With the collegiate sports season gearing up, and the launch of its new soccer program, Red River College has added four new coaches to its athletics department this fall. Doug Lawrie and Paul Thompson will coach women’s and men’s soccer, respectively, while Jaenas Pangilinan  will coach women’s basketball and Lea Romanchuk will coach women’s volleyball.

“With their experience and enthusiasm, our new coaches will definitely play a key role in leading our Rebels teams to great success,” said Ryan Ratushniak, Red River College Director of Athletics.

For more information on RRC Rebels Athletics, visit www.rrc.ca/athletics

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Red River College and StandardAero have been named recipients of the 2011 John Convey Innovation Award, for the contributions to training and technological development made possible by the Centre for Aerospace Technology and Training (CATT).

Awarded by ASM International (formerly the American Society for Metals), the annual honour recognizes companies for their contribution to furthering the development of the materials engineering industry in Canada.

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Welders from nearby Hutterite colonies aced their trades qualification tests in record numbers recently, thanks to training provided by RRC’s Corporate Solutions.

The welders were part of a group of 10 seeking formal industry accreditation as a means of increasing the manufacturing opportunities on their colonies. Though some have already worked as welders for decades, they still needed to go through the proper processes — including initial assessments and providing proof of prior experience — before completing their qualifications testing with Apprenticeship Manitoba, the Canadian Welding Bureau and the Manitoba Department of Labour.

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The ongoing partnership between Red River College and the Shenyang Institute of Engineering (SIE) has led to an award-winning project in which Power Engineering Technology lectures are delivered online to students in China.

The new initiative, in which two courses per year are delivered through a mix of online and on-site lectures, recently resulted in a 2011 Learning Innovation Award for RRC instructor David Kinasevych (Mechanical, Manufacturing & Communications) and Duojiao (Sarah) Guan, a visiting faculty member from Shenyang, China.

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Aboriginal youth aged 11 to 13 got their first taste of trades and technology programming, while participating in Red River College’s second annual Hands-On Activity Week for Kids (H.A.W.K.).

The five-day summer camp, which ran July 25 – 29, blended cultural programming, recreation time and team-building exercises with hands-on activities and games that introduced them to such skilled trades- and technology-related programs as Construction Trades, Electronics, Mechanical Engineering Technology/Manufacturing, Aviation and Civil Engineering.

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Staff and instructors at Red River College helped expose young women to an array of trades- and technology-related career options this summer, by hosting the Girls Exploring Trades & Technology (GETT@RRC) Camps over three weeks in July.

With a focus on technology and applied skills, the GETT@RRC camps provide girls 12-14 with a chance to explore non-traditional career options via hands-on activities and encounters with female mentors. The camps reinforce the importance of pursuing science, advanced math and industrial arts courses in high school, by stressing the impact these subjects can have on future career choices.

“During the five-day GETT camps, the instructor and assistants emphasize to the girls the importance of continuing with Math and Science courses because many occupations, particularly technical ones, require a solid grounding in these subjects,” says Dr. Dale Watts, Dean of the School of Construction and Engineering Technologies. “An awareness of that requirement at this age may provide the motivation for these students to continue taking Math and Science courses throughout secondary school.”

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Shaw TV’s loss is Red River College’s gain.

Longtime Shaw TV personality Joanne Kelly has revealed she’ll be leaving the community-access channel by mid-August, having accepted a new position as a journalism instructor with RRC’s industry-renowned Creative Communications program.

“I can’t believe I am writing this,” Kelly said in a Twitter post yesterday, “but after seven amazing years at Shaw TV I am moving on to my other dream job — teaching CreComm!!!”

Kelly — who’s served as host and producer at Shaw since 2004, and a producer at CTV stations in Winnipeg and Vancouver in years prior — will take over broadcast journalism duties from former CreComm instructor Steve Vogelsang, who retired in June. Read More →

Red River College instructor Linda Ament accepted a prestigious honour on behalf of General Mills Winnipeg recently, after the company was named Employer of the Year at the Manitoba Food Processors Association’s Industry Excellence Awards.

The award was based on a wide range of criteria, including General Mills’ employee relations, training, communications, continuous improvement, labour relations, and compensation and benefits practices. Ament (shown, bottom right), who serves as Human Resources Manager at GM’s Winnipeg plant, says the honour comes at an especially important time in the company’s evolution.

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Bill Fraser has been appointed the new Chair of the Aviation and Aerospace department at Red River College.

Bill has been involved in aircraft maintenance training for 16 years, and has spent the last nine years as the coordinator for the Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (AME) diploma program at RRC's Stevenson Campus in Winnipeg. Previously, he worked for several companies as an Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, including eight years as a crew chief supervising AMEs and apprentices. Bill holds a current AME M1 and M2 license.    

An accomplished writer, Bill is the author of “CARs for the AME”, a text on the Canadian Aviation Regulations used by approved training and maintenance organizations across Canada. He has also published articles for the CBC, Wings magazine and the Winnipeg Free Press. Bill has been very active within the Manitoba aerospace and aviation industry, and has received an award of recognition from the Manitoba Aerospace Association for his leadership in organizing aviation events, such as the Centennial of Flight Aircraft Display.

"Bill is very enthusiastic about the future for aviation and aerospace in Manitoba, Canada and globally," says Don MacDonald, Dean of RRC's School of Transportation, Aviation and Manufacturing. "We are excited to have him lead our aviation and aerospace programs, staff and students — ensuring we meet the challenges and opportunities of the future."    

Diagrams and PowerPoint presentations have been replaced by real-life technology thanks to a new simulation lab that's been added to Red River College's Medical Laboratory Sciences (MLS) training curriculum for biochemistry.

This innovative new teaching approach — the result of a partnership with Diagnostic Services of Manitoba Inc. (DSM) and Roche, a diagnostic vendor — provides RRC students with a more dynamic learning experience and better prepares them for both their on-site practicum and eventual employment.

"I was surprised that by just changing the way you teach and how you present your information, you can dramatically alter how we — the students — perceive the topic and our recall ability," said Anthony Villanueve, a med lab technologist-in-training who was among the first group of RRC students to use the simulation equipment.

"The activities stimulated our minds and made us think, instead of just absorbing. Instead of asking (us) what we would do in a situation, the situation was created and we were asked to fix it."

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