Back in action at Skills Nunavut
Tusarvik students make first trip to competition in years
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
NAUJAAT
Naujaat's Tusarvik School sent its first team of students to the Skills Nunavut competition in more than five years this past month in Iqaluit.
Naujaat's Katy Beth Mablik of Tusarvik School begins to make her sealskin purse in the sewing discipline at the Skills Nunavut competition in Iqaluit - photo courtesy of Elsa Pinkohs |
The Tusarvik team was comprised of Katey Beth Mablik (sewing), Lydia Haqpi (public speaking), Suzanne Putulik (carpentry), Ben Malliki (information technology) and teachers Elsa Pinkohs and Ray Snow.
The Naujaat team joined more than 60 other students from across Nunavut to compete in 17 trades and technologies categories at the event.
Malliki took gold at the competition by virtue of being the only student to compete in the pilot project of information technology (IT), while Mablik earned a bronze in sewing.
Pinkohs said Malliki probably won't get to advance to the Skills Canada National Competition with IT just being a pilot project at this year's competition.
She said Malliki loved to joke about winning gold, silver and bronze at his first skills competition.
"The organizers certainly hope to expand on the IT category in the coming year," said Pinkohs.
"That's their goal, so they were happy he came so they, at least, had somebody to try it.
"So, they're going to try and get a lot more kids involved in the IT category as they move forward, and then be able to send the winning students to the national competition.
"I did expect more students to be interested in the category but surprisingly, they had more students, mainly from Iqaluit, take part in the new robotics category than IT."
It takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the students involved to prepare for the Iqaluit competition.
Pinkohs said Haqpi worked with her on public speaking for about a month before the competition.
She said not a lot of Inuit students historically have been interested in the public-speaking category, which only attracted one competitor in the 2015 edition of the competition in Iqaluit.
"It's understandable because it's one of the more difficult skills at the competition, in my personal opinion, but they did have five competitors at this year's skills event. It can be really difficult for anyone to get up, speak well, and be confident in front of a large croup, but especially for young students.
"The competition was a huge eye-opener for Lydia (Haqpi) when she got there.
"Suzanne (Putulik) has been in carpentry and shop classes for quite some time; most of this year and - I understand - previous to this year.
"So she pretty much took on her own training, as did Ben (Malliki), who has been taking computer and IT courses for the past two-and-one-half years at Tusarvik School.
"Katey Beth (Mablik) is a young, experienced sewer who has been making mitts and different things for years, so she did her own training for the competition as a sort of cultural sewing component."
Pinkohs has been dealing with a serious medical issue in her immediate family, and her request for a year's leave was denied.
As such, she won't be returning to Tusarvik School as an active staff member in the immediate future, but hopes the Skills Nunavut competition becomes more attractive to Naujaat students going forward.
Pinkohs said the Tusarvik students kids did an amazing job this year, and, moving forward, she hopes many more youths will get involved.
She said Tusarvik's four students were excellent representatives for the school at Iqaluit, and Skills Nunavut definitely wants to see more students from Naujaat appear at the competition.
"The kids were really excited about the competition when they came back to Naujaat, so they really spread the word around about just how enjoyable this experience really is.
"As long as the teachers are dedicated to putting the time in to go ahead with it, then there are definitely students interested in the program, which they'll find to be an amazing experience.
"So, not to go through with it next year at Tusarvik School would be really sad.
"The problem could be leave, though, because sometimes it's very difficult for teachers to get the leave necessary to go on these school-sponsored trips.
"And that could be a major problem going forward if the policy doesn't change."
