In his grandmother’s final years, Vernon Cook wasn’t able to visit her as much as he wanted – she lived in a personal care home outside of town and getting out to see her was tough. But now he’s making it up to seniors everywhere.

“She passed away and I just felt awful that I couldn’t do more,” Cook says. “I just needed to do something for the elderly, for my grandma, because I couldn’t see her very much. And I thought I could do something to give back.”

The way Cook chose to give back was by completing the Therapeutic Recreation Facilitator for Older Adults program at Red River College and working at Southeast Personal Care Home. Cook, who is First Nations from Peguis, was raised to honour and respect his elders, so the program seemed like a natural fit.

He was the first Aboriginal man to graduate from the program, and before he even finished he was offered a position at Southeast, the first Aboriginal-focused care home in the city.

Southeast aims to respect holistic Aboriginal values and cultural traditions that nurture the health and well-being of each person. For example, the facility brings in elders and holds sharing circles, and features a ceremonial room for residents, Cook says.

“The residents are allowed to come in [to the ceremonial room] and smudge. It’s our praying, our meditating,” he explains. “It’s with sweet grass, sage, tobacco, and whatnot.”

Working in a care home where 90 per cent of residents are First Nations presents its own challenges, however, as many are residential school survivors.

“They’re very closed in,” he says of the survivors. “When they wanted to talk about it they would, but then there were triggers as well that would get them very upset. We would not bring it up, but when they wanted to talk, that’s why we would bring elders in or hold a sharing circle.” Read More →

Civil Engineering Technology grad Len Chambers (centre) with members of Stantec’s Water team.

Len Chambers has had a hand in many of Winnipeg’s largest residential developments – but not in the way you might think. He doesn’t build houses; he envisions communities from the ground up.

“You’re coming up with the concept and what you need to put in place for infrastructure to service that community. And then it’s great to see that unfold as it builds,” he says.

As practice leader, water for consulting firm Stantec, Chambers considers things like water and sewer service, wastewater treatment, land drainage, lift stations, retention ponds and flood mitigation when planning new communities.

“We sort of generalize all that stuff as water,” he explains.

A 1979 graduate of Red River College’s Civil Engineering Technology program, Chambers has participated in various design stages, as well as contract administration work, for major developments like Royalwood, Waverley West, Whyte Ridge and South Pointe.

“As I look around this city, I see several residential subdivisions that I was involved with,” he says. “It is great to see these subdivisions finished with families moved in and becoming part of the community.” Read More →

He first made his mark on the local music scene in the usual way — designing posters and album art for his band as a teenager.

Fast forward a decade, and Red River College grad Christopher Samms is helping spread the word about Winnipeg’s status as Music City of the North, through a series of high-profile projects that coincide with the arrival of this week’s Juno Awards.

Samms (Graphic Design, 2009) was one of the designers behind the “We Speak Music” campaign launched recently by Winnipeg’s Juno Host Committee, in conjunction with Manitoba Film and Music. He worked on the campaign while employed by ClarkHuot/Cocoon, a design and branding firm contracted to help promote the annual awards.

“The main challenge was: how do we sum up why the Junos should be in Winnipeg, and why the entire country should be coming to Winnipeg to celebrate Canadian music,” says Samms, 29. “‘We Speak Music’ ended up being the most applicable and the most versatile, since it can be applied in so many different ways — We Speak Music, We Live Music, We Love Music, and so on.”

Expect the campaign to reach critical mass as Juno Week runs March 24-30, starting with a series of club and smaller-venue shows before wrapping up with a star-studded MTS Centre gala, featuring the likes of Robin Thicke, Sarah McLachlan, Arcade Fire, and Tegan and Sara.

This year’s Juno nominees include local indie darlings Royal Canoe, whose 2013 debut Today We’re Believers features album art by Samms. Read More →

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 →

When’s the last time your work impacted a generation of students? Josephine Pulver has been able to make a difference in just a few short years.

Pulver joined Red River College’s faculty in 2011 as an instructor in Continuing Education’s Residential Decorating program. Since then, she’s implemented the Residential Decorating Practicum, partnered with Palliser Furniture to offer students the opportunity to design for an international company, and introduced two new courses: Decorating Software Applications and Eco-Friendly Décor.

“I think it might be a little bit of an ongoing joke now,” Pulver says of the frequency with which she brings ideas to her department head. But Pulver’s creativity and innovation is students’ gain – especially since RRC prides itself on producing industry-ready grads.

“[The College is] open to creative ideas,” says Pulver. “They’re open to suggestions as to how to move forward with the program. It’s not a stagnant situation.”

Pulver graduated from the University of Manitoba’s Interior Design program in 1995 and has worked in the industry ever since. She felt a practicum would have been beneficial to her own career and wanted to give RRC students the opportunities she didn’t have. Enter the Residential Decorating Practicum, which is brand new this year.

“When we graduated [from university] we didn’t have support from the community at all,” Pulver explains. “It’s hard to get your foot in the door to meet people. A practicum really helps a student because even if they don’t get a position where they’re placed, they’ve met people, they’ve seen how the industry works, and they have a reference.

The Palliser project is also new this year, and will hopefully prove to be an invaluable opportunity. In the final term of the Residential Decorating program, students will be tasked with creating a display booth for Palliser Furniture. Read More →

Red River College grad Kevin Castro is in the business of transformation.

The 21-year-old sous chef (who completed RRC’s Culinary Arts program in 2012) is slowly getting fired up for his day, cleaning odd corners of the Fitzroy kitchen and waiting for his team to show up to prep the day’s ingredients. The space he’s standing in is the first layer of transformation.

Once a showroom that modelled condo designs to urban professionals, the Fitzroy space was bought, gutted and renovated by Jon Hochman and Dustin Pajak over the first half of 2013. The shining, top-of-the-line equipment, sleek red walls and solid wood countertop pull off both a minimalist lack of pretension and a detail-oriented precision.

Castro hauls out a menu that’s all about transforming simple ingredients into the best “blue collar” eats.

“We do sophisticated presentation for food that’s normally dismissed as comfort food,” he says, pointing to the BBQ pork under corns and crackling, the caramel corn and hot nuts, and the salt beef sandwich on City rye bead. “It’s food that I like to eat – specialty dirty dishes.”

It’s food that’s grabbing the attention of media and foodies, too. Where this stretch of Sherbrook Street was once infamous for its broken motels and rooming houses, the influx of young homeowners, new entrepreneurs and chef-owned restaurants has turned the area into a reliable hotspot, a place the cool kids suggest hitting up to see what’s happening. The evidence of steady traffic is on the door Castro just unlocked: “Fitzroy – open 4pm till late.” Read More →

Red River College is known for its cutting edge curriculum, state-of-the-art equipment and industry-ready grads driving Manitoba’s economy. So it makes sense the school was an early supporter of WindCity, a brand-new Winnipeg-based web series.

“Red River has shown itself to be really innovative and forward thinking,” says Jean du Toit, the show’s production manager and an RRC grad. “It’s taken over old buildings, it’s renovated, it’s made itself felt as a presence in the downtown. The fact that it was an early supporter of WindCity is just another example of that forward-thinking mentality of the College.”

WindCity is the first locally produced digital sitcom to be situated in Winnipeg. It’s branded content, meaning local businesses and organizations pay to have their products or services featured in the plot. (Think product placement on steroids.)

The College is involved in the project in a few ways. For starters, three RRC grads play prominent roles in the series: There’s production manager du Toit, as well as Ali Tataryn (shown above) and Karl Thordarson (at right), both of whom have prominent roles in front of the camera.

Tataryn plays Morgan, a financial advisor with RBC, and Thordarson plays Duke, the show’s de facto villain. Tataryn, who runs Frame Arts Warehouse when she isn’t acting, graduated from RRC’s Applied Counselling program in 2006.

Thordarson graduated from the Greenspace Management program in 2008, and now works as a Technician for the City of Winnipeg’s Parks and Open Space Division. Du Toit, who works for Frank Digital, the production company that produces WindCity, completed the part-time Professional Photography program in 2011.

Another way RRC is involved is through its sponsorship of the web series, which in its first season follows Dylan, a man embarking on a mission to reclaim his business and the love of his life. The sponsorship led to one of the show’s supporting characters, Sam Fortier, being written as an RRC student. 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.

A Red River College grad who heads both a leading IT solutions provider and one of the province’s largest surveying firms was recognized recently with a pair of prestigious awards for his work with remote Manitoba communities.

Clear Concepts Inc., a local IT solutions provider owned by RRC alum Christian Korell (Survey Engineering Technology, 1992), picked up a gold medal for Best Small Business Solution and was named Solution Provider of the Year at this year’s IT World Canada CDN (Computer Dealer News) Channel Elite Awards in September.

The focus of this year’s awards was on remote clients, in particular how a stable foundation in IT services and support allows them to become more self-sustaining. Clear Concepts was recognized for partnering with the Cowichan Tribe of Southern B.C., developers of a community electronic medical records (cEMR) system for First Nation communities.

Clear Concepts provided cEMR-related installation and infrastructure support to many clients across Canada including the Opaskwayak Health Authority in northern Manitoba, allowing that organization to receive funding for a new health centre and dedicated physician. The company has also provided services that allowed a northern Manitoba tribal council to better manage its eight communities, and has partnered with a local airline to streamline internal logistics processes. Read More →

Each year, a maximum of four Lieutenant-Governor Medals are awarded to Red River College students who best combine academic and technical achievement, involvement in College and/or community activities, and good character.

JOCELLE CUVOS — Business Administration, 2013

A graduate of Red River College’s Business Administration program, Jocelle Cuvos first enrolled in the hopes of one day becoming an entrepreneur, and of eventually starting her own photography studio — a passion since high school.

Having now completed her studies at RRC (while maintaining a very busy extra-curricular schedule), she plans to continue her education by obtaining a degree from the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business.

While at RRC, Jocelle served as president of the Students’ Association, and played on both the soccer and volleyball teams. The experiences allowed her to give back to her community, as both an ambassador for the College and a volunteer in such initiatives as the RRC Shinerama, a charity event that raised funds for cystic fibrosis research.

Jocelle’s involvement in student life had a positive impact on her time here, and she plans to continue her involvement with the College as a volunteer Student Ambassador (who’ll promote RRC to prospective students) and by attending as many Rebels games as her schedule will allow!

She attributes her success in part to the love and support of her family and friends, and to the encouragement and support she received from her RRC instructors.

ABBY SILVA — Business Administration, 2013

A fellow graduate of RRC’s Business Administration program, Abby Silva was at first drawn to the College by the flexible and diverse career opportunities that awaited her in the field of business.

Like Jocelle, she also plans to leverage her RRC training as an entry point to further accreditation, by pursuing a designation as a Chartered Accountant (CA) while also seeking part-time employment in the accounting industry.

Also like Jocelle, Abby was heavily involved in athletics while attending the College (and twice won tournament MVP honours at the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference). A member of the Rebels Women’s Basketball team, Abby says her involvement in sports kept her motivated and determined in her academic pursuits, by allowing her to develop an active routine that kept her healthy, focused and constantly striving for success.

She plans to maintain that routine as a member of an outside basketball league that also affords opportunity for community outreach, through fundraisers, tournaments and other volunteer-driven events. She attributes her success at Red River College to a combination of hard work, patience, and — most importantly — a positive attitude.