Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Nov 28/01) - A few sacrifices are a modest price to pay for higher learning.

That's the feeling of Susan Sammurtok of Rankin Inlet. She left school at the age of 45 to get her diplomas in drug and alcohol counselling and social work.

Now an alcohol and drug worker at Aqsaaraq Addiction Projects in Rankin, Sammurtok started her studies in Fort Smith in 1994 and completed them in Iqaluit.

After graduating from the alcohol and drugs certificate program, she returned to Rankin to do her practicum at the friendship centre.

Then it was back to Iqaluit in September of 1995 to continue her studies for a social work diploma.

"I was only back in Iqaluit for two weeks when my son-in-law committed suicide," says Sammurtok. "I asked my husband if I should quit and come home and he told me to continue on, so I did."

Sammurtok graduated from the program in 1996.

She split her practicum in social work between young offenders and the women's shelter, braving the untimely death of another family member.

The women's shelter offered her a job and her family moved to Iqaluit to be with her.

Sammurtok says anyone who decides they want an education should realize nobody's going to hand it to them.

"I had to make sacrifices and so did my husband (Tom), but, in the end, it was worth it."

Sammurtok heard a lot of negative remarks before going back to school and there were many who didn't think she'd make it.

"One person patted me on the back and told me I'd be back home in four months," she says. "As I was walking away I was thinking, you just wait, you'll be seeing me graduate. A woman told me it was her dream to go to college, but she just couldn't bring herself to leave her poor husband. I got a lot of that."

Sammurtok says Inuit have to stop coming up with reasons why they can't accomplish something without ever really trying.

"We know from our own experience if you really want something, you have to go and get it. Nobody's going to just hand it to you."