CORNER BROOK — While her friends will be enjoying the hot summer at home, one Corner Brook teenager will be having a cool experience of a lifetime for the next two weeks.
Terri Woods Boone, 15, was nominated by the Dunfield Park Community Centre when the Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation asked for a good candidate to apply for a spot with the Students on Ice Arctic Expedition.
Since its inception in 2000, more than 1,600 high school and university students from 40 countries have been afforded the chance to take part in the educational program that brings them to the Arctic and Antarctic.
Woods Boone had to apply to the program and was chosen to be among the roughly 80 other youth aged 14-18 from around he world accepted into this year's program. The Newfoundland and Labrador Housing Corporation will pay for her participation via a scholarship.
She will fly to Ottawa on Sunday and then to Iqaluit, Nunavut on Baffin Island the following day. From there, the students will board the expedition ship, Academic Ioffe, and start a 12-day voyage to various remote locations in the Arctic.
The trip will include six days of stops along the eastern coast of Baffin Island before the expedition crosses the Davis Strait to the western coast of Greenland.
The final stop on the cruise will be in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, from which the students will fly back to Iqaluit and Ottawa on Aug. 13.
Woods Boone wasn't totally sure if this was something that intrigued her when she first heard about it.
"But as I learned more about it, it got quite interesting," she said. "I'm looking forward to the whole experience and learning about nature."
She can't wait to see the Arctic wildlife, especially the polar bears and whales the trip is likely to encounter.
"I really want to see a walrus," she added.
The program features onshore excursions and plenty of lectures and presentations while aboard the ship. Led by a team of 35 experts, the program will focus on fostering a stronger connection with the environmental and social issues of the Arctic region.
As part of the experience, Woods Boone will have to keep a daily journal. Her personal accounts of her experience will be accessible via the expedition's website at www.studentsonice.com/arctic2012.
She also plans to take a load of photos for a presentation she will do on her excursion when she returns home to Corner Brook.
"I'm also looking forward to meeting other people from all around the world," she said. "Being on a ship for that long should also be interesting. Hopefully, I won't get seasick."
