This summer, 72 students from around the world were selected to take part in an Arctic expedition with a team of renowned scientists, historians, artists, explorers, educators, leaders, innovators and polar experts. I was chosen as one of the Arctic ambassadors and was awarded two scholarships: one from the East Asia Regional Council of Schools, and the other from Geoff Green, an Arctic explorer, environmental educator and the founder of the award-winning programme, 'Students on Ice'.
Our journey took us to Iceland, southern Greenland and Canada - in particular, the north shore of Labrador and the northern reaches of Nunavik.
When you make the world your classroom, the scope of things you can learn becomes as broad as the horizon. I could not have asked for a better classroom to learn, to explore and to be inspired.
It was a journey of discovery, of transformation that opened my eyes to a whole new beautiful world that is now a part of me - a part of who I am and what I consider home. The Arctic took my breath away, and the wilderness that touched me in such profound ways will stay with me forever.
The Arctic is one of the world's most biologically productive and diverse environments, and it is facing an uncertain future because of global warming. The Arctic is changing; it is becoming an environment at risk.
I had the opportunity to not only witness but to also experience the effects of climate change. Once, our ship anchored at the top of a Greenland fjord, or inlet. According to a chart drawn in 1966, the ship should have been sitting on top of a glacier. But that glacier had receded seven kilometres, and we realised that we were in water that did not exist decades ago.