Welcome to the student application process!

We are excited you are considering applying to JIRP. On this page you can find information about how to apply to JIRP as a student. There is a lot here - we suggest you start by reading everything through before you begin. Below you will information on the following topics:

COVID Safety and Vaccine Requirements

For the past three field seasons, we have required all participants to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. We are in the midst of re-visiting this policy for the 2025 field season. A final decision will be made public by the time student application decisions are made.

Application Timeline

This section outlines what you can expect from us in terms of timing.

Application Components

This section details the different parts of the student application, including instructions for recommendations. Please review this several weeks before the application deadline.

Application Preview

This section tells you exactly what you’ll see when you open the online application. You cannot save partial progress on the application form; we suggest you have all the information and short answers prepared before you open the form.

Finally, please reach out when you have questions. If you’re excited about JIRP, we want to do everything we can to help you get your application submitted. Everything about our program is a cooperative and collaborative effort to teach, train, and inspire the next generation of Earth science students - including getting applications from the most motivated potential students we can find.

You can also reach out to a past JIRP participants directly through our Student Alumni Knowledge Team page.

Application Timeline

Student Applications open.

Scholarship Applications open.

Student Applications due for first-priority consideration.*

Scholarship Applications due for all applicants.

*We continue to accept second-priority applications on a rolling basis. We will know if we have open spots for applicants in March at the earliest.

First round of student application decisions sent out. We will continue to admit students through February and March until the roster is full.

Scholarship applications decisions sent out.

Medical and Health History due with Intent to Enroll form.

Final enrollment accepted with Medical and Health History review by JIRP Medical Director.

Application Components

The 2025 JIRP Student Application consists of three components:

• Transcripts (unofficial)

• Two Recommendations

• Student Online Application

  • Personal Information

  • Statements of Understanding

  • Short answer questions about why you would like to attend JIRP and why you think you would be a good fit.

Please read through the application information, especially the recommendation form requirement, as soon as possible. It is easiest for your recommenders to write you a strong recommendation when they have several weeks to do so.

1. Transcript Submission Form

   From your most recent academic institution, submitted either hard copy or online.

   • Unofficial transcripts are sufficient.

   • Intent: We do not have any GPA requirements for admission. While we are primarily an Earth science field school, we are interested in an academically diverse cohort of students. Additionally, we welcome applications from students who have struggled academically, provided they can demonstrate appropriate motivation to succeed at our program.

   • Note: You need only submit one transcript, and it should be your most recent, available transcript.

     • High school students, gap-year students, and first-year undergraduate students without an available undergraduate academic record should submit their high school transcripts.

     • Undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and first-year graduate students without an available graduate academic record should submit their undergraduate transcripts.

     • Graduate students with an available graduate record should submit their graduate transcripts. If your undergraduate coursework included relevant classes, you may also submit your undergraduate transcript.

   • Submission:

     • It is easiest for us if you upload your transcript electronically in the online application form. If uploading…

       • File must be a PDF (If you’re not familiar with creating a PDF file, please google instructions)

       • File should be named: <[LastName]-[FirstInitial]-transcript.pdf>

         • Ex: if your name is Sam Williams, the file should be called ‘Williams-S-transcript.pdf’

     • If your school requires that they send your transcript directly to JIRP, please have them send it to office@juneauicefield.org.

     • If submitting hard copy, please send to:

       FGER/JIRP Attn: Student Applications
       4616 25th Avenue NE, Suite 302
       Seattle, WA 98105

   2. Contact Information for Recommenders

   Please provide contact information for two people who can speak to your readiness for JIRP. Ideally, at least one of your recommenders will be a recent academic adviser, professor, teacher, or academic/professional mentor. Other potential recommenders could be a work supervisor, non-academic mentor, employer, community or faith leader, community elder, or coach.

   Your recommenders will receive a link to a recommendation form. The form will ask them to evaluate your…

   • ability to work in a collaborative atmosphere

   • ability to manage yourself under stressful conditions

   • ability to receive feedback constructively

   • motivation to seek a deeper understanding of the Earth system

   • prior experience working with incomplete and/or imperfect datasets/information

No one recommender will be able to speak to all your abilities. Do not be concerned if one recommender, for example, has no experience with your academic motivations.

The Recommender Contact Information is intentionally separate from the application. This allows you to move forward with your recommendations before completing your application. Please allow your recommenders as much time as possible to fill out the recommendation form.

Additionally, the form only collects information for one recommender at a time. Please fill the form out twice.

Contact Information for Recommenders is due Dec. 27. The recommendations themselves are due Dec. 31.

3. Student Online Application

Submitted through our secure application portal. The application will NOT save your progress, so we recommend completing your application in a separate document before copying-and-pasting your answers into the application before you submit. Long-answer questions are limited to 250 words.

*If submitting an application online is prohibitive, please contact our staff (office@juneauicefield.org, (907) 500-8913)) to apply by mail.

Student Online Application Preview

When you open the online application, you will find several demographic and personal information questions, several statements of understanding, and seven short answer prompts limited to 250 words. Wherever possible we have made the answer format a free-form text input to allow you submit the answer in your own words and to accommodate international formatting. We have also done our best to detail why we collect much of the information for which we ask. Items marked with an asterisk are required to submit the form.

The application questions are presented in a slightly different order on the form than they are here, but the content is the same.

Demographic Information

• Legal Name*

• Preferred Name*

• Contact Info (email and phone)*

• Permanent Mailing Address

• Birthdate*

• Citizenship* (Because we cross the international border between Canada and the U.S. twice.)

• Gender Identity (Because we strive to build a gender-diverse expedition)

• Preferred Pronouns

Recommendation Information

We will ask for the following information for both of your recommenders:

• Name

• Relationship to Application

• Email address

Using this, we will contact your recommenders directly with a link to the Recommendation Form.

Statements of Understanding

The application form will require you to indicate that you understand these statements. The indication will be a check box or radio button.

• Credits and Tuition*: Indicate that you understand that you will be required to enroll in six credits of academic credit through either the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Maine, or the University of Alaska and that the costs for credits are included in your tuition.

• Health and Fitness*: Skiing mountaineering on the Juneau Icefield is a serious undertaking that requires a high level of physical fitness. It is important for everyone's safety that all participants are honest in their fitness self-evaluations. You will be required to indicate that you are able to perform physical tasks, such as skiing or hiking, for up to 10-12 hours under your own power (with adequate breaks and nutrition); are able to carry a pack of +/- 35% of your body weight; are able to exert yourself in the manner described above in challenging weather conditions including rain, wind, snow, cold, fog, sun, and heat; and that you agree to prepare yourself physically for the program by maintaining and/or building up your personal fitness.

Access to medical care on JIRP can be limited and evacuations can take up to a week or more, depending on weather and available resources. For this reason, a more in-depth medical/health evaluation, along with a physical by your medical provider, will be required for all admitted students. If your medical provider and/or our medical faculty determine that you have a medical condition that will interfere with your safety, we may reevaluate or postpone your participation in the JIRP Expedition. You will be required to indicate that you understand this policy.

• Passport*: Indicate that you have a valid passport or will obtain one prior to the start of JIRP.

• Visas*: Indicate that you are either a US citizen or will obtain the required visas for the US and/or Canada.

• Border Crossing Concerns*: Indicate that if accepted you will share any information with us that impacts your ability to cross the Canada/US border freely. These include: documentation related to immigration, DUI/DWI within the past ten years, covid vaccination status, etc.

• Tuition*: Indicate the you understand the costs of the program, costs you’re responsible for outside of tuition, and that scholarship funding is not guaranteed.

• Safe and Appropriate Behavior*: Indicate that you will follow all rules related to health, safety, and appropriate conduct, that you understand JIRP is an alcohol-free, marijuana-free, and recreational drug-free program, and that you may be expelled and evacuated from the field at your own costs if you violate these rules.

Short Answer Questions

250 words max for each answer.

There is no way to save a partially complete application once it is open, so we encourage you to prepare (and proofread) answers ahead of time. The short answer prompts are as follows:

• Outdoor and Athletic Experience*: Participating in the JIRP Expedition involves living and working in a remote and often uncomfortable environment for eight weeks. The program begins with two weeks of safety training and orientation. During this time we teach all necessary skills, so there are no specific prerequisites for acceptance other than a willingness to learn. Throughout the summer we continue to teach intermediate field techniques in parallel with the academic curriculum. Applicants should be interested in learning both sets of skills.

  First, please describe your outdoor and athletic skill levels. Include any experience related to the following: hiking; backpacking; camping; hunting/fishing; other wilderness/backcountry travel; working in cold/wet outdoor environments (trail crew, construction, etc.); skiing (touring, nordic, downhill, and/or telemark); glacier travel; mountaineering; rock or ice climbing; any other relevant background/experience. Please be honest and specific; there are no prerequisite skills to join the program and we aim for an experientially diverse cohort. The more information we have the better we can accomplish this. Particularly if you have limited or no backcountry experience, describe your athletic background and fitness level as thoroughly as possible.

  Second, please describe your motivation for deepening your field skills. Why are you interested in a program that will challenge you physically?

• Academic and Professional Goals*: The JIRP Expedition centers on a broad survey of Polar, climate, and Earth sciences. We will teach introductory topics in the early parts of the summer, focusing to greater depths later in the field season.

  The transcripts you submit will provide some information about your educational background. Please use the space below to elaborate on your academic and/or professional background. How will JIRP’s academic curriculum complement your past coursework or professional experience?

  What education and/or work are you interested in pursuing in the future? How do you hope JIRP will help you further your professional goals?

• Why JIRP?* Please tell us why you would like to participate in JIRP. What do you hope or expect to gain by participating in this expeditionary field research experience? Be as specific as possible.

• Why you?* Please describe why you think you would be a strong addition to the JIRP Expedition. How do you envision yourself best contributing to a positive and engaged group dynamic? Be as specific as possible.

• Extra-curricular and related interests: Please describe any hobbies, interests, or skills that might be relevant to either the academics of JIRP or to expedition life. Think outside the box! Examples include wilderness or emergency medical training, experience with radio communication or small engine repair, group management skills, or a background in writing, photography, or sketching.

• Diverse Backgrounds & Perspectives: At JIRP we actively support an increasingly diverse generation of Earth scientists, teachers, artists, and policy-makers. If you identify as someone who belongs to a historically excluded group and/or who has an unconventional background that influences the perspective you would take to JIRP, and you would like to share that with us, please do so here. Thank you for any information you provide.

• Additional Information: Please use this space to describe any additional qualifications or if you have any extenuating circumstances of which you would like us to be aware.

• Previous Applications to JIRP: If you have applied to be a JIRP student in the past, is there anything in your application to which you'd like to draw our attention? Ex: skills you've been developing, classes that have focused your academic path, work you have pursued.

Application Evaluation Criteria

A small team of Academic Council Members and the Program Manager will review student applications. JIRP strives to train, teach, and inspire motivated students for, and to, future work in Earth and Polar sciences, education, and research. We look for applicants with a wide range of prior experiences who are poised to use their JIRP experience to further their chosen paths. Specifically, we want a cohort that represents these criteria:

• Mixed previous backcountry experience: Roughly one-third of our students arrive with significant, relevant backcountry experience (backcountry skiing or climbing), one-third of our students arrive with outdoor experience outside of skiing/climbing (backpacking, boating, hunting, hiking, trail running, outdoor work, etc.), and one-third of our students arrive with little or no backcountry experience but are physically fit enough and interested in learning the relevant skills.

• Students of Earth science and related fields: The majority of our students are studying/training for a career in Earth science or a related field (biology, chemistry, ecology, education, engineering, environmental studies, geography, physics, science communication, etc.). If you have taken steps to tailor a different major/minor to an Earth science-focused field of study, please share with us! Successful JIRP students have come from high school, humanities and arts majors, the military, and work outside of academia. Note: We do not require that you are currently enrolled at an academic institution. We welcome home-schooled students, gap-year students, post-baccalaureate/post-undergraduate students, and otherwise non-traditional learners.

• Team Players: Students who have demonstrated experience working in teams. Both the physical environment and the collaborative mission of JIRP require that we cooperate on the Icefield. We teach all academic and backcountry skills from an introductory level, but nothing can replace a team-oriented mindset for setting a participant up for success at JIRP.

• Motivation to give back to your community: We seek students who are motivated to use what they learn at JIRP to invest in their hometowns, college/university campuses, the towns surrounding their colleges/universities, or other communities.

• Racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, and other forms of diversity: We strive to build cohorts that include a wide range of people. Polar sciences have traditionally been a demographically homogeneous field; we are working to make JIRP an accessible entry point and tool for students who have historically been excluded from the field. To that end, we prioritize applications from under-represented demographics. This includes Black, Indigenous, and other students of color, students from lower/middle and working-class backgrounds, students from two-year colleges and first-generation college students, and gender-diverse students. We also strive to include students from geographically diverse places, especially those where access to glaciers and exposure to crysophere science may not have been commonplace.

• Need Blind Admissions: We read applications to JIRP without regard for an applicant’s ability to pay. Applicants need not worry that submitting an application for financial will affect their chances of admission. Applicants may also be accepted for a spot, but not receive the requested financial aid.

Above all, remember that we’re looking for applicants who want to come to JIRP and make the most of their experience on the Icefield. If you think JIRP is for you, we want to see your application. If you have any questions about the JIRP application, please contact our staff at office@juneauicefield.org.

Financial Aid

We understand field fees pose a significant financial burden to many students. We make every effort to lessen this burden through financial aid, grant funding guidance, providing gear rental and buying advice, and working with students on payment plans. We encourage every student to visit our Field Fees and Financial Support page for further information.

JIRP offers some financial aid to select students without regard for their academic enrollment status or citizenship. If you would like to apply for financial aid through JIRP, please complete our Scholarship Application, linked on the Field Fees and Financial Support page, which will be due at the same time as the Academic Application. Decisions about financial aid from this application will be made concurrently with acceptance decisions so applicants can consider their options with as much information from JIRP as possible. Please note that the maximum award offered by JIRP is $3000.

Academic applications to JIRP are need-blind, so applying for financial aid will not impact your admission decision in any way.

We are deeply grateful to the Joan M. Miller Scholarship Fund donors for providing this support to students.

Questions

Please reach out to our staff at office@juneauicefield.org with any questions about this application. We understand that applying to, and potentially deciding to join, the JIRP Expedition is not a small decision. We at JIRP are eager to help in any way we can.