Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Dec 07/98) - An Iqaluit resident studying mechanical engineering at Lakehead University in Ontario has a lot to be thankful for these days.

Michael Bill, currently in his first year of a four-year degree program, was busy with his studies at school when his parents phoned to let him know that he had won a $1,000 Northwest Territories Power Corp. scholarship.

After changing his mind about being a mechanic and choosing the route of mechanical engineer, Bill said the scholarship was brought to his attention by his guidance counsellor while he was still in high school.

"I don't know what the academic requirements were, but you had to be studying something that would benefit the Power Corp.," said Bill, who was employed by NTPC this past summer and has considered going to work for the corporation after graduating from Lakehead in 2002.

Quite a serious-minded student, the graduate of Inuksuk high school said while he could use some of the money to go out on the town and celebrate, he'd probably just spend it on tuition or books.

"I basically don't have a social life because I'm always studying and doing school work."

Bill said by not having access to the fifth year of high school that Ontario students get, he felt quite challenged by the amount of catch-up he had to do just to be on par with his fellow students. As a result, homework was the only extracurricular activity he really had time for.

"It's going good, but it's tough. The stuff I was supposed to learn in high school, I have to learn now," said Bill.

But, through sheer determination, he's managing to wade through it all and Bill said he was looking forward to finishing exams in December and flying home to Iqaluit for a nice long Christmas break.