluk
2009 Marie Hart
2008 Melissa Archer

The day is finally here! Tomorrow is the Nursing Student-Faculty Research and Innovation Day. Open to all Nursing students and faculty, the day will feature research posters and presentations and will run from 8:00 (registration) to 4:00 (awards and door prizes). We look forward to seeing everyone there as we share and promote research and scholarship in the Nursing Department.

For more information and the complete program, please visit the Research and Innovation Day Blog Page and the Nursing repository.

After a month back, we’re looking back to the holiday season with our staff Christmas luncheon! 

Hope everyone had a great break!

The Nursing students are holding a bake sale tomorrow, Friday January 22nd, from 8am to 3pm in the library hallway. The bake sale is a fundraiser in support of Natalie, a 6 year old girl who is fighting leukaemia.

Come pick up some yummy baking and support our nursing students!

Thank you to Nursing Student Council for organizing this event and to the Nursing students who are participating.

We have just started into another iteration of the Business Information Technology (BIT) industry project course. We hope to continue giving students great learning opportunities building solutions from inception to delivery where all the things that can happen on a project – can and do happen.

I have found that some of the most valuable learning experiences that come out of project are born from, as one instructor described, “chaos in learning.” The unexpected will occur, assumptions that you made about the products you are creating turn out to be wrong, technology doesn’t co-operate, and communicating and dealing with your project team turns out to be harder than you thought. The students have to deal with all of this, and have the added pressure of interacting with and delivering to a real-world client. All of these aspects give the students the learning experiences that we can’t give them in the confines of a usual classroom setting.

Read More →

Join us on January 27, 2016  6:00pm in
A137 on the Notre Dame Campus

Michelle and Jay graduated from the Bridging Program for Internationally Educated Nurses (BPIEN) Program in 2011. Michelle has been working at St. Boniface Hospital for 4 years now mainly in Cardiac Sciences Program (CCU Coronary Care Unit; Cardiology; Cardiac Surgery Inpatient Unit). She also works in Acute Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Family Medicine and Transitional Care Unit at times.

After graduating, Jay worked as a Central Float Nurse in Deer Lodge Center for 2 years then moved to St. Boniface Hospital where he now works in Geriatric Medicine, Family Medicine and Transitional Care Unit.

Michelle and Jay share a bit about their unique journey from student to RN:

Everything was not easy. You need to sacrifice a lot to reach your dream.

My husband and I went to school together and this made things so tight financially. No fancy clothes. No restaurants or presents for our anniversary. No vacations. Instead, we spent hours in school and library. We lined up for the Food Bank.

Now, we get to help others in need. We are HAPPY nurses who get to touch people’s lives. We get to help patients in the recovery period or in the dying process.

Their final message to students in the thick of their studies right now?

HARD WORK pays off!