Como Teen Heads to Churchill for Polar Expedition of a Lifetime

We are excited to send one of our Nature Walk teen volunteers, Tiana, to Churchill, Manitoba as part of Polar Bear International's Leadership Camp program. This is the 5th consecutive year that Como has sent a teen to Churchill. While there, Tiana will have the opportunity to meet other teens, learn about polar bears and conservation from leading experts, and see polar bears in their wild habitat. For more information about the PBI Leadership Camp and to follow their blog, click here.

About Tiana

My interests include community involvement, polar bears, climate change, the outdoors, art, debate, and teaching. Volunteering is very important to me, because I have always wanted to help others. Even when I was little I never dreamed of accumulating money or fame, but rather sharing what I had with others, helping people grow and finding some sense of peace in their lives. There is no amount of money that could stand up against a person’s smile and knowing that they are smiling because of you. I also love polar bears. They are such beautiful creatures so adapted to what most would see as a hostile environment. With their strength, patience, and uncanny wisdom, polar bears give me a great sense of joy to watch, and I hope I can help keep them here on earth for my grandchildren to learn from. Therefore, I am very invested in climate change and the effects it has on our environment. I love the natural world and I want to keep my home with all its wonders intact.


To communicate these interests and ideas that I believe are important I have come to love public speaking in the form of both debate and teaching. Both have very important skill sets and I am always amazed at what I’ve learned from these two activities. I also love art, and love integrating my passion for environmental consciousness with my love of creating art, to me it is another powerful form of communication.

From the PBI leadership camp, I hope to learn even more about climate change and human impact, specifically on the Arctic Circle. It would be a great honor to meet and talk to some of the best in their field of research and share what I learn with my community. I am also looking forward to gaining a network of other driven young people that also want to change the world for the better. I hope to gain lifelong friendships and grow from others’ experiences and ideas. Most of all, I want to go home more organized, wiser, and as a better leader of social and environmental change. I have no doubt in my mind that this opportunity will far surpass all of my expectations.
In five years, light rail tracks connecting the central corridor tracks and the surrounding suburban areas will be funded and built, giving people an efficient, inexpensive form of transportation to the midway community. This will create an influx of urban renewal along with a substantially reduced carbon footprint not only in the midway community, but also the surrounding suburbs. I will continue to share my experience and knowledge of the topic not only to my school, but also to anyone who will listen. I hope to inspire a truly green initiative in the community and I hope that this will diffuse eventually into a nationwide consciousness of the problems occurring in the Arctic Circle ecosystem.