Dear Members,
NWT Tourism is happy to announce the recipients of the NWT Tourism and Rio Tinto 2023 scholarships.
- Recipient of the Rio Tinto Indigenous Student Scholarship: Naokah Bailes
Naokah is starting her third year as a student of Nature-Based Tourism Management at the University of Northern British Columbia. Naokah is First Nations, born and raised in the NWT with a passion for tourism.
- Recipient of the NWT Tourism Scholarship: Sommer Wiley
Sommer is a Sahtu beneficiary who graduated high school in June 2023 and has been accepted to attend flight school at Adventure Aviation in Grande Prairie (AB). Sommer's work with Canoe North and North Wright Airways during the hunting and tourism season has been an inspiration to pursue a career as a bush pilot.
- Recipient of the NWT Tourism Scholarship: Vikas Yadav
Vikas is currently working as a final-year apprentice aircraft maintenance engineer for Northwestern Air Lease in Fort Smith, NWT and is also pursuing academics for aircraft maintenance journeyperson at Red River College in Portage La Prairie, MB.
Background
Northwest Territories Tourism is pleased to encourage the pursuit of excellence in the Tourism Industry in the Northwest Territories by offering annual NWT Tourism Scholarship awards.
Since 2014 NWT Tourism has been offering annual scholarships of $1,500 to NWT students pursuing post-secondary studies in hospitality and tourism. This is the ninth year that NWT Tourism has offered scholarships. This is the first year we are including pilot and aircraft mechanical engineer training as criteria for our scholarships. Also, this is the third year we have partnered with Rio Tinto in awarding the Rio Tinto Indigenous Student Tourism Scholarship.
On behalf of NWT Tourism, we congratulate this year's recipients of the NWTT & Rio Tinto scholarships and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavours.
All the best,
Donna Lee Demarcke
Chief Executive Officer
NWT Tourism