Sandra pays close attention in her carpentry class at Algonquin College.

Hi, my name is Sandra Mautaritnaaq from Baker Lake, Nunavut. I did my Canadian phase in 2015. It’s my second year of Northern Youth Abroad, this year is different because there are 3 programs now. Canadian phase, NYA Next and International. We are the first group to do NYA Next. One week before coming to Algonquin College we went to a baseball game with the Canadian participants in Ottawa, we’re going to another game, but this time it’ll be in Toronto. The NYA Next are experiencing what it’s like to live in the Algonquin College residence for a month with a roommate, its like were actually going to college because were actually living on campus and taking a course here. We’re taking a carpentry class in the mornings, we made picture frames with four different types of intersections, now we’re close to finishing a dog house, for the dog house we did the framing individually, when that was done, we were put into groups of three to put the project together. Aside from working, we did a lot of other fun activities. We went to the Parliament Hill for Northern Lights show, bowling, went to the beach, experienced what its like to be a police and firefighter. There is a number of fun activities we did. We met people from Syria, Mexico, and Africa. If you are looking to get out of town for awhile, apply for Northern Youth Abroad. It’s a good experience, you make new friends from different communities and it’s a great program for youth!