Maggie MacDonnell, a teacher in Salluit, Canada, who recently won a $1 million prize for her contributions to education, and, in particular, to the Inuit community there, is channeling that fortune into connecting the rest of the world with kayaking and other aspects of Inuit culture. Her hope is to turn eyes to the ailing communities of the Arctic Circle and to instill pride in the people back in Salluit. She’s also provided funds for her students and other community members to travel to Nova Scotia to learn how to kayak.
Her students praise her for the trust she’s fostered with them in her project-based educational approach. Many of them have a difficult home life and her aim is to have an impact on reversing the high suicide rates found in her school district.
Below are two videos, one is about the student kayaking program, and the other is a beautiful short film about her approach to teaching. Read more about the kayaking program that she’s launched on the Thames here.