My name is Juliana Irqittuq and I am from Sanirajak Nunavut. Sanirajak is a small town in Nunavut with approximately 900 people. I am participating in the NYA 2024 Canadian program.  I applied back in 2023 and got accepted as an alternate, but I didn’t get a placement in my first year. I did all my winter assignments, and I am now a part of the 2024 Canadian program. 

                  This summer I was placed in Orléans Ontario, which is outside of Ottawa. I think Orléans is such a beautiful little city. I am considering on going here for university. I am volunteering at Chapel Hill retirement residence and I am loving it. I love talking with the elders and doing activities with them such as dance parties, playing card games with them. Going on walks with them. Etc..

My placement buddy is Angelina Netser from Coral Harbour, we are so similar it’s crazy. We often go out to shop or just explore the city. We are often laughing a lot and making lots of funny memories together, my favourite memory with her is when she said she used to be obsessed with Vinnie Hacker and I said “huh? Kisu? (What) vinegar?”. We also went to go watch fireworks downtown on Canada day. I am so thankful for all the help and support I got from my teacher and mentor, Steve, and my best friend Ben. I wouldn’t have made it here without their support.

                  Orientation week was so much fun! NYA did a great job getting us all settled in and comfortable with our new surroundings. We went swimming, and did so many assignments. We even went to Parliament Hill to learn about the government. I learned a lot about how our government works. 

                  My host family is amazing! I feel very welcome in their house, and I share a room with my placement buddy, who is quickly becoming one of my best friends! Honestly, I don’t think I could have completed the summer program without my host family and my buddy. My first few days on my work placement were hard, but I always knew that, at the end of the day, I would be going home to recharge with supportive friends.  

                  My experiences with NYA so far have really helped me appreciate how much hard work it is going to take to become a doctor someday. When you try new things, meet new people and visit new places, there are going to be challenges around every corner. However, my experiences so far have prepared me to better cope with these challenges and to manage the stress and anxiety I encounter when I leave my comfort zone. 

                  I highly recommend the NYA program to any northern youth who want to go to university or become a professional. Transitioning from life in a remote community to a city center can be stressful in lots of ways, but NYA offers a way for youths to do this in a controlled and supportive way. I feel like I have learned and grown so much during my time here, even though it’s only been a few weeks! NYA has been a truly transformative experience. I have gained valuable skills and expanded my horizons in ways that would not be possible otherwise.

                  For youths from remote communities, NYA provides a unique chance to explore new environments, meet people from diverse backgrounds, and learn about different cultures. This exposure fosters a deeper understanding of the world and oneself, helping to build empathy and resilience. The program’s focus on leadership development and community engagement equips you with practical skills and experiences that are highly valuable both personally and professionally. Whether through volunteer work, skill-building workshops, or cultural exchanges, NYA encourages participants to push boundaries, embrace challenges, and discover their potential.

                  Overall, NYA isn’t just about learning new things; it’s about personal transformation, building lifelong connections, and becoming a more confident and capable individual. It’s a testament to the power of experiential learning and the positive impact it can have on young people in remote communities.

Thank you for reading.

Hi my name is Jacob Ihakkaq I am from Kugaaruk Nunavut

Here’s an image of my community.

My placement buddy is Pat Nadli Gargan, and we are in Windsor for the summer.
Windsor is a beautiful place but can get temperatures up to 30°, Windsor is right across Detroit Michigan people here are very nice and kind.

My host family, my placement buddy and I went to Wasaga Beach and we went to Base Bordon the largest military base in Canada.

I work at Habitat For Humanity Restore Windsor Essex and what I do there is paint houses, fix fences, and help people with their homes.

What I do for fun is just help out my host family and my neighbors, go shopping and go swimming. My favorite things about being in the south is seeing big buildings, shopping, going to the gym and going swimming.

My name is Angelina Netser, and I am from Coral Harbour, Nunavut. I am a participant in the Canadian program by Northern Youth Abroad(NYA)I am placed in Orleans, Ontario for the summer. Orléans is a beautiful place filled with wonderful and friendly people. There are many great places to visit, and the food is delicious. The weather in Orleans is hot and humid on a good day, and some days are warm and rainy.

I volunteer at the Bairn Croft Residence Services, where they provide care for people with disabilities. I am helping team leaders with supervision of the clients during community outings and group activities in the classrooms. This opportunity is eye opening and life-changing.

My placement buddy is Juliana Irqittuq from Sanirajak Nunavut, and we are so happy and excited to spend our summer together and explore the city and try new things.

I have been here for three weeks now, and I am enjoying every second of it. My host family is very kind and welcoming to us, and I am very grateful for all the wonderful things they do for us.

There are so many things you can do in Ottawa. I have been to the movie theatre, three different malls, the water park and an arcade. I hope to visit more places before I leave. My favourite part about this program is meeting new people and learning about their cultures, gaining new friendships and skills .

I am proud to be part of this Canadian program! It will leave an indelible imprint on me. It will also motivate me to make a difference in my community, and I will inspire others to join this program. I would not have been able to do it without my families support, my mentor/teacher, host family and of course the NYA staff.

Hello, My name is Josephina I’m from Clyde River Nunavut and I am 16 years old.

I am one of the 2024 NYA participants, I’ve been placed here in Campbell River, BC along with my buddy Keira. Campbell River is located in the East Coast of Vancouver island, it’s known as the Salmon Capital of the world. It has beautiful mountains and huge trees all over. So far we’ve been travelling all over the island, we’ve went to the capital city of BC Victoria, Courtney, Nanaimo, Port Alberni and Tofino While on the road I have been so amazed with all the big beautiful mountains. . We went boating back in Victoria and we caught some crabs and some prawns, it was an amazing view being in the water. I am super thankful for my host mom Debbie, thanks to her we’ve been travelling all over the island and getting to try new things! In a few weeks I am heading to Vancouver through ferry to go spend a night my mentor Gen! My mentor has helped me a lot and not only with nya assignments but with my personal growth, confidence and my leadership skills. She has encouraged me, supported me and helped me through a lot. I am super thankful to have her as my mentor, thank you Gen. 

For my volunteer placement I originally was placed in a restaurant called Dockside fish and chips for a while and I loved it there! I had very welcoming coworkers, they were amazed about the fact that I am from Nunavut and they had tons of questions. The restaurant was right on the dock so there would be some seals coming up, there was 3 regulars that would usually come up their names are Timmy, Jimmy and Kimmy. While I was working there I did some food prepping, serve customers, clean and help around the restaurant but sadly their schedule didn’t meet up with mine so I had to get moved. I got moved to a sport and swim summer camp for 7-12 year olds I am one of the youth leaders in training we teach the campers about teamwork, personal development and self confidence. At first I didn’t really like the job since I’m not really a person who’s good with kids, but I am getting used to it and getting close with my coworkers and the campers which I love. We do some fun activities in the morning and after lunch we go swimming everyday. Being one of the L.I.T (leaders in training) is helping me better my leadership skills, selflessness, decision making and problem solving. 

 Northern youth abroad has impacted my life for the better in so many ways. They have so many programs for young adults who live up north, it is a seriously good opportunity you don’t wanna miss! The fun part of it is you get to make lots of friends with all the other participants during orientation. Surely being away from home can be hard sometimes but remember home is not going anywhere and there are some coping strategies you can do to ease your homesickness, for me that works best is just being busy to keep my mind of a it and just getting out of my comfort zone.

Hello, my name is Bryce Itturiligaq, I am from Naujaat, Nunavut. It is a very small community that holds about 500-600 people.

My experience in New Brunswick has been a very fun time. I went out to a trampoline park with my placement buddy Rick and placement mother Julie with her sons Milan and Damon and his friends. It’s been a long time since I went on one, so after an hour of staying there, having fun, I felt like it was my first time.

In Ottawa, it was extremely hot, but I went to my host family with my friends and host mother, which had air conditioning, so I cooled down very quickly.

I work at 3D property management, which works on maintaining houses and making sure they’re in living order. My work placement is very chill and relaxed, especially my coworkers, they love to talk about their day-to-day experiences. They also have a quick debrief at the end of work, telling the others what they did, how much work they did for the day, and how where they were working.

My host family is very chill as well, they have three dogs that love to bark at people when they enter their home, so they don’t mind much when I get loud. Also, their sons also are loud when playing games, so they pretty much got used to loud sounds. I’m usually quiet when playing games, so I’m not going to get a noise complaint when playing games, I only get loud when I see something very funny, which makes me laugh out loud, but I try to stay quiet most of the times anyway.

Hi, my name is Keira. I am 17 years old and I am from Cambridge Bay, NU. I am apart of the NYA 2024 Canadian program, my buddy is Josephina from Clyde River and we are located in Campbell River, BC. We are loving the Island, it is absolutely beautiful. I applied for the 2023 Canadian program and got accepted as an alternate, I did enough work to gain a spot in the 2024 Canadian program. Originally I wasn’t sure if I was going to accept because I like to spend the summers on the land, I am happy that I chose to come down to do this NYA program instead of going camping lol.

I was able to meet a lot of cool, new friends, explore new places and experience things I never have. From the moment Josephina and I came to Campbell River, we’ve been going on road trips all over the island with our host auntie Debora and our host cousin Joshua! We went to the Nanaimo mall, explored beautiful Victoria, Port Alberni, Tofino, we even went to Long Beach!

It’s great to try new things, now I have life long friends and memories. It got super hard going into the 2nd week of being in my host community because I miss my home but I am still pushing through. My work placement was at little fry daycare, but it didn’t work out for me while being there. So now I am at the restore habitat for humanity.

I am grateful for this experience and want to thank everyone who has supported me, helped me with my assignments and most of all Nya staff members for being patient with me and all the other participants. I also got to see a few family members here on the island, I haven’t seen them for about a decade, so it’s great! Couldn’t have done it without my mentor Tiffany Picketts, so a huge thank you to her!

Hi, my name is Hailey Pijamini, I’m from Grise Fiord, Nunavut. My placement buddy is Kelsey Sheetoga from Whale Cove, Nunavut. We were both placed in Oakville, Ontario with our host family, Catherine and her two twin boys, and they have three pets, two cockapoo dogs, who are named Leo and Parker, and a little rabbit, Harvey.

Oakville is so different compared to Grise Fiord, there’s so much greenery and man made buildings. Their stores are really big, and there’s just so many that I can barely count.

I have been volunteering at a kid’s activity camp, Frontline Outreach, and their mission is to serve, and help others serve the disadvantaged with dignity, humility and compassion.

It’s been great working with Frontline Outreach, my supervisor, Kelly, has been super nice ever since I started volunteering. And my co-workers seem like fun people, one time we all played a game called Mafia, it’s a game where you’re assigned a card, and depending on the card you get, you can either be a Mafia, Doctor, Cop or Civilian, and it can get quite chaotic.

There’s so much to do in Oakville, so far me and Kelsey have done a lot, like go shopping, go to restaurants or places to eat, we even played VR games twice, we played first person shooters in a place called Zero Latency VR, and a zombie shooting game in another place called Mirage VR.

But the biggest thing we did, was go to Niagara Falls with our host family. Catherine booked us a tour at a place called Niagara Parks Power Station, which shows the history of the power station. They also had a tunnel leading to a closer view of Niagara Falls, and it was a beautiful sight to see, the water caused a rainbow, and you can see the city from the distance.

It’s been difficult making friends in Oakville for me, but I have made great friends with a lot of other participants of NYA, it’s so cool to have friends from all over Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Even after all of this, I feel like I would stay in Grise Fiord. As much as I enjoy staying in places like Oakville, nothing can truly replace home. I don’t think I’ll stay in Grise forever, but I want to stay close to my family and friends until I’m ready to live somewhere else.

I’m so thankful for everyone that had helped me get to this point, especially to NYA, my Mentor, and everyone else who helped me get into NYA. I’ll never regret signing up, and I hope future participants won’t regret signing up either. 

Thanks for reading!

My name is Faith Nitsiza, I’m from Whati, NWT, and I am participating in NYA’s Canadian Program. I am placed in Powell River, British Columbia, volunteering at the qathet Museum and Archives.

So far, everything is amazing! I love my host community, my host family is great, and my placement buddy, Kylar, is amazing! I honestly don’t regret joining the program and coming here.

I learned so much and did so much in just a span of weeks! Working at a museum is fun in its own way, though I mostly do office work, like filing records, properly handling artifacts, etc. I find it a great experience to work at and I enjoy the people I am working with. 

Aside from my volunteer work, my host family took us to do many different things, like going shopping at shops or vendors, attending community events, and going sightseeing!

Overall, my experience so far has been amazing! It feels as if no time has passed, yet everything is going by fast. I am forever grateful for this experience and am happy that I got the opportunity to be here. 

Faith Nitsiza

My name is Randy Angilirq and I am from Igloolik Nunavut. During the summer with the NYA, I am staying in Chilliwack, British Columbia. I was told about the NYA program by a teacher from the Igloolik high school. When I applied, I was working at the high school as a substitute teacher. I applied to the program thinking I wouldn’t get accepted, after a few months, I got word that I got accepted. The binder came in late, so I had to rush through the workbook. It was hard to do because I had 2 jobs and a bad sleep schedule, but I managed to be fairly on time with the projects.

My volunteer job during the summer is at Kirkpatrick Auto, it is a place where they work on vehicles that need to be fixed. The first few weeks were hard, I didn’t like working with vehicles because they were dirty and I don’t like getting my hands dirty, I also didn’t like just watching the other workers doing the work. After a few days I got to help around the shop more, I learned how to change tires on a car and do oil changes. My favorite part of the job was either watering the plants or doing paperwork.

Everyone at work always greets me every time I come in which is nice. My daily schedule while working is simple, I have to water the plants every day, I have to keep the garbage bins clean, and help the mechanics if they every require assistance.

My host family is nice, I am staying with Sheldon. He works as special constable, and he makes us lunch every day. He has 3 daughters, and I went to the park with them a few times. He works late shifts so he comes home later than my buddy and I. My sleep schedule has changed a lot while in British Columbia due to the time change, it is 3 hours behind from my town. I go to work by taking a bike, I ride about 14 Km a day to and from my host place, so my legs are always sore, it is at least a 30 min bike ride, I am careful on the streets and with the traffic.

Chilliwack is home to the indigenous people called the Sto: lo people. I watched some of them perform during the Canada Day festival, their beliefs are interconnectedness between people and the natural world. They also believe that all life forces are connected to the earth, as well as connecting the present with the generations past and the future.

My challenges during my time in BC were minimal, I only missed my family a little bit, but I missed my friends a lot. I mostly missed playing video games with my friends, I am missing out on new game content and feel like I am behind my friends in the game challenges. I also couldn’t go to sleep some nights because of the heat, the temperature at night is usually between 15 to 20 degrees Celsius, which is super warm compared to my hometown. When I couldn’t sleep, I wrote in my journal. I also miss the midnight sun; I wasn’t used to the darkness during the night.

When I am not working, I play games on my Nintendo Switch, I like playing The Legend of Zelda and sometimes Fortnite Festival. I went to the Cheam Leisure Center and I worked out while I was there, there is also a public pool, sports center, a sauna and a hot tub. I also liked to bike the Vedder trail, it’s a trail along the Vedder River. It’s about 16 km and a lot of other people always walk or bike the trail too. There are other places to do some stuff while having free time. I went to a place where they played card games and other things, such as a videogames. Most of the time, I hang around the house and go for short walks. Robert and I went to watch movies on the weekends – we watched Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, and we will watch Deadpool 3 later this month.

I am thankful for everyone who helped me get into the program, I am lucky to get into the program and very thankful for the staff for everything. I have met a lot of nice people such as all the other participants, and I have made lots of new memories with everyone. I am thankful for Sheldon for keeping me at his house and feeding me. I hope everyone also had a nice summer and never forget all the memories with all the other participants.

Thank you for reading my blog.