11 freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be given the opportunity to embark on a two-week joint biology and photography school trip to the Arctic for the first time in school history this summer from July 14 to July 29.

Students will be able to choose between a focus on either photographing the people, nature, and landscape or studying the climate change and biology of the as they travel to the Svalbard Islands, Greenland and Iceland on a research vessel.

Science department chair Anita Chetty planned the trip after having gone to the Arctic this past summer.

“Once I had seen it, the beauty of this place, and knowing that it could all disappear in about 50 years, I became very concerned about how I could show Harker students what I had seen and understand what I had come to understand,” she said.

The trip will be co-chaperoned by photography teacher Joshua Martinez who will provide guidance to the students who choose to focus on photography during the trip.

To get to where the group will catch their ship, they will fly from San Francisco to Oslo, Norway where they will spend one day and the night at the hotel where the Nobel Peace Prize is announced each year. From there, they will fly to the Svalbard Archipelago, from where they will embark on their nautical journey.

In contrast to the Tanzania trip, which focused heavily on philanthropy and understanding African culture, the Arctic trip will focus more on the earth and environment.

“This trip is very focused on understanding climate change,” Chetty said. “It has a very ecological theme to it. Although there will still be data collection, lectures and an opportunity to speak with the indigenous people, the focus is not on human health as much as on the planet’s health.”

Chetty felt that this trip would provide a different type of research opportunity to students.

“We hope to understand the impact that climate change is having on marine life, on indigenous people’s lives,” she said.

Students who have been chosen for the trip will have their first info session in the coming week.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on October 17, 2014.

Gallery • 7 Photos

Anita Chetty

Glaciers and snow capped mountains will be some of the stunning landscapes students will experience. Students will be studying the effects of climate change on the wildlife and landscape in the Arctic this summer.