Yukon College has come up with a new way of getting students to volunteer for this year's Arctic Winter Games.

It's called ‘service learning,' immersion style education, where students perform volunteer work for course credits, combining formal education with public service.

"It's a method of teaching that is found in colleges and universities across North America, but it's a first for Yukon College,” said Amanda Graham, program co-ordinator and instructor of northern studies at Yukon College.

"We are really fulfilling two needs; the college wants to increase the kinds of educational opportunities for its students and the community could use more volunteers for the Arctic Winter Games.”

"There was this enormous volunteer opportunity, but we didn't have the courses,” said Graham. " We have northern studies, which is a long standing and well recognized course and we have amalgamated the program into that department. What we did was look at the Arctic Winter Games and work backwards to find a way to make it academic.”

The program is for second year students enrolled in any Yukon College program that offers electives.

Students will be required to enroll as volunteers for the Arctic Winter Games and perform the same duties that any ordinary volunteer would.

They are required to perform at least 15 hours of volunteer work for the course, three hours more than regular AWG volunteers.

"They are volunteers first and students second,” said Graham.

It began on Jan. 17 and will continue until Mar. 30, when students will be asked to turn in term papers about their experience.

Research topics will be varied and based on student interest and can extend beyond sporting events themselves.

Students have identified topics ranging from the sociology of sport and its role in the community to a study into the "accessibility,” of the event itself.

"It's only northern studies in a very general sort of way,” said Graham. "We may look into issues surrounding volunteerism, looking at how we study the North, the history of the games, any number of topics. We recognize that sport has tremendous importance, which reaches well beyond the field of play.”

Students will keep a journal of their experiences volunteering, which will cause them to "think more closely about the experience.”

"It will be in line with the work load expected for a second year student,” said Graham. "They will be expected to produce about 25 pages of original work, with 10 to 15 of those consisting of their journal writing.”

It's likely to be a learning experience for college staff as well.

"We're brand new to this whole thing,” said Graham. "But we are excited and think it is going to be a success.”

So far seven students have enrolled in the program.

The college hopes that the experience may lead to future service learning opportunities.

"We think this model can accommodate other projects in the community,” said Graham. "There are a tremendous amount of students involved in volunteer work throughout the community and we'd like to see it used in a similar way.”

An official sponsor of the games, the service learning program is just one way Yukon College has taken advantage of the volunteer opportunities presented by this year's Arctic Winter Games.

Thirteen students from Meiji University in Japan arrived in Whitehorse this morning to take part in Yukon College's English as a Second Language program and will also be volunteering at this year's Arctic Winter Games.

Graham is also hoping to collaborate with Sam Lankford, a professor with the University of Northern Iowa, who will be bringing students to Whitehorse during the games as part of a study he's been involved in since 1992.

Organizers are still looking for volunteers to help with this year's Arctic Winter Games. The games will be held between Mar. 4 to Mar. 10 in locations throughout Whitehorse.