Start the new year off standing among thousands of penguins and seals on the ice continent!

Few people have the opportunity to visit the seventh continent. It is not easy to reach and yet the voyage is absolutely beyond words. Like our Greenland expedition on the other far side of the world, this is the kind of expedition that brings to light the realities of climate change and the critical importance of the Ice Continent and the surrounding Southern Ocean. This is the expedition to be up close and personal with thousands of various penguins and seals. And this is one of those rare opportunities to do a polar plunge on New Years Day where few people have. But most importantly, it is an opportunity to learn from the most unforgiving place on Earth about the dream of the earth and the future role of humanity that we all will carry with us far into our elder years. 6 CORE Credits (THEO 332 & PHIL 200 or PHIL 250 are offered for all undergraduate majors. Limit 14. Registration Deadline: October 1, 2025.

Experience the Arctic Summer where few have been: Greenland’s Polar Icecap! Learn how the Inuit, with their knowledge and use of dogs, have survived on this icy, unforgiving landscape for centuries. Be among the few Xavier students (since the university’s founding in 1831) to step foot upon the Ice Shelf. Walk in the tracks of the explorers and discover what they left behind on their expeditions.

As the ice continues to recede, this really may be a once-in-a-lifetime Polar Icecap experience! Greenland is the largest island in the world and now made famous because of the Greenland Iceshelf and the impacts of climate change. Like our Antarctica expedition on the other far side of the world, this is an expedition to learn about the history of climate change through periods of glacial advance and retreat and to discover how local people have adapted to these changes. It is an opportunity to witness climate change and to be inspired about creative solutions. But, first, we visit Iceland.

Icelandic and Greenlandic peoples both have innovative solutions from which we have much to learn! This is the opportunity to sail via icebreaker ship around massive icebergs, to see Humpback and Greenlandic whales and Ringed seals. It is a chance to learn from local people, to get up close to the most active and the most productive glaciers in the world, to feel like you are standing on the “Ice at the End of the World!” Most importantly, it is an awakening moment while understanding the historical context and scientific basics of how the ice shelf relates to atmosphere and ocean at the very moment you are standing upon such famous ice! And you will also receive 6 CORE CREDITS: ENGL 205 or ENGL 140 and MATH 127/127 (counts as MATH or SCIENCE Perspectives). LIMIT: 12 Students. Registration Deadline: February 1, 2026.

Experience Alaskan life on a remote lake located 250 miles north the the Arctic Circle. This lake is visited only by Xavier Expeditions and, therefore, remains unnamed! The views from the float plane over the edgy, volcanic ridge lines of the Brooks Range on the way to our basecamp location is stunningly and purely wild! Our camp along the lake affords us the opportunity to see and hear wolves, migrating caribou, and grizzly bears that appear to have little or no experience with humans! It is the remotest of remote that America has!

This is the remote experience is about community and wellbeing! Imagine flying by floatplane into Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, the least visited of all the National Parks because access is limited to floatplane only. Imagine setting up a basecamp on a lakeshore far north of the Arctic Circle! Imagine not seeing any humans other than our group and our pilot for the entire week! Imagine that your home is also shared by caribou, grizzly bears, wolves, porcupine, wolverine, eagle, Dahl’s sheep and a host of migrating birds. The opportunity to learn communal survival techniques are lessons that you will take with you for a lifetime. Experiences of drinking from a lake so clean that the water need not be filtered. Imagine your first experience of fly fishing or gathering foods (like berries) done in such a majestic, vast, quiet space where the sun rarely sets. 6 CORE CREDITS (THEO 388 and PHIL 200 or 250) for all undergraduate degrees. LIMIT 12 Students. Registration Deadline: February 1, 2026.