Every morning for 10 days straight, Jamie Marchesi and Lianna Vice were woken by the crackling of a ship’s speaker system announcing, “Good morning, Students on Ice!”
Marchesi and Vice were part of a delegation of Carleton students on an educational trip to Antarctica, arranged by university earth sciences professor Claudia Schröder-Adams.
Thirteen Carleton students and Schröder-Adams spent 10 days aboard the M/V Ushuaia from Dec. 28-Jan. 8, travelling from Ushuaia, Argentina, through the Drake Passage and Beagle Channel, and finally to the Antarctic continent.
The trip was facilitated through the group Students on Ice, which helps organize Arctic and Antarctic trips for students, educators, and scientists worldwide.
Schröder-Adams said the focus of this trip was mainly educational, with students listening to presentations, meeting other high school and university students from around the globe, and experiencing Antarctica from a scientific perspective.
Students explored the Shetland Islands, visited penguin nesting spots, saw orcas and seals swimming alongside their boat, and walked on both a glacier and the Antarctic continent.
Vice said when she was in high school and heard of Schröder-Adams’s first Antarctic trip with her students, she made up her mind to study at Carleton. When Schröder-Adams proposed the trip again this year, Vice said she had to go.
“It’s something that I’ve been wanting to do since I was really tiny,” she said. “Someone once told me that you don’t decide to go to Antarctic, it’s just a calling.”
The third-year earth science student said her favourite part of the trip was getting to walk on a glacier.
“They had us just sit down and find a spot separate from everybody else, and we had a moment of silence. There was just nothing but you and the continent,” Vice said. “It was something really special that you got to finally connect with the place that you’ve been wanting to go to for so long.”
Marchesi, a third-year combined honours student in geology and chemistry, agreed that the experience was unforgettable. She said her favourite part of the trip was her first ride on a Zodiac—a small, inflatable boat that allows participants to travel to shore and explore independently from the large ship.
“It’s the anticipation of finally getting there after a year of planning and a year of fundraising, and then you’re finally on your first Zodiac,” she said. “You’re finally cruising around this amazing continent and all you see is penguins everywhere.”
While the trip taught students about geology and arctic research, Schröder-Adams said the personal experience often makes the biggest impression on students.
“This trip to Antarctica is for students a very special memory,” she said. “And so it has a spot in your own heart, and you never forget. This continent has a tremendous draw, and radiation really, on the human who makes it there.”
Later in the year, students will present their scientific learnings to the Ottawa public. Schröder-Adams said she is already planning to take students to New Zealand for her next geological expedition.
Despite spending 10 days aboard the ship, Marchesi and Vice said they were relieved when they woke up on dry land in a hotel in Argentina with no loud speaker calling them awake.
“It was so refreshing,” Vice said.
