RANKIN INLET
A noteworthy career will come to an end when Nunavut Arctic College (NAC) president Mike Shouldice officially retires on Oct. 25.

Nunavut Arctic College president Mike Shouldice will bring a career spanning nearly 40 years in the Kivalliq to a close when he officially retires on Oct. 25. - Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

Peter Ma becomes the new president on Oct. 14.

Shouldice, 62, was a wide-eyed young man fresh from graduate school with a background in anthropology when he came to Arviat in the mid-1970s to work with the Inuit Cultural Institute for two weeks.

Four decades later, he still calls the Kivalliq home.

After about a decade in Arviat working with the cultural institute, running his own business and working in adult education, he moved to Rankin Inlet to become NAC's campus director.

Although his job title changed numerous times during the years, with the exception of a three-year hiatus in Yellowknife, he basically was in the same position until the summer of 2011.

He was asked to become NAC's acting president when Dan Vandermeulen took on the responsibilities of being secretary to cabinet, and the title soon became permanent.

Shouldice has seen significant change during his time in the Kivalliq.

He lists the creation of NAC as a significant event in the North.

Shouldice said if the college had never been created, today's civil service in Nunavut would look totally different.

He said being able to train closer to home, gain specific training areas and have transferrable credits into university has made a huge difference in people gaining employment.

"Technology has had a tremendous impact on education in the North," said Shouldice.

"The thing that's really changed the most in the North is technical innovation.

"One day we had a fax machine and we all just stood around looking at it.

"When I was with the cultural institute it would take three weeks for a letter to reach Arviat from Ottawa, so the fax machine changed the speed drastically."

Shouldice said long-distance arriving in the 1970s was also a big game-changer in terms of communication development in the North.

As things progressed, he would tell those who asked about change in the North that he had everything at his doorstep except a daily newspaper.

"Then, after a while, I would say I had everything at my doorstep including a weekly newspaper," said Shouldice with a chuckle.

"Then, of course, came the Internet and cell phones, and now the North is just as modern as other areas of the country in many ways.

"When we began as a college, an average student was in their late 20s, had two kids and a Grade 9 education.

"Now, about 39 per cent of the college is under the age of 25."

Shouldice met his wife, Monica, while in Arviat, and the couple married in 1988 and have raised a son and two daughters.

He sees himself as a guy who likes living in the North, and who has made an effort to be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

He wants to see more success here and has committed to that at different levels.

Shouldice said when you hold senior positions in the government or community, you get respect and privileges you often don't truly deserve.

He said you always have to be cognizant of that and remind yourself you're there for a purpose.

"My job has never defined me personally.

"I run the Bank of Dad, even though it has less users as time goes by. Academic titles have never been my driving force.

"My sense of who I am is quite internal, and has a lot to do with how you treat people and your relationships with them."

Shouldice has met a number of memorable people during his time in the North.

He said he doesn't like to put any one person above the rest, but one man does stand out.

"I worked with Eric Anoee at the cultural institute, who was an older man who showed me how to skin caribou and set traps, and he was so pleasant to be with I couldn't visit him enough.

"We were sitting one day and he started on a blank piece of paper and drew, from nose to tail, the complete skeletal framework of a caribou, with all the bones and shadings, that was absolutely anatomically perfect.

"Then he drew a little line, wrote the name of every bone, laughed and gave it to me, and I still have it.

"At the end of the day, I was really convinced this guy was Superman."

Shouldice's plan for retirement is more time with his wife and Diane River.

He said he will leave with no regrets.

"The college isn't broken, so it doesn't need to be fixed, it just needs to do more exciting things.

"When I took the position, Dan (Vandermeulen) told me not to break anything and I just laughed at him.

"Years later we talked and I was able to tell him I didn't think I broke anything.

"So I leave with no unfinished business."