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ARVIAT - Usually it's the parents at the airport bidding goodbye to their college-bound children in September.

This is not Jenny Ussak's case. The 52-year-old woman was the one to bid a tearful adieu to her children and 24 grandchildren this month as she headed off to Iqaluit to complete the Nunavut Teacher Education Program (NTEP).

Jenny Ussak, most recently of Arviat, has returned to school in Iqaluit at the age of 52 to complete her education degree. - photo courtesy Saporah Ussak

"We are so, so proud of her. It's really emotional for me. What really hits me about her is she is such a strong, strong person," said daughter Judy Issakiark, who lives in Arviat like many of their family members.

"I'm homesick for flatlands," Ussak said with a laugh on the phone last week. "Iqaluit is a lot of climbing up and down, I've got to get used to these steep walkways."

Travelling for her education is by no means foreign to Ussak, who attended residential school as a teenager in both Churchill, Man., and Yellowknife. She later graduated from the Kivalliq Teacher Education Program (KTEP).

Ussak settled in Rankin Inlet after marrying the late Larry Ussak Sr., who perished on the Avataq eight years ago this summer. After the tragedy, she took two years of grievance leave and moved back to Arviat where she cared for her mother.

She taught most recently at Levi Angmak Elementary School.

"The principal had indicated that the minister had asked that teachers needed to finish their B. Ed. Because we'd been graduates from KTEP, most of us had not gone back," she explained.

Ussak originally applied to attend school in Arviat last year but didn't get in so decided to head to Iqaluit.

"The first day, it was so much information to take in. I couldn't believe it, being a student now, how much information is given. And then there is the homework," she said. "Everything is new to me - computers, Microsoft Office. There is so much that we can do in that small program. It can be frustrating but I have to learn as much as I can. It's what I'm going to be taking back to my home and my work when I'm done."

Ussak is not completely alone in the capital. Her 13-year-old son Larry Ussak Jr. moved with her and recently began attending Aqsarniit Middle School.

"I think he was quite reluctant but I had to tell him the story about when I went to residential school at 13 years old, that he's lucky he has a parent here with him. He understood and now he's doing all right," she explained. "He's my youngest, and I want him to experience a lot when he's young."

Ussak said she hopes her children back home will also learn from this experience as well.

"I hope they will learn how to be stronger for each other, to look out for each other even more than what was going on when I was with them in Arviat," she said. "I also think it's important to learn that with communication today, you really need to go to school. If you're not in school, you won't speak as much, you won't have as much self-esteem. What you read in school are some of the most important tools to help you achieve your dreams of what you want."

Ussak will graduate from the fourth year of the NTEP program in 10 months and said she will likely return to work in Arviat.

"We are very proud of what she's doing for her future," said daughter Saporah Ussak. "She has done so much for her children and grandchildren. We want you to go all the way. And we know you will, because you are not a quitter."