Strengthen your math, science and technical skills while exploring the exciting world of engineering technology.

Prepare for success in the engineering technology field by building the academic foundation and essential skills you need to transition into a diploma program. In this preparatory program, you’ll strengthen your knowledge of math, science and technical concepts while developing effective learning strategies, professional communication and problem-solving skills.

Through hands-on projects and applied learning, you’ll explore civil, electrical, mechanical and power engineering technologies — discovering how each area connects to real-world industries and career opportunities. By the end of the program, you’ll be ready to progress into a diploma program with the confidence, skills and support to thrive.

Graduates of Pathway to Engineering Technology Programs can apply for reserved seats in:

• Civil Engineering Technology
• Electrical Engineering Technology
• Mechanical Engineering Technology
• Power Engineering Technology 4th Class

Read about these Success Stories in Pathway to Engineering Technology Programs:

• His Indigenous Culture Called Him to Be a Land Defender – RRC Polytech and Akman Construction Are Helping Him Get There
• RRC Polytech Pathway Students Set for Success Thanks to Free Laptops from Lenovo

Take the first step toward your engineering career—learn more about the Pathway to Engineering Technology Programs.

Pathway Programs for Indigenous Learners

Are you an Indigenous learner interested in a career in business, technology, communications, or engineering but not sure where to begin? RRC Polytech’s Pathway Programs are designed to help you take that first step. These programs nurture your skills, build your confidence, and prepare you for success in full-time diploma studies — all while connecting you to a supportive community that wants to see you thrive.

Join us for the Pathway Programs Information Session on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, from 6:00–7:00 p.m. at 2055 Notre Dame Ave (Room F205) to learn how you can start your journey.

Discover Your Pathway

Each Pathway Program helps you explore your interests, develop essential academic and technical foundations, and access mentorship and career-focused supports. When you complete a pathway, you’ll be ready to apply for reserved seats in related diploma programs, setting you up for continued success.

Pathway to Business, Creative Communications and Digital Technology Programs

If you’re a storyteller, creative thinker, or entrepreneur at heart, this pathway helps you develop the skills to turn your passion into a profession. You’ll explore exciting fields like business, hospitality, marketing, journalism, media production, and digital media design while gaining the learning strategies and technical foundations to succeed in post-secondary education.

After completing this pathway, you’ll be eligible to apply for limited reserved seats in:

• Business Administration
• Creative Communications
• Digital Media Design
• Hospitality and Tourism Management
• Professional Sales and Strategic Marketing

Pathway to Engineering Technology Programs

If you’re curious about how things work — from bridges and buildings to engines and electrical systems — this pathway helps you prepare for a future in civil, electrical, mechanical, or power engineering technology. You’ll strengthen your math, science, and problem-solving skills while gaining hands-on experience that connects classroom learning to real-world applications.

After completing this pathway, you’ll be eligible to apply for limited reserved seats in:

• Civil Engineering Technology
• Electrical Engineering Technology
• Mechanical Engineering Technology
• Power Engineering Technology (4th Class)

Pathway to Information Technology Programs

Interested in shaping the digital world? This pathway helps you build the foundation for a career in information technology, where you can explore areas like software development, cybersecurity, or IT systems management. You’ll develop the technical skills and confidence to move forward in a rapidly evolving, high-demand industry.

After completing this pathway, you’ll be eligible to apply for limited reserved seats in:

• Application Development and Delivery
• Cybersecurity
• Full Stack Web Development
• IT Operations

Take the First Step Toward Your Future

RRC Polytech’s Pathway Programs are more than just a stepping stone — they’re a launchpad for your career and personal growth. They provide a supportive learning environment that honours where you’re coming from and helps you build toward where you want to go.

Come connect with instructors, advisors, and Indigenous supports who will walk alongside you as you move from Pathway to diploma — and into the industry of your choice.

Pathway Programs Information Session

• Tuesday, November 4, 2025 | 6pm – 7pm
• 2055 Notre Dame Ave, Room F205

Are you ready to take a confident first step toward post-secondary success?

The Pathway to Business, Creative Communications and Digital Technology Programs at RRC Polytech helps Indigenous learners prepare academically, socially, and personally for rewarding careers in business, communications, hospitality, and digital media.

Throughout the program, you’ll strengthen your academic foundation, develop essential technical skills, and practice learning strategies that set you up for success. You’ll also benefit from a supportive community that infuses Indigenous culture into your learning journey and provides wrap-around supports to help you reach your goals.

After completing this pathway, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for reserved seats in the following RRC Polytech programs:

• Business Administration
• Creative Communications
• Digital Media Design
• Hospitality Business Management
• Professional Sales and Strategic Marketing

Admission Information

Applicants must submit proof of meeting admission requirements within 15 days of applying, unless otherwise noted. If applying within six weeks of the program start date, documentation is due within five days.

This program is open only to Manitoba residents of Indigenous ancestry (Status, Non-Status, Inuit, or Métis). Applications from those who do not meet these criteria will be cancelled without a refund of the application fee.

For Regular Admission, applicants must provide proof of Grade 12 graduation or enrolment. If applying while enrolled, official final grades confirming successful completion must be submitted by July 15 for fall entry, or by the deadline in the admission letter. Proof of Indigenous ancestry is also required.

For Mature Student Admission, applicants must be 19 years or older, have been out of high school for at least one year, and not meet the regular admission requirements. Mature applicants must also provide proof of Indigenous ancestry (Status, Non-Status, Inuit, or Métis).

Discover how the program has already helped learners find strength and opportunity:

• Family Strength Inspires Healing and New Career Path

Take the first step toward your future. Register for the next intake in Fall 2026 — visit the program explorer page for more information.

Jig’n Time with Dean Davis (NDC)

Jigging has brought Métis people together for generations — it’s more than just dance, it’s a celebration of identity, community, and resilience.

Join us at the Indigenous Support Centre for Jig’n Time, an energetic midday session of jigging and square dancing led by renowned instructor Dean Davis. Whether you’re a beginner or seasoned stepper, come connect through rhythm, laughter and tradition as part of our Thrive Week celebrations.

So grab your dancing shoes — let’s keep the tradition alive, one step at a time!

REGISTER – Thursday, November 6, 2025 in F205 from 12 to 1pm, Notre Dame Campus

Thrive Week is on the way! Take a break, recharge, and join in on free activities that spark creativity, connection, and calm. From yoga and mini massages to jigging, cat cafés, DIY workshops, and more — there’s something for everyone across all campuses.

For details, event calendars, and registration links, check out the full Thrive Week blog post on Campus Well-Being.

Indigenous students at RRC Polytech have access to Academic Liaison and Resource Coaches—your personal guides for academic success.

Whether it’s one-on-one tutoring, group sessions, or coaching, these supports help you develop study skills, goal setting strategies, time management, and other tools to excel in your courses with confidence.

Your Academic Liaison & Resource Coach can help you retain information, improve test-taking skills, manage procrastination, and balance student life with self-care. They also provide guidance on how your coursework connects to your career goals and can connect you with additional tutoring services if needed. Reach out to Jeff Boychuk (jboychuk66@rrc.ca) at Notre Dame Campus or Adam Bacchus (abacchus@rrc.ca) at Exchange District Campus to start building the strategies and skills to succeed at RRC Polytech.

Mínwastánikéwin is an Ininimowin word that means ‘to set it right.’

General RRC Polytech Application Required

The deadline to submit applications for the Mínwastánikéwin Truth and Reconciliation Award is January 31, 2026.

The Mínwastánikéwin Award honors the resilience, strength, and voices of Indigenous students at RRC Polytech. Supported by the College community through campaigns raising awareness of Indigenous-led initiatives like Orange Shirt Day and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People Honouring and Awareness Day, this award celebrates reflection, culture, and the ongoing journey of Truth and Reconciliation.

In 2025, Dakota artist Dasia Chatkana’s Orange Shirt design, showing a trail of footprints into a dark forest, pays tribute to children who survived Residential Schools, while Métis artist Shayre Curé’s Red Shirt, featuring a handprint over a woman’s mouth, honors Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People.

Indigenous full-time students can apply by submitting proof of Indigenous heritage, a General RRC Application, and a one-page essay on what Truth and Reconciliation means to them. The deadline is January 31, 2026, via email to financialaid@rrc.ca. Last year, the award celebrated the voices of Kayla Frobisher and Elizabeth Ford.

For full details, see the Awards, Bursaries, and Scholarships Catalogue.

A reflection on “We Are All Connected” and the journey from separation to synthesis 

Connected by the river between Deshkan Ziibing and Western classrooms, 
I learned to translate myself across imposed boundaries, 
my body remembering what curriculums demanded I forget. 

Years beneath a Nordic winter light, I witnessed a partner’s spirit 
dance with her Sámi heritage, I recognized my mother’s rhythms— 
separate melodies carried on the same human breath. 

Under Oaxaca’s brilliant sun, I felt ancestral whispers 
in Zapotec ceremonies that echoed my grandmother’s teachings, 
revealing a resonation within my soul: 
Indigeneity flows beneath the categories 
colonial knowledge requires to maintain itself. 

Now, returning to Red River’s evolving halls, I witness 
how far we’ve come—Indigenous buildings open to all, 
diverse programs flourishing under one institutional sky. 
Yet still I see us gathered in familiar circles, 
celebrating culture while dwelling in separate spaces— 
progress and distance coexisting under the same roof. 

This beadwork invites us to thread what was never truly separate: 
each letter, each language, each story 
forming a constellation that has always been whole, 
even when our eyes were taught not to see it. 

I’ve been thinking about translation lately—not just between languages, but between worlds. How do we carry meaning across the boundaries that history has drawn between us? 

These questions live in my body. Growing up status First Nations from Chippewas of the Thames, I received early teachings about being related to all things. Yet as I moved through five provinces over a decade, I discovered how easy it becomes to forget what you’ve always known. The further I traveled from home, the more I translated myself into languages that had no words for the wholeness I once understood. 

The Awakening That Changes Everything 

Two winters ago in Oaxaca, privilege revealed itself through scarcity. I’d gone seeking Indigenous culture that was celebrated rather than hidden—and found it pulsing through Zapotec ceremonies and daily life. But when our water ran out and we received a refill in 24 hours while local families waited 40 days, I finally understood. Every drop I consumed came from somewhere, from someone. Every resource that seemed infinite to me was desperately finite for others. 

That awakening followed me home to Manitoba, transforming how I understood the water flowing from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, the electricity powered by Treaty territory resources. The question became: how do we move from recognition to genuine reciprocity? This question lived in me as I developed “We Are All Connected”—how could we create opportunities for others to experience this shift from knowing about connection to feeling it in their bones, not through scarcity and crisis, but through collective creation? 

Beadwork as Knowledge System 

When I discovered that Indigenous scholars describe beadwork as “knowledge mobilization and translation,” something clicked. The Anishinaabemowin word for beading, manidoominens, contains manidoo (spirit) at its root. Every bead becomes prayer, every pattern becomes teaching. 

This isn’t uniquely Indigenous—from Sámi duodji to West African kente, humans have always encoded meaning through material creation. The act of creating together builds relationships that transcend verbal communication. Our hands remember what our minds might forget. 

The Initiative as Living Practice 

“We Are All Connected” emerges from this understanding. Throughout the academic year at RRC Polytech, anyone can pick up a card featuring one of seven reflective questions based on the Seven Grandfather Teachings. They write their response in any language—Tagalog, Punjabi, Mandarin, Ojibwe, English. Later, at beading stations across campus, they translate their words into colored beads, each letter assigned its own hue. These individual contributions join together in a growing installation that physically manifests our interconnection. 

This embodies what Mi’kmaq Elder Albert Marshall calls Two-Eyed Seeing—”learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges.” We’re creating space where both can coexist without hierarchy. 

When someone writes “respect” in English or “ᑭᔅᑌᔨᐦᑕᒧᐏᐣ” (kisteyihtamowin) in Cree, they’re recognizing that every language carries its own understanding of universal concepts. Transforming these words into beads, they participate in Indigenous methodology that understands knowledge as something we create through relationship, not consume in isolation. 

Nobody is teaching about reconciliation here—we’re practicing it. When diverse backgrounds contribute their truths to a shared creation, when those contributions are valued equally regardless of language, when the process honors Indigenous methodology while welcoming all participants—that’s the difference between performance and transformation. 

What Changes When We Thread Connection 

For years, I saw being “the hyphen between worlds” as burden—always translating, never fully belonging. But through this initiative, I’m discovering that those of us who live between worlds carry special gifts. We know what it feels like when connection breaks. We understand viscerally what’s lost when we forget our relations. 

When participants engage, something shifts. A student from India might write about respect through touching elders’ feet, while someone from Norway describes it through personal space. Both truths matter. The beading itself becomes meditation, ceremony, prayer—whatever the participant needs. You can’t bead someone else’s truth; you must sit with your own. You can’t rush the process; relationship takes time. 

Creating Tomorrow’s Memory 

By year’s end, our installation will contain hundreds of contributions in dozens of languages. But the physical artifact isn’t the point. Transformation happens in the moments when someone realizes their grandmother’s teaching echoes across cultures, when they see their mother tongue valued equally, when they understand that reconciliation isn’t about helping “others” but recognizing ourselves in each other. 

This installation will grow beyond this year, potentially adding new sections annually. Imagine entering RRC Polytech in five years and seeing layers of connection, generations of truth-telling woven together. 

If you’re reading this and feeling something stir, know that this is the beginning of remembering. We all carry ancestral knowledge of connection, even buried under generations of separation. “We Are All Connected” isn’t teaching this truth—it’s creating space to remember and practice it. When you pick up that card, select those beads, you’re not participating in someone else’s culture. You’re reclaiming your birthright as a human being: the right to connection, to creativity, to contribution. 

The river connecting my childhood territory to Western classrooms flows through all of us. Your grandmother’s wisdom—whatever tradition she carried—points toward the same truth: we are related to everything and everyone, and this relationship requires our conscious participation. 

So come. Bring your language, your questions, your uncertainties. Bring your grandmother’s teachings and your children’s dreams. There’s a place for all of it in this weaving. 

Because underneath the categories colonial knowledge requires, beneath the boundaries we’ve been taught to maintain, flows something that’s always been whole. We just need to thread it back into visibility, one bead, one truth, one connection at a time. 

We are all connected. We always have been. Now we’re making it visible. 

How to Join the Weaving 

• Keep an eye on student and staff news for beading station locations and times as they move across campuses throughout the year 

• Pick up intention cards at any beading station (take as many as you wish—there’s no limit on contributions) 

• Write your response to any of the Seven Grandfather Teaching questions in whatever language speaks to you 

• Return to a beading station to translate your own words into beads—you can bead your entire answer or choose certain words and phrases to emphasize—this personal act of creation is part of the practice 

• Your completed beadwork and card will be added to our growing collective installation 

If you have any questions, contact Craig Fisher cfisher34@rrc.ca.

At RRC Polytech, Indigenous students have access to Navigation Coaches — your go-to resource for guidance, support, and campus navigation all year long. Whether you need help understanding College processes, accessing community services, finding tutoring, or connecting with other support team members, Navigation Coaches are here to guide you every step of the way.

Your success isn’t just about academics — your health, wellness, and daily life matter too. Navigation Coaches can help you figure out next steps for everything from childcare to technology resources, ensuring you have the support you need to thrive both on campus and beyond. Let us help you make the most of your time at RRC Polytech.

Meet the Navigation Coaches ➔

Do you love cooking and want to prepare for success in the fast-paced food service industry?

The Culinary Skills (Indigenous) program at RRC Polytech is designed to help Indigenous learners develop the knowledge, practical skills, and experience needed to thrive in a variety of food service positions.

This full-time certificate program combines classroom learning, hands-on labs, and work experience to build fundamental culinary techniques, in-depth food knowledge, and introductory business skills. You’ll also gain experience, industry connections, and confidence through a paid co-op work placement. As part of your polytechnic education, you’ll receive industry-relevant certifications and training in food handling, fire safety, first aid, and WHMIS, giving you a strong foundation for your career.

The program incorporates Indigenous content throughout the curriculum and offers pre-employment supports to ensure your success. A special thank you goes to Red River Co-operative Ltd. for their generous support of this program, helping make these opportunities possible for students.

Admission Information

Applicants can apply through Regular Admission or Mature Student Admission pathways.

For Regular Admission, applicants must submit proof of Grade 12 graduation or current enrolment. If applying while enrolled, final grades confirming successful completion must be submitted by July 15 for fall entry or by the deadline listed in your admission letter. Applicants who need to complete an English Language Assessment should not submit transcripts until requested.

For Mature Student Admission, applicants must be at least 19 years old, have been out of high school for at least one year, and not meet regular admission requirements. Mature applicants must still meet the program’s English Language Requirements.

Read about students’ experiences in the program:

• Culinary Connections: Empowering Youth Through Food, Family and Future Pathways
• Prairie Research Kitchen Partnership: Addressing Food Security for Indigenous Communities Across Manitoba
• Culinary Connections: Empowering Youth Through Food, Family and Future Pathways

Ready to turn your passion for food into a career? Check out the program explorer page for more information and to register for the next intake Fall 2026.

Unlock financial support and celebrate your achievements while pursuing your post-secondary journey.

RRC Polytech offers a wide range of awards, scholarships, and bursaries to help Indigenous students pursue their post-secondary education. These funding opportunities recognize academic achievement, community involvement, and financial need, covering students across a variety of programs, from Carpentry and Nursing to Business, Information Technology, and Engineering. Many awards, such as those listed below, provide financial support while encouraging leadership, resilience, and professional growth.

Some notable Indigenous-specific awards include:

• Bird Indigenous Builders Scholarship – $1,000 for Indigenous Carpentry students nearing the end of their studies with strong academic standing.
• Bird Build Your Future Indigenous Scholarship – $2,000 for Indigenous students in Construction Management or Architectural/Engineering Technology who have completed at least one year with good grades.
• Business Council of Manitoba Indigenous Education Awards – Minimum $2,000 for full-time Indigenous students in need of financial assistance; students can reapply each year.
• CIBC Award – Minimum $2,000 for Indigenous students in Pathway to Business, Creative Arts, and Digital Technology programs; supports school-related expenses.
• Eliza Cummings Machan and Helen Machan Memorial Nursing Award – $1,000 for 3rd-year Indigenous Nursing students with a minimum GPA of 3.0.
• Grant Thomas Resiliency Award – $1,000 for Indigenous Child and Youth Care students who demonstrate resilience and personal growth.
• IG Wealth Empower Your Tomorrow Indigenous Scholarship – For Indigenous students in Pathway programs in IT or business, supporting tuition, academic expenses, and work-integrated learning.
• Journey Award for Nursing Students – Minimum $1,000 for Indigenous Nursing students who have faced academic or personal challenges, with preference given to those showing resilience.
• Babcock Canada Award for Indigenous Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Students – $5,000 for Indigenous students continuing into the second year of the Aircraft Maintenance Engineer program with strong academic progress and community involvement.
• Gil Purcell Memorial Journalism Scholarship – $4,000 for Indigenous students studying journalism in Canada.

Deadlines and eligibility vary, so students should review the award details carefully and submit all required documentation on time. To explore the full list of opportunities and learn how to apply, visit the RRC Polytech Awards, Scholarships, and Bursaries page.