Red River College paid tribute to the academic potential of its Portage-area students, while celebrating the diversity of their cultural backgrounds, at the official opening of the College’s new Portage Campus yesterday.

The ceremony marked the campus’s move from Southport (just outside Portage la Prairie) to the old Victoria School site off the city’s main thoroughfare. It also marked the College’s continued commitment to providing increased access to education for rural residents and Aboriginal learners.

“Today is a bit of a historic event for Red River College — we have never opened a campus in the traditional way of the First Nations people,” said RRC President Stephanie Forsyth, herself a member of the Tsimshian First Nation in B.C., before kicking off a ceremony that featured greetings from provincial, civic and First Nations leaders, as well as a traditional pipe ceremony, dancing and drumming.

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Canada’s Ambassador to the United States, Gary Doer, visited the Exchange District Campus on November 1st to speak with students in the College’s Creative Communications program.

Doer spoke about differences between the Canadian and U.S. systems of government, and drew on examples from his time as Premier of Manitoba to illustrate how having a well-conceived communications strategy is essential to the success of of any public policy initiative.

“If you don’t get the communications right in the front end, then you’re in the rapids with no way out,” he explained.

Doer also took several questions from students, addressing topics such as the environmental impact of the Alberta oil sands, the global economic situation, cross border shopping and the sovereignty of the Northwest Passage.

This might the first time a sitting Ambassador has ever visited the College, although Creative Communications instructors did have an inside edge in arranging this event: Doer’s daughter Emily is a first-year student in the program, with plans to study journalism.

– Read more about Ambassador Doer’s visit in the Winnipeg Free Press –

The 2011 Alumni Dinner is right around the corner. The annual gala event, which provides an excellent opportunity for Red River College grads to reconnect with old friends and their alma mater, is taking place on Friday, November 18 at the Fairmont Winnipeg (One Lombard Place). Read More →

Join Red River College (RRC) on Oct. 26, 2011 at the Western Canadian Aviation Museum for a discussion about the latest in vision-enabled robotic technology from an international expert in the field of robotics and machinery vision.

Michael Monnin, Products Manager, Robots & Vision, Wayne Trail Technologies, will provide a practical guide of the technology currently available to manufacturers interested in more intelligent robot solutions.

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Red River College (RRC) and the Manitoba Environmental Industries Association are hosting back-to-back Clean Energy events on Oct. 17, 2011 at the College. 50 by ’30 will be leading a Lunch and Learn and this will be immediately followed by an event hosted by the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (WADE).

Click here to learn more.

In the Year of Too Much and Too Little Water in Manitoba, a chance encounter at an environmental conference has led to the Manitoba launch of Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most at the Roblin Centre (Exchange District Campus) of Red River College on October 18^th.

One of the authors, Bob Sandford, was a guest speaker at a conference in Calgary this past June where he met Peter Denton, who teaches ethics and sustainability at Red River College. The annual joint conference of the Canadian Colleges Environmental Network (CCEN)/Canadian Universities Environmental Science Network (CUESN) was on the theme of “water,” and Denton was attending out of interest and as a CCEN Director. Read More →

It’s back to school week at Red River College, and as always, students are marking their return to class with a few extra-curricular celebrations.

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Staff and instructors at Red River College helped expose young women to an array of trades- and technology-related career options this summer, by hosting the Girls Exploring Trades & Technology (GETT@RRC) Camps over three weeks in July.

With a focus on technology and applied skills, the GETT@RRC camps provide girls 12-14 with a chance to explore non-traditional career options via hands-on activities and encounters with female mentors. The camps reinforce the importance of pursuing science, advanced math and industrial arts courses in high school, by stressing the impact these subjects can have on future career choices.

“During the five-day GETT camps, the instructor and assistants emphasize to the girls the importance of continuing with Math and Science courses because many occupations, particularly technical ones, require a solid grounding in these subjects,” says Dr. Dale Watts, Dean of the School of Construction and Engineering Technologies. “An awareness of that requirement at this age may provide the motivation for these students to continue taking Math and Science courses throughout secondary school.”

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Staff and graduates of RRC's Youth Recreation Activity Worker program were joined by community leaders and local dignitaries earlier this month, to celebrate the program's 10th year of making a difference in the lives of inner city youth.

The program — which prepares young adults (aged 18 to 29) to work with inner city youth by providing healthy recreational activities — was launched in 2001, in response to a need for trained staff to facilitate drop-in programming at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg.

Building on existing materials from RRC's Child and Youth Care program, a new 10-month certificate program was created to train young adults as recreational leaders.

Students involved with the program — all of whom face multiple barriers themselves — study such topics as child and youth care, psychology and first aid. Many go on to find employment with Boys and Girls Clubs and other inner city youth agencies, and as childhood educators and teacher's aides.

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Red River College students led the way for a Manitoba delegation that earned the highest number of gold medals at the recently held 17^th Canadian Skills Competition in Quebec City. The annual Skills Canada National event took place from June 1 to 4.

Team Manitoba received a total of 24 medals, including 13 Gold, 5 Silver, and 6 Bronze. The teams from Ontario and Quebec each earned 10 Gold medals, while the Alberta and British Columbia delegations each finished with 7 Gold.

Of the Team Manitoba medals, Red River College students won 4 Gold, 2 Silver, and 3 Bronze:

• Andrew Hallmann, CNC Machining (post-secondary) – Gold
• Markus Messerschmidt, Autobody Repair (post-secondary) – Gold
• Ryan Peters, Carpentry (post-secondary) – Gold
• Vasyl Zhukov-Malyeyev, Cabinet Making (post-secondary) – Gold
• Jacob Bell, Brick Masonry (post-secondary) – Silver
• Chad Verplaestse, Sheet Metal Work (post-secondary) – Silver
• Colin Dewitt, Landscape Gardening (post-secondary) – Bronze
• Mackenzie Harman, Landscape Gardening (post-secondary) – Bronze
• Jesse Reimer, Architectural Tech & Design (post-secondary) – Bronze

Congratulations to the RRC representatives, as well as the rest of Team Manitoba, on an excellent showing!