Denali Park, AK
Dates:
Jun 9 - Jun 20
Deadline:
passed
Each June, a team of nine girls spends 12 days in the Eastern Alaska Range, exploring an alpine landscape. We experience everything from hiking through alpine meadows to observing a noisy icefall; from spotting caribou on the mountain slopes to traveling across snow-covered glaciers, all while taking advantage of Alaska’s long summer days!
The Girls on Ice Alaska program is held on Gulkana Glacier on Ahtna Nenn’, the traditional lands of the Ahtna people. The Gulkana Glacier is known to the Ahtna as C'ulc'ena' Luu' or ‘cutting stream glacier,’ which Girls on Ice Alaska participants will see is a perfect description of the dramatic stream flowing from the glacier just a short hike from camp.
Inspiring Girls* Expeditions combines science, art, inquiry, and outdoor exploration.
Denali Park, AK
Jun 9 - Jun 20
Application Deadline
Jan 30
Each June, a team of nine girls spends 12 days in the Eastern Alaska Range, exploring an alpine landscape. We experience everything from hiking through alpine meadows to observing a noisy icefall; from spotting caribou on the mountain slopes to traveling across snow-covered glaciers, all while taking advantage of Alaska’s long summer days!
The Girls on Ice Alaska program is held on Gulkana Glacier on Ahtna Nenn’, the traditional lands of the Ahtna people. The Gulkana Glacier is known to the Ahtna as C'ulc'ena' Luu' or ‘cutting stream glacier,’ which Girls on Ice Alaska participants will see is a perfect description of the dramatic stream flowing from the glacier just a short hike from camp.
Inspiring Girls* Expeditions combines science, art, inquiry, and outdoor exploration.
Age
For expeditions in the United States and Canada, applicants must be 16, 17, or 18 years old on June 1 of the expedition year, and still enrolled in high school or graduating from high school the same year as the expedition. For expeditions in Europe, applicants must be 15, 16, or 17 on June 1 of the expedition year.
Language Requirements
All participants must have the ability to understand and respond quickly to instructions in the expedition language for safety reasons. All expeditions in the United States and Canada are conducted in English, and Girls* on Ice Europe is conducted in German or French.
Girls* on Ice Europe requires participants to have a solid B2 level of German or French, preferably a C1 or above.
Gender Eligibility
Inspiring Girls* Expeditions welcomes cisgender girls and transgender, agender, Two Spirit, nonbinary, intersex, and genderqueer youth.
Homeschool Information
Yes, homeschooled youth are eligible to apply for Inspiring Girls* Expeditions. Please note that everyone, regardless of where you are enrolled in school, will need to provide two recommendation forms. These forms may be completed by people who play a strong "teacher" role in your life. Family friends generally do not fit this role, unless they have also played a specific teacher role in your life. Recommendations written by family members are not acceptable.
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Recommendations from an Expert
One program called “Girls on Ice” connects high school girls with both science and mountaineering — another space that’s historically been dominated by men — by taking them out for a week to explore a glacier with an all-female team of scientists and mountaineers...“I think it’s just so empowering, just that as women, alone, we can do this,” Jessica Mejia, a glaciologist and one of the organizers of the trip, said. “We can do great science, we could be on a glacier by ourselves, we could do anything.”
“We talked about how the girls would be inspired, but we didn’t count on how much we would be inspired,” said Young, a graduate student in the College of Natural Science and Mathematics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In July, she, two other grad students, and a mountaineer led nine teenage girls onto Gulkana Glacier for eight days of science and life on ice...16-year-old Chloe Smith of Palmer, said via email: “The hard part was facing the things that scared me or intimidated me, and the things that made me uncomfortable. Carefully stepping over crevasse after crevasse as you were engulfed in wind, rain, and fog. Listening to the thunder and distant rock slides from inside our three small tents. I told myself, ‘You can do this"