New college director looks to future
Shouldice takes over Aurora College Yellowknife campus

by Ian Elliot
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 05/97) - If there's one thing Mike Shouldice hates to hear, it's people dismissing Aurora College as a fall-back for those who can't get into a southern school.

He is an unabashed booster of the Northern school and can rhyme off the programs it offers that no one else even tries, the awards its instructors and courses have won and the many ways it bends over backwards to fit the needs of NWT students.

His enthusiasm is above the call of duty, but Shouldice, who will serve as director of the Yellowknife campus for the next 18 months, loves what he does.

Shouldice, 45, has lived in the North since 1976, taught himself Inuktitut and was campus director of Arctic College in Rankin Inlet for its 10-year history.

He believes the college is in many ways the best educational option for Northerners. An amateur magician, a United Church deacon and an animated speaker, Shouldice recently moved to Yellowknife with his Inuit wife and two children, aged 13 and 11.

One of the biggest problems, he says, is getting Northeners to believe that they can do things as well or better than southerners.

"I think as Northeners, we sometimes don't feel we're capable of certain things," he said in an interview this week.

"There's the idea that you have to go shopping, you have to do it at Eatons in Winnipeg. There is a belief that a degree from a college down south is worth more than one you can get here."

He notes that parts of Aurora's curriculum are unique. Traditional knowledge is worked into the curriculum in disciplines such as nursing, the school has a world-class renewable resources course that draws applicants from as far away as Eastern Europe and many of its courses are organized in intensive six-week sessions to allow students to get back to their families and communities.

A far cry from the slow, steady pace at which instruction takes place at southern colleges.

Many of the students are 26 or older when they enrol, more than a few have families and are from small communities, he notes, which means the college has to find creative ways to address these factors.

The mission of the college can be expressed in a sentence -- to prepare students for jobs -- and he says placement rates after graduation show the college is doing something right.

Shouldice says he hopes that the college will take on a bigger role, including a much more visible profile in the community, when the institution moves from Akaitcho Hall to large renovated quarters at Northern United Place next month.

With that increased corporate profile, Shouldice says he hopes the college can forge links with business and industry for the benefit of both.

"There are opportunities here, but you've got to have the training. Mining isn't the pick-and-shovel work it used to be."

Companies working in the North form a ready market for skilled and well-trained people, especially with set-aside quotas for Northern residents on many projects.

In addition, there will be opportunities upon division, he says, and division is where some of his greatest enthusiasm lies. The birth of two new territories, starting from scratch, creates otherwise unimaginable opportunities for people to carve out roles for themselves in the business of Nunavut and the new western NWT.

"Very few people actually get the chance to be part of something new and exciting like this," he said.

"We will be able to look back on this and say we were there when it started. I actually have days when I can't believe how I lucked out."