INUVIK - There's one compromise Katelyn Storr doesn't want to make when she decides where she'll pursue her post secondary education.

"I don't want to go to a big university," the Grade 11 Samuel Hearne Secondary School student said. "I prefer a smaller one where I feel at home."

Samuel Hearne Secondary School student Katelyn Storr shows off a knapsack she won while attending Thursday's Grant MacEwan University recruitment presentation. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

That's why she has her sights set on Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, where the average class size ranges from 45 to 60.

For its 197 aboriginal students, 14 of which are Inuit, the university says it has plenty of services and activities available on campus, including an aboriginal student club and buddy program, where senior students mentor freshmen, as well as monthly soup and bannock get-togethers.

Storr was among a group of senior students at Samuel Hearne Secondary School who sat in on a recruitment presentation by the school's Brett Potyondi on Thursday afternoon. She liked what she heard. In fact, the aspiring teacher thinks she'll enrol there after she graduates.

"It seems like a cool place and I think I could fit in there," she said. "I'd like to know my teachers and I think it's possible there."

She won a Grant MacEwan University labelled knapsack at the end of the session for being able to list the areas the university specializes in.

Potyondi said the school offers a broad pool of academic choices, including degree, diploma and certificate programs in disciplines such as business, arts, sciences and human services. Degree program credits can be transferred to any university in Canada.

Potyondi said the university also allows students to build on their education at their own pace.

"If a student wants to get into business, they can start off in management studies where they can exit after one year with a certificate, or they can do two years to get a diploma," she said. "Or they can take that diploma and go into year three of a four-year bachelor of commerce program."

Inuvik was one of four Delta schools Potyondi visited as part of her recruitment effort in the region. The others were in Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik and Fort McPherson.

Potyondi said the university already boasts some students from the area.

"We have a very large population of Northern students," she said. "They can come down and see someone they know and relate to and definitely our small class sizes is really where it's at."

Brigitte Kay, Samuel Hearne's career counsellor, attended the presentation. After holding the position for the past four years, she said she's knows of several students who have enrolled at Grant MacEwan and thrived there.

"They seem to appeal to a lot of students here. It's a university known for being friendly and having a lot of support to ease students' way into university life."

Grade 11 student Raymir Mutua took in the afternoon event and said he was also impressed with the university for those very reasons.

He, too, plans to apply there to pursue a bachelor of science degree.

"I don't want to go to a class that's going to be noisy," he said. "I want to be somewhere where if you want to ask a question, you can. This seems to be it. Plus I really like the campus."