There was a time when Audrey Sawatzky thought retirement homes were just places the elderly went to live out the end of their lives. Now she knows differently – and she’s out to teach everyone the truth.

“[We are all] going to age,” says Sawatzky (shown above, at right), a graduate of Red River College’s Recreation Facilitator for Older Adults program.

“One day you will be 65 and there will be a 20-something looking at you thinking, ‘You’re nothing but an old person.’ But you won’t think that. You’ll think: ‘Look at the life I’ve lived. I have so much more to give, I just need an outlet.’ And recreation coordinators can supply that outlet.”

Sawatzky works as the recreation coordinator at Riverwood Square, a retirement facility for residents 55 and older that offers independent living options for active seniors, as well as supportive housing for those who require additional attention.

She says facilities such as Riverwood — often mistakenly regarded as “old folks’ homes” — actually heighten residents’ physical and mental well-being, thanks in large part to recreational programming.

“The point of recreation is basically to bring life to the building,” she says. “Just because you’re older… doesn’t mean you’re not alive any more.”

As a recreation coordinator, Sawatzky helps plan and coordinate activities for the more than 180 residents, ensuring events are both holistic and relevant. Approximately 15 programs, ranging from morning exercises and team sports to trivia games and arts and crafts, are offered multiple times per week. Read More →

A Red River College grad who heads both a leading IT solutions provider and one of the province’s largest surveying firms was recognized recently with a pair of prestigious awards for his work with remote Manitoba communities.

Clear Concepts Inc., a local IT solutions provider owned by RRC alum Christian Korell (Survey Engineering Technology, 1992), picked up a gold medal for Best Small Business Solution and was named Solution Provider of the Year at this year’s IT World Canada CDN (Computer Dealer News) Channel Elite Awards in September.

The focus of this year’s awards was on remote clients, in particular how a stable foundation in IT services and support allows them to become more self-sustaining. Clear Concepts was recognized for partnering with the Cowichan Tribe of Southern B.C., developers of a community electronic medical records (cEMR) system for First Nation communities.

Clear Concepts provided cEMR-related installation and infrastructure support to many clients across Canada including the Opaskwayak Health Authority in northern Manitoba, allowing that organization to receive funding for a new health centre and dedicated physician. The company has also provided services that allowed a northern Manitoba tribal council to better manage its eight communities, and has partnered with a local airline to streamline internal logistics processes. Read More →

Without Joelle Foster there would be 87 fewer youth-led businesses operating locally – and that’s just in the last three years.

As the Manitoba, Nunavut and NWT director of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF), Foster has financed and mentored 87 businesses. And many of these start-ups – like Shawarma Khan, EPH Apparel and Nest Family Centre – are having a big impact on small business in Manitoba.

“Small business is what drives our economy, especially here in Manitoba,” Foster says. “How do you think McDonald’s started? It started with an idea and an entrepreneur. A small business can become a large business.”

CYBF is a national organization that offers financial support and advice to entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 39. Without CYBF, many young entrepreneurs would not be able to secure the business loans or receive the expertise they need to start up.

“Our organization, we lend on character, not collateral.”  Read More →

Ben Davies was sorting rocks.

Earlier that day, at the gravel hauling company where Davies (Technical Communication, 2005) worked as a dispatcher, his boss had dumped a box of stones on his desk. Normally, gravel samples were sent to a lab for analysis of size, consistency and quality, ensuring the crushing equipment was callibrated. But why pay for analysis when the man on the lowest rung of the company’s ladder could do the task between calling trucks?

It was while he lined up the stones, smallest to largest by miniscule increments, that Davies knew he’d hit rock bottom.

Raised in Transcona, the 31-year-old had never pictured himself at this crossroads. After finishing high school he had chased the Canadian boy’s dream of a career in hockey, moving to B.C. to begin his climb to NHL ice. But competition was intense. When he returned to Manitoba to regroup, he found his decision to leave the province had burned some bridges in the tight knit community.  Junior hockey, like every other organization, has its politics.

That’s how he came to be sorting rocks. Was that piece of gravel slightly bigger? Was this piece crushed too powerfully?

The following Monday he arrived at work with the course books for both Winnipeg universities and Red River College. He read them in one day. Read More →

Despite a difficult upbringing and troubled past, Red River College alum Corey Rempel has managed to channel his misfortunes into a new career.

Having turned his life around following a period of criminal activity and incarceration, Rempel now serves as a youth care worker helping teens in similar situations.

“As someone who has been in the system, I know how important it is to genuinely listen to clients,” says Rempel. “If they don’t think you’re listening, you won’t get anywhere.”

Rempel was born and raised in B.C., where he grew up in an abusive, neglectful household. He says he was left with no choice but to run away at the age of 13.

“I came from a bad home,” he says. “My father was murdered before I was even born, and I really didn’t have a family.”

Eventually, Rempel found himself under the watch of social services. But even as a youth in care, he was quickly exposed to an onslaught of negative influences.

“Breaking rules, crimes, drinking, and doing drugs — I fell in with a crowd where this was normal,” he says. Read More →

Not everyone can confidently say they scored their dream job, but Shaun Leonoff, Red River College graduate and grandmother of nine, can assure you she did, and it’s all thanks to a car accident.

During the life-changing incident, Leonoff severely damaged her elbow, ending her 30-year career as an X-ray technician. Because of her injuries, Leonoff had no choice but to look for another career path; having attended RRC in the past (it’s where she earned her X-ray technician credentials), she was this time drawn to the College’s Volunteer Management program, available through the School of Continuing Education.

“I lived in St. Anne and I had been a volunteer of all levels, from (being) the teachers’ field trip mom, to being on boards, to chair of the parks and recreation centres, and even a Scout mom,” says Leonoff.

When asked what inspired her to volunteer in the first place, she says, “Living in a small town, I saw the immediate benefit of volunteering. I saw the positive difference it made in our community.” Read More →

Derrick Sinclair had hardly held a wrench before he came to Red River College. Nor had he been to a sweat or a smudge. Now the 23-year-old Peguis-born Sinclair has taken an engine down to its bolts, is hoping to sign his apprenticeship papers shortly, and has a second name – Eagle Speaks.

On top of that, he’s been asked by the College to come back as a tutor to mentor students who might be confused about where they want to go in life. Just like he was.

In his final year of high school, Sinclair was like a lot of grads – unsure of what he wanted to do next. He had an interest in mechanics, fed both by a desire to help extended family members “who were always having to take their vehicles into the shops, instead of working on them by themselves” and the draw of a culture glamourized in films such as The Fast and the Furious.

But there weren’t many opportunities on the reserve to get a firm grounding in mechanics or auto repair. Sinclair also suspected the reserve’s school hadn’t pushed him hard enough to prepare him for college life – either in terms of the academic content or having a rigorous class schedule. He was looking for a bridge to let him explore trades education as well as check out what it means to be a college student.

He found that bridge in the Aboriginal Program for College Enrichment and Transition, formerly the Biindigen (“Welcome”) Program. Read More →

Emmanuel Domingo, a recent graduate of Red River College’s Railway Conductor Certificate program, didn’t know what to expect when he decided to go back to school after nearly 20 years.

The father of three moved his wife and young children to Canada from the Philippines in 2003. In his home country, he’d graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Central Luzon State University in the province of Nueva Ecija. After working for years in the pig farming industry, he obtained a working permit to move his family to rural Manitoba through a government-sponsored program.

“Even though you have a degree, in the Philippines it’s hard to find a job. In Canada, the opportunities for my children are endless,” says Domingo. “Back home, there were problems with the health care, security and education systems. In Canada, I can die tomorrow and not worry about my children.”

Domingo quickly excelled in the pig farming industry in Manitoba. In 2007, his employer rewarded Domingo for his high productivity with an all-inclusive trip to a location of his choice. Domingo opted for a one-month trip back home to visit his relatives in the Philippines. During this time, his company tasked Domingo with a special project: to recruit and interview up to 20 candidates from the Philippines, to move to Canada to work for their company.

Unfortunately, Domingo’s plant shut down in 2012, leaving him unemployed. After a year of job hunting, Domingo met with an employment consultant in Steinbach and expressed his interest in the railway industry.

“I had friends who were working at CNR, and I thought, ‘Why not?'” he recalls. Read More →

Darrell Brown took the exact opposite path most kids dream of: he sold his arcade business and went back to school.

But the 47-year-old graduate of Red River College’s International Business diploma program (1998) hasn’t looked back, first founding a marketing company to connect European tourists with Manitoba First Nations, then a manufacturing company preparing office furniture orders for First Nations and government clients.

“I’m in business to make clients happy,” says Brown. “That, to me, is where it’s not about profit. It’s about delivering a good product or service.”

With a father in the army, Brown experienced the typical “base brat” upbringing, moving a number of times during his childhood, including two tours in Germany. His father’s final posting brought the family to Winnipeg, where Brown graduated high school, then worked for a major Crown corporation for 10 years.

It wasn’t a great fit.

“I didn’t care for the union mentality,” he says. “Toward the end of my time there, the company was offering buyouts during a two-week window and they accepted me. I took my meagre buyout, cashed in a boatload of RSPs and found a business to buy… Basically I was doing everything to make it happen.”

Brown’s arcade business, stocked with pinball machines and pool tables, had 15 locations at the height of its popularity. But this, too, wasn’t the fulfilling career he had envisioned. He wanted to take his career in a larger, more meaningful direction; one that tied in his native heritage. That’s when he found the International Business diploma at RRC. He sold the business and hit the books. Read More →

Sabrina Rogers, a Continuing Education student in Red River College’s Youth Recreation Activity Worker program, wasn’t so sure she’d make it to graduation after she received some unexpected news months before starting her program.

“I found out I was pregnant coming into the program,” says Rogers. “Because of that, I wasn’t sure if I’d even finish or if I was going to have to drop out. I almost felt bad because it was as if I was taking the seat from someone else who deserved it.”

Fortunately, she put all her doubts behind her and surpassed her own expectations. Today Rogers is not only a new mother to a beautiful, healthy daughter, Sophia, but is also only a handful of practicum hours away from completing her program.

“As my stomach kept growing it gave me more incentive and motivation to finish,” says Rogers. “I also wanted to do this for my family, instructors and everyone who supported me. My family wouldn’t let me drop out, no matter how much I wanted to at some points.”

The 22-year-old was born and raised in Selkirk. She moved to Winnipeg at the age of 18 to live with her aunt, who then introduced Rogers to the program.

“I was working as a hairdresser and I wasn’t doing much. I was doing the same thing everyday,” admits Rogers. “I did a program at the Aboriginal Centre for Policing and Corrections and I had a practicum at the Manitoba Youth Centre, which is where I eventually want to work.”

When asked what inspired her to pursue a career supporting youth at the Manitoba Youth Centre, Rogers recalls a special memory where she says it all clicked.

“There was a young girl who was being released during my practicum at the Youth Centre. She lived in the North End and lived with six siblings in a one-bedroom house with her grandfather. Her parents didn’t even come visit her the whole time she was there.”

“She had no clothes to leave with, so I brought her clothes from my closet. She promised she’d finish her school because of what I did for her. Knowing I gave her that little bit of hope made me want to continue,” says Rogers. Read More →