"I love living in the North and am pretty excited to experience the same sort of climate in a different country and culture." says 25-year-old Allie Winton who was raised in Dawson City, Yukon.

After graduating from high school as part of a record-breaking class of 16 people, Allie went on to study Journalism at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia.

"I'll jump at any chance to travel, and I was lucky enough to do so during university," says Allie, who took part in an anthropology field school in East-Central Europe, and an exchange in England.

After receiving her degree Allie took six months to travel throughout Mexico and Central America, stopping to volunteer at a newspaper in Honduras.

"It was my first time really travelling alone, but it was a great experience. By the end, when I finally got to Panama I felt pretty confident. Then I had to take the bus all the way back up again," says Allie.

For the past two years Allie has been working in the Heritage Department of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, a self-governing First Nation in Dawson City. She has taken time off to travel to Cuba and return to Central America.

Allie will be working as the communications assistant at the International Secretariat for the next six months. She is looking forward to being involved with UArctic and getting to know Finland as well as she can.

"So far I've mostly traveled south of the Yukon, but I've realized that I want to live and work in the north and this internship is a great opportunity to do just that. I'm enjoying it here so far, but I think I'll really feel at home when I see the northern lights again," says Allie.

Allie's internship is organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and funded by the Aboriginal and Circumpolar Affairs Division of Foreign Affairs Canada and the Government of Canada Program for International Polar Year.