Modern technology is helping Yukon students connect with their dream jobs through the DreamCatcher Yukon e-mentoring and leadership program.

After completing a successful pilot project last year, the program is up and running in three Yukon schools: Watson Lake Secondary, Vanier Catholic Secondary and the Individual Learning Centre.

The program connects Yukon students with people working in their dream profession. The mentor-mentee teams communicate through a special password restricted chat room hosted on the DreamCatcher Yukon website.

'This is a program about exploration, about dreams,' said Josh Silvertown, co-director of the DreamCatcher Yukon Mentoring Society.

Through those discussions, students get to learn about the reality of their dream career and decide if it is something they really want to do. They can also make contacts that will help them get employed later on.

Grade 9 student Chelsea Green says her dream career is to be an interior designer. She says the program has taught her 'if you set your dream towards it you can accomplish it.

'You can learn different things (about the career) from the different person in that work force (career),' she says.

Green has learned that interior design is not all like the TV shows on which a house is redecorated over a weekend.

'It takes more than a couple days; it takes weeks and months to do it,' said the Vanier Catholic Secondary student.

One student has even lined up a job.

Jordan Coombes, also at Vanier, wants to be a master mechanic. DreamCatcher has connected him to a master mechanic/businessman in Ontario who owns 37 automotive shops.

Coombes asked his mentor if he had any room for another apprentice.

'He said, yeah', in a couple years, he will hire me for an apprenticeship and then I could work for him for a couple years. Then I could open my own shop.'

Coombes' mentor has even advised him on what classes he needs and will help Coombes find a trade school to attend in Ontario.

Co-directors Beverly Sembsmoen and Josh Silvertown recently toured Yukon schools to talk with students and teachers about participating in the program next year.

'We expect there to be eight to 10 schools on board next year,' said Silvertown, who works as a cancer researcher in Toronto.

Students are introduced to the program through their teachers.

'It's up to the teacher to sell the program,' explains Silvertown.

Vanier math teacher Amanda Barnsley introduced DreamCatcher to Green and Coombes.

'It's helping them reach their dreams and discover who they are,' Barnsley said, referring to the program. 'It opens doors.'

Barnsley says the mentors are asking good questions and helping the students figure out what they want to do.

'The program itself has some really great mentors.'

Mentors are subject to a criminal record check and there is a code of conduct mentors and mentees must agree to in order to participate.

The chat program also has a filter that monitors discussions for flagged words that may indicate the conversation has strayed from appropriate topics.

Besides giving students an inside track to the career of their dreams, the program also helps bridge the cultural divide between isolated northern communities and big metropolises like Toronto and Vancouver.

'It closes the cultural gap,' said Silvertown, explaining his own shock as a big city dweller when he heard of students having to flee from a bear when they were on their way to school.

The program can also help students, who might be heading down the wrong track, to get onto a better path, said Sembsmoen.

'With education, they can break cycles and start new trails,' she added. 'Students are asked to dream, and dream big.'

DreamCatcher Yukon, which is distinct from the Dreamcatcher Aboriginal Youth Conference, has received limited funding from the Department of Education and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

This year, 21 students are participating in the program, and all staff and mentors are volunteers.

The DreamCatcher Yukon Society plans to get charitable status so it can apply to foundations for additional funding for next year.