Cape Dorset (Apr 27/05) - Dennis Nakoolak of Cape Dorset is the first recipient of the Nunavut News/North-Kivalliq News travel scholarship.

The $5,000 prize enables Nakoolak, an Inuit studies student at Nunavut Arctic College (NAC), to go on a cultural exchange to Amsterdam and Paris for three weeks in May.

"It's just hitting me now," said Nakoolak, 24. "I had so many projects to do. Now that I'm out of school, I can't wait."

Nakoolak just completed one year of Inuit studies at NAC.

He currently works at the Nunavut Court of Justice in the legal aid department.

While at the schools overseas, Nakoolak will share his Inuit culture and language with students and professors at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and the Institut National des Langues et Sivilizations Orientales.

It is an exchange program that has brought students from those countries to Iqaluit, also.

The exchange program is a valuable one for Inuit students, said Susan Sammons, language and culture instructor at NAC.

But the program didn't even happen last year due to a lack of funding.

"I was elated when we heard that News/North would be providing a scholarship for one of our students," said Sammons. "I really believe it is such a growing experience for the student. And unfortunately in the past we haven't been able to raise enough money to send a student."

"It's not a one shot deal," said Sammons. "And that made us very happy."

Northern News Managing Editor Bruce Valpy said Northern News Services Ltd., which publishes Nunavut News/North and Kivalliq News, has been very well served by Inuktitut translators and wanted to participate in the education of those up and coming.

"We have been working many years with translators Mikle Langenhan and Norman Keenainak," said Valpy.

"Their knowledge and experience on many Northern issues puts them at the top of their field. Northern News Services believes this scholarship will help others achieve the same high standards."

Besides sharing his language and culture with students and professors, Nakoolak, who has never travelled outside of Canada before, wants to see the famous sights.

"I want to go to the Eiffel Tower, of course," he said.

When Nakoolak returns, he wants to enrol back into the interpreter/translator course at NAC.

Nakoolak said he wants to become an Inuktitut teacher one day, or start his own tourism business. This scholarship has given him the motivation to forge ahead with his dreams.