David Joanasie, from Cape Dorset Nunavut was presented with the Northern Youth Abroad (NYA) Outstanding Alumni Award. The award recognizes a member of Northern Youth Abroad’s alumni community who demonstrates leadership, excellence and contribution to their community. 

David completed the NYA Canadian Program in 2002, and went on to complete NYA’s International Program in 2003. He was elected in 2013 as a Member of the Legislature of Nunavut, as the member for South Baffin. He was the youngest person ever elected to this role. Before his election Mr. Joanasie held positions with the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the Government of Nunavut, and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. He has also attended Nunavut Sivuniksavut, Saint Mary’s University and Algonquin College, and held volunteer positions in his home community and beyond.

Northern Youth Abroad is a non-profit organization that was created in 1998 to offer both Canadian and International travel and education programming to youth 15-22 living in Nunavut and the NWT. NYA’s Programs are designed to help participants increase their self-confidence, gain a better appreciation of their own culture while learning about others, and develop skills and experience that invests in their preparation to set and achieve education, career and personal goals. One of the many objectives of NYA is to help inspire young Northerners to complete secondary and post-secondary education and to take on leadership roles in their home communities. The Outstanding Alumni Award was launched in 2007 to commemorate the organization’s 10-year anniversary, and has honoured seven members of the alumni to date.

In celebration of NYA’s 20^th Year Anniversary 2017 will include a number of events and activities aimed at recognizing NYA’s alumni, participants, volunteers and partners. In addition to the presentation of the Outstanding Alumni Award long-time volunteer Lois Philipp of Fort Providence, NWT was presented with the Outstanding Volunteer Award, in the Builder category, in recognition of her substantial and significant contributions to NYA and its Participants at the same ceremony. We congratulate both David and Lois, and offer our deepest thanks for their contributions.

For more information or photos please contact:
Rebecca Bisson, Executive Director
rebecca@nya.ca

Olaf tries out an experiment during some Let’s Talk Science programming. Credit: Thorsten Gohl

Hi my name is Olaf Christensen, I’m from Grise Fiord, NU.

I’m going to be telling you about my experiences in Ottawa from this summer. During Orientation we went to go see the baseball game which was really exciting because it was my first time to attend a baseball game. On our first arrival to Algonquin college, we settled in for a day and went shopping at Rideau Centre. Started our carpentry class on Monday of our first week, and our first task was to make a picture frame and we are still in the process of making it, and also did some activities like playing sports at the court yard with the college students.

Before we did our first presentation to the Britannia Woods event, my group and I had to go work on it at the aboriginal centre but it was closed and we also got lost in the building hahaha. On our second presentation, we went to Jaku Konbit and did our presentation there which was really interesting because they we’re mostly from the middle eastern Africa and we played some activities with them, had some barbequed burgers and got to know them a little more. We also did ”lets talk science’’ which was fun, we learnt about our DNA and did some other fun stuff related to science. On the morning of July 14 we did the programming with ‘’OCISCO’’ and with immigrants from Syria, which was interesting, we demonstrated some Inuit games to them and they really enjoyed it. We also had some volunteers from the Syrian people try out our Inuit games and had some barbequed burgers and hotdogs.

On the weekend of Friday, we went camping at the Fitzroy Provincial Park, it was so much fun! it was my first time camping in the south! We went beaching and played beach volley ball and also saw a raccoon eating our garbage at night, it was so funny. Well, because we thought it would come in to our tents so we were very cautious to see what was going to happen. We told scary ghost stories at night by the fire pit which was nice and relaxing and also very horrific.

Furthermore, we still have like 3 weeks left of the program to end our summer. Ill keep you guys all updated!

Boris on placement at Algonquin College in Ottawa.

Hi, my name is Boris Eyakfwo, and I am from Gameti, NT. I did my Canadian phase in 2013, here I was placed in Hamilton, Ontario. This year I am now a participant for the NYA Next Program, so far during this program it has been amazing and I’ve been cherishing every moment I have spent here. I am really looking forward to see how my summer goes in Ottawa, I didn’t know what to expect when I first applied, but now that I’ve been accepted and experiencing this change, I’m loving it. This program has taught me how important my culture is to me, how I shall learn, and practice it in every day’s life, I am pushing myself to become a better leader and have shown it this summer day by day. I have recently done three drum dance demo’s in Ottawa for three different groups, I’ve taught others my culture and traditional values. It took me three years to accomplish that and NYA was one of the main reasons why I’ve gotten more passionate about my culture. During orientation it was great meeting new people, seeing some old faces and bonding with the other participants, I didn’t expect us to grow as a family, or to have this amazing support for one another, but we do. It was an unbelievable week at orientation, where I’ve come to realize I learned more about myself and what I was capable of doing, I just needed to break out of my shyness, but I am still working on it and hoping I won’t get shy by the end of this summer. Going to the Ottawa Champions baseball game was one of my favourite recreational actives here because I am a fan of baseball. When we first arrived at Algonquin College, it didn’t feel like home until I got settled in, being around people who I am comfortable with, and it made it easier to make myself at home. Once we started our carpentry class, I didn’t know what to expect or to like it, but I do and I know that it will soon help us in life, we also have recently gone camping at Fitzroy Park, where it felt like home, making the fire’s, and cooking some hamburgers on the land, along with going canoeing. I was very overwhelmed but also very grateful to go camping with my NYA family, I wish we could do more of that this summer, but so far we have done many great things and more to come. I’m very blessed to be here in Ottawa with great friends who are very supportive, I cannot thank the NYA staff enough for giving me The BEST Summer of my life, Masi Cho to everyone who has gotten me this far, I appreciate this opportunity in the best way possible.

Orientation is complete and after five fun filled days of learning, meeting new friends, and getting prepared the 58 Participants in this year’s programs have travelled to their host communities. In the Canadian Program the 42 youth have travelled in pairs to 17 host communities across British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia and began their volunteer work placements yesterday. In NYA Next the 16 Participants moved into Algonquin College residence on Friday, and have already been busy with many different activities, before beginning their training class in the Construction Trades this morning.

Make sure to check back here often to follow all of the Participants adventures as they will begin posting their blog updates soon!

Here are some photos from Orientation – check them out! All credit to our awesome volunteer Thorsten Gohl who spent the week with us taking photos at Orientation!

With our fresh new website so recently unveiled, we don’t have any blog posts yet! But that doesn’t mean there aren’t tons of great NYA stories waiting to be heard. They’re just all still hiding at our old blog. You can read past NYA participants’ stories here, and once this year’s participants start their NYA experience we’ll post their blogs for you to enjoy right here on our new site!