Well, that’s one way to beat the heat.

Ten high school students from Ottawa and Gatineau are packing their bags and heading to the Arctic, part of a Gatineau-based program called Students on Ice.

“I'm very nervous. At the same time very excited," says Saa Mer Ree. The 17-year-old Ottawa student is a new Canadian, originally from Thailand. Now she’s heading to a region of her adopted country that few Canadians ever get to see. “Learning more about climate change and how it affects polar bears, and also learning more about the Inuit people."

Students on Ice is an education and adventure foundation that has been taking students to the Arctic and Antarctic for 17 years. “It’s a life-changing experience,” says founder, Executive Director, and expedition leader Geoff Green. “We use the polar regions, in this case the Arctic, as the greatest classroom in the world.”

The Arctic trip includes a flight from Ottawa to Iqaluit for a two-week ship excursion from Baffin Island to northern Labrador to the west coast of Greenland.

“Of course we're seeing polar bears and whales and ice bergs and all that stuff. But we're also learning about Inuit culture, about contemporary issues like climate change,” adds Green.

The ten Capital region students are part of a group of over 100 participants from across Canada and 12 countries around the world. Students are accepted through an application process.

It’s not cheap. The Arctic trip costs nearly $12,000. Green says the Foundation supports 80% of participants through scholarships.

The students are also travelling with some pretty elite company. The education team is an eclectic mix of academics, artists, politicians and more. Notable names include U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman and his wife, Her Rosetta! singer/songwriter Tim Baker, and polar explorer and adventurer Eric McNair-Landry.

For the students, it will surely be the trip of a lifetime.

And it probably doesn’t hurt to escape the summer heat and humidity for a few weeks, even for someone from tropical Thailand. “I really like the cold, yeah,” says Saa Mer Ree.