Hello, my name is Samuel Panikpa Ootoova and I am fifteen years old. I will be talking about my experience in Kingston, Ontario.

This is (was) my first time going down south alone. I made many memories during my time in Ottawa at orientation and re-orientation and Kingston where my placement was. The friends I made I made during Orientation are really nice and the staff of NYA that stayed with us are also nice and really caring for the participants. The things we did at Orientation were really fun. We went swimming, learned how to budget, learned some first-aid basics, some safety tips, and had a cultural night (for both Nunavut and the North West Territories).

While I was in Kingston my placement buddy, Pualoosie Alorut, and I stayed with a host family who had eight cats. We had a lot of fun during our placement doing different things like kayaking and going to an arcade. We also went to a fundraising event for dogs.

While I was in Kingston I met so many nice people along the way over the past summer, most of which was at my Work placement called Panchancho which has a café, bakery, and does take out. Overall I really enjoyed my whole experience and would recommend it to anyone else wanting to get work experience and travel.

Hello, my name is Pauloosie Alorut and I am from Igloolik N.U. Me and my Placement Buddy Samuel Ootoova  are in a beautiful place called Kingston O.N.  My work placement is called Habitat for Humanity Restore, which is a second hand store that supports the Habitat for Humanity organization. The volunteer’s and worker’s here are great.

My host family are Jason, Sherri Mckane their daughter, Morgan who are a lovely and caring host family. They are like my parents now. There are a lot differences between the south and my hometown including a lot more public places, crowds of people and traffic, different languages and culture.

My favourite thing to do while on placement was go kayaking, because it was fun and it reminded me of my ancestors who used similar boats in the summer very year. Overall I really enjoyed my experience with the NYA Canadian program and would recommend it to anyone else wanting to broaden their opportunities.

Hello, my name is Shavanna Oogark and I am from Kugaaruk, Nunavut.

I am placed in Ottawa, Onatario. My work placement is at The Canadian Nature Museum and my work is a lot of fun. To be honest I was nervous about my job because I knew there would have been people who spoke french and I didn’t. But I had another worker from here Ottawa Ontario who speaks french, her name is Lisa. I have loved working at The Canadian Nature Museum, as it is a very different job compared  jobs I have had in my community.

My host mom is very generous, kind, caring and beautiful. She helps a lot when she can and is simply an amazing person who accepted my buddy Charmaine Putulik into her house for the next 5 weeks. She has friends who are from Ecuador who live with her parents. Her parents names are Stand and Judy Wolanski and Their names are Carlos, Lula & Flavia, along with their daughter Flavia who is 7 years old and full of joy!

The difference between Ottawa and my community Kugaaruk Nunavut is that there is so many different stores to shop, farmer’s market, malls, clothing stores and much more. The population is much larger than my community. There is so many different jobs available for youth in Ottawa unlike in my community. There is a lot of bugs and different types of pets too in Ottawa, as well as the plants here are different than my home.

I have done so many adventures here in Ottawa and went on 2 different road trips so far. The first one was to Montreal Quebec for a day trip and toured the Bell Center where Montreal Canadiens play! I also went on another road trip to Petawawa Ontario with a high school teacher of mine. My teachers name is Lindi Andrews and she showed me The Army Base. In Ottawa I also went to a light show in a tunnel with my host mom and buddy, different malls, and zip lining! I also got about 5 teachers who live close to Ottawa to come here to see me for a dinner, which was great.

I did two presentations about my home community and territory which went great. I gave gifts I got from my Member Of Legislative Assembly named Emiliano Qirngnuq. They all loved the brand new pens as a gift I gave them after the presentation.

My time in the south was hard at first. I got homesick here and there but it eventually got better after I made a few friends at work which made me feel better and love my work even more as something to look forward to everyday at work.

I hope someone someday who has the same host community, work placement and my host mom Kari Wolanski enjoys every minute of their time here in Ottawa. It sure is very hard at first being away from home on your own, but trust me it get a lot better each and everyday.

It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity! Thank you for having the time to read my blog.

Hi, my name is Branden Hardisty and I am 17 years old. I completed the Canadian phase of NYA back in 2016 and this year I am in the Next program. In the Next Program we stay at Algonquin Collage in Ottawa where we learn all sorts of things including construction and building. During the construction class I learned how to use tool and machines and built a dog house. We also got to learn about healthy living, nutrition and physical activity. Also in a few weeks we’ll be going to Montreal for sigh seeing before we head back to re-orientation. We have engaged as volunteer doing a service learning project, participated in fun activates around Ottawa, and competed a personal learning project which is based on our career interests. I’m really excited for my personal learning project as I am going to take Spanish lesson as it has always been a goal for me to learn another language. We also went camping which I had a great time at. The program has really helped me prepare for the next steps after high school. I am glad I got the chance to be apart of the NYA program again this year and I hope the rest of my summer goes well.

Hi everyone, my name is Kat and I am currently with on the International phase of the NYA in Costa Rica which is so beautiful and pure. The saying of Pura Vida is really true to its word “pure life” “good life” which is a beautiful saying here in Costa Rica. The adventures that we go on are always different and new which makes this experience so much fun. The other day we did a presentation to the Canadian embassy in Costa Rica everything went really well.
The first week we were here it was pretty hard to believe that we were actually in Costa Rica as it took awhile to actually feel like I’m in a different country.

This week the group is going to be volunteering our time with an non-profit organization called “lifting hands”. It was a lot of fun working there as we go to help with the kids and played some soccer with the locals. It was very interesting because the boys only spoke Spanish but we eventually understood what was going on. I’m looking forward spending more of my time volunteering.
It’s been about 3 weeks since we got here in the next few days we’re going to be on a 13 day hike which is going to be intense although I’m excited to be more connected to the land.
Being here in Costa Rica makes me want to fully learn how to speak in Spanish.I’m looking forward on finishing this international program with everyone that’s on the team and have a memorable experiencing to look back on!
Pura Vida.