Rankin Inlet (June 25/03) - When one door closes another opens and Grade 8s from Manni Ulujuk Illiniarvik (MUI) will be opening the door to high school in the fall. <

Grade 8 awards: Math and Science Award - Lori Tagoona and Jerome Misheralak Social Studies Award - Tara Green and Tracey Brown Inuktitut Language Award - Roseanne Kasadluak and Paul Ugjuk English Language Award - Doreen Okalik and Mamatsiaq Kubluitok Attendance Award - Gareth Taylor and Paul Ugjuk Citizenship Award - Panikuluk Kusugak and Alvina Tudlik Most Improved Student - Karen Tutanuak and Tommy Tattuinee Outstanding Student Award - Kaluk Tatty and Tracey Brown

Over 40 Grade 8 students bid farewell during a graduation ceremony held on June 9 in the MUI gymnasium.

The graduation featured entertainment and an awards ceremony followed by a dance. It was the students' last hurrah before leaving the school they have attended for the past four years.

Karen Tutanuak is one of the students that will be stepping into Alaittuq High School next fall for the first time as a student.

She said it feels "weird".

"I'm going to a different school," said Tutanuak."I'm scared and excited."

Aside from new teachers the Grade 8s will be faced with longer classes. At MUI the classes were 45 minutes long.

At the high school they are 84 minutes long.

With any high school also comes "lots of homework," Tutanuak said.

Her, along with the rest of her classmates, are also going to miss their old school.

Tutanuak said it is the teachers from MUI she will miss the most.

During the graduation ceremony Tutanuak was one of two students awarded the most improved student award.

Margo Aksalnik, MUI principal, has been with the Grade 8s since they began back in Grade 5.

She said she is proud of the students' achievements.

"We'll miss them, but it's good to see them go on," she said.

The high school is not that far from MUI and Aksalnik expects it's not the last she'll see of the Grade 8s.

"They always come back and visit," she said.