Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Mar 01/99) - Johnny Kusugak officially took over as the president of Nunavut Arctic College last week.

Along with improving communications between the three regional campuses in the new territory, Kusugak said he wanted to open wide the doors of opportunity for the residents of Nunavut. He said that such actions were the first step in bringing more Inuit into the workforce.

News/North:

How long have you been training for the position of president at Nunavut Arctic College?

Johnny Kusugak:

I started training Jan. 19, 1998. I have two titles, director of development and president. They are two different portfolios.

News/North:

Did you want to be in this position before you actually were?

Kusugak:

It goes back to many years ago when I was a child and I had a dream of being a principal.

My best friend and I had the dream together. We went through high school and he went straight into the teacher education program and became the principal at the school in Rankin Inlet. I did some odd jobs and stuff, but in the back of mind, I always wanted to become a teacher.

I got married and we had four kids and I still always wanted to go back to school.

My wife and I sat down and we decided that if that was what I always wanted to do, let's go back to school. Then I was fortunate enough to become a teacher.

After two or three years, a vice-principal's job was open because my best friend had passed away from cancer and the vice-principal became the principal and his job was open.

Three Inuit applied and one unilingual Qallunaak and they gave the job to the unilingual Qallunaak. That time I had to sit down and reassess what I wanted to do. Did I want to leave my aspirations of being a principal?

I ended up handing in my resignation at the end of the year, not knowing what was ahead of me. Opportunities started coming and about three years ago, DIAND, as part of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, said they were going to open nine jobs in Ottawa to train Inuit in various fields of management.

At the same time, there was a program that the college was running called Sivuliuqtit. I threw my name into the hat for one of the nine positions in Ottawa and worked out of Hull. As part of that, I had to be in Sivuliuqtit. I sold my house in Rankin and sold everything I had and packed up and moved to Ottawa and bought a house.

My kids were at the right age. I have two boys and two girls and as scary as it was, it got us out. My kids found out there was a world outside of Rankin.

After a year and a half, we started looking at what was available back in Nunavut because that was our goal, to come back to Nunavut. I saw this training position open. I did not apply the first time because I had to really sit down and think.

From my past experience of wanting to be a high school principal, it never turned out, but the good Lord had better or bigger plans for me.

News/North:

What are your plans as the president?

Kusugak:

Presently I'm working on a corporate plan with other staff. Last year I sent out about 100 letters to all kinds of organizations to ask for input on what they think the college needs. We're still in the process of putting it together, but I went to the communities and met with councils to hear what they had to say.

That's giving us the direction of what we can work towards. It's very exciting because everyone has a say in the college's direction.

Part of what we have to do is show our presence in the schools, look at the junior high and let them know what the college has to offer. That's one way of improving communication and increasing enrolments.

News/North::

Did you take over this position earlier than you were supposed to?

Kusugak:

That's what everyone is saying, but that's not the case. The training program said that I would become the president by April 1 at the latest. It never said that's when I would take over.

I'm in a very unique situation right now. I'm the president of the college, but I'm a student of the college. I'm going to be graduating from the Sivuliuqtit program in the third week of March.

News/North::

You have a pretty full plate by the sounds of it. How do you get away from it?

Kusugak:

I love my family. My boys play hockey and I love going to the rink. I am a rink-rat. It doesn't matter if it's the four-year-olds skating or the seven-year-olds.

Family is very important and I would never see myself in this position if it wasn't for the support I've got from my wife and my kids.

Being put into this position, you also want to be a role model. The first class I ever taught was Grade 6. That was five years ago in Rankin Inlet and they're in Grade 11 now. A couple of the students came over to our house last summer and one of them said, "Remember five years ago when you taught us? Look how far you've gone." I guess what she meant was she saw me as her teacher and then five years later, I was training to be the president of Arctic College. She just shook her head and that's when it struck me that it's not just me who's aware of where I've travelled.

Sometimes I just sit here and wonder if it's really happening. It means a lot.

News/North::

Is it important for you to be a role model?

Kusugak:

Every kid in the North, every boy, role models an NHL player and that's good. It doesn't hurt to have role models like that. There's another group that you can look at as role models and if I'm one of them, I'm very fortunate. Now a child can look up to me and say if I stay in school and work hard, I can do that. Some day I really think we'll see Inuks in the NHL, but if you look at the deputy ministers and Joe Kunuk, they got there from education and hard work. That's realistic.

When I taught Grade 6, I really wanted to do something no one had ever done before. I was listening to a cousin of mine singing a traditional song on CBC and I drove down and got a copy of the song. My wife and I transcribed it and we got my mother to help us and then we went to the person who wrote it, their brother, and I asked can I teach this? He said of course. My first day I took it there and told my class I was going to teach it, but to keep it quiet and we were going to do this at the Christmas concert. When they performed it, it blew everybody away. When I left, a couple of the girls continued and from my point of teaching, I know I left something and that was never done before. The highlight was when they performed for the Queen.

News/North::

Will you try and leave things behind as the principal?

Kusugak:

What we've got to do is open the door. Once we open the door to opportunity, we have to let them see what's inside.