YORDEL Jackson, 17, is keen on making another Jamaican child experience the Arctic like she did in July, when she and five other students participated in the Students on Ice Expedition in Canada through a scholarship facilitated by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

The trip costs about CD$15,000.

Jackson has already approached financial institutions to sponsor a student in Jamaica to go on this trip in July 2015 and has put some of her personal funds towards the venture, but needs more people to help fund her initiative.

“I have set up a bank account with the first J$10,000 at the First Regional Co-operative Credit Union for donations, and I’m scheduled to meet with the St Ann Co-operative Credit Union as they have shown interest,” she said.

Jackson, past student of St Hilda’s High and current student at the Ascension of Our Lord Secondary in Mississauga, Ontario, said the trip would be historic and would benefit whoever is chosen to go.

She said the expedition was long but worthwhile as she was exposed to things she was previously ignorant of.

“Living in a small town or community, you won’t really understand how big or vast the world is. Foreign is not just America and the Arctic is rarely explored, and because of that I had an interest. It’s not just a place full of igloos and ice — people live there and everything is normal. It was fulfilling to touch an untouched place that needs a little bit of appreciation,” Jackson said.

For Jackson, the experience took her to places she had never been before, such as the campus of Canada’s Carleton University, staying in the Prescott Hall dormitory, living on a ship, and going to Greenland.

“I’ve never been on a university campus before or shared a room with other people. While in Ottowa we explored the Museum of Nature, saw Canada’s parliament and had lectures each night in a lecture hall,” she said.

She added that along the route to Greenland she saw the direct impact of global warming on our planet Earth, and interacted with the Aboriginal people.

Additionally, Jackson was exposed to disciplines such as oceanography, mineralogy, aboriginal history, Canadian politics, Arctic zoology, music and entrepreneurship. This, she said, allowed her to realise that there was more to a subject area than its face value.

“There are more than the basics. You don’t have to use the sciences to become just a doctor or nurse. The expedition was not a vacation but a classroom on ice, and there were scientists and historians with us. I became interested in the rocks I saw and I found crystals and other elements. I learned more in the field than I would have in a classroom. The facilitators were more than just teachers, but instead family and friends. It was more of an exchange of culture and information,” she said.

Another new experience for Jackson was life on a ship, which she said was more than she bargained for.

“I had no clue what day it was, because the sun and moon came out at different times than I was used to. There was a lot of food cooked by a Jamaican chef and I had a type of fish called an Arctic char. I also went out on something they called a zodiac [a small, inflatable, rubber motorised craft] and was able to explore the open sea and shore and even saw a whale about five metres from where the zodiac was located,” she said.

Jackson’s mother, Michelle, who is her driving force, said that apart from being proud of her child, she will continue to guide her.

“I will support her in whatever she does. At times I have to be her mouthpiece and encourage her to go into volunteering and social groups to be more involved in her community, and this helped her to secure the scholarship. The process was a very selective one and only the best of the best were chosen, so if she was not doing well in school and her community, she would not have gone. She is very focused and she has my support.”