John Curran
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 17, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - About 125 Grade 8 girls took over the Explorer Hotel in Yellowknife last week and among them was Jeannine Minoza, a 13-year-old from Fort Providence's Deh Gah school.

The youth were there to explore their future career options at Skills Canada's seventh annual Power Up Youth Conference for girls.

Fort Providence's Jeannine Minoza, 13, from Deh Gah school, made the trip to Yellowknife for the seventh annual Skills Canada Power Up Youth Conference for girls. - John Curran/NNSL photo

"It's good learning about all of the careers open to me," said Minoza.

After hearing about several occupations, she had RCMP officer slightly ahead of welder. While it was very close, the hero factor was hard to overcome.

"I just really like the idea of saving people's lives," she said.

The hands-on learning workshops of the gathering were also highlights - even in those careers that weren't at the top of her list.

"I was really excited about making a stool in the carpentry session," she said.

Minoza made the trip with three classmates, all of whom were under the watchful eye of science and math teacher Christina Pan.

"It's very important for them to know there are options open to them," said Pan. "This gives them a chance to expand their view beyond the community and interact with other students."

While every school in the NWT with a Grade 8 class was invited to take part, only Fort Providence's Deh Gah elementary and secondary school was able to send participants other than those in the immediate Yellowknife area.

"Fort Simpson was supposed to take part but they had problems due to the ferry and weren't able to make it," said Jan Fullerton, Skills Canada NWT executive director.

Skills Canada NWT is ramping up its efforts to get other parts of the territories involved in its activities and plans to get a robotics road show going by the end of January.

"We hope to visit Hay River, Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Behchoko, Norman Wells and Inuvik," she said.

Getting students to events like the Power Up Youth Conference generally comes down to a matter of funding, she said, adding there is hopefully a solution that will help boost participation to new highs.

"We're working to increase our number of sponsors," said Fullerton. "We've added a new category called regional sponsorship."

Companies and organizations opting for this way of assisting Skills Canada are asked to donate $10,000.

"All of that money will be used on youth in the region the sponsor wants to target," she said.

"That might take the form of attending events like this or running skills clubs in the communities or some other event."