Austin Student Chosen To Participate In Expedition To Antarctica

SOUTH AUSTIN, TX — Talk about a road trip.

Lucia Hruby, a senior at the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders, is scheduled to embark on an expedition to Antarctica next month to learn about polar science, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

The 17-year-old was chosen from among 250 applicants for the Joint Antarctic School Expedition, an educational science program of the U.S. National Science Foundation and Chilean Antarctic Institute.

The student will join counterparts from schools in California, North Carolina, New York and Chile for the trip scheduled from Dec. 9-20. The program is designed to heighten awareness of global scientific issues while building international relations for a new generation of future scientists.

“What I am most excited about is just to see how things have changed, how global warming has changed the Antarctic compared to how I imagine,” Hruby told the Statesman. “I’m also excited to partner with the Chilean students and to make long-lasting connections with them.”

This is the third time U.S. students have joined the expedition since 2014. Participants were chosen based on responses on a series of seven essays gauging their interest in science, background in Spanish, details on their past academic work related to school projects and, naturally, specifics on why they wanted to participate in the expedition.

Hruby already is something of a world traveler. The Statesman reported the student spent summers with her maternal grandmother in Saltiloo, Coahuila, Mexico in her formative years and traveled last summer to the Dominican Republic as a volunteer Spanish interpreter for a medical clinic servicing a small village.

>>> Read the full story at Austin American-Statesman

Photo credit: Alan Light via WikiMedia Commons