Othello Wesee has struggled to get to where he is today, and he’s devoted his life to helping kids so they don’t have to do the same.

Growing up in a refugee camp in Liberia, Wesee saw his fair share of violence, struggled to find clean drinking water and faced a serious lack of opportunity – even though he tried to make the best of things at all times.

“I coached soccer teams in grade school back home,” he says, adding he has always been one to improve his community.

The good news is Wesee was able to immigrate to Canada in 2004. The bad news? His wife, Vivian, then pregnant with their son Othello Jr., was not. During his first few years in Winnipeg, Wesee worked to save enough money to sponsor them – just one of the hardships the young family faced during their seven-year battle with immigration services. He also worked to make his new downtown neighbourhood a brighter place by organizing soccer teams for newcomer and inner city kids in Central Park.

Wesee knew he would need an educational boost to further his community-minded career, and found a perfect fit in Red River College’s Community Development/Community Economic Development program. He was able to quickly obtain the skills he required while taking the one-year program, all while working weekends to support his family in Liberia. He graduated in 2010, and also went on to earn his Health Care Aide certification at RRC. Read More →

For the fourth alumni reception in our series, we invite graduates of a trades program to our Notre Dame Campus for a short, after-work evening of reminiscing with great food and good company. Each registration includes one complimentary drink.

For one night only, we’re transforming the Voyageur and showcasing the interesting projects our school has built or is working towards. Check out our four focus stations: automotive, manufacturing, aviation, and construction trades. Connect with your classmates, other industry professionals, and past instructors.

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Graduates of RRC health science and community service programs got together for an evening of networking and reminiscing on October 25 at the College’s School of Health Sciences and Community Services alumni reception. Guests toured some of RRC’s coolest learning spaces, including our paramedicine, animal health technology, nursing, pharmaceutical, and community service labs. Thanks to everyone who was able to come out – see you at next year’s reception or at another alumni event in the near future.

For the third alumni event in our series, we invite graduates of a Business and Applied Arts program over to our beautiful Exchange District Campus for a fun after-work networking reception. The event is free, and the food, entertainment, and company will be great – we’re excited to see you there!

For one night only, we’re transforming the Roblin Centre atrium to take you back to the turn of the century. Enjoy a complimentary glass of wine, delicious appetizers, and jazz entertainment while mixing and mingling with alumni from your industry. 

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For the second alumni reception in our series, we invite graduates of a Health Sciences or Community Service program over to our Notre Dame Campus for an evening of after-work networking and reminiscing.

Enjoy a complimentary glass of wine, snack delicious appetizers, and tour one of our incredible new labs: nursing, paramedicine, pharmaceutical, animal health technology, and community services.

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Accidental entrepreneur Amanda Buhse found herself burning the candle at both ends after co-founding one of Winnipeg’s hottest startups two years ago.

When the 2006 Graphic Design – Advanced grad and her best friend Tom Jansen created their Coal and Canary Candle Company brand, they expected to sell a few hand-poured soy-and-vegetable wax candles to friends and family. A few months later, they were scrambling to fill Oscar and Grammy Awards swag bags and meet demand from their first retail clients.

“Coal and Canary kind of started as a hobby, just as an extra creative outlet and an excuse to hang out with my best friend Tom,” says Buhse.

“He had gotten into candle-making a couple of years prior and got really good at it and asked me if I wanted to join up, because I had the marketing and the graphic design backgrounds, so I could do the branding and the website and packaging and all that.”

Buhse, 31, was working full-time as senior web designer for fashion retailer Ricki’s and Jansen, 26, was in nursing school when they started making candles in Buhse’s kitchen. Before long, they were moonlighting in a rented 150-square-foot studio where they could make 24 candles each night. Next thing they knew, the business had taken on a life of its own.  Read More →

Graduates of RRC technology programs got together for an evening of networking and reminiscing on October 12 at the College’s tech alumni reception. Guests interacted with some of RRC’s newest projects in the field, including our robot Baxter, solar car, and electric bike. They also checked out technology from days gone by, including vintage calculator collections, arcade games, and brain puzzles. Thanks to everyone who was able to come out – see you at next year’s reception or at another alumni event in the near future!

Stop by RRC’s Notre Dame Campus for some after-work networking and reminiscing. For one night only, we’re transforming the Voyageur into a fun and funky retro gaming lounge, showcasing how far technology has come over the decades. Mix and mingle with alumni from your industry and enjoy delicious drinks and appetizers. Play retro video games and check out exhibits like our robot Baxter, RRC’s solar car, and instructors’ vintage calculator collections.

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Landing a job out of university was never a problem for Suzanne Gessler. Landing a job she truly enjoyed? Well, that was another story.

It wasn’t until the “lifelong student” graduated from Red River College’s Professional Baking and Patisserie program in 2014 that she was able to create her own personal recipe for success: The Pennyloaf Bakery.

Gessler opened the Corydon Avenue shop specializing in authentic sourdough-style breads in October 2015, a year after she graduated from RRC. It’s a far cry from her former jobs as a city planner, social worker and social policy writer – all government gigs that were well-paid and stable with regular hours and lengthy vacations.

In other words: They were everything owning your own bakery is not.

But that’s OK with Gessler, who’s learned that rolling the dough itself is a better fit for her than rolling it in under somebody else’s watch.

“My dad got sick and passed away, and I got burned out to no end,” says Gessler of the moment she felt she needed to switch career paths, after 13 challenging years working to improve the homeless population’s housing conditions.

“After so many years of trying to do whatever I could to help out on poverty issues in the city, I’d kind of had it. I’d seen so many rounds of government funding come through and not a lot of change. Maybe there was some change, but I was too mired in it.” Read More →

Paul Cantin doesn’t want to set the world on fire — quite the opposite, in fact. His work on New Flyer Industries’ battery-electric buses could help put the brakes on global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions throughout North America.

A 2004 graduate of RRC’s Mechanical Engineering Technology program, Cantin is a project leader in the New Product Development department at New Flyer, the continent’s leading manufacturer of transit buses, including increasingly lean-and-clean natural gas, hybrid and electric options.

The 35-year-old father of two says with 70,000 transit buses currently in operation in North America, converting the majority to more sustainable propulsion systems would have significant environmental implications for future generations.

“From our little corner of Winnipeg, we can make a fairly large impact on North American air quality,” says Cantin, whose team has collaborated on electric bus and charging systems with RRC’s Electric Vehicle and Technology Education Centre since 2011. More recently, his department began a new project with the College’s Transportation and Heavy Apprenticeship Trades program.

In April, Cantin was named to CBC Manitoba’s 2016 Future 40 list of “leaders and change-makers,” an honour that drew welcome attention to the home-grown expertise and ingenuity that’s driving the projects.

“Having these incubators of innovation being highlighted and shown to the general public is really valuable because it helps to inspire and show some of our youth … you don’t have to leave Winnipeg to make an impact,” he says.

“It’s really cool that we are able to acquire the knowledge [through] a post-secondary education here in Winnipeg — and to gain the experience, and be able to have a real tangible impact in North America.” Read More →