Current RRC Polytech Dental Assisting instructors. Top row (left to right): Charlene Howe, Michelle Hannesson, Janet Neduzak. Bottom row (left to right): Athena Wilford, Sina Allegro-Sacco, June Kraushar.

In early 1973, an exciting collaborative vision was born when the Department of Education, the Manitoba Dental Association, and RRC Polytech came together to create a dental assisting program at the College.

Today, RRC Polytech is proud to mark an incredible milestone: half a century of elevating the field of dental care and ensuring exceptional training for dental assisting professionals in Manitoba. As we look back on the program’s history and progress, we also look forward to the future, as we continue to deliver dental assisting education that’s in front of what’s ahead.

Building a Foundation

The program, which broke new ground for dental assisting training in Manitoba, would be 10 months long and offer two certificate options: a Chairside Dental Assisting Certificate, which learners could attain after seven months of comprehensive training; or the coveted, 10-month Dental Assisting Expanded Duties Certificate. This marked a new era of choice around how students entered the workforce after their studies and the program remains a cornerstone of dental education in Manitoba to this day. 

The program was slated for kick off in September 1973. Tokeep everything on track and ensure the wheels of progress kept turning, the College hired Iris Gold as program coordinator and Diane Porter as instructor. The pair developed the curriculum from scratch and led the program with passion, determination, and a willingness to throw themselves into any task. They even oversaw the construction of a two-chair dental clinic and a platform where students would take notes. As luck would have it, construction delays gave them an extra month to refine the program curriculum.

Gavin Taylor is not only “Polytechnic Proud” – he’s Portage la Prairie proud as well.

“Portage la Prairie produces lots of bright, young people who can make a positive impact on this community,” said Taylor, 27, of his hometown.

“Some chase their dreams elsewhere but they can always come back and make this community a great place to live. We need them here.”

You can say as much of Taylor, a 2021 graduate of RRC Polytech’s Business/Technology Teacher Education program.

He’s now in his fourth year as an Applied Commerce Teacher at Portage Collegiate Institute (PCI), where he was once a student.

“I always said I’d take the best job available that suited me. I wanted to be a full-time business teacher. I wanted something rural. I thought it would be somewhere else; it turned out to be Portage.

“My second year, I became the lead business teacher. And the room I inherited was the same room where I studied when I was a student. A lot of the staff were also the same – except now I was calling them by their first name.”

More than 1,100 students attend PCI. As Portage la Prairie’s lone public high school, it reflects all the challenges, opportunities and potential of the city itself.

“Our students are from all walks of life. The demographics are similar to those of Winnipeg’s inner-city schools. We have challenges but there are really great things coming out of our classrooms.”

Taylor teaches a range of business courses for grades nine through 12. The school store plays a big role in the learning. Students order products, take inventory, launch promotions and generally learn how a business operates.

Meanwhile, a venture development course has students seeing their own business ideas to fruition. The course builds up to a tradeshow day in May when students show off their work to the public, including local media.

“We make things as real-world as possible. And whether a student goes on to establish their own enterprise or become an employee, they’re gaining skills that really transcend business.”

2024 marks half a century of excellence in Dental Assisting education at RRC Polytech. An incredible milestone and a historic moment for the College, we invite members of the RRC Polytech Dental Assisting community to join us in November to celebrate this milestone. 

Date:         Thursday, November 14, 2024
Time:         7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Location:  RRC Polytech’s Notre Dame Campus (2055 Notre Dame Ave.)
Menu:       Refreshments will be served

Please share with any RRC Polytech Dental Assisting grads in your network!

A confirmation email will be sent out with event and parking details a couple of days prior to the event. If you have any questions, please email lifesciences@rrc.ca. 

We look forward to seeing you on November 14!

Family and nature have profoundly influenced RRC Polytech grad Erin Ringland’s artistic journey. Drawing from these inspirations, she partnered with the College to design the 2024 Orange Shirt in support of the Mínwastánikéwin Award and to honour the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, otherwise known as Orange Shirt Day.

Ringland, born and raised in Winnipeg and a member of Kistiganwacheeng (Garden Hill) First Nation, is a Digital Media Design alumna and currently works as a front-end application developer for the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba. Her work in graphic design and layout programming is rooted in her love of art, recreating scenes from nature, and following in the footsteps of many family members.

“I was surrounded by art growing up – whoever’s house I was at, whether it was my parents’, my kookoom’s, my cousins’ – there were always paintings hanging on the walls along with family portraits,” said Ringland.

She credits her auntie Irene Miller for nurturing her passion for drawing at an early age. She spent hours with her auntie, watching her sketch images and providing prompts for what she wanted to see on paper. Miller died in 2003 when Ringland was six years old – the time she spent with her, though, profoundly impacted Ringland, and she continued to draw even after the loss.

“She was the driving force behind my art,” said Ringland. “I always think of her when I draw – in a way, it’s how I keep her with me.”

Jacques Lavergne was on a snowboard in Whistler, BC, when he fell in love with the hospitality and tourism industry.

“It caught me by surprise to be honest,” admitted the 2001 graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s popular Business Administration program. “Growing up, working in a hotel just wasn’t on my radar.”

Now the General Manager of Delta Hotels by Marriott Winnipeg, Lavergne left his hometown of Winnipeg for the slopes of Whistler after finishing high school at École Précieux-Sang in St. Boniface.

“I decided to head to Whistler for a season of snowboarding, and I stayed for four years,” said Lavergne with a wink, seated in the Blaze Restaurant and Lounge off the Delta Winnipeg’s lobby.

To cover his rent and living expenses, Lavergne found a job bussing tables at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler resort and spa. “It’s a beautiful hotel in a nice setting,” he remembered. “That job was my first taste of hospitality and tourism, and I quickly became completely enamored. I fell in love with the industry.”

His passion still burns brightly after some 30 years in the business. “I love the fact that every day in my job is completely different from the last. You get to meet some phenomenal people,” he said.

The Delta Winnipeg welcomes more than 200,000 guests on an annual basis. “We host sports teams, people from the film industry and big concerts; we host international conferences,” he said.

“I know it’s a cliché expression, but again, every day is different here,” said Lavergne, who started in his current leadership role in 2022.

As head of the hotel’s five-member executive management team, Lavergne oversees approximately 220 staff. Associate engagement is a top priority at all Marriott Hotels, he said.

“Making sure our staff are happy and want to work here is paramount. Everything we do focuses on making them happy first, with the idea that everything else will follow.”

Business Administration program the best fit

Lavergne packed up his snowboard and returned to Winnipeg in 1998, working for a year as a bartender. He came home with his eye on the Business Administration program at RRC Polytech, although he considered the Hospitality and Tourism Management program as well.

“I had some great hospitality experience from my time in Whistler, but I felt like I needed some more education,” he said. “I wanted to get into something more at a hotel management level.”

Golf can be a relaxing pastime for some and a frustrating obsession for others. But for Business Administration grad Guido Cerasani, golf has been the beating heart behind 31 years of community and family at Shooters Family Golf Centre.

Shooters is well-known in Winnipeg as the city’s only privately-owned 18-hole course. Open year-round, it features a par-57 course, a driving range that includes grass tees, a miniature golf course, and a pro shop. The 2731 Main Street location sits at the edge of the city and also boasts a restaurant and outdoor patio.

It’s an impressively diverse business. For Cerasani, though, having family involved at every level is the best part. His son Eason runs the pro shop and daughter Amy leads the restaurant operations and food services. Both are also RRC Polytech graduates.  Cerasani’s wife, Sue, is also a big part of the family aspect behind the ‘Family Golf Centre’.

“We’re fortunate because our kids were born and raised at the golf course, so they spend every day of their lives with us,” said Cerasani. “One of the pre-requisites of them taking over management operations is that they had to graduate from the Business Administration program at RRC Polytech, and they both did. So yeah, it’s a family affair.”

Cerasani graduated from the College’s Business Administration program in 1978. Shortly after, he began a successful 20-year banking career with TD. While he originally thought of himself as handy man in high school and envisioned a future as an electrician, success in early computing — and a bit of luck — changed everything for Cerasani when he decided to divert from a friend group attending university and instead opted to fast-track his financial career with hands-on learning at RRC Polytech.

“Everybody says ‘you know what you’re going to do’, but I really had no idea what I was going to do,” he said. “In high school, I took typing classes and it turns out it was the best class I ever took in my life because I could type 65 words per minute. Then when I got into banking, we had to do a lot of our own typing.”

“That said, I like to fix things and build things, I like to tinker and make electronic devices, and because of that I thought I’d be something of a mechanical guy, doing something with my hands and not working in an office. But you just never know – at least, I didn’t know right away.”

“Going to RRC Polytech was the best decision I ever made, because if I hadn’t gone there, I don’t think I would be the businessman I am today.”

Guido Cerasani, RRC Polytech graduate (Business Administration, 1978)

On the big stage, the moment was not too big for Julie Sundara.

Weeks after being one of the alumni guest speakers at RRC Polytech’s Spring Convocation, the Medical Radiologic Technology (MRT) alum and now clinical instructor for MRT students recounted the emotional experience.

“I was terrified beforehand,” she said, laughing. “I walked into the room early and I saw all these empty seats and felt the pit in my stomach. If you know the Eminem song ‘Lose Yourself’, that’s how I felt. This was my moment to step up.”

The nerves went away as Sundara shared hard-earned wisdom as the daughter of Laotian immigrants, as a student who struggled at times, and as an MRT professional.

“Your careers and your achievements are not only for you,” Sundara said at the convocation ceremony, speaking to a huge audience that included the graduating students of health sciences and information systems programs. “They’re a tribute to those who supported, encouraged, and mentored you. Honour your teachers, friends, and family by finding joy in your careers.”

After completing the two-year MRT program in 2008, Sundara began working with Shared Health at Health Sciences Centre (HSC). As a frontline radiologic technologist at Manitoba’s busiest trauma hospital, she gained experience ranging from in-patient treatment and the emergency department to the operating room and the morgue. Day shifts, night shifts, and double shifts were all part of the mix.

It’s a challenging field and there’s more to taking an X-ray than many people know, Sundara said.

“There’s an art,” she explained. “It’s not just pushing buttons. It’s like shooting pool – you think about the angles to shoot. Since bones are not square – they’re round, curved, sharp – you have to demonstrate the bones with different views. It takes proper positioning and an understanding of pathology, diseases, and what that looks like on an X-ray. You need to determine how strong and how many X-rays are necessary.”

Sundara loved the hands-on, technical work and interacting with patients. She took on extra responsibilities, building skills and demonstrating her competence.

Feeling she’d reached her potential in the field, though, Sundara was set to return to school to become an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) technologist when an opportunity arrived.

She moved into a .7 part-time position as a clinical instructor.

The part-time position had her working alongside then full-time instructor Christine Preachuk, whose support Sundara remains grateful for.

RRC Polytech Bachelor of Nursing graduate Melissa Williams had a secret behind her smile as she had her photo taken earlier this year. The photo was being used as a part of RRC Polytech’s Proud Partner billboard campaign showcasing grads across the province.

“In the billboard, you can’t tell, but I’m pregnant—I mean, like first trimester pregnant,” Williams said on a phone call. But before she begins her next adventure as a first-time parent, she shared her journey of being in school during a pandemic and how she found herself caring for the sickest of the sick in the hospital.

“I work in the resus room [resuscitation or trauma room] of the emergency department, taking care of the most acute patients. I really love doing that type of nursing,” said Williams.

Williams is familiar with people who’ve needed acute care. Both her sister and brother have almost died and have needed to have emergency services at hospitals.

“They both survived and have made full recoveries, but I understand the importance of emergency services,” she added. “I think I’ve always been interested in medicine; learning about the human body and ways to improve our health. My mom was a nurse and just such a nurturer – that helped inspire me to become a nurse.”

When asked why she was driven to work in the emergency room, she took a moment before she responded with, “I guess it’s that you’re using all of your skills, right? You really have to think critically. You have to run multiple infusions. Sometimes you’re intubating patients and putting central lines in. And it’s really interesting to see everything that we can do to save a patient.”

From Health Care Aide to ER Nurse

Williams started her career in health care after graduating from the Health Care Aide program at RRC Polytech in 2012.

“Choosing RRC Polytech [in 2012] was a positive experience and was the starting point of my post-secondary education and helped to bring me back in the future,” she said.

Williams had been working as a Health Care Aide when she decided to continue her education and took a two-year Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) program, graduating in 2016, after which she was able to join the LPN to Bachelor of Nursing Pathway program at RRC Polytech, which she completed in 2022.

“RRC Polytech really does have the best reputation for the nurses that graduate here,” Williams said, “and I wanted to graduate with that same reputation.”

One of the things Tom Thordarson likes best about his longtime career in Indigenous banking is that he is helping his own people.

“Being First Nations myself, I’ve seen the challenges First Nations go through. Anything I can do to help others be successful, that’s my big thing for sure,” he said, sitting at the kitchen table in his West St. Paul home. Thordarson is a member of Peguis First Nation, one of the largest communities of its kind in Manitoba.

One key to his own success was his education in the two-year Business Administration diploma program at RRC Polytech. He graduated in 2005, with an entry-level position at RBC waiting for him.

Today, as a Senior Relationship Manager in Commercial Financial Services for RBC, he specializes in Indigenous Markets with clients in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario. He understands the First Nations experience and knows how to help people meet their financial goals.

In his role with RBC, he is part of a dedicated Indigenous Markets team with 14 staff across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, and Western Ontario.

“There are a lot of good things happening in First Nation communities right now. So, it’s good to be able to help them,” he said.

“Not all the banks have an Indigenous Markets team like ours; I think RBC was the first to establish one. I appreciate the respect RBC has for First Nations people and communities, and its commitment to truth and reconciliation,” he added.

Thordarson works out of an office in Headingley, on the Swan Lake First Nation Reserve. From there, he empowers First Nation governments and Indigenous clients to navigate a path to grow and succeed, and helps them create future opportunity and prosperity in Manitoba.

His own opportunity came when he was a young man living and working with his father in Peguis First Nation, located 190 kilometers north of Winnipeg.

“There were limited opportunities for employment in Peguis, on the reserve at the time,” he remembered. His father worked in the heating and air conditioning business. “The work in Peguis was sporadic. We’d get busy, and then there were times when we’d have no work. I wanted something more stable.”

That was when he noticed the RBC branch in Peguis had posted a casual teller position. He applied and was hired. Working with numbers always appealed to him  ­̶  math was his strongest subject in grade school.

RRC Polytech program highly recommended

When it was time for him to leave Peguis First Nation in 2003 to further his education, he knew university didn’t feel right for him. “RRC Polytech seemed like a better fit for me, with it being smaller. That drew me there,” he said.

A cousin of Thordarson’s had taken the Business Administration program at RRC Polytech before him and recommended it. “He had a lot of good things to say about the program, and the different fields you can go into after graduation,” said Thordarson, giving banking and entrepreneurship as examples.

The program taught Thordarson all the aspects of business he needed to know. “Law, accounting – which is helping me to this day, having to get financial statements from my clients and analyzing those – business communications, helping to write proposals, and so on.”

You’re invited! In partnership with Ten Thousand Coffees, we’re excited to offer a special panel discussion with experts from across the country to RRC Polytech alumni and current students. This free virtual event will take place on Tuesday, June 18 at 4:00 p.m. CT.

Unlock the secrets to landing your dream job by honing your very own personal brand and learning how to make your resume stand out. Join this interactive Office Hour event to gain insider knowledge from industry experts from EY and RBC as they share valuable insights on personal branding for career success in today’s competitive job market.

In this dynamic session, you’ll:

• Discover how to define and showcase your unique value proposition
• Learn effective strategies to leverage social media for career growth
• Uncover insights into talent acquisition and career development from industry experts

Panel includes:

• Clodagh Scannell, Director of Talent Strategy and HR Tech Solutions, 10KC (Moderator)
• Lynette Jack, Senior Associate, Canada’s Talent Attraction and Acquisition Team, EY
• Swati Sriram, Manager, Early Talent Acquisition, RBC

Win coffee on 10KC!

Ten Thousand Coffees has an exciting offer for you! Every Office Hour registrant has a chance to win one of five $20 coffee gift cards. These cards can support your networking coffee chats, making your experience even more enjoyable. They’ll randomly select the winners and notify them via email within two business days of the event. Don’t let this fantastic opportunity pass you by!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn essential skills and build a personal brand that sets you apart – click here to register for this free webinar on Tuesday, June 18 at 4 p.m. CT.