Hi, I’m Ace Autut, one of the NYA Next participants and I’m from Rankin Inlet Nunavut. What the NYA Next program is, it prepares you, yourself for post secondary education and teaches you how to take public transportation and get a sense of what to expect if you decide to go to university or college you’ll also learn to live on campus and register for classes.
While in the program we have done some fun activities. Activities like working with HOPE volunteering at Mooney’s Bay Beach, going to the museum, shopping at Bayshore Mall, playing arcade games at Fun Haven and so much more in between. I’d highly recommend that you try and apply for NYA yourself.
Along with fun activities comes challenges that you’ll eventually face. Challenges like; feeling home sick, longing for friends and family to be nearby, not knowing the area and feeling overwhelmed. To overcome these feelings, I become friends with everyone in the program who now feel like family to me and try and made new hobbies for myself.
All in all, I highly recommend you take the program yourself even if you don’t plan on going to post-secondary education. You’ll learn more about yourself and find new things you would’ve never thought you’d be interested in just like I learnt so much more about myself since enrolling in the NYA Next program and hope you do to in the near future.