Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Cambridge Bay (July 11/05) - Juggling a job, a family, and attending high school is not easy, but it can be done. Shauna Angulalik knows that from experience.

Shauna Angulalik, left, and Megan Pizzo-Lyall were the only two high school students to graduate last month in Cambridge Bay. Angulalik, 21, had dropped out of school when she was 17 after becoming pregnant.

Once a high school drop-out, Angulalik was one of just two graduates in Cambridge Bay this year.

She stopped going to school after becoming pregnant at 17, a trend which is common in Nunavut, she said.

Her son, Kieran Charles Evalik, is now three years old.

She found out that just because you have a baby does not mean you have to give up on your dreams.

"I wanted to set an example for teen moms," said Angulalik, now 21. "There's a lot of opportunities out there for moms who want to go back to school."

Support from family and teachers, most of whom are parents themselves, helped her through the years. Other students were helpful in letting her know what she had missed when she could not attend classes due to family problems.

However, being the oldest student there was not easy, she said.

"Everyone was just young and going to parties," Angulalik said. "I felt like an elder."

On top of feeling like an "outsider" at school, Angulalik had the added stress of working summers with the government and after classes as a school bus supervisor to help make ends meet.

Bills still around

With high school behind her, she does not have to worry about studying, but still has to work to pay bills.

However, with a diploma to back her, she said it is easier to find work.

"They open up so much doors for you," Angulalik said.

Now she works in the legal field, and hopes to attend post-secondary schooling in the next couple of years.

"From there I can do anything," she said.

At one point her aspiration was to become a police officer. Now, she wants to address the issues of crime in the North by being a probation officer.

It is not just teenage mothers who drop out of school. People stop attending for many different reasons, Angulalik said.

Overcrowding in houses or drug and alcohol abuse by family members can make it hard for students to get their homework done.

Sometimes it is just a lack of encouragement which keeps people from finishing school, she said.

But if you want to go far in life, you have to start in school, Angulalik said.

Nunavut needs as many graduates as it can get, Angulalik said

"Graduates are the future."