From July 29th to August 13th, a group of youth will be participation in an expedition to the Arctic. 60 students, along with approximately 30 chaperones from the United States, Canada, South America, Asia, Europe and Oceania will get to spend four weeks sailing the Arctic waters around Kuujjuaq, Nunavik.

“I’ve never seen the arctic and very few people get to go up there,” said 18 year old Travis Payne. “It’s just to get to see the area, learn about it and meet people from all over the world.” Payne, a resident of Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada was one of the lucky students chosen to go on the all expenses paid trip as a part of Students on Ice.

The group will be exploring the northern extremity of Nunavik, along with the eastern and southern parts of Baffin Island, Nunavut. The reason behind the expedition is to give those students, chaperons, and scientists on the trek the opportunity to help create and nurture a new respect and a deeper understanding for earth, and in particular the Arctic. With global warming on the rise and all of the environmental and human implication of a warmer earth hitting the Arctic first, and quite often hardest, the expedition is a chance for the students to see what is happening first hand.

“We’re living on a boat for two weeks, a big ice breaker, oil tanker type of boat. “ Payne explained. “We do day excursions using small zodiac boats and then we go onto the land and collect samples and learn about the rocks, wildlife of the region and the culture. We’ll meet up with some local people, the Inuit, that live there.”

But the trip, while including hands on aspects such as the day trips, will also provide some structure for the students, including class time.

“Then the boat has a laboratory so there will be research done on the boat and sessions done with 30 scientists. We’ll be in classes and so forth.”