As the Academic Student Success Coach at the Portage la Prairie Red River Campus, Maryanna Arendse supports students throughout their academic career. She understands expectations put on students and how stress can sneak up while going to school and living everyday life. She works with students to set goals and supports their efforts to reach them and helps clarify assignments, aids with finding supplementary study material and coordinates peer tutoring on campus.
As well as doing one-on-one work with students, she also shares academic skills based on research through group Lunch and Learn sessions. These sessions cover topics such as study skills, test taking strategies, time management, stress reduction, and the use of social media in a job search.
Marc joined the Academic Success Centre as a math/skilled trades Tutor and Academic Coach in 2018 and is happy to be here! He spent most of the last decade teaching and tutoring math to apprentices and students just entering the trades. He enjoys teaching, and loves watching his students succeed.
“My most fulfilling moments as a tutor have come from helping individual students who have been struggling to break through. I look forward to helping students make their time at the College as manageable, rewarding, and successful as possible.”
Lena Bender joined the Academic Success Centre as a Nursing/Science tutor and Academic Coach in 2018 and is thrilled to be here!
With a BA and a background in Kinesiology, Lena has over 13 years of experience in Medical Education and private tutoring, in both French and English. She supports students in Nursing and Applied Health/ Sciences programs. Her special interest is Human Anatomy and Physiology.
Lena loves teaching, and enjoys watching her students succeed. She recognizes that each student has their own unique learning style, and works to create an environment tailored to each student’s strengths and interests.
Hi! My name is Sharon Erazo and I am an ESL Tutor in the Academic Success Centre. I have experience teaching ESL in both South America and Canada and have my Masters in English Language Teaching. In addition to teaching, I have worked as a Career Coach with new immigrants here in Winnipeg.
I love meeting people from different cultures and backgrounds and am passionate about helping students improve their communication skills.
I joined the ASC in March 2016 and am delighted for the opportunity to work with students at Red River College Polytechnic. I obtained the Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) in 1996 in Montreal. Since then I have taught ESL extensively in Montreal, Prague, Istanbul and Winnipeg. In addition, I hold a BA in Theatre and English from the University of Winnipeg and a Bachelor of Social Work from McGill. Before entering the world of ESL/EAL, I was a full-time journalist with CBC Radio, which included five years as a morning show co-host in Saskatchewan and several years as a host/producer with Radio Canada International (RCI) in Montreal.
In my work with students, I concentrate on helping to polish writing and reading skills; I also work closely with students on presentations and more intensely on job interview skills. I believe that as a tutor my goal is to build confidence and to help students navigate from class studies to co-op and job placements.
Since 2011, Michael has been tutoring the Business IT program and other computer-related areas at the Exchange District Campus. He graduated from Red River College Polytechnic in 2007 as a Computer Programmer and Analyst.
He’s passionate about how information systems work: “I spend a lot of time exploring computers and their software. The ways in which we design user experiences in modern operating systems are finally making computing accessible to everyone. Thinking carefully about these systems is the key to making them relatable and easy to work with.” He likes to promote humane coding and thoughtful design when he engages students with their coursework.
Michael’s favourite thing about tutoring is that he can explore the beauty and expressiveness of all the different programming languages. Even though they look similar on the surface, each language has its own inner workings and they each excel at different tasks. There are often too many details to distinguish in a single semester, so the deeper complexity is glossed over during regular study. When needed, he’ll draw up sample material to explain weird concepts found in students’ courses.
Suzanne has been with us since 2010. She is proficient in several Red River College Polytechnic programs and academic content areas such as ECE, ESL, Social Sciences, Writing & Biology.
I truly enjoy working one on one with adult students and getting to know them. I am very interested in different cultures and love learning about them. I also appreciate learning about how difficulties affect people and how I can facilitate their moving forward in their chosen area of work. When I tutor, I always encourage ESL students in particular to listen to English as often as possible and to read to improve their communication and writing skills.
Degrees that have helped me are: Special Education & TESL. I’m interested in art, especially pottery & I really like learning Spanish.
Hi, I am Catherine Seitz and I have been an EAL tutor with the Academic Success Centre since June 2017.
I have experience working one on one with adults individually and in a classroom setting using an ESP (English for specific purpose) style of teaching. Prior to obtaining my Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate, I graduated from the University of Manitoba with my Bachelor of Social Work Degree.
I truly enjoy working with adults from all different backgrounds, getting to know them and helping support them in reaching their future academic goals.
Hello! I am thrilled to be part of the staff at the Academic Success Centre as an academic coach and staff tutor. I began my teaching career as a high school math teacher, followed by years of learning about people through running a home day care, and now working with students at Red River College Polytechnic.
Through all these years, I have been privileged to tutor a number of students, in math and in general studying strategies. In all of my experiences with schools and academics, I have come to realize that my favourite and most fulfilling moments have come in my tutoring roles. I love to be able to provide an alternate way of looking at concepts and to be able to truly listen to a student’s struggles and questions.
I look forward to helping students make studying, math, and school work manageable and rewarding. This job could only get better done on a picnic table by a campfire!
