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PANNIQTUUQ/PANGNIRTUNG
Nine students and two instructors from Arctic College travelled the Atlantic Ocean last month when Worldwide Quest took them from St. John's, N.L., north to Nunavut – for free.

Nunavut Arctic College environmental technology students stop at Torngat Mountains National Park July 20 on an East Coast cruise. Front, from left, Atuat Shouldice, instructor Michelle McEwan, Daniel Qavik, Kerry Pottle, and Elizabeth Ryan. Back, from left, Amos Kamookak, Joseph Monteith, instructor Jason Carpenter, Joanna Panipak, Patricia Peyton, Ted Irniq, and Jimi Davidee. - photo courtesy of Nunavut Arctic College

"When the offer first was given to us, I was dumbfounded," said instructor Jason Carpenter. "I got off the phone and said, we've got to make this happen. Our only other expense would be flying the students one-way down to St. John's and First Air came through with a really good rate. I realized that we could actually do the cruise on a per-student basis cheaper than we could actually do our field camp at Peterhead Inlet."

The East Coast cruise took 75 paying university alumni – doctors, professors, researchers, opera singers – from St. John's July 11, up the Labrador coast and through several national parks over two weeks. Passengers paid between $8,000 and $12,000 each, while the students were given cabins worth about $6,000 per person.

"This year we had a little extra space on board and we wanted to do something good with it," said Laurielle Penny, co-owner of cruise operator Worldwide Quest.

Arctic College paid for the students' flights, and room and board in St. John's ahead of the cruise. Parks Canada gave free passes for all of the parks they were going to visit, including Gros Morne, Torngat Mountains, L'Anse aux Meadows. Students joined passengers in learning from staff archeologists, historians and photographers.

"They would always be giving lectures on Thule culture, Newfoundland history, how to take better pictures," Carpenter said. "From morning to night, it was just learning, learning, learning. There was always stuff going on."

But it was important for him to ensure the students weren't simply taking a free ride – learning and teaching were top priorities. Students completed a marine biology course on board, collecting samples along the way. Worldwide Quest gave the group access to plenty of space to set up scientific equipment, and allowed the group to go ahead of paying passengers on occasions when they wanted a few minutes to collect samples before joining an excursion.

"We had two gentlemen do a presentation on traditional clothing, one of the other students did a presentation on traditional tools and growing up as a hunter. We had one of the students doing a duffle-making workshop, and four students ran a roundtable discussion (on life in the North) with the passengers," Carpenter said.

It was also a cultural education for passengers, nature enthusiasts willing to spend big money for the nature cruise.

"One student, who most of the students really adored, Atuat, is giving a presentation showing himself next to a dead muskox, a dead polar bear, a dead walrus, a dead seal," he said. "They had to reconcile the fact that this really nice, intelligent young man who they've really been charmed by, is also an Inuk hunter. I love the fact that we've left them having to deal with that conflict."

This cultural exchange, from all accounts, was one of the highlights of the trip.

"So many passengers came up to me and said, 'You know, we've taken a lot of these cruises and this is the first time we've had this kind of exchange', and they just loved it," he said.

It's the main reason Penny plans to offer at least a few spots per year for Carpenter's students.

"Our plan is to have this charter once a year," she said. "Whether it's an internship or space available for a study program, that will depend every year."

The intention was to end the journey in Iqaluit, but an ice jam in Frobisher Bay meant the ship had to return to Happy Valley/Goose Bay, where the college group chartered a flight back to Iqaluit. As a result, students had to leave most of their belongings and field gear on the boat, which arrived in Iqaluit the week after the trip ended.

"Nobody could have predicted this (the ice)," he said. "Most of the students haven't been to the mouth of the bay, so cruising in and seeing the landscape would have been great. We had big hopes of being up on the deck in the Jacuzzi and waving when we went in."

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