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OTTAWA - Charlotte Qamaniq, a first-year student at Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa, hopes to make a difference in her home region once her studies at the college are complete.

Tivai MacKay from Iqaluit, left, and Charlotte Qamaniq from Iglulik attend Nunavut Sivuniksavut in Ottawa. - photo courtesy of Murray Angus

"It's a really good way for students from Nunavut to go to the South and learn about land claims and Inuit culture and history," said Qamaniq.

Established for Inuit high school graduates, the college program includes courses on Inuit history, politics, organizations and land claims, with the purpose of training people for careers in the Government of Nunavut and other positions created by the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

"We learn about leaders, elders who work to make our lives better," she said. "I want to carry that on and work as hard as they did to get to where we are now."

Her aim is to return to Iqaluit at attend Arctic College there and eventually work with troubled youth. In 2005 Qamaniq took part in a three-month walk across Canada to raise awareness about youth suicide. On that journey she met many people who had suffered a variety of abuse. She took that experience with her and would like to work with Inuit and First Nations youth suffering from similar problems.

Born in Iglulik, Qamaniq spent many years in Iqaluit before her family moved to Ottawa in 2002. Her parents made the move in the hopes of providing a good education to their two youngest children, including Charlotte. The Sivuniksavut student does not doubt that she benefited from her parent's decision.

Qamaniq's high school in Ottawa, Glebe Collegiate Institute, was much stricter on attendance and deadlines than schools in Nunavut, she said. She said many of her fellow students at Sivuniksavut have a much tougher time than she does handing in their assignments on time.

The college student admits to experiencing culture shock when she and her family first arrived in Ottawa. Qumaniq's high school was in fact larger than most communities in the North -- housing some 1,500 staff and students.

"It's really hard when you're from there, when you're in a massive school and meeting all the people and cultures you didn't know existed," she said.

She had to learn to navigate the Ottawa's bus system and how to accept that things are far apart in the sprawling city, a lesson her fellow students more recently arrived from Nunavut have also had to learn.

"It takes like half an hour to get anywhere," she said.