A buzz of excitement, nerves, and laughter fills the convention centre as eager students line up for cap-and-gown fittings and pose for selfies with beaming friends and family.
This is their last day as students as they prepare to begin the work they’ve spent years studying.
More than 1,400 Red River College Polytechnic graduates out of the total 3,096 graduates will turn their tassels during nine convocation ceremonies across Manitoba throughout June.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
More than 1,400 Red River College Polytechnic graduates out of the total 3,096 graduates will turn their tassels during nine convocation ceremonies across Manitoba throughout June.
The record-setting convocation attendance is approximately 50 per cent more than last year.
Of the total graduates, more than 260 students are from its health care programs, such as nursing, paramedicine, and laboratory sciences. In June, 84 nurses will leave RRC Polytech to enter the field.
Analie Morissette, who’s graduating with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, had a keen sense of wanting to help people since she was young.
“I would constantly try to put tissue paper and Scotch Tape on my teddy bears to make a cast, and I was always eager to help with anything,” Morissette said Tuesday at the RBC Convention Centre.
Morissette said she received hospital care as a child, which inspired her to pursue a career in nursing.
“I saw that it was the nurses who had the hands-on experience and really walked with the patient through all of that, and I went ‘I want that job,’” said Morissette.
Morissette said she worked at the Selkirk Regional Health Centre for her practicum and enjoyed working at the hospital. She said she loved having the opportunity to work with geriatric patients and to help them along their transition into care.
To finally graduate is a “surreal” feeling for Morissette, after spending three and a half years studying.
“I think coming off of senior practicum, you have a little bit of a high from it. Then once you work, you come to realize the responsibility that you have, and the sense of, ‘Oh, it’s really up to me, I’m in control of this whole situation,’” said Morissette.
Fred Meier, president and CEO of RRC Polytech, said the fresh surge of graduates can be tied to 12 new programs launched by the institution and the increased awareness of how they lead to employment.
“People need to understand new programs a little bit before the programs get completely full. Some of our other programs that weren’t completely full during the pandemic, are full now,” said Meier.
“Our institution is very aligned with the labour market. It’s our reason for being.”
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
RRC Polytech had higher enrollment rates this year — an eight per cent increase compared to the five-year average.
RRC Polytech had higher enrollment rates this year — an eight per cent increase compared to the five-year average.
Enrollment numbers for the next academic year are expected to climb to a new record.
Meier said RRC Polytech has worked together with the provincial government to expand the size of the college’s health care programs so it can accept more students.
The province has committed to hiring more 1,000 health workers, including 100 doctors, 210 nurses, 90 paramedics, and 600 healthcare aides, according the 2024-2025 budget.
In an email statement, Premier Wab Kinew said he’s excited to see RRC Polytech health care graduates join the workforce.
“On behalf of the province of Manitoba, I want to thank these students for choosing a career in health care. Whether it’s working as a nurse, health care aide, clerk, paramedic, diagnostic tech… they are doing their part to help us fix health care and it’s making a difference,” Kinew said Monday.
Morissette hopes her fellow graduates have confidence as they head to the workplace.
“We are prepared after these last three years. I think trusting that and trusting in our knowledge is the most important thing that we can do, instead of second-guessing ourselves.”
matthew.frank@freepress.mb.ca