Meet Sheila Harris – SmartPlanIT V.I.P.

Over the past 14 years, Sheila Harris has worked on exciting projects that touch the lives of many Manitobans, including improving the province’s drivers licensing system, implementing a new patient care system at St-Boniface Hospital, and installing MTS’s new 4G cellular network.

It might sound like she’s had multiple career changes, but all of this has been part of Harris’s role as an Information Technology (IT) Business and Systems Analyst.

“One thing that attracted me to the IT field is you can do so many different things. I’ve worked in five or six different industries now, which is great because I like variety, I like challenges and I like to learn,” says Harris, a Senior IT Consultant with SmartPlanIT. “It’s not just one job description, which is interesting to me.”

Because local organizations planning large-scale, complex software implementations often don’t have the resources to do the work, SmartPlanIT provides the people – and the brain power – to get the job done.

Harris might be sent to work as a Systems Analyst, a Solutions Architect, or a Business Analyst, the title she holds in her current role: working on replacing a Laboratory Information Management System for the City of Winnipeg’s Water and Waste Department, which will result in improvements to how Winnipeg’s water is tested and safeguarded, she explains.

“I feel really lucky that I’ve been given opportunities to work on some very meaningful projects in Winnipeg and the province,” Harris says. “I am so fortunate to live here, and it’s really rewarding to know the work I do impacts the community I live and work in, in a positive way.” Read More →

Meet Olufemi Ogungbemi – Manitoba Justice V.I.P.

How does someone from Nigeria move over 10,000 km to the icy Priaires to find their dream career? Just ask Justice and Public Safety graduate Olufemi Ogungbemi how he discovered his dream career in Thompson, Manitoba.

“To graduate and get a good job [in Nigeria] is really hard,” says Ogungbemi, a 28-year-old native of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. “I love my country, and I am a proud Nigerian, but the economy was suffering because of poor leadership in government. I felt Canada was a better opportunity for me.”

The chance to start a new life in Canada came in 2005, when Ogungbemi’s uncles — James Ogungbemi Jackson, a probation officer, and David Ogungbemi, an RCMP officer — asked him to move to Winnipeg, their home for over 40 years. In 2011, following years of paperwork, Olufemi arrived in Manitoba, where his uncles, both graduates of Red River College, wasted no time in introducing him to their alma mater.

“I can still remember the first day [Uncle James] took me to see the Notre Dame Campus,” says Ogunbemi, who also holds a degree in accounting from Lagos State Polytechnic. “I liked everything about the school, and the same day I registered to take a course in Justice and Public Safety.”

While Ogungbemi’s uncles inspired him to follow in their line of work, the idea to work in a justice position was one he’d had since witnessing corruption throughout Nigeria’s legal system.

Read More →

Kyle Goertzen has been sober for three and half years. He attributes part of his recovery to helping others over come the disease of addiction.

“Working in addictions, being able to give back in that capacity is huge for my recovery,” says the 29-year-old. “Being in recovery, for me, is about helping other people get well and eradicate the stigma associated with the disease of alcoholism and addiction.”

A graduate of the Applied Counselling program at the School of Continuing Education at Red River College, Goertzen now works for three addictions recovery organizations: Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and Tamarack Recovery Centre, where he’s a residential care worker, and 210 Recovery, where he’s a peer support worker. His own experience getting sober is a big help in his work.

“I can put myself in others people’s shoes. I’ve been in that same situation, so I think in that sense it’s an asset. I have a solid understanding of what the illness is all about and am able to approach it with compassion [and] non-judgment.”

Read More →

Kyle Goertzen has been sober for three and half years. He attributes part of his recovery to helping others over come the disease of addiction.

“Working in addictions, being able to give back in that capacity is huge for my recovery,” says the 29-year-old. “Being in recovery, for me, is about helping other people get well and eradicate the stigma associated with the disease of alcoholism and addiction.”

A graduate of the Applied Counselling program at the School of Continuing Education at Red River College, Goertzen now works for three addictions recovery organizations: Addictions Foundation of Manitoba and Tamarack Recovery Centre, where he’s a residential care worker, and 210 Recovery, where he’s a peer support worker. His own experience getting sober is a big help in his work.

“I can put myself in others people’s shoes. I’ve been in that same situation, so I think in that sense it’s an asset. I have a solid understanding of what the illness is all about and am able to approach it with compassion [and] non-judgment.”

Read More →