Another option would be to collect your miles on American Airlines, a partner of Cathay Pacific. To choose between American and Alaska, consider;

*Who has the flights you might want from Canada to wherever, using its metal of that of its partners.
*Will you be staying in Canada or the U.S. or Asia after you graduate? Many of your miles will be actually used then.
*Do not count on Alaska getting you a seat on Northwest or Continental. Those seats are very hard to get.
*Alaska does have a different inventory of award seats than that of its partners. For example, often Alaska can get you a seat on American metal when American can't.
*However, whatever award ticket you get from Alaska must be all on the same airlines. At American, they will combine airlines. For example, my ticket to Hawaii next week comes from American, flying on both Hawaiian Airlines and American Airlines metal. Alaska has both American and Hawaiian as partners, but could not book me on either, because neither could do the trip for me alone.
*For some partner airlines, the cost in miles for an Alaska award is very much higher than the cost for an American award.

Alaska and American are my two favorite programs. The choice depends on your specific needs.