Congratulations to the above team of RRC Culinary Arts students, who took top honours in the 2013 Manitoba Mission: ImPULSEible competition.

Hosted by Pulse Canada at RRC’s Paterson GlobalFoods Institute, the event aims to develop innovative food products containing whole pulses (the edible seeds of plants in the legume family) or pulse ingredients. Students present their products at provincial competitions where judges evaluate them based on sensory and health attributes, the innovative use of pulses, feasibility and marketability.

RRC’s team — consisting of students Hayley Walker, Scott Ball and Ian Gerbrandt — won their provincial competition with a “Power Pulse Ice Cream Sandwich,” comprised of lentil cookie and chickpea ice cream. They now move forward to the national competition in Calgary in June.

Click here for more info on the Mission: ImPULSEible competition.

A Red River College student with a distinguished military record has again turned his attention to a different form of service — by launching a foundation to raise scholarship money for students with developmental disabilities.

Andrew McLean, a former Warrant Officer who retired from the Canadian Forces last summer after 22 years of service, recently donated $25,000 of his own money to start the Canadian Torch Foundation — which will provide its first $1,000 CTF Award to an RRC student next year.

The award is available annually to a full-time student with a developmental disability (physical, mental or documented learning disability, or visual or hearing impairment), who’s studying one of the following RRC programs: Child and Youth Care, Disability and Community Support, Early Childhood Education or Early Childhood Education Workplace.

McLean’s goal is to eventually raise $2.5 million in funding for similar post-secondary scholarships at 10 colleges and universities, and to complement them with annual grants for rehabilitation efforts benefitting children and youth across Canada. Continue reading →

As a participant for the last 15 years, Red River College grad Sean Grassie brings a unique perspective to his time with the MCA Bonspiel, the biggest and longest-running curling competition in the world.

So it’s no surprise Grassie, a 2009 Creative Communications grad, and skip of both the 1999 Manitoba junior champion and 2009 Canadian Mixed champion teams, has put all that inside info to good use via a new book chronicling the Bonspiel’s 125-year history.

Kings of the Rings was completed as the major project for Grassie’s final year of CreComm, and is the result of more than 100 interviews and untold hours spent poring through the Winnipeg Free Press archives. The book was published by Great Plains Publications, with an initial print run of 3,000, though given the level of curling’s popularity in Manitoba — not to mention the Bonspiel’s pending 125th anniversary — Grassie might soon need a second run. Continue reading →

RRC student Carmina Dueck (right), with Holly Banner, President of Literacy Partners of Manitoba.

The long drive to class turned out to be worth it for Steinbach Campus student Carmina Dueck, who last week won a Literacy Partners of Manitoba (LPM) scholarship recognizing success in adult learners.

Dueck, who completed the Health Care Aide program through Steinbach’s Adult Learning Centre, was awarded an Eastman Region LPM Learner Scholarship at a Nov. 20 ceremony celebrating Literacy Partners’ 25^th anniversary.

Despite the 100-kilometre drive to campus, Dueck completed her Health Care Aide certificate on a part-time basis, received her mature high school diploma in June 2012, and is currently registered for RRC’s Bachelor of Nursing degree program.

She detailed her RRC experience in the most recent issue of LPM’s Write ON magazine.

“My horizons were broadened. My eyes were opened. My mind was expanded,” she writes.

“I felt vulnerable as I experienced worry about grades, frustration over assignments, and a pounding heart as exams were handed back. But everything was balanced out with joy, accomplishments, and higher levels. I persisted in my academic journey and won.”

Click here for more information about the Adult Learning Centre at Steinbach Campus.

RRC alum Östen Rice (centre) along with Amici’s Jamie Snow (left) and Sydney’s at the Forks’ Michael Schafer (right), on the winner’s podium of this year’s Gold Medal Plates culinary competition.

Congratulations to RRC alum Östen Rice (Culinary Arts, 2001), of Wasabi Sabi restaurant, on his recent win at the Gold Medal Plates competition in Winnipeg.

Rice was awarded top honours at the event, which took place Oct. 26 at the Winnipeg Convention Centre. As it does every year, the event celebrates the best in local cuisine, pitting the city’s premiere chefs against each other in a bid for a spot at the Canadian Culinary Championships.

Rice’s gold medal-worthy entry was a thrilling mix of sweet and sour, comprised of beet-cured butterfish, marinated sea asparagus, taro crisp and tobiko roe, and a slaw of julienned Fuki apple, golden beet and shiso leaf. Continue reading →

Congratulations to Red River College alumna Jamie Isfeld (Digital Media Design, 2007), on being named Broadcaster of Tomorrow by the Broadcasters Association of Manitoba.

Isfeld, who currently works as a web producer for CTV Winnipeg, picked up the award during a reception that followed the Association’s annual fall meeting last weekend.

The award honours “future stars” who have been employed in the broadcasting industry for between two to five years. In addition to her work with CTV Winnipeg, Isfeld also does freelance work in web development and new media designs, and maintains blogs on new media topics and her artwork.

Click here to see Isfeld’s website, and here for more information on RRC’s Digital Media Design program.