News

Last week, a grade four class from Ecole Noel Ritchot shut
their textbooks, put on chef’s hats and made some delicious food at Red River
College.

The culinary experience came as part of a prize for being
selected as one of the winning classrooms in the RRC/Manitoba Moose Respond to
Reading program. The program, now in its tenth year, is designed to be a fun,
motivational way to encourage children in kindergarten to grade five to read.

RRC Culinary Arts students and instructors helped the 30
grade four students make personal pizzas and decorate cookies. Afterwards, the
kids had a pizza party in the cafeteria before getting a tour of the campus.

Second-year Creative Communications students at Red River College are
showing off their Independent Professional Projects (IPP) at the Park Theatre
from March 10 to March 12.

The IPP is a self-directed course that Creative Communications students
are required to take in their second year. Here’s how it works:

1. Students come up with an idea for a project and
   present it to a panel of instructors. Projects generally fall into one of four
   different categories: creative, promotional, documentary or research-based.
2.  Once approved, students spend the next year
   completing it.
3.  After the project is complete, students market
   their work through the appropriate channels.

During the free, three-day IPP Presentations event, over 60 students
will be making 10-minute presentations about their work to peers, industry and
the general public. Projects being presented include novels, documentaries and events, just to name a few.

Take a look at the IPP Presentations program to see a full listing of students and
the projects they are presenting.

A member of Red River College’s Executive Committee is
already feeling the spirit of the 2010 Winter Olympics, a month before the
actual games.

David Rew, Vice-President of Student Services and Planning,
was asked by Coca-Cola to be an Olympic torchbearer because he represents
staff, faculty and student interests through his work at the College.

“When you’re asked, it’s one of those things that you think
won’t happen. When [the Vancouver Organizing Committee] called me, I was quite
surprised,” says Rew.

An avid runner, Rew carried the Olympic torch on Thursday,
January 7, for 300 metres in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

He says his favourite Olympic sports are bobsledding at the
Winter Games and marathon running at the Summer Games.

With the Olympics back in Canada, Rew says that not only are
the 2010 Games good for Canada’s economy, but they also bring out the best in Canadian
pride.

“It’s fantastic. Whenever we’ve hosted the Olympics, whether
it was the Winter Games in Calgary or the Summer Olympics in Montreal, it does
a lot for the country.”

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games kick off in Vancouver, British
Columbia, on February 12.

When the Olympic torch passed through Winkler on January 7,
2010, students at the Red River College Winkler Campus got into the spirit
and participated in one of their own traditions — an annual hockey game.

This year’s installment was titled “The Torch Relay Hockey
Game” to commemorate the Olympic torch coming through Winkler.

The boot hockey game, which pits the staff, Dental Assisting
and Applied Counseling students against the Business Administration students,
is held on the campus parking lot and is a thee-year tradition for the staff
and students.

 “It’s a
friendly competition that gets the staff and students together,” says Isabel
Bright, Regional Manager for the RRC Winkler Campus.

This year, the all-girls team faced off against the mixed
Business Administration team, but despite having more players, the girl’s team
lost.

“It’s just for fun, but the business students don’t like to
lose,“ says Bright, joking about her team’s loss. “It’s only because the boys
played like boys that we lost.”

Some Red River College Creative Communications students got to hone their skills in practicing hard hitting journalism, landing some of their final pieces in Winnipeg’s most read local newspaper.

Second-year Journalism students embarked on a Freedom of Information project back in September 2009, which consisted of them filing a formal information request, receiving the information, and making a story out of it. The requests covered a variety of topics, from 311 wait times, to the Manitoba tuition tax rebate to the number of times Winnipeg Police Service members discharged their firearms.

The project, which took the students to the beginning of December to complete, was featured in the Saturday, January 9, 2010 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press both in print and online, where some of the articles were published.

Dr. James Blatz (University of Manitoba, NSERC Council member), Ray Hoemsen (Director of Applied Research & Commercialization, RRC), the Honourable Vic Toews, Ken Webb (Vice-President, Academic & Research, RRC).

Manitobans and local businesses will benefit from a new research partnership that will bring together Red River College and industry. The partnership will support innovation and help move new discoveries, developed on campus, into the marketplace, where Canadians and people around the world can benefit from them. The initiative was celebrated at an official event at the college today by the Honourable Vic Toews, President of Treasury Board.

“Our government supports innovation because it creates jobs, improves the quality of life of Canadians and strengthens the economy,” said the President Toews. “This new partnership will provide skills training for Winnipeg, position the Red River College as a destination for international research talent and give local businesses access to the knowledge and resources they need to innovate.”

Red River College was one of nine colleges selected across Canada, following a peer reviewed competition, and will receive $2.3 million over five years. The campus project will focus on establishing a research group that will work with industry to develop improved building and construction technologies.

Funding for the partnership comes from the federal government’s College and Community Innovation Program (CCI), administered by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Established as a permanent program by the government in Budget 2007, the program enables colleges to develop or expand knowledge transfer activities in their communities through partnerships with local companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises. The program is supported as part of the government’s Science and Technology Strategy launched by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007.

"The CCI Program builds on other initiatives that foster collaboration between industry and post-secondary institutions,” said Dr. Suzanne Fortier, President of NSERC. “The partners will be working on important, multifaceted Canadian projects with direct impact on their local communities. We look forward to helping them achieve their maximum potential and impact.”

Red River College culinary arts students Emma Molaro and Sheldon Saunders appeared with Wendy "The Pear Lady" Barrett, a National Food Educator, on Breakfast Television (December 11, 2009). The RRC students performed a cooking demonstration: Emma prepared Caramelized Pear on Warm Brie, while Sheldon prepared Roasted Pear, Mesculin Mix, Beet and Goat Cheese Salad.

Creative Communications student Shelley Cook has been chosen as the
first recipient of the John W. Dafoe Free Press scholarship for
aboriginal students.

Cook will will serve an internship in the Free Press newsroom where she will hone her craft under the direction of a mentoring reporter and editors.

John W. Dafoe was editor of the Winnipeg Free Press from 1901 to 1944.

Read more at the Winnipeg Free Press.

On Tuesday, December 8th, 2009, Red River College teamed up with the Manitoba Moose to launch the 2009-10 Respond to Reading program.

Red River College’s School of Indigenous Education is hosting its second annual Christmas Village at the College’s Notre Dame Campus on December 10-11.

All members of the public can get into the holiday spirit by enjoying milk and cookies with friends and family and then getting their photo taken with Santa -– all for free. Children can also write letters and draw pictures for Santa at the colouring and craft station in the beautiful Christmas Village.

Times:
Thursday, December 10 – 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Friday, December 11 – 9:00 pm to 2:00 pm
 
Location:
Aboriginal Student Support Centre (Building F – Room 209)
Red River College – Notre Dame Campus
2055 Notre Dame Avenue

For more information, please contact Angie Hutchinson at 632-3773.