Jim Krueger, from Swaziland to Nunavut

Jim Kreuger, 47, insists modestly that his volunteering nowadays is limited to coaching minor league hockey. But a volunteer posting he began more than 20 years ago is still opening doors for Nunavut and NWT youth. As a new teacher, Kreuger went to Swaziland with WUSC in 1984, and stayed five years. After completing a master’s degree in curriculum development, and then a few more years of teaching, Kreuger became a program consultant in Nunavut, helping the region develop its educational programming.

There, Kreuger worked with groups of teachers from various disciplines, and discovered an interesting thing about the social studies group: like him, four out of five members had previously volunteered abroad.

It was bound to happen: eventually, one of them came up with the idea of launching a volunteer abroad program for Nunavut youth. Out of that idea came the Nunavut Youth Abroad Program (NYAP). A board of directors was formed, and Kreuger helped establish a partnership between the NYAP and WUSC, through the Uniterra program.

Kreuger sees a direct connection between his WUSC posting in Swaziland years ago and his ability to help develop the NYAP. “So much of my life is a direct result of my volunteer experience, and not just in soft ways,” says Kreuger. “If I hadn’t gone to Swaziland, I’d be doing something completely different today.”

Since its early days, the NYAP has expanded to include NWT youth as well. The first year of the two-year program includes an internship in a southern Canadian city, while the second year sees participants volunteering in a developing country (most recently, Botswana). The youth, aged 15 to 20, earn school credits for their work during the program.

Kreuger can’t say enough about the positive impact the program continues to have on those who participate.

“They learn practical skills, acquire leadership skills and gain a great deal of confidence in their ability to live away from home,” he says. “They see first-hand the impact they can have on community development, and really come away with a sense of, ‘We can do this ourselves.’ In effect, their potential becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Kreuger is a program consultant with the Department of Education, School Operations, for the Kivalliq region of Nunavut. He lives in Baker Lake, Nunavut.
NYAP is a Canadian partner of Uniterra. More info : www.nyaponline.org