IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - Brian Kavanna has been hunting all his life and his recent successes are putting him on course to making a living from an activity he enjoys .

"I want to be a guide for a long time," said Kavanna, 19.

Brian Kavanna stands with a muskox skull.Kavanna recently graduated from a hunting leadership program at Cambridge Bay’s Kiilinik high school. - photo courtesy of Brian Kavanna

He is the first graduate from Kiilinik high school's hunter leadership program, where students learn what is involved in taking groups out onto the land.

A group of about nine students learned survival techniques and safety tips when out on a hunt in a classroom setting, while also taking a hands-on approach with three separate day trips throughout the year.

"We went muskox hunting and seal hunting and the girls went on a caribou hunt," said Kavanna.

The program is a proactive approach to qualifying students for jobs after school, said Kiilinik principal Mike Simms.

"Brian has had seven hunts already," said Simms. "It's really a wonderful advantage."

Simms added these experiences could translate into many thousands of dollars for the teen down the road.

Kavanna, who will be a Grade 12 student next year, hopes to follow in the footsteps of his father.

"My dad is a certified guide," said Kavanna.

The student recently completed a two-month training course on guiding and received a certificate for passing. He has already done some guiding.

"I've taken some American people out," he said.

Kavanna said he goes through the local hunters and trappers' office, who hook him up with American tourists to bring out on muskox hunts.

"They get their animal," he said. "We skin it for them and then keep (the meat)."

Kavanna had not yet been out hunting this summer, but was itching to get out soon.

"Not until the end of August," he said.

- with files from Yumimi Pang