News

No joking around — this year’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival promises laughs with an RRC connection, courtesy of second-year Creative Communications student Jordan Welwood, who’s set to appear at a trio of shows.

Welwood will be the opening act at Rumor’s Comedy Club showcases by Derek Edwards (April 10) and Ron Sparks (April 12). He’ll also appear at the Festival’s wildly popular Winnipeg Show, alongside mainstays of the local scene (Ryan Ash, Ben Walker, Big Daddy Tazz), and visiting ex-pats like Bruce Clark and Tanyalee Davis.

A Winnipeg-born comedian and writer, Welwood has been a finalist in Winnipeg’s Funniest Person with a Day Job contest, and in SiriusXM’s Next Top Comic competition. (The latter showdown saw him opening for SNL alum Colin Quinn at Just for Laughs’ JFL42 Festival.)

He’s also a frequent guest host (and sometime headliner) at Rumor’s, a senior writer on local talk-show satire Week Thus Far, and a regular presence at such venues as The Rose n’ Bee Pub, The Cheer, and Jeffrey’s Restaurant and Lounge.

Click here to follow Welwood on Twitter, and here for more on the Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

Photo credit: The Projector (Red River College)

Rebecca Trudeau, a first-year student in RRC’s Community Development/Community Economic Development program, is among the individuals and organizations being honoured this week by Volunteer Manitoba.

Trudeau is one of three people receiving a Premier’s Volunteer Service Award (Youth category) at this year’s Volunteer Awards Dinner, taking place Wed., April 9 at the RBC Convention Centre Winnipeg. The annual event celebrates individuals and families who invest valuable time and energy into their communities.

Trudeau has a long history of volunteering, having contributed countless hours to local charities and not-for-profits, among them St. Amant Centre, the North End Commnity Renewal Corporation, Breakfast Clubs of Canada, and many more.

In recent years, she’s overseen Winnipeg Harvest’s Tools for School campaign, and served as Food Bank Coordinator for the Red River College Students’ Association. She’s also a contributor to the Community News Commons, an online resource aimed at creating stronger, healthier neighbourhoods.

“We in the CD/CED program are extremely proud of Rebecca,” says instructor Lynn Ann Lauriault. “Her dedication to community and to equitable, sustainable, holistic development is apparent in her commitment to her studies and her teammates.”

Click here for more information on this year’s awards ceremony, including a full list of recipients.

Congratulations (and best of luck!) to first-year Culinary Arts student Janine Sumner-Traverse, who’s on her way to Vancouver to prove her pears have the most flair.

Sumner-Traverse, 25, is one of five regional finalists chosen to compete in the Pear Excellence Culinary Student Competition, an annual student recipe contest hosted by the Pear Bureau Northwest. The event requires students to showcase the flavour and versatility of pears, with points awarded for creativity, mechanics, appearance, inspiration, and the inclusion of at least one Canadian-grown ingredient.

The grand prize winner receives US $2,500, with an additional $500 going to their school for supplies or scholarships. Sumner-Traverse has already beat out competitors in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, taking top honours in the Prairie region with her mouthwatering recipe for pork tenderloin with pear and blueberry stuffing, and a red wine poached pear spinach salad with candied walnuts and pistachio-crusted goat cheese.

A former resident of Lake St. Martin First Nation, Sumner-Traverse is one of more than 1,400 people displaced by flooding in her home community. After taking up a new residence in a Winnipeg hotel, she opted to enrol in RRC’s Culinary Arts program — having already received some early training while cooking bannock, boiled pudding and fruit cake alongside her father as a young girl.

The finals take place April 8 in Vancouver. If she wins, Sumner-Traverse plans to use the prize money to help pay for her first apartment (as well as a much-deserved shopping spree). Click here for more information on the competition.

Red River College’s upscale restaurant Jane’s is about to get a whole lot more traffic and maybe even create the occasional traffic jam. Starting June 1, 2014 renovations to the William Avenue facade of the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, which houses the iconic restaurant, will include the addition of a drive-thru window.

Until now, Jane’s, a training ground in which RRC’s Hospitality and Culinary Arts students hone their skills, has focused on providing hands-on experience for five-star dining. But all that is about to change as the School adapts its curriculum and learning facilities to ensure it is providing students with a well-rounded education for the ever-changing hospitality landscape.

In addition to the drive-thru window, which will be open to the public this fall for pre-order pick-ups from Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 6pm, a significant portion of the dining area will also get a facelift. Starting in September, one quarter of the 80-seat restaurant will be sectioned off and converted to a casual sports lounge complete with an array of finger foods, a selection of micro-brews, and large-screen televisions for catching Jets games.

Read More →

Red River College has renewed its training partnership with Yaskawa Canada Inc., to become the only current provider of Yaskawa Motoman robotics training in Canada.

“Robotics and automation are critical innovations which enable manufacturers to effectively compete in the global marketplace,” says Don MacDonald, Dean of RRC’s School of Transportation, Aviation and Manufacturing. “This partnership establishes RRC as a Yaskawa Canada site for certified Yaskawa Motoman robotics training, and we are thrilled to be working with them.”

Under the terms of the partnership, robotics training is available to industry in a dedicated one-of-a-kind training lab located at RRC’s Notre Dame Campus. The College has been actively involved in supporting innovation and productivity initiatives in aerospace and manufacturing, and this renewed partnership is a further step towards offering solutions to meet the needs of industry.

“This partnership is an excellent opportunity to showcase and highlight the value of the services Yaskawa Motoman and the College provide to industry partners in Western Canada,” says Jason Jenson, General Manager of Yaskawa Canada Inc. “We are pleased to be part of the next evolution in the educational technology being offered at the College. We look forward to our continued growth and success together.”

Scheduled DX100 Basic Programming courses offered at RRC can be booked through the Yaskawa Canada website (location listed as “Red River College, Winnipeg”).

This Saturday, March 29, at 8:30pm, Red River College will be joining millions of individuals and organizations around the globe by switching off the lights for 60 minutes to celebrate its commitment to the planet during Earth Hour.

Now in it’s eighth year, Earth Hour is a grassroots movement that aims to bring awareness to environmental issues and showcases how sustainable practices such as turning off lights and non-essential appliances can have a positive impact on the health of the planet.

Red River College is proud of the steps it has taken to reduce energy consumption on campus – both in new construction and through renovations.

Our newest buildings, the Heavy Equipment Transportation Centre (HETC) and the Paterson GlobalFoods Institute (PGI), are built to LEED standards meaning they have to be at least 25% more energy efficient than comparable buildings of the same size.

In HETC, high efficiency lighting, the use of natural light and photocell-controlled lighting help reduce energy consumption by 41%. At PGI, lighting in public areas is done by occupancy sensors so the lights only turn on when people are in the space.

Find out more about Earth Hour at earthhour.org and learn about RRC’s sustainability practices at Red Goes Green.

From left: RRC apprentices Steven Doerksen, Mike Baker, Alicia Demare, Marc Lindenberg, Marcus Dyck and Julia Schroeder, at the AWMAC Apprenticeship Cabinetmaking Competition.

Congratulations to RRC alum Julia Schroeder (Cabinetry and Woodworking Technology, 2012), a Level-3 apprentice who took top honours in last weekend’s Architectural Woodworking Manufacturers Association of Canada (AWMAC) Apprenticeship Cabinetmaking Competition.

Held Sat., March 22 at RRC’s Notre Dame Campus, the contest tasked six RRC apprentices with constructing a detailed millwork project over nine hours.

Apprentices arrived at the contest site to find a set of detailed blueprints and a selection of lumber, panel products, laminates and hardware. Racing against the clock (and each other), they completed their projects just minutes before the nine-hour mark, at which time their entries were judged by attending members of the local millwork community.

“This competition illustrates the growth and development each apprentice goes through during their apprenticeship experience,” says Mike Watson, Chair of Construction Trades at RRC, noting competitors also got a chance to network with visiting industry representatives.

The top competitors took home prize packages (donated by RRC and the AWMAC’s Manitoba chapter) of tools they’ll be able to use in their trade. Schroeder’s project will go on to be judged against other provincial winners at the AWMAC national convention, running May 29 to June 1 in Quebec City.

Congratulations also go out to second-place winner Alicia Demare, and third-place winner Marcus Dyck.

Click here for more info on RRC’s Cabinetry and Woodworking Technology program, and here for more on the AWMAC.

Red River College is pleased to host the inaugural Top Chef Award Dinner, celebrating excellence in culinary arts — in particular, Manitoba’s impressive roster of homegrown talent.

Taking place Thursday, April 17 at The Fort Garry Hotel, the event gives us a chance to honour the lifetime achievements of Manitoba’s Chef Takashi Murakami, executive chef at St. Charles Golf and Country Club, and an internationally-recognized cuisinier.

Chef Takashi Murakami, accepting the Order of Canada from former governor general Adrienne Clarkson in 2005.

Widely hailed as one of the most talented chefs in Canada, Japanese-born Chef Murakami has spent the last 40 years elevating food preparation to an art form at St. Charles.

During that time, he’s also picked up an impressive array of industry awards and honours, among them a series of gold medals (and a World Championship) as a member and coach of Culinary Team Canada, a Chef of the Year designation by the Manitoba Chefs Association, membership in the Canadian Culinary Federation’s Honour Society, and a 2005 appointment as a Member of the Order of Canada.

The Top Chef Awards are being sponsored by The Fort Garry Hotel, in support of a four-month internship at the renowned Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France. All proceeds raised will enable two students from RRC’s School of Hospitality and Culinary Arts to intern abroad at one of the world’s leading centre’s of French gastronomy.

Tickets to the black-tie event are $200, or $2,000 for a corporate table of 10. Click here for more information, or to purchase tickets.

RRC instructor David Blicq (Chemical and Biosciences Technology) talks to students at this year’s Open House event.

Congratulations to the RRC students, staff and instructors recognized by our Open House Secret Shoppers, who went “undercover” at this year’s event in search of examples of exceptional service.

The Secret Shoppers had their eyes peeled for staff and volunteers who went above and beyond in their interactions with Open House visitors, whether by presenting themselves (or their respective programs/departments) in an engaging, approachable manner, or by making efforts to take their tours and conversations to the next level.

Those singled out received complimentary RED Cards; a full list of winners is below. Read More →

From left: AWMAC President Curtis Popel, RRC apprentice Leonard Derksen, and RRC instructor Todd Birtwhistle, at last year’s National Apprenticeship Contest.

Best of luck to the RRC students taking part in this weekend’s Architectural Woodwork Manufacturers Association of Canada (AWMAC) Cabinetmaking Apprenticeship competition.

The nine-hour event will unfold at RRC’s Notre Dame Campus this Saturday, during which time eight apprentices will compete for the top spot, and for prizes supplied by AWMAC and RRC’s Cabinetmaking Apprenticeship Fund.

The winner will advance to the nationals, where his or her project will be judged against winning projects from throughout Canada.

Last year’s provincial winner, Leonard Derksen (shown above), went on to take top honours at the National Apprenticeship Contest. The following RRC apprentices are competing in this year’s provincial round:

• Mike Baker
• Alicia Demare
• Travis Devisser
• Marcus Dyck
• Derek Friesen
• Adam Hajkowski
• Marc Lindenberg
• Julia Smith Read More →