He’d felt the strange woman’s approving gaze throughout the day as he filmed the centennial celebration at Nelson House, Man.

But Sean Parenteau, one of the first-ever graduates of Red River College’s Aboriginal Broadcast Training Initiative (ABTI), had no idea she’d give him the answer to a question he’d pondered since childhood.

“That thing you’re doing with your camera, that’s your gift in life,” the woman said, after tapping Parenteau on the shoulder. He thanked her and asked for her name. Instead, she hugged him, then walked away.

“I turned and looked at my camera,” says Parenteau, “and just started crying.”

Rewind the tape 31 years, to find five-year-old Parenteau in Duck Bay, Man. — a Métis community about 450 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — in the throes of a mysterious ailment that caused him to have visions of blue whales and killer whales, both of which represent Mother Earth’s clans.

A local Elder named Nora helped cure him. When he was 11, he went to visit her at her cabin in the woods, hoping she could tell him what had happened. She told him he had a gift he was too young to comprehend, but in time he’d get it back.

The Elder died years later when Parenteau was 19; he never got the chance to talk with her again. Of that fateful woman from the Nelson House shoot, he now says, “I believe it was Nora the Elder that had passed on, coming back to give me my gift.” Read More →

An old show-biz adage suggests you should never work with children or animals. Red River College grad Ryan Price apparently didn’t get the message: he works with both, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The local children’s magician and entertainer started out 10 years ago doing magic tricks and making balloon animals while working towards his Business Administration diploma at Red River College. While his fellow students did homework or enjoyed a meal on their lunch breaks, Price would walk over to visit nearby toy stores or magic shops.

“As a kid I had a magic set and I was always interested in entertaining,” says the 2007 grad. “But I didn’t really get into it until I was in college, when I saw a magician perform there, and thought that was something I could attempt.”

Going from dabbling in magic to making it his career was a very quick process for Price. Within a year he was a full-time magician for hire, doing a couple hundred shows a year — mostly at birthday parties and daycares — thanks to a website he built right after he graduated.

Price has since built himself a niche market, creating and performing assembly programs  at schools, daycares and libraries around Manitoba and in nearby provinces. His shows incorporate an educational element, with themes such as A Reading Adventure, Wacky Science Show, and Going Green, which focuses on recycling and protecting the environment.

Each show is different. For example, before he performs the reading-themed show for kids in kindergarten to Grade 6, he finds out some of the books they’ve read lately, so he can weave them into his show, delighting the young spectators. Read More →

Joe Clark spent his teenage years on the soccer pitch — not whiling away the hours in his parents’ garage, pulling wrenches to restore an old car to its former glory.

It’s not the usual backstory you’d expect from a guy who now works as a technician for Mercedes-Benz Winnipeg (MBW), where Teutonic dream machines with price tags north of six figures aren’t uncommon.

Reflecting on his path to MBW, which began with Red River College’s Automotive Technician Certificate program, Clark himself tends to agree.

“When I started, I was about as green as you could get,” says Clark, 22, who used the certificate program as the Level 1 equivalent in his four-year apprenticeship training.

“[Auto tech.] was just a really applicable skill that I was curious about. It just so happened to work out for me. I was pretty lucky.”

But it took more than good fortune to transform Clark from a neophyte mechanic to a full-time member of the tech team at one of the city’s newest and most state-of-the-art auto shops.

For that, he credits his instructors at RRC and the program they’ve developed — a mix of theory and hands-on learning in local shops — which he says gives students the skills they need, whether they work on one brand of vehicle, as he does, or a variety. Read More →

Arhben Tumambing was never certain what he wanted to do.

The Red River College graduate went to university after high school, and from there worked a string of what he describes as unfulfilling jobs.

While he wasn’t sure, career-wise, where he wanted to go, Tumambing — a 2014 grad of RRC’s Administrative Assistant program — says he’s always had an interest in how systems and society function.

“I just like poking problems and seeing how things work,” he says.

Tumambing now works as a recruitment clerk with the Province of Manitoba, where he was hired after completing a practicum as part of his RRC studies.

His family moved to Winnipeg from the Philippines from he was 12, and Tumambing grew up in the North End.

“ I think I was kind of a lost child at some points,” he says.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree and double-majoring in sociology and developmental studies, he worked a string of minimum wage jobs because he couldn’t find something in his field.

“My mom was more of a practical person; she was like, ‘Here’s a less-than-six-month course going on.’ She said ‘Hey, that will propel you to even greater heights and experiences.’” Read More →

Brett Zahari welcomed his “baby”— a newly-opened downtown doughnut shop called Bronuts — into the world nine weeks ago. His baby daughter, Emelyn, arrived a week later.

Yet the 23-year-old says he was unfazed by the added stress of navigating both his café’s opening and the arrival of his first child.

“I don’t know any different,” says Zahari, from a table at the Exchange District hot spot.

The way he sees it, opening a business is tough — with a newborn or without — and the demands it creates are par for the course. “You don’t have time for the stuff you’d normally have time for,” Zahari admits. “You prioritize. It’s fun.”

He partnered in the venture with his brother, Dylan, and his wife, Meghan. In less than a year (from May 2014 to April 2015) the trio came up with doughnuts as a business idea, haggled and wooed their landlord for their must-have Bannatyne and King location, burned the candle at both ends balancing day jobs while turning empty space into a charming little café, quit their day jobs, took on considerable debt, and became bakers, marketers, managers, bosses and all the “other duties as assigned” of opening your own business.

In spite of the hectic pace, Zahari, appears to be having a good time. He’s quick with a wave, wink or a hello to customers coming and going. Building relationships, he says, is fundamental to success.

“The people around you are what are going to make you successful,” he says. “The connections that you have with people, that’s how you become successful in life.” Read More →

For Robyn Clisby, a day at the office always includes the unexpected.

The early childhood educator admits she can’t always predict what the children she works with are going to say. During a lunch-hour discussion about different kinds of food, one child piped up that his mommy is “really good at ordering pizza.”

“It’s so innocent,” says Clisby with a laugh.

A team leader at Cairns Children’s Centre Inc., Clisby says channeling this childhood innocence into learning is her passion. She applied at the Winnipeg centre while still a teenager eight years ago, after seeing a posting on a neighbourhood billboard.

Ever since, she’s been helping kids discover their world through play. When it comes to early childhood education, spontaneity is key, she says.

“Children show interest in the things they want to learn about,” says Cairn, 26. “The adults are there to support them.” Read More →

Each year, Red River College awards a Red River College Honorary Diploma to an individual who demonstrates high standards of excellence in their personal and professional achievements, and whose involvement in the community is widely recognized.

David Angus is committed to the Chamber movement. He volunteered as board chair and in 1999 was hired as President and CEO of The Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

He currently serves on the Manitoba Museum Board of Governors; Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council; and JPAC (Joint Public Advisory Committee) for the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a national committee of three countries working to protect the environment.

Under his leadership, the Winnipeg Chamber has increased its membership to the highest level in its history and has been recognized by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce as an Accredited Chamber with Distinction. The Chamber has also received recognition by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives for being in the top 10 Chambers for membership growth.

The Chamber has been instrumental in bringing a World Trade Centre to Winnipeg; establishing Leadership Winnipeg, Yes! Winnipeg and the BOLD initiative: a grassroots public policy campaign designed to mobilize the community behind forward-thinking BOLD ideas to increase prosperity in Winnipeg.

Each year, Red River College awards a Red River College Honorary Diploma to an individual who demonstrates high standards of excellence in their personal and professional achievements, and whose involvement in the community is widely recognized.

Ace Burpee has worked in radio for over a decade in almost every capacity and is currently host of the ever popular Ace Burpee Show on 103.1 Virgin Radio.

In addition to hosting his own show, Ace hosts a nationally aired Top 20 countdown program, writes a column in Metro Winnipeg and hosts Manitoba’s top rated cooking show – Great Tastes of Manitoba.

Ace, who very proudly hails from Cooks Creek Manitoba, is also well known for the hundreds of charitable events and causes that he donates his time to every year. He is an in-demand event host, public speaker and event organizer. His initiatives have helped to raise millions of dollars for local and international charities over the last several years.

His reputation in this town is of a man who never sleeps because he’s too busy helping others. It would be difficult to name a cause in Winnipeg that has not in some way, been touched by his efforts.

For his commitment to community and making Manitoba a better place, Ace has received many acknowledgments.

Ace is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his service to our community, he is the recipient of a Hero of Mental Health Award from the Canadian Mental Health Association, he has received a Volunteer Manitoba Award for Outstanding Community Leadership and last year, was recognized as a Manitoba Hero.

A lifetime playing drums couldn’t help Brock Macpherson find his rhythm in his first year at Red River College. Enrolled in the Business Administration program straight out of high school, he says his priority was decidedly freshman: hanging out with friends at downtown watering hole the King’s Head Pub, not studying.

But just five short years later, he’s senior account manager and part owner of a Winnipeg-based Xerox sales agency, Commtech Office Solutions. He joined their team after College in 2012; now, the 24-year-old helps to oversee some 900 small- and medium-sized business clients in the city.

Good thing he took a year off from college and “got the 19-year-old out of [his] system” before returning to school a year older and wiser. He found his footing in a year-long group project for an entrepreneurship course. Each group of 16 students needed a leader and no one was taking the initiative. Macpherson “stepped out of his comfort zone” and volunteered.

“That moment at Red River, that basically set the tone for the rest of my years,” he says.

Evening sessions of pizza and exam prep now took priority over extracurricular pints. Macpherson discovered how motivating it was to teach class materials to classmates, and how effective it was for his own learning — they trusted him to know his stuff, so he didn’t want to let them down.

It’s no different today in his role at Commtech. Macpherson is quick to explain that Xerox isn’t simply a company that sells printers to offices — their competitive advantage is a suite of “software solutions” that help companies digitize documents, manage data and increase security. Read More →

He can still remember splicing together radio broadcast assignments using cassette tapes and an X-acto knife.

But you won’t find Paul Samyn pining for the dated technology of his Red River College days. Since becoming editor of the Winnipeg Free Press in 2012, he’s been pushing his newsroom towards info-sharing platforms — Twitter, Facebook, email-driven alerts — that best deliver news to readers. Young hires, even interns, are encouraged by the 27-year vet to tap into their rich understanding of multimedia.

“Some of the new hires that we have, we’re looking to them to show us stuff and help us,” says Samyn. “And I think that’s really exciting.”

The Winnipeg Free Press has evolved from a newspaper into a non-stop “news engine,” Samyn says, noting this “anytime, anywhere” news model will determine its long-term success.

What haven’t changed, however, are the basics of good journalism underpinning the Free Press’s reputation as a trusted information source.

“You need to write. You need to think. You need to be able to communicate,” says Samyn, who graduated from RRC’s Creative Communications program in 1988 and moved immediately into the Winnipeg Free Press newsroom as a summer intern. Read More →