You asked, and we listened! Starting in the fall of 2016, Alumni Engagement at Red River College will be offering free life-long learning classes for our graduates. These events will be interest-based and offered throughout the year on a variety of topics. Wait…did we mention these events are FREE for RRC alumni?

First up this year is Rockin’ the Rainbow: Everything you ever wanted to know about LGBTT* but didn’t know who to ask. Do you know the recent movement regarding safe space programs or the roots of pride parades? Our world and the words we use shift and change all the time. Uncut and unfiltered, this two-hour event is your chance to delve into gender and sexual diversity and the complexity of the human state. Read More →

Showcase your proud RRC connection — or that of an employee, mentor, or industry colleague — by taking part in our 2015 billboard campaign!

We want to celebrate the success of our alumni and the diverse, innovative organizations that employ our grads. Building on the momentum of our previous billboard campaigns, we invite you to join us in a creative, co-operative advertising opportunity.

You pick the grad, and we handle the purchasing and production work. Then we’ll split the hard costs — and share in the campaign’s success!

Deadline for submissions is Jan. 14, 2015.

Learn more about the new campaign →

Big rigs and bite-sized burgers drove a road-worthy crowd to Red River College’s 2014 Alumni Reception, where former grads, current students and RRC supporters celebrated decades of success and forward momentum.

Certainly no one minded the traffic at the College’s Heavy Equipment Transportation Centre (HETC), where this year’s “GO!”-themed event — with its focus on transportation trades — gave our growing network of grads a chance to re-connect with old friends, while toasting the achievements of their peers.

Held Sept. 27, the event drew an estimated 250 guests to the HETC space, where the centerpiece was an elevated semi cab put on display by presenting sponsor Maxim Truck & Trailer. Manshield Construction (Yellow Light Sponsor) and Assiniboine Credit Union (Red Light Sponsor) also came on board to help make this year’s signature celebration a success.

Guests enjoyed performances by local artists Luke Reimer (RRC grad), Rhia Rae (current Creative Communications student) and Matt Worobec (RRC grad who’s part of the group Alyx Knight).

During the evening, they also sampled culinary creations by RRC Chefs of Distinction Craig Guenther (Urban Prairie Cuisine) and Barbara O’Hara (Dessert Sinsations Café).

Also on tap: beverage tastings courtesy of Banville & Jones Wine Co., Crown Royal, Farmery Estate Brewery, De Luca’s Coffee, and Green Carrot Juice Company, and the much-anticipated Slider Contest, featuring mouthwatering mini-burgers created and served by industry partners from Freightliner, Bison Transport, Turk Enterprises, Custom Transport and Payne Transportation. The winner of the contest was Freightliner’s Ken Talbot, whose smoked meat slider won his team top honours.

Click here to see a video of the event, or here to see a photo gallery.

Shown above, from left: Angela Chambers, alumni council member; Tom Payne Jr, President of Payne Transportation LP; David Rew, Interim President and CEO of Red River College; Dave Tyrchniewicz, President of Turk Enterprises; Harry Dornn, Vice President of Marketing, Maxim Truck and Trailer; Ken Talbot, President/Dealer Principal of Freightliner Manitoba Ltd.; Steven Orbanski of Bison Transport; Kirk Warren, President/Owner of Custom Transport.

Less than a year after graduating from Red River College’s Creative Communications program, 23-year old Kyle Jahns has landed a dream job – covering the 2014 Olympic Games from Sochi.

“Covering curling at the Olympics has been an experience I’ll always remember,” Jahns says (via email). “I was here for a few weeks before the Games started and was able to watch the entire buildup. The Main Press Centre and venues went from being nearly empty to absolutely full. Watching all of this happen built up anticipation for the event.”

Jahns is covering curling for the Olympic News Service. It’s a busy job – with three draws a day, he works up to 14 hours in a 24-hour period.

“Before the competition started I was responsible for researching and writing stories about curling. There were small features on the players and articles on the basics of curling for the media who might not be as familiar with the sport.”

Now that the event is underway, he watches the Games, conducts interviews, writes, and sends content through the wire.

“Our job is to focus on all of the teams, players, and coaches at the Games. We’re here for every single game and aim to get all of their reactions at some point or another.” Read More →

Following three weeks of classroom study, eight weeks of lab time, and two weeks of work experience, students from RRC’s Winkler Campus have completed the final phase of the region’s first-ever mobile MIG Welding training program.

Delivered via RRC’s Mobile Training Lab, the program offers entry-level production welding training, allowing students with no previous welding experience to be ready for the workplace in just 13 weeks.

The initiative was made possible with funding from Apprenticeship Manitoba, and will help meet the growing regional demand for welders by providing work-ready candidates throughout the province.

For more information, or to be placed on a student contact list for future offerings, please contact the RRC Winkler Campus at 204.325.9672 or winkler@rrc.ca.

Click here to learn more about RRC’s Mobile Training Labs, which help increase access to trades training in rural and northern communities.

Kris Hancock has a few axes to grind. Then he’ll get them signed by rock stars and auction them off for charity.

The Ecole Selkirk Junior High teacher and Red River College grad (Industrial Arts/Technology Teacher Education, 2007) is the creator of the B.O.S.S. Guitar Works program, an afterschool course where Grade 7 and 8 students design and build custom electric guitars. (The program’s title stands for Building On Student Success.)

The guitars are then painted and sent to celebrities – among them Gene Simmons, Roger Waters, William Shatner and Jann Arden – for signatures before being auctioned off to support the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and other Manitoba charities.

When Hancock and other teachers planned the first auction in 2010, the goal was to raise $1,000. For this year’s event on May 30, the target is a hundred times that.

“It’s turned into something that’s truly amazing,” Hancock says. “It started as a small idea and the next thing you know, we’ve had celebrities sign over 100 guitars.”

Hancock says he had the first inklings of the fundraising plan while he was still studying to be an industrial arts teacher at Red River College. As his instructors and classmates discussed projects that would capture the attention of future preteen students, his own enthusiasm for playing electric guitar came to mind.

“You have to find something that engages, something that’s fresh and new. If a project is boring or not interesting, they’ll turn off. Your class won’t be fun for them and it won’t be fun for you.” Read More →

Congratulations to the above team of RRC Culinary Arts students, who took top honours in the 2013 Manitoba Mission: ImPULSEible competition.

Hosted by Pulse Canada at RRC’s Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, the event aims to develop innovative food products containing whole pulses (the edible seeds of plants in the legume family) or pulse ingredients. Students present their products at provincial competitions where judges evaluate them based on sensory and health attributes, the innovative use of pulses, feasibility and marketability.

RRC’s team — consisting of students Hayley Walker, Scott Ball and Ian Gerbrandt — won their provincial competition with a “Power Pulse Ice Cream Sandwich,” comprised of lentil cookie and chickpea ice cream. They now move forward to the national competition in Calgary in June.

Click here for more info on the Mission: ImPULSEible competition.

These grads aren’t just giving back to Red River College — they’re building it.

Chris Sousa (Building Construction Technician, 2012) and Glenn Garbett (Structural Technology, 1998) are two of the key pillars behind the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, Red River College’s new Exchange District campus and residence, which is racing toward its official opening on February 21.

As site supervisor and project manager, respectively, Sousa and Garbett have been marshalls to the small army of tradespeople, engineers, architects and planners tasked with bringing a 100-year-old Winnipeg heritage building into the 21^st century.

“Ever since my teenage years, I really enjoyed this building,” Sousa says, sitting in the sunlit mixology class where bottles and glasses look out onto Old Market Square. “I fell in love with the building and had my own personal plans with what I wanted to do with it. I didn’t expect it to be a school.”

“To have Red River College have a great idea for the use of the old building — to add onto it without interfering with it, to not make it stand out like a sore thumb and to make the heritage a key feature — it was a great privilege to work on.”

“There have been definite project challenges that make PGI one of the most memorable buildings I’ve worked on,” Garbett says. “I’ve worked on other heritage buildings downtown, but it was nowhere near as complex.”

Those complexities started on day one for the two men when they met the former bank whose proud, smiling exterior hid confusing, twisted and occasionally malicious guts.

“Everywhere we turned it was like opening a can of worms,” Sousa says. “If walls weren’t collapsing, it was the ceiling. If the ceiling wasn’t collapsing, it was the floors. There was always something going on that kept you on your toes.” Read More →

Each year, a maximum of four Lieutenant-Governor’s medals are awarded to Red River College students who, in the opinion of a selection committee, combine to the greatest extent in their graduating year academic and technical achievement, involvement in College and/or community activities, and good character.

KIMBERLY COWAN
Professional Baking and Patisserie

Kimberly Cowan credits Red River College’s Professional Baking & Patisserie program for allowing her to turn her life’s passion into a full-time career.

Cowan spent her childhood on her uncle’s grain and cattle farm in her hometown of Landis, SK. When her family made the move to Portage la Prairie, it meant a lot would change for a then-teenaged Cowan. Through those transitions, one thing remained the same: her passion for food (specifically baking), which she inherited from her mother and grandmother, both talented cooks.

A few years after earning her Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in History, Kimberly decided to leave her full-time job at a local bank to go back to school and pursue a career in baking.  During her time with RRC, she competed in the Canola Bake-off in 2011 — tying for first with her Sticky Toffee Pudding entry. She also represented RRC in the baking category at Skills Manitoba and the Skills Canada Nationals, where she placed gold in the provincial competition.

Kimberly also played for RRC’s first ever women’s soccer team, helping them place third in the Manitoba College Athletic Conference in 2012. She is now in her eleventh year with Winnipeg’s Soccer League.

Today, Kimberly works as a full-time chef at Chocolatier Constance Popp, a premium artisan chocolate shop specializing in treats made with local ingredients.  She thanks her family, friends and instructors for their constant support and encouragement.

PATRICK MURPHY
Hospitality and Tourism Management

A husband and father of two, Patrick Murphy left his full-time accounting job to follow his passion in hotel management. He enrolled in Red River College’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program, having previously worked in the industry back when he first got married.

When asked what inspires him about the field, Patrick credits the people. He enjoys meeting guests from all over the world and learning more about their individual stories. As a child, Patrick had his own opportunity to travel the globe — his father’s military career took his family to the United States, Germany and Newfoundland.

He hopes to one day give his family the opportunity to travel the world as he has. Goal destinations include Baden-Baden, Germany, where he grew up, and of course, Disney World.

During his time with RRC, Patrick was awarded the Professional Leadership Award (2012), Canad Inns Award (2011) for academics and Fairmont Award (2011) for academics and student involvement. Today he is the Fairmont’s Gold Supervisor, responsible for the care of some of the Fairmont’s most special guests. His career goal is to work up the ladder and become general manager of his own hotel.

Patrick also contributes to his community as a team leader for Scouts Canada, an organization he discovered while looking for something to do with his son, Devon. He credits the program for teaching youth about the importance of diversity and respect.

A Red River College student with a distinguished military record has again turned his attention to a different form of service — by launching a foundation to raise scholarship money for students with developmental disabilities.

Andrew McLean, a former Warrant Officer who retired from the Canadian Forces last summer after 22 years of service, recently donated $25,000 of his own money to start the Canadian Torch Foundation — which will provide its first $1,000 CTF Award to an RRC student next year.

The award is available annually to a full-time student with a developmental disability (physical, mental or documented learning disability, or visual or hearing impairment), who’s studying one of the following RRC programs: Child and Youth Care, Disability and Community Support, Early Childhood Education or Early Childhood Education Workplace.

McLean’s goal is to eventually raise $2.5 million in funding for similar post-secondary scholarships at 10 colleges and universities, and to complement them with annual grants for rehabilitation efforts benefitting children and youth across Canada.

He’s hoping the scholarships will help to foster students’ potential, regardless of the obstacles they might face.

“There’s a difference between someone’s performance and their potential,” says McLean, a former search and rescue technician who’s currently in his first year of RRC’s Disability and Community Support program. “A lot of people try to achieve performance, but potential is what really makes a difference. That’s what affects change — fostering people’s ability to be the best person they can be, or to achieve a more fulfilling life.” Read More →