Members of RRC’s Plane Pull 2011 team.

Red River College is proud to play host to United Way Winnipeg’s ninth annual Plane Pull.

The event, taking place Friday, Sept. 21, at RRC’s Stevenson Campus, will draw more than 40 workplace teams, whose members will attempt to pull either a 191,000-lb Boeing 727 or a 90,000-lb DC-10. Red River College will have teams competing in the Plane Pull, so feel free to show your support!

The competition gets underway at 11a.m., following the announcement of this year’s fundraising goal by United Way Campaign Chair Doug Finkbeiner.

Click here for more information on Plane Pull 2012.

Red River College’s Cultural and Language Mentor Program has extended the deadline for student, staff and faculty volunteers interested in mentoring an immigrant or international student.

The Mentor Program is a local/global partnership that pairs immigrant and international students with Canadian-raised students and staff for friendship, English language practice and cross-cultural exchanges.

The program helps immigrant and international students adjust to life in Canada, make friends with other Canadians, improve their English and cross-cultural communication skills, and develop the skills required for success in their studies and in the workplace.

Participating mentors, meanwhile, get the chance to make new friends while gaining valuable experience working with culturally diverse individuals and preparing them for success in a global work environment.

Applications are being accepted until Friday, Sept. 28. Click here to fill out an online application.

The program requires a 10-hour commitment over the Fall semester, which includes a one-hour orientation meeting, plus seven hours of meeting time with their partner. Mentors receive support, guidance, and — best of all — tickets to local events and activities.

Click here to see a video about the program. For more information, contact Jacqueline Wood, Mentor Program Coordinator, at 204-632-3847.

A classic car built by Red River College students has helped to raise over $60,000 in support of young Manitoba residents pursuing training and accreditation in the area of skilled trades and technology.

The car, a replica 1933 Modified Ford, will be raffled off this week as part of a fundraiser launched through a partnership between Skills Canada Manitoba and the College. It was built from a kit purchased by Skills Manitoba, and assembled by more than 100 RRC students and apprentices in a number of trades and technology programs, including Automotive Pre-Employment, Automotive and Motorvehicle Apprenticeship, and Collision Repair and Refinishing.

Students and apprentices worked under the supervision of instructors from the College, putting their theoretical skills into practice by taking the car from its bare bones early stage to road-worthy completion

“The significance of this car is huge for us,” says Neil Cooke, chair of Transportation, Math and Sciences at RRC. “Students can apply the skills they have mastered, but more importantly they take pride and ownership in the vehicle.”

The car’s new owner will be drawn at 6 p.m., on Tuesday, Sept. 18, during a reception at RRC’s Heavy Equipment Transportation Centre. Read More →

Creative Communications instructor Dan Vadeboncoeur
(Photo: Bernice Pontanilla/Metro Winnipeg)

Creative Communications students from Red River College took to the airwaves this week, to debut an online radio station that allows them to embrace new broadcasting technology.

The newly-launched Red River Radio provides CreComm (and other current RRC) students with production, programming and on-air training opportunities, while filling the void left when former campus station KICK-FM folded earlier this year.

The new streaming station will adhere to a similar format as KICK-FM — offering both news/talk and musical programming — and will continue to serve as a valuable showcase for local folk and indie-rock acts.

“We want to offer our students the chance to have everything they had at KICK-FM,” CreComm instructor Dan Vadeboncoeur (shown above) told Metro Winnipeg this week. “We’ve gone from over the airwaves to the biggest medium in the world.”

Vadeboncoeur and other CreComm instructors are currently fielding pitches from students before settling on a programming schedule. Any current RRC student — regardless of program of study — can pitch an idea for a show.

To listen online, visit radio.rrc.ca. Students interested in hosting a show on Red River Radio can contact Vadeboncoeur at dvadeboncoeur@rrc.ca.

Join us at the Exchange District Campus next Thursday, Sept. 6, as we celebrate the launch of Changing People’s Lives: An Illustrated History of Red River College.

Written by former RRC Dean Dave Williamson, Changing People’s Lives traces the College’s development from a small industrial training centre in the 1930s to one of Canada’s leading institutes of applied learning.

Along the way, Williamson (shown in grey, with RRC Board member Don Robertson) shares stories and photos of the many important people and projects that have driven the College’s growth.

Changing People’s Lives is available now for $34.95 from RRC’s Bookstores, at both the Notre Dame and Exchange District Campuses.

Date: Thu., Sept. 6, 2012
Time: 6pm – 7:30pm
Location: Roblin Centre Atrium, 160 Princess Street

Join the event page on Facebook.

Photo by Mike Deal, Winnipeg Free Press.

A Red River College instructor is one of two local artists paying tribute to the importance of libraries via a newly-unveiled public installation.

Darren Stebeleski, who teaches Graphic Design at RRC, is the visionary behind Sentinel of Truth, a public sculpture installation at Millennium Library Park that acts as a monument to libraries as defenders of freedom of speech.

The installation features text excerpts from 18 books — many by authors whose words have been censored or silenced — that are etched into recessed stainless steel panels set into a 50-metre steel wall.

“As a society, our ideas and our truths are ever fragile, open to corruption and attack through censorship,” says Stebeleski of the work. “The existence of a free and open library guarantees their safety and their dissemination.”

“Our stories are more than diversion; they are reflections of ourselves, explaining our lives to us. And our libraries are more than buildings that house books; they are unflagging shields protecting armouries of fearless truth. We must never fail to watch over them, as they watch over us.”

According to Alison Gillmor, arts columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, “Stebeleski references the power and palpable physicality of books by using the solidity of steel. But he is also aware of the fragility of free speech … With its changing nature, Sentinel reminds us that we can’t take reading for granted.”

Stebeleski’s work is part of the Winnipeg Arts Council’s public arts initiative, as is its accompanying installation — emptyful, by Vancouver artist/architect Bill Pechet. Both works were unveiled during a public opening on Aug. 15, 2012.

Click here for more information about Sentinel of Truth.

RRC grad Scot Slessor (right), Consul General of Canada in Chandigarh, India, tours the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute with (from left) Dale Watts, Ted Maciurzynksi, Manishkumar Upadhyay, Dale Oughton and Eddy Lau.

Earlier this summer, Red River College played host to a returning graduate who’s now a diplomat working to promote economic relations between Canada and India.

Scot Slessor (Structural Drafting, 1982), has served as the Consul General of Canada in Chandigarh, India, since his appointment to the position in September 2010.

He visited the College on July 20, 2012, for a tour of the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute and to discuss possible partnership opportunities for RRC in India.

During his visit, Slessor met with RRC representatives to discuss the need for skills training and development in India, and to explore possible partnerships with post-secondary institutions there.

In particular, Slessor has been tasked with providing expertise in delivering and developing skills training in Punjab (where he’s stationed). If a partnership were to be struck, he would act as a conduit between RRC and the institutions in Punjab.

Over the years, Slessor has held a number of public and private sector positions, including stints with the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission in Toronto, and the Canadian International Development Agency and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in China.

Planning to hit the Winnipeg Fringe Festival this summer? Be sure to check out Run Ragged Company’s Daves of Their Lives, written and directed by Red River College’s own Dale Watts.

The hour-long soap opera spoof finds a formerly-successful but mentally exhausted businessmen — stuck in a loveless marriage with a menopausal wife, exploited by his stepmother and manipulated by his daughter and deceased dad — finding a second chance for happiness when a sultry young woman enters his life.

Daves of Their Lives marks the latest Fringe entry by festival regular Watts, Dean of Industrial Technologies at RRC. The show is being staged at Venue #2 (MTC Up the Alley), with performances on:

• Wed., July 18 (8:45 p.m.)
• Fri., July 20 (5:45 p.m.)
• Sun., July 22 (3:15 p.m.)
• Mon, July 23 (9 p.m.)
• Wed., July 25 (2 p.m.)
• Fri., July 27 (12:15 p.m.)
• Sat., July 28 (7:30 p.m.)

Tickets are $9 ($8 for students and seniors); click here for more information.

Red River College alum Jim Van Dusen (Creative Communications, 1987) picked up a trio of honours at this year’s Radio and Production Awards, adding to an impressive list of industry accolades acquired during his 25 years in radio and TV.

Now the Creative/Production Director for Astral Radio in Winnipeg (home of Hot 103 and QX 104), Van Dusen picked up his first RAP trophy in the Medium Market Promos category, for “Jets Song Comin’ Home”, a collaboration with Hot 103 morning man Ace Burpee that celebrated the return of Winnipeg’s NHL team.

He was also named first runner-up in the same category, and first runner-up in the Medium Market Commercials category. In years past, Van Dusen — who taught a radio course for second-year CreComm students last year — has nabbed a number of runner-up spots at the RAP Awards, as well as honours at the Crystal Awards and the Signature Awards, and a Standard Radio Presidents Award in 1999. He also won an honorary gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, for his entry in the Literary Olympics’ Poetry Sweatshop.

Click here to learn more about RRC’s Creative Communications program.

(From left): Janet Jamieson, Chair of RRC's Community Services department; Eleanor Thompson, Urban Circle's Executive Director; RRC President Stephanie Forsyth; and Louise Gordon, Dean of RRC's School of Health Sciences and Community Services.

Last week marked the grand opening of another new addition to the Selkirk Avenue landscape — one that brings training and childcare opportunities to Winnipeg’s inner city, while celebrating the wisdom of the neighbourhood’s elders.

Launched through a partnership between the Urban Circle Training Centre, Red River Colllege, and the University of Manitoba’s Inner-city Campus, the newly-opened Makoonsag Intergenerational Children’s Centre serves as the College’s first demonstration childcare centre, and represents its commitment to providing community residents with increased access to programs promoting child and family supports.

Read More →