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INUVIK - It's a big ol' world out there and if April Crabb and Tom Satiriou had their way, their best and brightest students would be out there exploring it.

Come June they'll enjoy the next-best thing when the pair of Samuel Hearne Secondary School teachers will embark on a cross-cultural work and learning program to Botswana, Africa with a group of NWT and Nunavut students in June.

In June, Samuel Hearne Secondary School teachers Tom Satiriou and April Crabb will be travelling on a six-week cross-cultural program to Botswana with students from across the NWT and Nunavut. They're standing in front of a display they made in the school that illustrates the purpose of their trip. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

While there, they will chaperon the students for six weeks as they transform an old orphanage into a nursery or daycare.

They'll also lead them on a field trip to explore local landscapes. Two other chaperons will meet them in Botswana with six other youths from the North participating in the program.

Crabb, who has already volunteered for a similar program in Cameroon for more than a year, can't wait.

The pair will be taking part in the Northern Youth Abroad project, which allows youth from the North between the ages of 15 and 21 to develop professional skills and get hands-on work experience. Students spend one year working in southern Canada and the other abroad. The idea is to build leadership and self esteem in youth as they pursue a career goal while getting exposure to another country.

Charles Lucas from Tuktoyaktuk finished the program last year when he returned from Botswana after working on a game sanctuary and helping to build a community stadium. The latter work encouraged him to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.

Crabb and Satiriou applied to be youth mentors after hearing about the project at a staff meeting before Christmas. Crabb found out she was selected while checking her e-mail in front of her students recently. She couldn't help but proclaim the good news.

"We spent the time talking about Botswana," she said. "Everyone was trying to find out about it. Now they ask me weekly about it."

They're looking forward to passing their newest African experience onto anyone who'll listen, understanding it's a chance of a lifetime.

"Just the work experience that they would get from it," said Satiriou. "It's nothing that they would ever get up here. The only exposure a lot of kids get to the outside world here is through cable TV, which shows you everything that's American. With this program they'll be subjected to the economic, social, and political conditions of this part of the world. How do we help solve some of these problems? That's another big part of this program."

They've already made a information display near the school's entrance to inform students on what the program's all about.

Crabb said one of her guiding philosophies is to help her students realize there's fascinating world out there to discover.

"I know when I went to school, the teachers that I looked up to most were the ones that shared their lives outside of school and brought the world to me," she said.

She grew up on a farm in small-town Ontario.

"I never experienced anything of the world until my geography teacher opened my eyes to it, and there's so much out there. I got excited about it. That's why I chose the career I chose and the path I've followed, to be able to be that venue for somebody else."