THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Sarah Wright Cardinal admits some people are surprised when they first meet her.

It's just that the new president of Aurora College looks so young.

"I'm used to being mistaken for a student," said the 40-year-old.

Despite her youthful appearance, Wright Cardinal has an impressive resume.

Yet, she said being perceived as being young may lead some people to believe she is inexperienced.

"I've found in other capacities that the work speaks for itself and, after first impressions, we get down to business," she said. "I know I'm good at what I do."

She has 14 years of experience in post-secondary education and training, including as an instructor, program co-ordinator, academic director, senior manager and consultant.

Plus, she was director of Aurora College's Yellowknife Campus for more than a year until early 2005.

Wright Cardinal, who began a five-year appointment as college president on Aug. 24, has lived and worked or studied in 28 countries.

"I'm very comfortable in a lot of situations," she said.

Among her foreign adventures were five years as academic director of a college in Nicaragua, and teaching English in Korea and Taiwan.

While in Korea, she earned a black belt in tae kwon do, a form of martial arts.

"I don't usually advertise that, but that's really assisted me in my demeanour," she said. "There's always an offence and defence in workings, and it's really the art of manoeuvering in that."

She is fluent in English, French and Spanish, and has studied Russian, Korean and Mandarin Chinese.

Closer to home, she has lived in Yellowknife, Norman Wells, Fort Smith and Hay River, where she ran a consulting company for the past three years.

In announcing her appointment, the GNWT prominently noted she is a northern-born aboriginal person, but Wright Cardinal said she is most importantly an educator.

She said the trend at colleges is to have educators at the helm, unlike in the past when it has often been business managers or administrators.

"First and foremost we're an education institution," she said of Aurora College. "We look through that lens when we do our business."

She said being a northern-born aboriginal person helps her understand the North. Wright Cardinal has a master of arts in teaching from Vermont's School of International Training and a bachelor of arts from the University of British Columbia.

She was born in Fort Smith, but was adopted by a non-aboriginal teacher in the community when she was four years old and raised in southern Canada, mainly Ontario and Quebec.

She is proud of her aboriginal heritage, adding she was raised knowing she is Cree and from the NWT.

"I always knew that I was adopted, I always knew that my family was from Fort Smith and that they were Cree," she said. She reconnected with her family in Fort Smith when she was a teenager.

The single parent of a four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter said living in Fort Smith will allow them to learn about the Cree language and culture as they begin their school years, plus she intends to also start learning Cree.

Wright Cardinal said her approach to education is to provide information that's meaningful for students and for the college to be engaged in the communities it serves.

Aside from campuses in Fort Smith, Yellowknife and Inuvik, the college has 26 community learning centres throughout the NWT.

"I do have a vision for the college," she said. "I would like the college to be responsive to adult education in the North, which includes our employment needs. It also includes the directions that communities are taking in order to have economic viability and to be able to have our own resource people to be able to support community plans and action plans."

One of her goals as president is to visit all 33 NWT communities in the next 18 months and have meaningful discussions with people about the college.