Grise Fiord (Mar 13/06) - If you reach for the stars, you just might get there. If you don't, you'll never get there.

Rhoda Akeeagok wants to reach the stars and the planets. This 18-year-old Grade 12 student from Grise Fiord wants to be the first Inuk in space.

"I don't want to do this because it is easy, I want to do this because it is hard," said Akeeagok.

She has a plan. Following graduation this year, she hopes to go to Douglas College in Vancouver for college preparatory courses.

After that she hopes to transfer to a university, "hopefully Carleton."

She let the judges at the Miss Canada Teen Global pageant know her goal was lofty. She was a contestant in the pageant and said to the judges, "All our goals are high. Mine are to touch the stars as the first Inuk astronaut. I hope to show every Inuk child that even the stars are within their grasp."

If she gets to Mars - and she does know that is a big if - she has a plan to make sure that Inuit people leave a mark on the red planet.

"I'd build an Inuksuk. There is nothing there but rocks anyway," said Akeeagok with a giggle.

This young woman has no desire to work for someone else. She wants to control her own destiny.

"I look at the jobs here and Inuit people are the ones that are the assistants, not the boss. I feel I can help change that," said Akeeagok.