SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Souhail Soujah hasn't had much time to settle into his position as vice-principal of St. Patrick High School, and he has already been hit by this winter's coldest weather yet.

Souhail Soujah, the new vice-principal of St. Patrick High School, stands in the school's foyer on Dec. 15, a little over a month since he assumed the role on Nov. 6. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

Nevertheless, since his Nov. 6 arrival in Yellowknife he's been happy, comfortable, and optimistic about the year ahead.

"You get used to it pretty quick," said Soujah as he sat at his desk in the high school's office on Dec. 15.

"I happened to luck out, coming to school that has such a group of professionals," he continued.

"They've been very helpful in guiding me and being patient with me, because I will make a lot of mistakes at the beginning of course."

Yellowknife is the farthest north Soujah has travelled, but he has walked many different terrains, and in many different climates.

Born in Lebanon, his family moved to Venezuela when Soujah was young. He spent 10 years in the South American country before his family moved to Toronto.

Soujah played soccer in Venezuela, a sport which has been a big part of his education career, and one which he wants to help coach at St. Pat's next semester.

"In South America, all you do is play soccer. So I play soccer, and I coached soccer for a few years (in Golden, B.C.), which was lot of fun. We made the provincials once," said Soujah.

Pictures of Soujah with high school soccer and volleyball teams line a portion of his office wall.

The wall adjacent displays a series of diplomas and certificates – a bachelor of science from the University of Toronto, a bachelor of education from the University of Regina, and a master of education technology from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, a degree he took through correspondence.

"I'm from many places, actually, but my last posting was in Whistler, (B.C.) at the Whistler Secondary School, and prior to that was Golden, which is in the Rocky Mountains, B.C.," said Soujah, who served as vice-principal at both schools. Before that, he was a teacher for about 11 years.

Todd Stewart is the school's other vice-principal.

Soujah said he plans to delve right in at St. Pat's as soon as he can, helping out with sports, and leadership projects, and also wants to get back into teaching.

"Often enough when we become administrators we drift away from teaching, which is really unfortunate," said Soujah. "I find that in this school they give you the opportunity to teach if you want to."

Soujah said he had heard great things about the North while in university, but hadn't had the opportunity to work here until now.

"Northwest Territories and the Yukon were the holy grails, as a student, when you graduated, because the pay was well, you were well-treated, they had modern facilities, and it attracted some of the best teachers in the profession simply because of all those perks," he said.

Principal Colleen McDonald said Soujah seems very comfortable already in the position of vice-principal at St. Pat's.

"He's a breath of fresh air," said McDonald. "He's energetic, gets along well with kids."