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IKAAHUK/SACHS HARBOUR - Christina Esau isn't sure how she's going to handle the scorching hot temperatures of Costa Rica in July.

"I don't know how I'm going to adapt to the weather in Costa Rica," Esau, 19, said. "It's so crazy hot there."

Christina Esau from Sachs Harbour has been involved in volunteering for years in her community and around the NWT. Esau will be off to Costa Rica in July to participate in a five-week volunteer program with youth from all over the world. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

Esau will travel to the Central American country to participate in a five-week program with Youth Challenge International, an organization that helps build skills, experiences and confidence of young people by involving them in international development projects.

Esau said she decided to apply for the project after reading a flyer on the program.

Two weeks later, Esau got a phone call telling her she had been accepted.

"I was really excited," she said. "I always wanted go on a volunteer trip like this. It's something new and there will be others from all over Canada. It's something to do before college to get some experience."

In Costa Rica, Youth Challenge International has worked with Costa Rican organizations for more than 17 years. The group works to develop youth skills, young women's empowerment, and local eco-tourism including building national parks trails and construction projects to meet basic community needs, such as access to clean drinking water.

"I'm looking forward to meeting new people and (learning) why they're going," she said. "It's good to get a new perspective on things and I love to travel."

Esau will graduate from Samuel Hearne School in Inuvik this year and will be only the second member of her entire family, going back generations, to do so.

"The only other person was my mother," she said, adding she's a bit freaked out by the fact she is graduating. "About two years ago I never saw myself graduating.

"I'm from a small community and I see so many people that never graduate, never accomplish anything and they don't have any dreams. That's not the person I want to be. Any chance I can do something I take it so I have the experience."

Esau has to raise $5,000 for her trip. She's been working tirelessly to reach her goal through bake sales, cake walks, 50/50 draws, dinner plates and asking community organizations for donations – and she's nearly halfway to her goal.

"Every time I feel down I Google Costa Rica and I get excited and know it's worth it," she said. "We started a group on Facebook with all the volunteers going and we talk and get each other excited. It's great."

Esau plans to go to school after she graduates to take a volunteer program and continue on with what she enjoys doing. She hopes to come back to the North to bring back to the communities here what they have given to her.

"I will probably come back to the North. I know I want to travel the world, so it will probably be a few years before I come back."