Inspiring Girls Expeditions offers tuition-free wilderness science expeditions that challenge high school girls intellectually and physically, while cultivating leadership skills. From mountaineering and snow science on Mt. Baker in Washington State to glacier exploration in the Alaska Range, programs bring together a diverse and inclusive group of young women who hail from communities underrepresented in both science and the outdoors. These once-in-a-lifetime experiences foster confidence, leadership, and openness to new ideas – all in some of our most majestic northern mountains.
Erin Pettit
Inspiring Girls Expeditions
A 2021 grant from The Cairn Project will support an COVID-19 adaptation – Expeditions@Home, a new course launched in 2020 that encourages girls to explore and discover their own home landscape: their backyards, local parks, and neighborhoods. Expeditions@Home repackages what IGE does best: inspiring girls to ask questions, make observations, and challenge themselves to see the world and their own capabilities in new ways. Activities like exploring the night sky, recording observations of plants, animals, and weather, and following waterways through their landscape give participants material with which to learn and exchange with other girls around the country. Expeditions@Home makes this curriculum accessible even for young women who can’t join in-person expeditions, and is rooted in the value that backyard nature explorations is just as valuable as remote wilderness exploration.