It’s never too late to follow your dreams. And if you think that’s just a silly cliché, you really ought to meet Olga Rusnak.

If you had asked Rusnak 10 years ago if she thought she’d ever graduate from Red River College and land her current job as a daycare provider at the Makoonsag Intergenerational Children’s Centre, she would have answered with a definitive ‘no.’

“I’ve always wanted to work with children, but I didn’t have the education for that,” says Rusnak, 56, who recently proved dreams can be realized at any age.

The second-oldest of six children, Rusnak came from a poor family, and dropped out of school in Grade 9 to help her mother care for her siblings. She worked in retail for many years to provide financial support for her family — and she’s proud to say four of her siblings went on to graduate from high school.

But once she reached her late forties, Rusnak herself felt stuck.

“As you get older, you think, ‘I wish I had my education.’ I used to think, ‘If I could only have this job …’, but you need an education. You can’t get anywhere without an education.”

Rusnak told her husband, Daryl (John) Rusnak, how badly she wanted an education so she could fulfill her dreams of working with children. He offered nothing but support.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you go back to school?’ And I said, ‘No, I can’t. I’m too old, and I’m afraid.’”

Thankfully, John’s persistence paid off, and Rusnak eventually went to Urban Circle Training Centre Inc., which provides culturally appropriate education and training to Indigenous women and men in Winnipeg. There, she received the support she needed to graduate from the Centre’s high school equivalency program in 2009. Read More →

Tania Czemerynski’s bad hair days are behind her — and she wants to tame your mane, too.

Czemerynski is the founder of Cze by Tania, a Winnipeg business that specializes in all-natural hair and beard care products for women and men. Czemerynski launched Cze (pronounced ‘Chay’) in the fall of 2015, but the roots of her hair care business go back a little further.

“I started (making hair care products) because my hair was super dried out — it was broken and brittle. I didn’t do it with the intention of starting a business,” Czemerynski says.

“I started making my own home remedies sometime in 2013. I started to research different oils and things to make my hair grow out, because my hair was broken — it wasn’t growing. My boyfriend was like, ‘Your hair feels like a mop.’ I had spent so much money on store-bought products, so I started to make my own and it was really noticeably different within six weeks.”

A 2012 graduate of Red River College’s Business Administration program, Czemerynski went on to earn a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Manitoba two years later.

She had entrepreneurial ambitions, but initially Czemerynski was only sharing her home hair remedy with family and friends. It wasn’t until co-workers (at her former serving job) asked to try her “magic hair oil” that Czemerynski realized she had a potentially profitable product on her hands — and her head. Read More →

No shirt, no pants — no problem, at Thermëa by Nordic Spa’s restaurant.

Guests can dress for lunch or dinner, but if they’d rather unwind in a fluffy bathrobe and spa slippers, that’s OK with Chef Thomas Stuart.

The 2005 graduate of Red River College’s Culinary Arts program is all about making patrons feel relaxed and comfortable, and he’s happy to massage his Scandinavian-inspired menu to satisfy eclectic appetites at the upscale eatery, whether guests are in the mood for gourmet S’mores, a vegan salad or beer-braised lamb shanks.

“Being a food service for a spa has been kind of an eye opener for me because we have people with every different expectations coming to the spa and coming to the restaurant,” he says.

“I’ll have people who just want a burger and French fries and then I’ll have another group that’s sitting at the table beside them that want a four-course table d’hôte fine dining experience, so that’s been my main challenge.”

But it’s been a fun challenge for the adventurous chef.

Stuart, 34, has been rattling pots and pans since Thermëa opened three years ago. In fact, he was hired a year before the spa’s delayed debut, so he traded his chef’s toque for a hard hat and steel-toed boots and pitched in, moving lumber, painting fences and doing other odd jobs. While the kitchen had already been designed, he got to outfit it with small appliances, whisks, spoons and other wares, and he created the menu from scratch.

He picked a good time to join the Scandinavian food movement. Restaurant Magazine has named Copenhagen’s Noma the world’s top restaurant in four of the last seven years, sparking a new global culinary wave.

“Now you can go to a bookstore and find a whole section of Scandinavian cookbooks, which is something that 10 years ago you wouldn’t have been able to do,” Stuart says. “So it’s kind of a fun time to be able to do that and get inspired by a growing trend and contribute to it.” Read More →

To say Raymond Ngarboui has made the most of his time in Canada is an understatement.

Since moving to Winnipeg 12 years ago, the Chad, Africa, native has amassed a list of accomplishments longer than most people do in a lifetime. As a community development coordinator, he works to support fellow immigrants and other residents who struggle to make ends meet, all while sitting on various boards and volunteering for organizations like UNICEF and the United Way.

He’s won countless accolades for his work – including a recent Premier’s Volunteer Service Award – but Ngarboui insists that he’s the one who’s grateful, especially for the education he received from Red River College.

“For me, it’s not about being recognized, it’s about doing what I’ve been doing, and of freeing myself of moral debt that I’ve been carrying,” Ngarboui says.

Like many other newcomers, Ngarboui didn’t speak English when he arrived here on Sept. 27, 2005. The inability to communicate made those early days difficult for him.

“I was feeling loneliness, I was feeling homesickness,” he says.

Thankfully, Ngarboui is a fast learner. Shortly after enrolling at RRC’s Language Training Centre, he became fluent in English and his “life started getting better.”

One of his first priorities at the time was to give back to UNICEF, an organization that had helped him as a child. In civil war-torn Chad, when all the schools had closed, UNICEF was there to provide some education for Ngarboui and his fellow classmates, despite the circumstances. Once in Winnipeg, he located the office and began working there.

“I wouldn’t have been able to graduate to the level that I am today without the help of UNICEF,” he says.

After completing the Language Training Centre’s post-secondary prep course, Ngarboui considered studying agriculture at the University of Manitoba – an area he’d begun studying back home – but wanted to find a way to meld his passion for farming with his devotion to his new community. He discovered RRC’s Community Development/Community Economic Development program, and knew it was the perfect fit. Read More →

Darrell Brown believes knowledge is power, and in his case, clean power.

Brown is the president and owner of Kisik Inc. — a company that provides school, office and health-care furniture to First Nations clients and federal government departments — as well as Kisik Marketing and Communications Ltd.

Brown’s quest for knowledge began at Red River College, where he earned an advanced diploma in International Business in 1998.

In 2013, the Cree entrepreneur earned a certificate of Indigenous leadership, governance and management excellence from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The next year, he was back at the Banff Centre participating in a week-long leadership workshop called the Ambassadors Program.

One of Brown’s latest learning experiences was with the 20/20 Catalysts Program. In 2016, he participated in the interactive three-month program, which is designed to support Indigenous communities embarking on clean energy projects.

“Across Canada we have many First Nations that are not connected to the power grids, so they are still burning diesel,” says Brown. “The idea is to connect them with renewable energy and reduce their reliance on diesel.”

“It was an intense course last summer on how to develop and execute an Indigenous renewable energy project for your community. We had layers and layers of support: business mentorship, personal coaching, the staff of the program and non-stop excursions to renewable energy sites. We were onsite for three weeks in three different provinces. We learned firsthand from the people who have done their clean energy projects. These were chiefs and former chiefs and economic development officers who have all executed their own renewable energy projects for their own First Nations.” Read More →

When it comes to visual communication, Robert Mensies concentrates on the big picture.

Since graduating from Red River College’s Advertising Art (now Graphic Design) program in 1999, Mensies has continually climbed the corporate ladder, from designing ads for a local publisher to owning his own ad agency, Edge Marketing Strategies.

In 2015, Mensies merged Edge with 6P Marketing, where he now serves as Director of Client Strategy, a perfect position for his big-picture thinking.

“Director of Client Strategy is a fancy title that basically means I get to work with our clients on their longer-term marketing and branding business objectives,” Mensies says. “I’m still in the minutia of the day-to-day stuff for some clients who just can’t get enough of me and my winning personality, but mostly I’m focusing on that longer-term game plan for clients,” Mensies says jokingly.

Mensies’ focus may be long-term, but it’s also quite specific. At 6P, his main clients are in the agri-business and food sectors.

“Whenever you can specialize within a certain industry or sector, it really builds your knowledge and your expertise,” Mensies says.

“I know something a lot of firms struggle with is being [a] commodity versus a specialist. We’ve (6P) really been focusing on being specialists within certain sectors. There are many benefits. You can charge more, because you’re seen as a specialist, versus a commodity guy. You focus your energies in a particular field as opposed to being all things to all people. And you just build your own personal brand, and people respect what you do. If someone is looking to sell something or do something within agriculture, they see you as more of a peer versus a supplier.” Read More →

Whether it be by plane, train or truck, Carly Edmundson is doing her part to establish Winnipeg as a central transportation hub.

Edmundson is the executive director of marketing and communications at CentrePort Canada Inc., the corporation responsible for developing the 20,000-acre tri-modal (air, rail and trucking) inland port anchored by Winnipeg’s James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.

“There are three types of marketing and communications that we do at CentrePort,” says Edmundson, a graduate of Red River College’s Creative Communications program.

“The first is awareness raising. Canada, or indeed Manitoba, is not always top of mind for global investors. So our first job is to educate potential investors on all of the advantages of locating in our province.”

“A second focus of our marketing programs is targeted to businesses that we’re looking to attract, usually from outside of Manitoba and often from outside of Canada. There are six key sectors — agriculture, manufacturing, energy and mines, biomedical, transportation and logistics, and e-commerce — that are well-suited to set up new operations at CentrePort. We’re very precise about who we’re targeting and delivering the type of information that business leaders are interested in to make a decision of that magnitude.”

“The flip side of that would be our local marketing. Obviously developing a 20,000-acre inland port in Manitoba is going to affect those of us who live, work, play, and learn here. We focus on raising awareness on how the inland port’s development is positively impacting Manitoba’s economy and creating jobs.” Read More →

Some people while away the workday daydreaming about their happy place. Not Kristin McPherson. The founder of Happyland Print Shop mixes business with pleasure — day and night.

As communications manager at urban nature preserve FortWhyte Alive, the 2004 Graphic Design grad spends her weekdays where other people like to spend their weekends. When she goes home after work, Happyland is there waiting for her.

Since 2012, the 33-year-old entrepreneur has been increasingly successful at minding her own business, designing and selling prints, tote bags, pins and patches that celebrate Winnipeg’s quirks and customs — socials and salami shoulder, perogies and “majestic” Transcona’s pink flamingos, to name a few.

But McPherson doesn’t want to give up her day job.

“It’s a great gig. The role I’m in now I’m kind of like a one-person marketing department,” she says.

“I run the social media accounts, so every so often I get to go out and take photos of seasons changing or the wildlife that’s out there. It’s really nice; it’s nice to start my day with a walk on our trails with my camera. It’s a pretty incredible place to work — I like to go to work every day. It’s like going to a cabin in the woods, basically.” Read More →

Arlin Conway is connecting the province to the planet.

As Enterprise Solutions Manager at NetSet Communications, a rural high-speed internet provider based in Brandon, Conway criss-crosses the province pinpointing the connectivity needs of rural companies.

Conway is coming up on four years with NetSet, starting at the company shortly after graduating from Red River College’s Business Administration program in 2012.

“My title, Enterprise Solutions Manager, means I deal with anything that doesn’t fall within the regular cookie cutter packages,” Conway says.

“In a case like Altona [Conway’s destination the day after he was interviewed for this story], we’re going down to an agriculture dealer who has multiple locations across the province. When that’s the case, they might have a server at their head office or in downtown Winnipeg, or for the services they provide they need to tap into a certain billing system or POS (point of sale) system, or the manufacturer for their mechanics might have to access a certain portal. We work to make it all as efficient as possible.

“The goal with me sitting down with them? It’s nice to get some face time in and get to know your customer, but it’s also to give them a rundown and go through the different things that we could help them with. Check off the boxes. Then we take a step back, come back to Brandon and figure out how we can do it. We figure out things like if they need symmetrical service, if they need transport service as opposed to internet gateway, all these different things. Then, we wrap it in a bow and present it in a proposal.”

Currently, NetSet Communications is in the final stages of upgrading its entire network to an LTE (long-term evolution) platform, adding 48 tower sites and 20 fibre breakouts to its network as part of the federal government’s Digital Canada 150 initiative. Read More →

Any experienced hotel guest knows the person who holds the room keys also holds the power to make or break your stay.

Kevin Dyck, the Front Office Manager at the Delta Hotel in Winnipeg, agrees it takes a certain personality type to hold down the front desk at a major hotel.

“You need to be warm and genuine,” he says. “The people that have success genuinely want guests to have a good stay.”

And the ability to make a connection with a guest during a two-minute check-in isn’t something that can be taught – not even in Red River College’s Hospitality and Tourism Management program. Dyck, who graduated from the course in 2005, says that’s one of the first lessons he learned at RRC.

“People were weeded out pretty quickly through the program, which is a good thing because the people that are truly committed to working in the industry were left. It’s not for everybody.”

Yes, there’s far more to the job than locating freshly laundered towels. Quick thinking and problem solving skills are essential when you’ve got a medical emergency, an overbooked hotel, a flooded bathroom, a broken elevator or unhappy guests on your hands.

“You have to be on your toes and be able to easily adapt because you never know what’s going to happen,” says Dyck.

RRC’s classroom and on-the-job training prepared Dyck – and nearly one-third of his current staff – for such situations. Seven of the 30 employees in his department are Hospitality and Tourism graduates, including Guest Service Agents Star Wang, Kira Clarridge and Claire Yu, Service One Operators Keunjoon Lee and Nina Shi, Assistant Front Office Manager Tiffany Tang, Yuan Chen, who works on the 12th-floor executive lounge, and, of course, himself. Read More →