Hi everyone I’m Wally Issigaitok from Hall Beach Nunavut.  The first couple of weeks of Next were kind of hard for me, but then it got better. It is a really unique experience to have! You get to travel to Ottawa for orientation for one week, go to your placement to meet your host family, and volunteer for high school credits. During NYA, you are having new experiences, building new friendships, and a new family. After 4 weeks, we go back to re-orientation in Ottawa. By the time you get to Ottawa, you feel like you don’t want to go home because you want to stay with the new friends you made. You will want to come back to Northern Youth Abroad. I had a great experience in my Canadian phase last year. I got to go to Chilliwack British Columbia. While I was in Chilliwack BC, I volunteered with Salvation Army and the YMCA.  Both were so great and I made a lot of new friends. My experience in Chilliwack BC was awesome! 

During my time with the Next program, I have also had a great time. First, I was with all my friends at Macskimming Camp for orientation for one week. There was nothing to bother you except the mosquitoes! After orientation I got to Ottawa where I will be spending 5 weeks at Algonquin College. It is the best! During the Next program, you get to spend time with your roommate, learn how to budget, and attend construction classes together. Soon, we will be going to Montreal for less then a week which is exciting because I’ve never been there before. I am so proud of myself that I applied for Northern Youth Abroad. I have had the greatest experiences with this program, and am so thankful for them because they so much for the youth from the Nunavut and NWT.  

Thank you so much for reading my blog!

Hi my name is Sharon Martin and I am from Behchoko, NWT. My host buddy is Connie and she is from Pond Inlet, Nunavut. I have been placed in Biblehill, Nova Scotia and my work placement is at Colchester Food Bank. Everyday I walk to work and at lunch time I will have my lunch at the park.

My host mom Deb takes us out on Saturdays to go to the farmers market and a few stores that she suggests. On Fridays she takes us out to a restaurant. We have also been to a camp for a day, swimming, and boating which was very fun!  Our host mom took us to the park with her and we got to see a waterfall. At the bottom of the waterfall, I drank the fresh water and it was great. Thank you for taking the time to read my NYA Blog.

My name is Jacob Gargan and I’m 17. I love it here in Ottawa. During my time with the Next program, we went to the beach and I loved it even though it was hot and crowded. I have also had the chance to gain more experience in carpentry which has been fun. We also got the chance give a presentation to the Jaku Konbit Summer Camp where I showed the stick I made for “stick pull”. I sang a prayer song for the kids which was scary and fun at the same time. We played dene games and Inuit games and I had the best time while I was there with kids and showing them the game “stick pull”.

We also went camping at Fitzroy Provincial Park. I have had good and bad days. I haven’t showed my bad days because I think that it might affect people, so I put a smile on my face and make it through the day which I’m proud of. When we were at the Provincial park, we went to a ceremony where I met fantastic people and learned about their jobs which was really interesting for me. I also met a guy who hoop dances and he showed us how to hoop dance with 2 hoops. It was great and I loved the food they made for us.

I love being here at Algonquin College and I hope to live or go to school here one day. I hope to keep getting to know the other participants, and reunite with them in the future.

My name is AJ and I’m 17 years old. I was in the NYA Canadian Program back in 2016. When I did the Canadian program I was placed in Ottawa, Ontario. During that time, I volunteered at Tinggasuvingat Inuit. This year, I am participating in the NYA Next program. For NYA Next, we attended a construction class where  we made pictures frames. Next week, we are moving onto making some pet houses. Throughout this program we’re staying in Algonquin College Dorms with our roommates. We also visited Parliament Hill in downtown Ottawa. I thought it was pretty cool to visit as it was my first time.

We also went camping just outside Ottawa. At the camp we slept in tents, and we went to the beach. At the beach we swam , kayaked and did some canoeing. It was pretty fun. NYA Next is a good program. During the program I have gained experience of working with other people from different communities. I also met good awesome amazing people during this program.

My name is Pearlie Mae Howard and I am originally from from Rankin Inlet, NU. I am currently living in Cambridge Bay, NU. I graduated high school in 2017, and afterwards I jumped from job to job until I went back to Rankin in December of last year.

I did my Canadian phase last summer and had the opportunity to travel to Chilliwack, BC. During my 4 weeks there I volunteered at a Summer Day Camp, which is always fun for me because I enjoy working with youth and young adults. This year I was selected for the NYA Next, where I stay in Ottawa for the summer, and room with 16 other participants at the Algonquin College Residence. During our time here we present our Territories to a few groups here in Ottawa and also are presented to by aboriginal groups and other organizations like “Let’s Talk Science.” We also get the chance to build things in a pre trades construction class.

The first couple of days we settled into residence and after we were all unpacked and settled, we got the chance to check out a nice beach across town. The next day we toured the Parliament building and got to learn some interesting facts about the old building. That same day we went to a mall, which was obviously fun for me because i very much enjoy shopping. During our first week here we registered for a construction class and did a bit of study hall. 

After that we had a bit of free time to relax. The next few days after that we spent being introduced to our construction class. We worked on building a picture frame and by the end of the week we finished them off and started on our dog houses. By the looks of it so far it’s going to be pretty huge! We also had the chance to visit another campsite with Southern Aboriginal youth and elders who were willing to show us their traditional knowledge, songs, and even dances. NYA Next got to work on presentations of our Territories to present to Jaku Kombit, a summer day camp with children who didn’t know anything about the people up north. It was great that we had the opportunity to show them our language, culture, even some games and songs.

NYA Next is a great program that allows youth to travel down south to showcase our traditional knowledge and language and also meet different aboriginal people from the south. To the youth who are reading my blog now, I hope you choose to apply for this amazing program you will get a lot from being here and also it will allow you to give back to the people who know little to nothing about our Northern territory.

Hi I’m Diana Williah and my experience so far being a part of the NYA Next Program has given me an insight of how the “college life” is. From getting to class on time, to navigating my way around on a bus in a new city, and setting my own bedtime! In the short two weeks that I’ve been here in Ottawa, I have finished orientation at the Macskimming Campgrounds while the heatwave was going on. I can definitely say that was an accomplishment of mine! It was also great to bond with the other other 15 participants in the program. During this time, we got to know each other a bit more. Even though I knew half the participants from the Canadian phase last year, it’s still always nice getting to know new people, which is a plus.

This week, we started our construction class which will last for another two weeks. We built a picture frame; and I’m glad to say that I was one of the first students to finish it. Next week we will be building a dog house. What a cherry on top! We also had the opportunity to do a presentation in front of other people which we did yesterday in front of a bunch of 6 to 12 year olds. We have to do three in total and I think we did pretty well in our first one. Overall, my experience so far has made me excited to attend college when I’m ready. Hopefully by the end of this program, I will be shaped into a more prepared college student. Having more experience in the city will help me transition better into moving away from my family and home.

Hey, my name is Matt Kanayok. I’m eighteen and from Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories. I was first involved with Northern Youth Abroad last year as a Canadian Participant, where I was placed in Belleville, Ontario. This year I am in the NEXT program. This means that I along with other youth from the North get to experience post-secondary life at Algonquin College for a month.

It was hectic for me at first to adjust and come to the conclusion that this was what the beginning of the rest of my life away from my home and family would feel like, and I really wanted to go home the moment I hit that realization. Luckily, I have good friends here and supportive group leaders that kept me on the right track, and have since then started to enjoy my time in Ottawa!

After settling in we had a tour of Algonquin College, and I was slightly overwhelmed by the amount of people everywhere (I‘m coming from a town of 450), but regardless I enjoyed it. My favourite tour was the one we had at Parliament Hill where I sadly did not high-five Trudeau. Overall, I had a great time learning more about Canada’s history and the meaning behind the architecture of the building (The statue of Victoria? Amazing).

We also started our construction class and I thought I was going to be terrible at it because I’m not good at anything related to math, but I actually did pretty well (I hope). We’ll start our construction of dog houses after a weekend camping trip, so I’m looking forward to that.

Anyway, I’m enjoying my time so far and I’m excited for the rest of the summer!

Sincerely, Matt

Hello everyone! My name is Xavier.

The first thing we did when we got to Ottawa was go to the Macskimming Camp and stayed there for a week for orientation. After the orientation we got to the Algonquin residence where we will be staying for the next five weeks. Then we will be going back to Macskimming.

I am enjoying my time here because we are learning how to make a picture frame, and then we will learn how to make a dog house. The picture frame we are making is very hard but it is good to be learning. It’s hard because there are a lot of instruction to follow. When I made a mistake I had to start over to make a new one. I learned that you need to do it perfectly to make the frame look very nice

We got to tour Parliament and my favourite thing about it was the history behind it and the art work that is in the building. I got to learn a lot of different things like that the first female was elected in 1988, and I got to see art work that represent the Inuit. It was a structure with two Inuit trying to kill a polar bear. These are the things I learned at Parliament.

These are the things that I have experienced and am enjoying  while taking this program and here in Ottawa. This is the best opportunity for youth in northern communities because its an opportunity for youth to experience living in a city.

Hello, my name is Shannon Green I am from Paulatuk Northwest Territories and I did the Canadian program in 2016. I am loving it at Algonquin College, being here and experiencing this life changing opportunity is a great challenge for me, but I believe I can handle this. It makes me feel grateful and thankful towards everyone that has worked so hard and is working so hard to get us here and inspires us to go further then this. I think it is within us to want more for ourselves in this life.

I am so thankful to myself because I too have worked very hard to get here and to push myself for wanting this challenge. I am so happy to be here with everyone- I have another NYA family 🙂 I love how we can all be ourselves and how caring everyone is. Some may be quiet but we can only inspire them to be comfortable enough to get out of their comfort zones. I’d like to thank everybody for this amazing opportunity. Quyunaini.