Having grown up in northern Manitoba, Winnie Giesbrecht knows first-hand just how hard it can be for people living in remote communities to access quality health care.

A 1972 graduate of Red River College’s Licensed Practical Nursing program, Giesbrecht has made it her life’s mission to serve those in need of medical care — overcoming many professional and personal challenges along the way.

Originally from Grand Rapids, Giesbrecht moved to southern Manitoba as a teenager to go to high school, but moved back to her hometown soon after when she got married and settled down to raise a family.

Tragically, Giesbrecht’s husband died, leaving her as the sole provider for her three young children. She relocated to Selkirk to be closer to family, and eventually completed high school while working to support her family. Upon earning her high school diploma, she enrolled in the LPN program at RRC.

“While I was taking my GED in Selkirk, we went on a tour of Red River College and at the time, they had just started the LPN program, and it drew an interest for me. I had always had a desire to work with people and in the medical field before,” said Giesbrecht. “I knew I had to do something to create a better life for my sons and provide for them the best I could, and the only way to do that was to get an education.”

Giesbrecht went to school during the day and worked at a local restaurant in the evenings and weekends to support her family, and graduated from the LPN program in 1972. She was quickly hired on at Selkirk General Hospital, but continued her studies while working at the hospital to earn a Registered Nursing Diploma, and her hard work and sacrifice hasn’t gone unnoticed by her children

“It wasn’t easy for mom to work to pay the bills, study, and look after us,” said Giesbrecht’s son, Reg Fredborg. “But she persevered and made it.” Read More →

Jessica Saunders says the key to her job is being a good listener, non-judgmental and non-biased.

Saunders is a child and youth care practitioner for Macdonald Youth Services in Winnipeg, a United Way member organization that “fosters hope and opportunities to empower children, youth and families throughout Manitoba.” MYS has over 700 employees and served over 6,200 youth in 2008-2009. Saunders is based at one of its many group homes and works with six boys aged 13-18.

“I thought it was going to be scary but it’s not,” she says. “It surprised me that the kids can still be happy after all of the things that happened to them. They can still laugh and have fun.”

Saunders graduated from high school in 2007. She went to university for one year and then took a year off to decide what she wanted to do. Saunders knew an instructor at Red River College who told her about its Child and Youth Care program.

“I looked up the course, read about it and knew I wanted to do it.”

Saunders enrolled in the program in 2009. At the time she knew she wanted to help kids but had no idea what type of job she wanted.

“If I hadn’t gone to Red River College, I probably wouldn’t have known about working at a group home,” she explains. Read More →

Red River College continues to take a lead role in providing management and leadership education to the health sector in Manitoba, through the delivery of its Health Service Management (HSM) program.

In October 2011, a class of 32 students — all of them employees of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority — successfully completed the program, making for a total of more than 200 HSM graduates over the last 10 years.

The program’s success rate demonstrates the College’s continued commitment to leadership in the health service field, and to providing health sector employees with the knowledge and theory to become effective, proactive managers.

“They are acquiring relevant and applied skills and knowledge relating to management and leadership in health services,” says Jo-Anne Shay, Program Director of RRC’s School of Continuing and Distance Education. “It’s a very applied focus, so these are skills that have been identified by the Canadian College of Health Leaders. That is the foundation of this program.”

The HSM program is open to anyone, but is tailor-made for those already employed in management positions or those aspiring to career advancement within the health sector. The WRHA has built its capacity over the years by sponsoring many of its own employees’ as students, and much of the program’s success can be attributed to the participation of key health care professionals who serve as guest lecturers on a regular basis. Read More →

In the world of marketing and branding, it helps to have a strong connection to your subject matter, since much of your job revolves around helping people create emotional ties of their own.

That’s certainly the case with Red River College alum Kyle Romaniuk, who as president of creative agency Cocoon Branding oversaw the recent rebrand of long-running children’s charity The Rainbow Society, now known as The Dream Factory.

Romaniuk, who graduated from RRC’s Graphic Design program in 1996, has been serving on the charity’s board since 2009. But his connection runs much deeper than that.

After being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 12, Romaniuk was on the receiving end of his own dream come true — a chance to swim with dolphins, made possible by The Rainbow Society. He sees his current work with the newly-revamped organization as a way to give back to a particularly worthy cause.

“My whole family was encouraged to participate in my ‘dream’ … so for my parents and my sister, I know it’s one of the highlights of their lives, as well as mine,” says Romaniuk, whose dream took him to the Dolphin Resource Center in the Florida Keys (the same place where TV’s Flipper was trained).

“It was during one of the most difficult times of our lives — while we were all trying to deal with the cancer of a child, which is hard enough on a kid, never mind how hard it would be on a parent. So it was an opportunity we all got to experience together, get our minds off the illness and treatments, and just escape in the dream.” Read More →

Impressions of Grant Maluga can be deceiving, particularly if your first meeting takes place on a football field. Six feet tall and broadly built, Maluga might come off as an intimidating presence. But nothing could be further from the truth.

“People might look at me and think I’m immature or tough or troubled,” he says. “But on in the inside, I’m soft as a teddy bear.”

Maluga moved to Winnipeg this past autumn to join the Winnipeg Rifles as a defensive lineman while taking Biindigen College Studies at Red River College. Biindigen (Ojibwe for “welcome”) combines introductory college programs with Aboriginal culture, language and history courses. Maluga says he feels at home.

“Everyone in Biindigen is friendly… you get a lot of one-on-one attention there,” he says. “A teacher the other day told me, ‘You’re more of a friend than a student.’”

Some people might be surprised at the momentum in Maluga’s life, considering the hurdles he’s had to overcome. When he was eight, his mother left the family home in Brandon; he hasn’t seen her since. He’s also had to cope with his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

“Once I was in Grade 6, I realized I had ADHD. The stories I was told about when I was younger, you can hear the ADHD in them.”

Maluga took medication, but the pills either failed to curb his behavioural problems or turned him into – in his words – “a zombie.” Arguments with his father were frequent.

“I could tell I was going downhill,” he says.

In high school, however, another option presented itself. A teacher at his school suggested football. Read More →

The return of the Winnipeg Jets is the feel-good story of the year. But here at Red River College, we’ve got a different reason to be proud.

The Jets’ entire communications team — responsible for coordinating the May 2011 announcement that turned much of the city’s downtown into a giant victory party — is comprised entirely of graduates of our industry-renowned Creative Communications program.

Even better, the head of the department has for years enjoyed a close working relationship with the program, which he feels provides grads with relevant, real-world training.

“I’ve relied heavily on CreComm, not only for staffing resources in terms of graduating students, but also production resources from the College’s communications and multimedia programs,” says 1998 graduate Scott Brown, now the Senior Director of Corporate Communications for the Jets, the MTS Centre, and True North Sports & Entertainment.

“What the College is doing right now in terms of training is really in tune with what’s going on in the media industry … No amount of training can ever prepare you for what actually happens in the day-to-day of your job, particularly in the sports and entertainment industry. But I know the (CreComm) grads coming in are prepared to learn, and prepared to apply the tools they’ve been taught in a very flexible manner.”

Brown, who upon graduating spent six years as the late-night and weekend sports anchor for CTV Winnipeg, is supported in his current duties by Communications Coordinators Kalen Qually and Christina Caligiuri — both fellow CreComm grads. Together, they’re responsible for all communications on behalf of True North, MTS Centre, and the Jets, including printed publications, media relations, press releases and press conferences. Read More →

A student and an instructor from Red River College were among the honourees at a recent event recognizing the best and brightest of Portage la Prairie’s business and volunteer communities.

The Portage & District Chamber of Commerce’s annual Best Business Awards were held Oct. 20, 2011, at the William Glesby Centre in Portage. Among those honoured was RRC student Christina Trandifir, who picked up the Chamber’s Youth Volunteer of the Year Award for her ongoing work with a number of local organizations.

A first-year student in RRC’s Business Administration program, Trandifir (who’s completing her studies at the College’s Notre Dame Campus) played an instrumental role in the Portage la Prairie Community Revitalization Corporation’s “Sharing Our World” event, and has also served as an in-school mentor for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Portage la Prairie, a Children’s Day volunteer at the Glesby Centre, and a volunteer for the MS Society of Manitoba’s annual MS Walk.

Coincidentally, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Portage was also honoured at the event, where it received the award for Outstanding Contribution to the Community by a Business. The award was accepted by longtime executive director Dawn Froese, who is also an instructor at RRC’s Portage Campus, where she teaches courses in the Administrative Assistant and Business and Administrative Studies programs.

Click here for a full list of award winners.

Shown above: RRC instructor Dawn Froese (right), in her capacity as Executive Director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Portage la Prairie, with (from left) Earl Porter, Mayor of Portage; Ian Wishert, MLA for Portage; and Daniel Bolton, President of the Portage & District Chamber of Commerce

Red River College alum Dawna Friesen has been named the best news anchor in Canada, for her efforts in front of (and behind) the camera on nightly news show Global National.

Friesen, who serves as Anchor and Executive Editor of Global National, was named Best News Anchor at last month’s Gemini Awards Industry Gala honouring news & sports, documentary, lifestyle and reality programming.

“I take this one for the team, for Global National,” Friesen said at the event, held Aug. 30, 2011, at Toronto’s Metro Convention Centre. “We are not the biggest, but we are the best.”

Friesen, a 1984 graduate of RRC’s Creative Communications program, thanked all the people who work on her show, in particular the reporters “who are out there every day working their butts off.”

During the same ceremony, Global BC’s News Hour was chosen as the nation’s Best Local Newscast, Large Market. Earlier this year, Global Toronto won “best newscast” honours at the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTDNA) Awards

“To win Gemini Awards for both Best News Anchor and Best Local Newscast in Canada is proof that Global News has taken its rightful place among the world’s leading news organizations,” said Troy Reeb, Vice-President of Global News.

“This is a tribute to the leadership of Dawna Friesen, the incredibly talented team at Global BC, and the hard work of our teams around the world every day.” Read More →

This just in! Global National Anchor and Executive Editor Dawna Friesen will serve as emcee at the College’s 2011 Alumni Dinner.

Friesen, a 1984 graduate of RRC’s Creative Communications program, will take time out of her busy schedule to host the event, held in part to celebrate the accomplishments of 2011’s Distinguished Alumnus Wayne Morsky. (Friesen herself is a fellow Distinguished Alum, having received the same honour in 2009.)

“It’s a great pleasure to be part of the Alumni Dinner,” says Friesen. “I have such fond memories of Red River College, and am so proud of how it’s thriving, producing the next crop of talent as only Winnipeg can.”

The Alumni Dinner will be held Friday, Nov. 18, 2011, at the Fairmont Winnipeg (One Lombard Place). Tickets are $140 each, or $1,120 for a table of eight. To order tickets, or to learn more about becoming an event sponsor, contact Dale Oughton, RRC’s Alumni Coordinator, at 204-632-2359 or doughton@rrc.mb.ca.

Click here to read more about Friesen’s many accomplishments.

Click here to learn more about past winner’s of RRC’s Distinguished Alumni Award.

She’s clearly got a knack for the written word, given the rate at which she’s risen through StandardAero‘s ranks since being hired there only a short time ago.

But while we’d love to take the credit, it’s clear that Red River College grad Loriebeth Quileza has been busy sharpening her communication skills almost since birth.

“(Technical writing) is all about finding a simpler way to explain things,” says Quileza, a 27-year-old Winnipeg native who graduated from RRC’s Technical Communication program in 2005, and now works as Operations Excellence Project Manager (aka Lean Project Manager) for local aerospace firm StandardAero.

“Growing up as a second-generation Filipino-Canadian, I’m always doing that with my parents — trying to say things in a way they’ll understand, since English isn’t their first language!”

Raised in Tyndall Park, Quileza says she was always more of a tech-head than a wordsmith; she’s had a lifelong passion for computer sciences, and originally planned to study the field in university.

But by the time she got a few semesters under her belt, she’d downgraded that “passion” to more of a “love-hate relationship,” prompting the switch to RRC and its Technical Communication program, which offered a healthy dose of overlap.

“You’re taking the logic and the systematic thinking from computer science, and tying it together with writing skills and plain English,” says Quileza of the program, which trains students to communicate technical and scientific info via a range of media, including proposals, manuals, scientific articles, and web and electronic documents.

“You’re able to see what your basic fundamental tools are, and how they can be applied to a wide range of industries.” Read More →