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Sierra MacDonald doesn't know exactly where her education journey is ultimately leading her, but she is certain of the path she's on.

After taking a shot at studying political science in Montreal, which turned out not to be her thing, the Sahtu student is taking a second go at post-secondary education. She's enrolled at Mount Royal University in Calgary to study criminal justice.

"That's what I plan on doing for the next four years," she said. "Then go off into something law-related, either becoming a criminal defence lawyer or going into the and doing investigations.

"I'm really excited. It's one of my dream degrees I've always wanted to do."

While still trying to decide if she feels more at home in the courtroom or the patrol car, she said the underlying concepts of criminal justice have interested her since childhood.

She attributed it to growing up watching classic cop shows with her family.

"Criminal justice has always had a place in my heart, watching all these Law & Order shows with my grandma growing up," she said. "I just always wanted to be in a courtroom, either prosecuting or defending.

"I've wanted to go that path all my life, especially coming from strong role models and seeing the do their job. There's a lot of career aspects I'm excited about with this degree."

MacDonald, who hails from Norman Wells, said she was drawn to the smaller class sizes of Mount Royal, and also being closer to home and family was very appealing for her.

Having support services from relatives will help her focus more on her studies, she reasoned.

"Being far away from home presented some challenges in itself SA¹ú¼ÊÓ°ÊÓ´«Ã½” being from the NWT, it was really challenging," she explained. "So I took a year off and decided to be closer to home.

"So I found they had a really good program at Mount Royal and it was close to home, so I applied and was accepted for open studies. They took my file for the criminal justice program.

"I woke up at 7 a.m. for work in April and I got an email from them saying I was accepted in the program. I was so excited. I was not expecting to wake up to that. It was the highlight of the year and it gave me a lot of momentum. It's like the universe putting me in a direction where I'm supposed to be."

After her first try at a degree, MacDonald has been keeping busy over the past two summers. Initially working at the legislature after being recommended for a job by former cabinet minister Paulie Chinna, she's since been employed on the Canol Heritage Trail.

The variety of work has helped her narrow down her list to criminology.

"My summer job experience has been pretty interesting," she said. "I had a really eventful summer. I'm really excited."